The Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education (CSSHE) 2026 Conference

Upcoming: May 31–June 2, 2026

Broken Clocks: An Exploration of Temporal Inequality and Time Capital in the Higher Education Experiences of LSES Students

Abstract

Education is often viewed as a pathway for achieving social mobility (Adamuti-Trache & Sweet, 2010; Benjamin et al., 2013; Bergerson, 2007; Little, 2014; Weingarten, 2021). In the pursuit of educational attainment, an individual’s socioeconomic status is often a factor in determining both access to and persistence through post-secondary education (Abes et al., 2023; Patton et al., 2016). 

Throughout my doctoral work, I aim to examine how capital, social class worldview, and time shape the experiences of LSES students in New Brunswick’s higher education institutions. Drawing from my personal experiences of growing up in poverty in Saint John, New Brunswick, this research is based on a perspective that acknowledges the lived realities of socioeconomic class in the province’s priority neighbourhoods (Asher, 2008). 

To scaffold this project, I am integrating sociological, psychological, and phenomenological frameworks to examine the ways in which LSES students navigate the higher education landscape. Bourdieu's sociological theory of capital and habitus (1973, 1977, 1986) provides the foundational lens for understanding how social class operates in educational settings. Liu et al.'s Social Class Worldview Model (2004) complements Bourdieu by examining the psychological dimensions of social class, including class consciousness, classism, and the multi-layered (macro, meso, micro) processes through which inequality is produced and perceived. 

While these models are fundamental, they seem to lack a key element – time.  

Time has been mentioned in the context of LSES students, but it is often mentioned in passing, in the background, grouped with other elements, or framed as a choice – i.e., “how students choose to invest their time,” or “lifestyle choices.” Moreover, time is typically viewed as institutional “clock time,” referring to the standardized temporal structures of higher education: the 24-hour day, deadlines, semesters, and credit-hour expectations. However, what’s missing from this discourse and the existing frameworks is a deeper examination of students’ temporal experiences. For many LSES students, temporal investment is not a matter of choice but of necessity, shaped by work obligations, caregiving responsibilities, and economic precarity. 

Thus, I am exploring the notion of time capital. Time capital indicates how time, as a resource, can be invested. It encompasses patterns of temporal investment (how are you spending your time – work, family, school, leisure, rest), the experiential outcomes of temporal investment (feeling burnt out, disconnected, relaxed), and the participation constraints that may arise due to temporal investments (limited ability to be involved, join extracurricular activities, networking and socializing (Astin, 1984, 1985; Bergson, 1950; Husserl, 1960, 1964; Marx, 2024a, 2024b; Merleau-Ponty, 2014). Time Capital integrates Bourdieu's relational understanding of capital, SCWM's attention to lived experience, and temporal theory's multiple dimensions. This helps us to reframe the problem. It is not the case that LSES students lack time management; rather, LSES students lack time capital due to embedded structural inequalities. Time capital reveals how structural inequalities become embodied experiences that shape educational trajectories and reinforce class stratification.  

Resources [to be posted after conference]

  • Slide Deck
  • Slide Deck (with presenter notes)

References

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