Chapter Four. Sweden, the Middle Way? Trends and Patterns in Social Mobility and Educational Inequality

Sweden was renowned for attempting a “middle way” between capitalism and socialism, with a market economy combined with ambitious policies for equalizing both opportunities and living conditions. Did this facilitate social mobility, and was equalization of educational attainment the mechanism behind it? We document increasing social mobility during a period of strong growth of higher class occupations, both for men and women, an increase that, however, tends to level off for cohorts born in the mid-1960s. We also verify that most of this development into a more socially open society was due to the equalization of educational outcomes. However, the very substantial growth of upper secondary and tertiary education also contributed, because this expansion meant that more people in younger cohorts received higher education where, in Sweden, the importance of social origin for class destinations is considerably weaker than at lower levels of education.

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Educational Upward Mobility. Practices of Social Changes--Research on Social Mobility and Educational Inequality

International Journal of Social Science Studies ◽

10.11114/ijsss.v8i3.4789 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 25

Author(s):

Mei-ling Lin

Keyword(s):

Social Mobility ◽

Social Reproduction ◽

Upward Mobility ◽

Educational Inequality ◽

Family Background ◽

Social Situation ◽

Income Poverty ◽

Occupational Position ◽

Social Prestige ◽

Symbolic Domination

Social class is defined by the possession of all forms of economic capital, cultural capital and social capital which together shape the kinds of experience and lifestyles. This process is dubbed symbolic violence by Pierre Bourdieu. Education is crucially linked to assets such as income, occupational position and social prestige. Educational upward mobility requires more than individual effort and intelligence, and sometimes different ingredients, such as specific social conditions. The different dimensions of inequality—income, poverty, social exclusion, education and social mobility—are interconnected. The paper has been inspired by Bourdieu’s work on symbolic domination and capitals, and lifestyles. The author identifies a persistence of inequalities among the students due to social reproduction mechanisms: family background and parents’ social situation have a substantial influence on the life chances. The empirical data of this study come from a survey in 2019. The paper ends with a summary of findings and conclusions.

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Poverty and Inequality in Rural Education: Evidence from China

Education as Change ◽

10.25159/1947-9417/4965 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 24 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jiayi Shi ◽

Peter Sercombe

Keyword(s):

Rural Education ◽

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Social Mobility ◽

Educational Inequality ◽

Rural China ◽

Western China ◽

Republic Of China ◽

Critical Junctures ◽

Poverty And Inequality ◽

Small Rural Schools

In 1998, the People’s Republic of China implemented an education policy, the “School Consolidation Policy”, which entailed merging small rural schools with larger ones. It has had a massive effect on rural people across China, and as a result of it, over 60% of schools in outlying areas have closed. The policy’s implementation and effects have received little scholarly attention, despite its scale and consequences. This article investigates the policy, drawing on the nexus between critical discourse analysis and an ethnographical study conducted from 2007 to 2018. The article reviews trajectories and critical junctures shaping educational change in one rural community in north-western China, as an example of broader changes that have been occurring across the country. This is presented through four thematically interrelated episodes, over a 10-year period, illustrating the conception of the policy, its local interpretation and implementation, and its consequences as perceived by stakeholders. The recontextualisation of rural education is part of the policy, as expressed in political discourse, and is examined together with its wider impacts. Attention is paid to the local adoption of the policy at different levels of government and the challenges faced by villagers in rural China in their efforts to capitalise on educational opportunities and secure a measure of social mobility. Consequences of the policy’s implementation are analysed and include rising educational inequality, social marginalisation and a lack of social mobility prospects for families affected.

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Left behind? Over-time change in the social mobility of children from unskilled working-class backgrounds in Germany

Acta Sociologica ◽

10.1177/0001699319868524 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 63 (2) ◽

pp. 133-155 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Bastian A Betthäuser

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Working Class ◽

Labour Market ◽

Social Mobility ◽

Educational Inequality ◽

Birth Cohorts ◽

Left Behind ◽

The Social ◽

High Level ◽

Social Fluidity

Research on intergenerational social mobility tends to focus on examining the level of overall social fluidity in society. However, from a social justice perspective it can be argued that the type of social fluidity that matters most is upward mobility from the lowest rung of the social ladder. This article examines the labour market chances of children from parents in unskilled working-class positions, relative to children from skilled working-class and higher social class backgrounds, and how they have changed across four birth cohorts in post-WWII Germany. We find that individuals from unskilled working-class backgrounds have substantially lower labour market chances than individuals from skilled working-class backgrounds or higher social class backgrounds. Moreover, we find that the gap in labour market chances between individuals from unskilled working-class backgrounds and individuals from more advantaged backgrounds has not narrowed but, if anything, has widened across the four birth cohorts we examine. Our results suggest that an important factor underlying this sustained labour market inequality is a persistently high level of educational inequality between these groups.

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Left behind? Over-time change in the social mobility of children from unskilled working-class backgrounds in Germany

10.31235/osf.io/6vyr7 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Bastian Betthäuser

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Working Class ◽

Labour Market ◽

Social Mobility ◽

Educational Inequality ◽

Birth Cohorts ◽

Left Behind ◽

The Social ◽

High Level ◽

Social Fluidity

Research on intergenerational social mobility tends to focus on examining the level of overall social fluidity in society. However, from a social justice perspective it can be argued that the type of social fluidity that matters most is upward mobility from the lowest rung of the social ladder. This article examines the labour market chances of children from parents in unskilled working-class positions, relative to children from skilled working-class and higher social class backgrounds, and how they have changed across four birth cohorts in post-WWII Germany. We find that individuals from unskilled working-class backgrounds have substantially lower labour market chances than individuals from skilled working-class backgrounds or higher social class backgrounds. Moreover, we find that the gap in labour market chances between indi- viduals from unskilled working-class backgrounds and individuals from more advantaged backgrounds has not narrowed but, if anything, has widened across the four birth cohorts we examine. Our results suggest that an important factor underlying this sustained labour market inequality is a persistently high level of educational inequality between these groups.

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Accumulating Roma cultural capital: First-in-family graduates and the role of educational talent support programs in Hungary in mitigating the price of social mobility

Szociológiai szemle ◽

10.51624/szocszemle.2021.3.4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 31 (3) ◽

pp. 74-102

Author(s):

Julianna Boros ◽

Péter Bogdán ◽

Judit Durst

Keyword(s):

Cultural Capital ◽

Social Mobility ◽

Economically Disadvantaged ◽

Life Story ◽

Educational Inequality ◽

Support Programs ◽

Educational Support ◽

Complex Approach ◽

First In Family ◽

Life Story Interviews

Based on 165 in-depth, narrative life story interviews with first generation graduates, fieldwork with educational support initiatives and auto-ethnography, this article contributes to the literature on whether and how structural educational inequality can be compensated by talent support programs and whether and how these programs can mitigate the price of education-driven upward social mobility for those Roma and nonRoma Hungarians who come from socio-economically disadvantaged families. Upwardly mobile Roma who achieve social ascension through academic high achievement usually travel vast social distances that straddle class and ethnic context. Many of their mobility trajectories are accompanied by a set of challenges that are unique to college educated, racialized, underrepresented minorities. To overcome these challenges, and to compensate for the inequality of life chances that originate from their socially and economically disadvantaged family backgrounds and from an unequal and highly selective educational system, upwardly mobile minority students join educational support initiatives or organisations. This paper, drawing on the narratives of our research participants, argues that particular types of these initiatives or charitable foundations that deploy an ethnically targeted complex approach, can equip their beneficiaries with different types of capital. Amongst these, one of the most important is the Roma cultural capital. The newly gained capitals are necessary for the first-in-family Roma mentees to get through higher education and succeed in the labour market in the context of the specific challenges they face. These initiatives mitigate the price of social ascension the most. The paper uses a case study of Romaversitas to demonstrate its main findings.

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Skill-based engagement with a rich landscape of affordances as an alternative to thinking through other minds

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x1900284x ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 43 ◽

Author(s):

Julian Kiverstein ◽

Erik Rietveld

Keyword(s):

Social Behaviour ◽

Cultural Learning ◽

Other Minds ◽

Middle Way ◽

Internalist Account

Abstract Veissière and colleagues make a valiant attempt at reconciling an internalist account of implicit cultural learning with an externalist account that understands social behaviour in terms of its environment-involving dynamics. However, unfortunately the author's attempt to forge a middle way between internalism and externalism fails. We argue their failure stems from the overly individualistic understanding of the perception of cultural affordances they propose.

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