Conceptualising transitions from higher education to employment: navigating liminal spaces

Abstract

This article develops and applies the concept of liminality and liminal identities to illustrate the relative positioning of graduates within the transitional spaces of moving from one institutional context to another and navigating an uncertain and challenging labour market. The current pandemic-affected labour market provided a rich context through which recent graduates have to sense-make and negotiate a future identity trajectory, exacerbating challenges evident over the past several decades. Drawing on qualitative interview data with recent graduates, this article depicts the liminal spaces they occupy through a typology of transitional positionings, including movement between these spaces. These ideas carry wider implications for supporting graduates’ transition to a challenging and volatile labour market.