Moving Up without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility

by Jennifer Morton (Author)

The ethical and emotional tolls paid by disadvantaged college students seeking upward mobility and what educators can do to help these students flourish

Upward mobility through the path of higher education has been an article of faith for generations of working-class, low-income, and immigrant college students. While we know this path usually entails financial sacrifices and hard work, very little attention has been paid to the deep personal compromises such students have to make as they enter worlds vastly different from their own. Measuring the true cost of higher education for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, Moving Up without Losing Your Way looks at the ethical dilemmas of upward mobility―the broken ties with family and friends, the severed connections with former communities, and the loss of identity―faced by students as they strive to earn a successful place in society.

Drawing upon philosophy, social science, personal stories, and interviews, Jennifer Morton reframes the college experience, factoring in not just educational and career opportunities but also essential relationships with family, friends, and community. Finding that student strivers tend to give up the latter for the former, negating their sense of self, Morton seeks to reverse this course. She urges educators to empower students with a new narrative of upward mobility―one that honestly situates ethical costs in historical, social, and economic contexts and that allows students to make informed decisions for themselves.

A powerful work with practical implications, Moving Up without Losing Your Way paves a hopeful road so that students might achieve social mobility while retaining their best selves

Review
"Moving Up without Losing Your Way is a subtle philosophical exploration of the underappreciated costs involved in social mobility. This book is simultaneously a major contribution to the philosophical literature about higher education and essential reading for all college leaders, administrators, and teachers."―Harry Brighouse, coauthor of Educational Goods

"What are the ethical costs borne by first-generation students and their families and communities? Moving Up without Losing Your Way investigates the burden that first-generation, low-income, and immigrant students carry when they strive to achieve upward mobility through attending college. This book reshapes the conversation about upward mobility, shifting our focus from the opportunities embedded in the current social structure to the price paid by those aiming to climb it."―Sigal Ben-Porath, University of Pennsylvania

"Moving Up without Losing Your Way compellingly contends that conventional discourse about the socioeconomic mobility of college students from working-class, low-income, and first-generation backgrounds is fundamentally flawed. Showing how the process of mobility can be detrimental to students, this immensely readable book makes important arguments about the nature of power and structure in American society."―Elizabeth M. Lee, author of Class and Campus Life