权宜之计抑或自我解放——硕士研究生“主动延毕”的扎根理论研究

Expediency or Self-liberation:Research on the Grounded Theory of Postgraduate“Voluntary Graduation Deferral”

尽管“延期毕业”通常被视作是“失败”的无奈选择,但随着风险社会带来的不确定因素增多,延期毕业逐步转换为出于利益考量的主动选项。研究发现,主动延毕被视为一种兼顾自我发展与权宜就业的综合选择,具有保留体面、彰显勇气和自我缓冲的利好性,可细分为“逐梦”“权益”“彷徨”“和解”等四种类型,而每种类型会受制于不同的结构性条件而表征出不同的行动逻辑。然而,无论何种类型的主动延毕,都面临共性的现实张力:徘徊的心理压力、矛盾的意义建构、争议的沉没成本等。总体来看,主动延毕具有明显的“后疫情时代”特征,与“慢就业”“设置间隔年”等新兴现象相互勾连,是“个体—社会”在资源分配和利益追求的差异化境况下共同形塑的,深受当前就业结构化困境、加速社会引发的时间焦虑等因素影响。主动延毕不是“投机者的机会主义行为”,而是个体为了缓和焦虑、充实自我的延续性人力资本投资,不应被社会污名化和区别化对待。

Although it is usually seen as a helpless choice for losers,in the face of the many uncertainties from the risk society,graduation deferral is gradually becoming an active option after consideration of personal gains.This study finds that voluntary graduation deferral is now deemed as a choice after extensive pondering over self-development and temporary employment,with the benefit of saving face,demonstrating courage and accumulating energy for further study.Voluntary graduation deferral can be divided into four types,i.e.“pursuing dreams”,“rights and interests”,“hesitation”and“reconciliation”,with each of them manifesting a different logic of action subject to different structural conditions.However,whatever the type of voluntary graduation deferral is,students face the common real-life tensions represented by lingering psychological pressure,the meaning construction of contradictions,sunk cost controversy,and so on.Overall,the voluntary graduation deferral has clear characteristics of the“post-epidemic era”,interlinked with emerging phenomena such as“delayed employment”and“gap year to be determined”,jointly shaped by individuals and society in different circumstances of resource allocation and interest pursuit,and deeply influenced by factors such as the current structural dilemma of employment and the time anxiety caused by society that is in accelerated development.This paper concludes that voluntary graduation deferral is not an opportunist behavior for only personal gains,but an ongoing human capital investment by individuals to alleviate anxiety and replenish themselves,which should not be stigmatized,and students should not be treated discriminatively.