An article examined the impact of parents' occupational and educational characteristics on occupational attainment, focusing on the salariat. Both parents' characteristics were found to be relevant, and their effects interacted. A smaller chance of a salariat occupation was evident for those who lived in a lone-mother family, lone-father family, or biological-mother stepfamily as a young teenager, reflecting different features of these family types – but consistently reflecting lower educational attainment. Both number of co-resident siblings and parental worklessness affected the odds of having a salariat occupation.
Source: Richard Lampard, 'Parental characteristics, family structure and occupational attainment in Britain', Sociology, Volume 46 Issue 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Dec
A report said that just 10 private schools produced over 10 per cent of the country's professional elites. 44 per cent of leading people in the professions went to a private school.
Source: The Educational Backgrounds of the Nation's Leading People, Sutton Trust
Links: Report | Sutton Trust press release | BBC report | Daily Mail report | Telegraph report | Times Higher Education report
Date: 2012-Nov
A report examined patterns of social mobility in England and Wales over the period 1981–2001, using linked longitudinal study records. There had been a larger number of favourable social mobility trajectories than unfavourable ones throughout the study period.
Source: Suzanne Fry, Alaa Al-Hamad, and Chris White, Patterns of Social Mobility by NS-SEC: England and Wales 1981–2001, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Nov
A paper examined the middle classes in Europe, including the questions of how they should be defined, and whether they were declining in size.
Source: Regis Bigot, Patricia Croutte, Jorg Muller, and Guillaume Osier, The Middle Classes in Europe: Evidence from the LIS data, Working Paper 580, Luxembourg Income Study
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Nov
A paper questioned the consensus in 'political and media circles' that social mobility had been declining in Britain over recent decades. This consensus had emerged from the research of a group of economists into intergenerational income mobility: but, because of various limitations in the available data, the finding of declining mobility was open to question. Moreover, because no explicit distinction had been made between absolute and relative rates of mobility, its reception had been attended by considerable confusion. Research by sociologists indicated, by contrast, that the only recent change of note had been that the rising rates of upward, absolute mobility of the middle decades of the previous century had levelled out, while relative rates have remained more or less constant back to the inter-war years.
Source: John Goldthorpe, Understanding – and Misunderstanding – Social Mobility in Britain: The entry of the economists, the confusion of politicians and the limits of educational policy, Barnett Papers in Social Research 1/2012, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford
Links: Paper | Oxford University press release
Date: 2012-Oct
A government-appointed advisor said that improvements in social mobility could be reversed unless the government and universities did more to encourage and finance more students from disadvantaged backgrounds to take university degrees. All students from poorer backgrounds should be given an interview, and consideration should be given to offering places on the basis of lower grades than those of other candidates.
Source: Alan Milburn (Independent Reviewer on Social Mobility and Child Poverty), University Challenge: How higher education can advance social mobility, Cabinet Office
Links: Report | DBIS press release | OFFA press release | AOC press release | ASCL press release | Barnardos press release | Million+ press release | 1994 Group press release | NUT press release | Russell Group press release | Sutton Trust press release | UCU press release | Universities UK press release | University Alliance press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Oct
A paper said that three components of social origins – parental class, parental status, and parental education – had independent and distinctive effects on children's educational attainment, and ones that persisted or changed in differing ways across cohorts. If parental class were taken as the sole indicator of social origins, as it commonly was, class effects would be overestimated – they would pick up different but associated social origin effects, while social origin effects in total would be underestimated.
Source: Erzsebet Bukodi and John Goldthorpe, Decomposing 'Social Origins': The effects of parents' class, status and education on the educational attainment of their children, Barnett Papers in Social Research 2/2012, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Oct
The report was published of a summit meeting on social mobility (held in May 2012) that brought together researchers from the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, and Australia. A better trained early years' workforce was vital if children from poorer backgrounds were to have a fair chance of succeeding at school.
Source: The Social Mobility Summit, Sutton Trust
Links: Report | Sutton Trust press release
Date: 2012-Sep
A report summarized the findings of a cross-national study of the intergenerational transmission of advantage, involving a co-ordinated set of 16 studies across 10 mainly European countries (including England) with different levels of inequality. Differences in child outcomes by parental socio-economic status emerged early; they did not narrow over the life course, and actually widened in the case of England. Parental background was important early in life, in school, and in related neighbourhood choices. Education systems also mattered: but the evidence indicated that their net effect was not to reduce the relationship between parental socio-economic status and child achievement as the child moved through the education system. The report concluded that it was possible to provide more equal life-chances than was the case in the countries such as the United Kingdom and United States of America without violating family autonomy or the principle of merit.
Source: Report on Crita Project, Sutton Trust
Links: Report | ATL press release
Date: 2012-Sep
A paper used survey data to define 'middle class' groups in European countries. Under the income-based definition (households whose net disposable income per adult equivalent was between 70 and 150 per cent of the median) the size of the middle class ranged from 35 per cent to 63 per cent of all households. In 17 out of 25 countries studied, the incomes of the upper classes had increased faster than those of the middle classes over the previous decade.
Source: Regis Bigot, Patricia Croutte, Jorg Muller, and Guillaume Osier, The Middle Classes in Europe: Evidence from the LIS data, Working Paper 580, Luxembourg Income Study
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Sep
An article examined contemporary sentiments towards Englishness in terms of its relationship to class. It identified both a decline in social deference and an increase in contempt towards a so-called 'underclass' in people's talk about being English. Part of the explanation for why people were uneasy about identifying with 'being English' related to an absence of an equal sense of English national membership.
Source: Robin Mann, 'Uneasy being English: the significance of class for English national sentiments', Ethnicities, Volume 12 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Aug
An article examined the significance of class for English national identity.
Source: Arthur Aughey, 'Englishness as class: a re-examination', Ethnicities, Volume 12 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Aug
A think-tank report (written by a Conservative MP) put forward ten policies designed to widen opportunity and improve social mobility. It said that the Conservative vision of fairness should focus on backing the 'underdog' – people who worked hard to compete on merit, overcome vested interests, and succeed against the odds. Proposals included private sponsorship for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to go to private schools, and extending the 0 per cent band on stamp duty to £250,000 to help first-time house buyers.
Source: Dominic Raab MP, Unleashing the British Underdog: 10 bets on the little guy, Centre for Policy Studies
Links: Report | Summary | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Jul
A think-tank report said that the coalition government's social mobility strategy was based on a flawed understanding of the evidence. Social mobility was the norm in Britain, not the exception, and it occurred in both directions across the entire range of the occupational class structure. If the population were divided into three main social classes, more than half were in a different class from the one they were born into. Studies of class mobility placed Britain around the middle of the international rankings. Britain was far from being perfectly meritocratic: but personal characteristics, such as talent and hard work, made the main difference in determining life-chances.
Source: Peter Saunders, Social Mobility Delusions: Why so much of what politicians say about social mobility in Britain is wrong, misleading or unreliable, Civitas
Links: Report | Civitas press release
Date: 2012-Jun
An article examined the quest for more and more education and its implications for social mobility. It documented very rapid educational upgrading over the previous three decades, and showed that this rise had featured faster increases in education acquisition by people from relatively rich family backgrounds. At the same time, wage differentials for the more educated had risen. Putting these two together implied increasing within-generation inequality; and, by reinforcing already existing inequalities from the previous generation, this had hindered social mobility. The paper also highlighted the acquisition of postgraduate qualifications; gender differences; and the poor education performance of men at the lower end of the education distribution.
Source: Joanne Lindley and Stephen Machin, 'The quest for more and more education: implications for social mobility', Fiscal Studies, Volume 33 Issue 2, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Abstract | IFS press release | Guardian report
See also: Joanne Lindley and Stephen Machin, The Quest for More and More Education: Implications for Social Mobility, Discussion Paper 6581, Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn)
Date: 2012-Jun
Date: 2012-Jun
A new book brought together a range of thematically organized case-studies that addressed the challenges of studying trends and processes in social stratification.
Source: Paul Lambert, Roxanne Connelly, Robert Blackburn, and Vernon Gayle (eds.), Social Stratification: Trends and processes, Ashgate Publications
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-May
An interim report by an all-party group of MPs said that the point of greatest leverage for social mobility was what happened between ages 0 and 3, primarily in the home. It was also possible to improve social mobility through education – the most important controllable factor being the quality of teaching received. University was the top determinant of later opportunities – so pre-18 attainment was key. But later pathways to mobility were possible, 'given the will and support'.
Source: 7 Key Truths About Social Mobility: Interim report, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility
Links: Report | Guardian report | Nursery World report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-May
The coalition government published a progress report on its social mobility strategy. It highlighted a doubling of the number of free early education places to disadvantaged children aged 2, the introduction of a 'pupil premium' to help support the most disadvantaged young people, and the launch of a new 'youth contract' to help young people who required extra help to earn or learn. It also announced that it would publish a series of 'trackers' that would monitor the impact of policies to tackle social mobility every year. The indicators would include:
• School readiness – the proportion of children on free school meals achieving a 'good level of development' in the Early Years Foundation stage compared with other children.
• Attainment at age 16 by free school meal eligibility – the proportion of children achieving grades A* to C in English and Maths at GCSE.
• 18-24 participation in education by social background – participation in full-time education by social background.
High attainment at age 19 by school or college type – proportion of children studying towards A-level qualifications at age 17 achieving at least grades AAB at A-level in key subjects.
Source: Opening Doors, Breaking Barriers: A Strategy for Social Mobility – Update on Progress Since April 2011, Cabinet Office
Links: Report | Cabinet Office press release | Speech | ATL press release | Barnardos press release | Childrens Society press release | Labour Party press release | NIACE press release | Offa press release | UCU press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Times Higher Education report
Notes: Strategy (April 2011)
Date: 2012-May
A report examined education and social mobility in the four major English-speaking countries (United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia, and Canada). Children from poorer families in Australia and Canada had a much greater chance of doing well at school, getting into university, and earning more in later life than children in the UK and USA. This was despite the fact that all four were among the countries with the biggest income gaps between the rich and poor – and despite the fact that the UK and USA also spent a greater proportion of their national income on schooling.
Source: Social Mobility and Education in the Four Major Anglophone Countries, Sutton Trust
Links: Report | Sutton Trust press release
Date: 2012-May
An article used recent survey data collected from 20 developed societies to examine how social mobility rates were influenced by economic and political conditions. Systematic cross-national variation was found in the association between the occupational status of respondents and their fathers. This variation was positively associated with per capita national income, suggesting that more affluent nations were characterized by more open and fluid stratification structures. The results also suggested the importance of political regimes and migration for social mobility. In contrast, economic inequality appeared to explain very little of the cross-national variation in mobility rates.
Source: Meir Yaish and Robert Andersen, 'Social mobility in 20 modern societies: the role of economic and political context', Social Science Research, Volume 41 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
A new book used data from 10 countries with differing levels of inequality to examine whether and how parents' resources transmitted advantage to their children at different stages of development. It highlighted the structural differences between countries that might influence intergenerational mobility.
Source: John Ermisch, Markus Jantti, and Timothy Smeeding (eds.), From Parents to Children: The intergenerational transmission of advantage, Russell Sage Foundation
Links: Summary | Project summary
Date: 2012-May
The Secretary of State for Education said that he rejected the argument that pupil achievement was overwhelmingly dictated by socio-economic factors, and that schools were powerless to help children to succeed if they had been born into poverty, disability, or disadvantage. There were a growing number of schools proving that, with 'the right teaching and the right values', children from deprived backgrounds could outperform people's expectations of them. He said that he found it 'remarkable' how many of the positions of wealth, influence, celebrity, and power in society were held by individuals who had been privately educated.
Source: Speech by Michael Gove MP (Secretary of State for Education), 10 May 2012
Links: Speech | NASUWT press release | NUT press release | BBC report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2)
Date: 2012-May
An article examined the association between occupational social class and parental transfer behaviour in European countries. Substantial class differences in financial transfers were found. Existing theories on intergenerational transfers were largely unable to account for this finding. Even after income and wealth were controlled for, service-class parents transferred more resources to their adult children than did working-class parents.
Source: Marco Albertini and Jonas Radl, 'Intergenerational transfers and social class: inter-vivos transfers as means of status reproduction?', Acta Sociologica, Volume 55 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
A report by the social mobility 'tsar' examined the opportunities available to individuals from different backgrounds to enter and progress in professional careers, and how these opportunities had changed since a previous report in 2009. It said that:
• Professions such as law, journalism, and medicine needed to do more to widen their intake.
• Efforts to raise career awareness and aspiration in schools were 'too sporadic and too unspecific'.
• Too many employers were recruiting from 'too narrow a range of universities and regions'.
• Work experience and internships were becoming more important to job prospects, but they were 'still a lottery'.
• Selection processes for careers were still 'too haphazard'.
The graduate grip on the labour market was 'still strong'.
Source: Alan Milburn (Independent Reviewer on Social Mobility and Child Poverty), Fair Access to Professional Careers: A Progress Report, Cabinet Office
Links: Report | ATL press release | CIPD press release | CMI press release | ICAEW press release | Million+ press release | OFFA press release | PwC press release | ResPublica press release | Russell Group press release | BBC report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Telegraph report | Times Higher Education report
Date: 2012-May
An article examined the impact of economic conditions – at both individual and national level – on social class identification in 44 countries. There was a positive relationship between household income and class identification in all countries, though this relationship varied substantially. 'Low' class identifications were more likely in poor countries than in rich ones: but the effect of economic development diminished if income inequality was considered in the same model. Income inequality had an important polarizing effect on class identification. Specifically, the relationship between household income and class identity tended to be strongest in countries with a high level of income inequality.
Source: Robert Andersen and Josh Curtis, 'The polarizing effect of economic inequality on class identification: evidence from 44 countries', Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Volume 30 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Apr
A series of evidence briefings on social mobility investigated how health, parenting, education, skills, and poverty influenced the opportunities for individuals and the outcomes of their lives.
Source: Education Vital for Social Mobility, Economic and Social Research Council | Health Inequalities Continue to Undermine Social Mobility, Economic and Social Research Council | Parenting Style Influences Child Development and Social Mobility, Economic and Social Research Council | Child poverty casts a long shadow over social mobility, Economic and Social Research Council | Employment key to social mobility, Economic and Social Research Council
Links: Paper (1) | Paper (2) | Paper (3) | Paper (4) | Paper (5) | ESRC press release | CLS press release
Date: 2012-Mar
An article examined the new emphasis placed by the political parties on social mobility as a solution to social inequalities and exclusion. The approach taken by policy-makers drew on the sociological evidence in a 'limited and highly selective' way, and created unrealistic expectations of what social mobility could achieve.
Source: Geoff Payne, 'A new social mobility? The political redefinition of a sociological problem', Contemporary Social Science, Volume 7 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Mar