Page - (000122) - in Knowledge and Networks

114 an understanding is important because it challenges assumptions that investment bankers are a globally mobile, homogeneous fi nancial class. Rather, education plays an important role in embedding (see Hess, 2004 ) them societally and territorially in the distinctive cultures of particular fi nancial centers at different points in their careers. This fi nding reinforces recent arguments in economic geography that the topological nature of fi nancial networks cannot be separated from the topographical dimensions of socioeconomic practice (see Pike & Pollard, 2010 ). Second, empirically, by focusing on the educational experiences of early-career elites, the analysis here has revealed the need for work on corporate and industry cultures and practices to study more carefully on the role of postgraduate educa- tional spaces in the (re)production of situated practices. This is important because the cultures of practice within elite work have been the subject of considerable media and popular debate concerning their continued exclusionary tendencies and the implications of this for the possible growth trajectories of the global economy following the fi nancial crisis (Cabinet Offi ce, 2009 ; Treasury Committee, 2010 ). In this respect, it would appear that claims of the end of “ gentlemanly capitalism” has heralded a more meritocratic City where upward career progression is equally avail- able to all recruits provided they invest appropriately in their human capital through further postgraduate education and training have been exaggerated. Rather, indi- viduals are involved in obtaining training and using it strategically to enhance their employability and positional advantage relative to other early-career elites in what remain highly competitive elite labor markets . This suggests that further postgradu- ate education might represent an important site of intervention if political aims to alter the culture of the City and render it more meritocratic and sustainable in terms of its fi nancial practices are to be fully realized. Acknowledgements The research reported in this chapter was funded by the Nuffi eld Foundation (SGS/3204) and the Economic and Social Research Council (RES–061–25–0071). References Amin, A., & Cohendet, P. (2004). Architectures of knowledge: Firms, capabilities and communi- ties. Oxford: University Press. Anderson-Gough, F., Grey, C., & Robson, K. (2000). In the name of the client: The service ethic in two professional services fi rms. Human Relations, 53, 1151–1174. doi: 10.1177/0018726700539003 Augar, P. (2001). The death of gentlemanly capitalism: The rise and fall of London’s investment banks (2 nd ed.) . London: Penguin. Augar, P. (2009). Chasing Alpha: How reckless growth and unchecked ambition ruined the City’s golden decade. London: Bodley Head. Becker, G. (1994). Human capital: Theoretical and empirical analysis with special reference to education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Bourdieu, P. (1990). The logic of practice (R. Nice, Trans.). Stanford: University Press. (Original work published 1980) Bourdieu, P. (1996). The state nobility: Elite schools in the fi eld of power (L. C. Clough, Trans.). Stanford: University Press. (Original work published 1989) S. Hall