Education, Occupation and Social Origin

Book excerpt: Questioning the assumption that education is the ‘great social equalizer’, this book takes a comparative approach to the social origin–education–destination triangle by examining advantage in 14 different countries, including case studies from Europe, Israel, the USA, Russia and Japan. Contributions from leading experts examine the relation between family background, education and occupational achievement over time and across educational levels, focusing on the relationship between individuals’ social origins and their income and occupational outcomes. Providing new theoretical insights, this book eloquently analyzes a variety of barriers to social mobility. Using concepts of compensatory and boosting advantage to explain the intergenerational transmission of social inequality, it refutes the notion of contemporary societies as education-based and meritocratic, showing that in most of the countries studied there is no sign of decreasing intergenerational association, despite the expansion of education. With its multitude of pertinent case studies, Education, Occupation and Social Origin will be of interest to academics and students of social policy as well as those interested in social inequalities and their evolution over time. It will also be a useful reference for governmental policymakers in the wake of the current economic crisis.