Rethinking belonging through Bourdieu, diaspora and the spatial

As part of my doctoral research into the impact of retention strategies on part-time, mature undergraduates in English higher education (HE), this paper interrogates the discourse of 'belonging', prominent in retention literature. A 'sense of belonging is considered critical to both retention and success' (Thomas 2012:1) an approach influenced by Tinto's interactionalist theory of student departure (1975) which highlights integration and congruency as conditions of student persistence. The multiple identities of part-time, mature undergraduates, cross-cut by age, gender, race and class, position them on the periphery of HE. This potentially restricts their access to means of belonging recognised and validated in dominant institutional discourses. The paper problematises 'belonging', employing Brah's concept of diaspora (1996) and Massey's spatial concepts to support and enrich a Bourdieusian analysis. In doing so, it works in 'theoretical borderlands' (Abes, 2009:190) extending theoretical territory to capture the complexities of part-time, mature undergraduate studentship.