The present article covers from a qualitative research strategy the trajectories of young students at the
moment of graduating from secondary school, their entrance to higher education and the moment of
professional insertion as subjective expressions of a new social sector emerging from working classes
and made up from the opportunities opened by the market-based education in a new middle class.
The objectives are, on the one hand, to characterize the way in which education has served as a guide
for the intergenerational transition of these sectors; on the other hand, to get a closer look into the
subjective dimension that links the education trajectory of young people with class formation, as a
proposal for the understanding of this social sector.
Keywords:
new middle classes, youth trajectories, higher education
Author Biographies
Manuel Canales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Sociólogo y doctor en Sociología por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid; investigador Instituto de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de O’Higgins, Chile. Correo electrónico: manuel.canales@uoh.cl
Fabián Guajardo, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Licenciado en Sociología y candidato a doctor en Sociología y Antropología por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid; investigador asistente, CIAE de la Universidad de Chile. Correo electrónico: fguajardo@u.uchile.cl
Víctor Orellana, Universidad de Chile
Sociólogo y candidato a doctor en Sociología por la Universidad de Chile; investigador asistente, CIAE de la Universidad de Chile. Correo electrónico: victor.orellana@ciae.uchile.cl
Canales, M., Guajardo, F., & Orellana, V. (2020). The ordinary elite: from promises to disappointment in the post-secondary trajectory of young people from the new middle class. Última Década, 28(53), 78–102. Retrieved from https://ultimadecada.uchile.cl/index.php/UD/article/view/58448
