Unequal returns? A bourdieusian analysis of the state-funded education and career pathways in Kazakhstan
Shakuliyeva A. Hwami M. Bedeker M.
2026Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
Higher Education
2026
Kazakhstan’s state-funded doctoral mandate provides a critical case for examining how government policy, rather than labour markets, structure doctoral futures. This study examines how state-mandated service obligations reframe doctoral education as a state-managed investment and influence the career prospects of PhD holders. This qualitative content analysis of three policy documents issued in 2012, 2021, and 2023 was interpreted through a sociological lens focusing on field, habitus, and capital. The findings suggest that the bureaucratic field is increasingly encroaching on the academic field, redefining the doctorate from a marker of scholarly distinction to an obligation of state service. This process reshapes doctoral habitus into that of a public servant and flattens the value of doctoral capital through narrowly prescribed employment pathways. Although framed in terms of merit and accountability, the mandate produces unequal returns, particularly for graduates with weaker forms of capital. By situating Kazakhstan as a semi-peripheral case, the article demonstrates that unequal returns in doctoral education arise not only in marketised systems but also through statist logics of accountability and retention, offering new insights into the global restructuring of doctoral futures.
Bourdieu , Bureaucratic field , Post-soviet Kazakhstan , State-funded doctoral education
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Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
New Uzbekistan University, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Graduate School of Education
Nazarbayev University
New Uzbekistan University
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Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026