Date: 2024
Type: Article
Is meritocracy not so bad after all? : educational expansion and intergenerational mobility in 40 countries
American sociological review, 2024, OnlineFirst
VAN DE WERFHORST, Herman G., Is meritocracy not so bad after all? : educational expansion and intergenerational mobility in 40 countries, American sociological review, 2024, OnlineFirst
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77485
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
In the face of continued socioeconomic inheritance, the belief that the simple expansion of educational opportunities will create meritocratic societies has been met with skepticism. It is well documented that within expanding educational systems, class-advantaged families attempt to secure further advantages for their offspring. Conversely, for many, the modernist belief that educational expansion is a means to achieving a fairer society remains compelling. Studying trends in intergenerational occupational mobility in 40 countries from four continents, I examine whether educational expansion enhances occupational mobility, and whether such trends are counteracted by heightened persistence between social origin and destination within education groups. The results indicate that educational expansion over time, and the policies supporting it, are linked to improved intergenerational occupational mobility. Furthermore, this increased mobility through expanded educational opportunities is not negated by a strengthening of within-education elite persistence in occupational status, suggesting that occupational mobility patterns can genuinely change through educational expansion. The modernist ideology around educational expansion as a driver of social mobility may warrant renewed attention.
Additional information:
Published online: 19 November 2024
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77485
Full-text via DOI: 10.1177/00031224241292352
ISSN: 0003-1224; 1939-8271
Publisher: Sage
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