Small Firms and Universities: How Training Markets Are Socially Constructed

Drawing on the insights of economic sociology, 'Small Firms and Universities: How Training Markets Are Socially Constructed' offers a detailed account of actor behaviour within the market for vocational education and training. Against the background of debates surrounding the central role of skills in promoting success within the global economy, Daniel Bishop questions the popular suggestion that individuals and organisations will make rationally (and asocially) calculated 'investments' in their skills, education and training in order to further their chances of success. Through a study of small firms and universities, he presents an alternative view of the training market: one where the participants are embedded in a complicated web of subjective orientations and social relations. The discussion dissects and explores this embeddedness and complexity, and offers a new way forward for understanding the way in which markets for education and training operate.