Chapter Six. Education as an Equalizing Force: How Declining Educational Inequality and Educational Expansion Have Contributed to More Social Fluidity in Germany

2020 ◽  
pp. 122-149
Keyword(s):  
Educational Inequality ◽  
Educational Expansion ◽  
Social Fluidity

The reproduction of educational elites through natural cultivation. A qualitative analysis of educational child-rearing practices as strategies of cultural distinction

Soziale Welt ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-83
Author(s):  
Tim Sawert
Keyword(s):  
Educational Inequality ◽  
Symbolic Capital ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Educational Expansion ◽  
Educational Strategies ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Uk

During the last decades, the socially inclusive educational expansion diluted the previous exclusiveness of upper secondary degrees. Unlike the UK, the USA, or France, no explicit “elite” institutions do exist in the German educational system. Nevertheless, educational inequality is no less pronounced. Hence, what child-rearing practices do educationally privileged families in Germany apply to intergenerationally transfer their social privilege in times of educational expansion? The article focusses on one such practice: the acquisition of humanist knowledge by learning Latin and Ancient Greek as a strategy of cultural distinction. To analyse educational strategies and whether people draw lines of distinction along knowledge in Latin and Ancient Greek, I conducted semi-structured interviews with parents of adolescents who had chosen different foreign language profiles. I show how the acquisition of this specific symbolic capital is embedded in a child-rearing practice aimed at obtaining horizontal educational distinction for a privileged academic class. Additionally, I show that the highly privileged status of particularly established academic families results in a child-rearing practice that I call natural cultivation, a more invisible strategy of distinctive child-rearing that appears almost passive compared to those already discussed more widely (e.g. Lareau 2003).

Social Mobility in the Twentieth Century in Europe and the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 251-296
Author(s):  
Richard Breen ◽  
Walter Müller
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Expansion ◽  
Strong Indication ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
The Us ◽  
European Economies ◽  
Social Fluidity

Summarizing the findings of the country chapters, this chapter addresses the question: How did intergenerational social mobility change over cohorts born in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century? What role, if any, did education play in this? As education expanded, its association to class origins weakened, especially among earlier-born cohorts—a strong indication that growing education equalization may have been important in increasing social fluidity. There is also a strong link between upward mobility and social fluidity, the former mostly driven by the expansion of higher-level white-collar jobs. Educational expansion, equalization, and rapid structural change in the US and European economies all contributed to greater social fluidity among people born before the middle of the century. For people born later, rates of downward mobility have increased: however, despite the lack of further educational equalization and less-pronounced structural change, social fluidity has remained unchanged.

scholarly journals Education and intergenerational social mobility in the US and four European countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Breen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Upward Mobility ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Educational Expansion ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
The Us ◽  
Social Fluidity ◽  
Second World

Abstract I draw on the findings of a recently completed comparative research project to address the question: how did intergenerational social mobility change over cohorts of men and women born in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, and what role, if any, did education play in this? The countries studied are the US, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Notwithstanding the differences between them, by and large they present the same picture. Rates of upward mobility increased among cohorts born in the second quarter of the century and then declined among those born later. Among earlier born cohorts, social fluidity increased (that is, the association between the class a person was born into and the class he or she came to occupy as an adult declined) and then remained unchanged for those born after mid-century. The association between class origins and educational attainment followed much the same trend as social fluidity. This suggests that growing equalization in education may have contributed to the increase in social fluidity. In our analyses we find that this is so, but educational expansion also led to greater fluidity in some countries. There is also a strong link between upward mobility and social fluidity. Upward mobility was mostly driven by the expansion of higher-level white-collar jobs, especially in the 30 years after the end of the Second World War. This facilitated social fluidity because people from working class and farming origins could move into the service or salariat classes without reducing the rate at which children born into those classes could remain there. Educational expansion, educational equalization, and rapid structural change in the economies of the US and Europe all contributed to greater social fluidity among people born in the second quarter of the twentieth century. For people born after mid-century, rates of downward mobility have increased: however, despite the lack of further educational equalization and less pronounced structural change, social fluidity has remained unchanged.

scholarly journals Educational Inequality, Educational Expansion and Intergenerational Mobility – CORRIGENDUM

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 615-615
Author(s):  
JO BLANDEN ◽  
LINDSEY MACMILLAN
Keyword(s):  
Intergenerational Mobility ◽  
Educational Inequality ◽  
Educational Expansion

Within the original published article the acknowledgements section was sadly omitted. The following acknowledgement should have been included

Intergenerational Social Mobility in Twentieth-Century Spain

2020 ◽  
pp. 224-250
Author(s):  
Carlos J. Gil-Hernández ◽  
Fabrizio Bernardi ◽  
Ruud Luijkx
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Educational Expansion ◽  
Class Mobility ◽  
Political Modernization ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Modernization Process ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Social Fluidity

This chapter studies long-term trends in intergenerational class mobility in Spain across the twentieth century drawing from a large pooled dataset (n = 81,475). From the 1960s, Spain underwent a late but intense economic, cultural, and political modernization process. During this period of far-reaching institutional change, men and women experienced a significant increase in upward mobility rates and social fluidity: steady and substantial for women, more modest for men. We disentangle different pathways driving this change in social fluidity using counterfactual simulations. The main drivers of the observed equalization of opportunities were the educational expansion and the direct effect of social origins. We argue that women were particularly benefited from dramatic structural changes in labor force participation, occupational upgrading, and educational expansion in which more room at the top allowed disadvantaged social classes to depart from their origins.

scholarly journals Educational Inequality, Educational Expansion and Intergenerational Mobility

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
JO BLANDEN ◽  
LINDSEY MACMILLAN
Keyword(s):  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Educational Inequality ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Educational Expansion ◽  
Future Trends ◽  
Educational Inequalities ◽  
Market Returns ◽  
The Uk

AbstractThe distribution of education by social background and the mobility prospects of society are intimately connected. To begin to predict future trends in mobility in the UK we bring together evidence on educational inequality by family background for cohorts from 1958 to 2000 for a range of educational outcomes. There is evidence that educational inequalities have narrowed among recent cohorts as the overall level of educational achievement has increased. This could be promising for mobility provided the labour market returns to these qualifications are maintained. However, stubborn inequalities by background at higher attainment levels imply that narrowing inequalities and expanding equality of opportunity throughout the educational distribution is a difficult task.

Methodological Preliminaries

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-28
Author(s):  
Richard Breen
Keyword(s):  
Linear Models ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Educational Expansion ◽  
Relative Mobility ◽  
Log Linear ◽  
Social Fluidity

All the country chapters in this volume use the same set of methods, and this chapter explains them in simple and accessible terms. These methods include descriptive statistics for the analysis of absolute mobility, the use of log-linear models for the analysis of relative mobility or social fluidity, and simulations to assess the role played by educational equalization and educational expansion in shaping trends in social fluidity.

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