In the context of higher education, social capital typically refers to the network of relationships and resources that individuals and groups can draw upon to achieve their goals. Theories of social capital often highlight elements of trust, reciprocity, and a sense of belonging. It is widely assumed that students who are first-in-family (FIF) enter university with a lack of social capital and, for the most part, struggle to access and accumulate it at university. However, social capital has an important role to play as it can be integral to how FIF students access information, opportunities, and support which are all crucial for their success in higher education. Therefore, it is important we investigate how FIF students experience and rely on social capital as it can play a pivotal role in shaping their success at university and their prospects in future employment.

Drawing on theories of social capital (Coleman, Lin, Bourdieu, etc), this presentation captures how FIF students in Australia acquire social capital over the course of three years. Presenting empirical data, we explore the fine-grained distinctions between how the participants accessed and operationalized social capital during their time in higher education. Operationalizing social capital involves skilfully utilizing various relationships to achieve one’s goals which can often be in constrast to more working-class communal values. As a provocation, we explore how the accrual of social capital is closely related to what we refer to as self-crafting (Stahl & McDonald, 2022). How FIF young people craft their sense of self in relation to experiences social capital has remained largely unexplored and undertheorized. In examining self-crafting, we consider how the participants developed strategies to operationalize social capital in order to leverage their relationships and networks to their advantage and enhance their success in higher education.