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This thesis explores the construction process of social inequalities through Lebanese education system and demonstrates the role of different social affiliations or contexts in access to education within the Lebanese society. Through the case study of a scholarship program, financed by an international development agency which selects students from underprivileged backgrounds and gives them access to a private university, it looks into the ways in which individuals construct dispositions to "success" through several instances of socialization at school and at university which in turn determines the way they seize this opportunity to climb the social ladder. The results of this study are based on data obtained through semi-structured interviews with students, teachers and supervisors, student files and participant observations within the host university over four academic years.My results show that dispositions constructed before entering university are the product of trajectories differentiated by volume of family’s cultural capital, its financial stability, its relation to traditional or religious values and its geographical origin. The practices and dispositions of families appear to be socially and culturally centered, transmitted to the individual, and followed by other types of socializations at university. Once at university, these dispositions were transformed into inequalities through individuals’ reactions to normative expectations of the scholarship program. Different profiles of students emerge from these consecutive waves of socializations, linking the context in which an individual was socialized to the way he/she experiences university and constructs future plans.The key contribution of this study is to shed light on certain challenges specific to the Lebanese society, whilst deconstructing preconceived ideas on determinisms based on religious and confessional belonging among others., Cette thèse porte sur le processus de construction des inégalités sociales à travers le système éducatif dans le contexte libanais. Elle met en évidence la place occupée par différents types d'appartenances et de contextes sociaux dans l'accès à l’école et certains enjeux spécifiques à la société libanaise.À partir de l’étude d'un dispositif de bourses, financé par une agence internationale d’aide au développement, qui sélectionne des étudiants de milieu modeste et leur permet de les inscrire dans une université privée, cette recherche s’intéresse à la construction des dispositions à la « réussite » à travers diverses instances de socialisation à l'école et à l'université, qui déterminent la manière dont les étudiants boursiers se saisissent de la chance qui leur est offerte pour s'élever sur l'échelle sociale. Des entretiens semi-directifs auprès des étudiants, enseignants et responsables, des analyses de documents et des observations participantes ont été réalisées pendant quatre années au sein de l'université d'accueil.Nos résultats montrent que les dispositions construites avant l’accès à l’université sont le produit des trajectoires différenciées par le volume de capital scolaire ou culturel détenu par la famille, la stabilité financière de la famille, le rapport aux valeurs traditionnelles ou religieuses et l'origine géographique. Les pratiques et les dispositions familiales, socialement et culturellement situées, transmises à l’individu, sont confrontées à l’université à d’autres modes de socialisation. Une fois à l'université, ces dispositions se transforment en inégalités dans la manière dont les individus répondent aux attentes normatives du dispositif de bourses. Il ressort de ces vagues consécutives de socialisations, différents profils de boursiers mettant en lien le contexte dans lequel l'individu a grandi et été socialisé et la manière de vivre le parcours universitaire et de se construire des projets d'avenir.L’intérêt du cas étudié est de mettre en lumière certains enjeux spécifiques à la société libanaise, tout en déconstruisant quelques idées préconçues sur les déterminismes religieux ou communautaires entre autres.

While literature documents how the employability agenda has become the new neoliberal common sense in universities much less attention has been given to the mechanisms of adaptation by students. Utilizing a four-year longitudinal case study of scholarship students at an elite university, this paper focuses on the process through which this ‘meritocratic’ program normalises neoliberal common sense in higher education. We put into question the principle of positive discrimination, considering the limited number of beneficiaries. Our findings illustrate that, instead of minimizing inequalities, this scholarship program contributes in strengthening the neoliberal ideology within the education system. We further demonstrate that students’ backgrounds influence their adaptation into the program and access to employment. In addition, we argue that urban-rural differences among others have more explanatory power than class differences in understanding the complex adaptation of students into the program in the Lebanese context., NA

Gender inequality in education has been well documented in the literature, in light of family and school socialization. We build on this literature and focus from a micro sociological perspective on the emergence of 'critical reflexivity' in the specific case of a group of university scholarship students in Lebanon. Through observations and in-depth interviews, we identify gender differentiated prior dispositions that influence university experiences of those students and their career plans and demonstrate that critical reflexivity involves a process of negotiation between two fields. Family control was associated with success in studies at the expense of the social aspects of university. Gendered norms also reflected on their choices of major. Furthermore, in examining cases of emergence of reflexivity, we find that prior socialization experiences, namely degree of social conservatism, experience of change as well as social heterogeneity, influence the development of 'critical reflexivity' as students encountered a new social environment., NA