School of GPS

In this article we raise questions about fitting in pertaining to various classed identities within two UK Higher Education Institutions (HEI). We discuss the pains and privileges attached to accent and ways of speaking worth: Who is able to mobilize and capitalize on inscribed values, as they come to be attached to ways of talking? Accents and ways of talking are part of embodied class identities and whilst some carry connotations of intelligence, other ways of talking are positioned as lacking value, as well as other cultural meanings (Sayer 2002; Spencer, Clegg and Stackhouse 2013; Lawler 1999; Skeggs 1997; Southerton 2002; Taylor 2007; MacFarlane and Stuart-Smith 2012). In this article we discuss our empirical research carried out in two separate qualitative ESRC-funded research projects in the north of England with undergraduate students (Victoria Mountford) and university staff (Michelle Addison). Focusing primarily on white British ways of talking, we examine how embodying particular accents or ways of talking affect classed notions of 'fitting in' or 'standing out' (Reay et al 2009: 1; Abraham and Ingram 2013) in HE. In a climate of uncertainty in Higher Education we are concerned that the importance of demonstrating one's impact, value and worth comes down to more than just productivity, it is becoming demonstrably about being able to 'talk the talk'. Here we trouble the practices of speaking 'what you are worth'.

This paper reviews discussions in Thematic Area 3 at the International Forum on Intercountry Adoption & Global Surrogacy, held in the Hague in August 2014. Thematic Area 3 was concerned with the contribution of agencies to furthering of the best interests of the child in intercountry adoption. There was also a consideration of the lessons that could be learned from the process of accreditation under the 1993 on  oHague Convention on Intercountry Adoption (HCIA) in respect of intermediaries in international surrogacy, for which a further Hague Convention is under consideration.