Social Mobility and Education in Britain

Erzsébet Bukodi is an Associate Professor in Quantitative Social Policy and Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, The Oxford Martin School. John H. Goldthorpe is an Emeritus Fellow of Nuffield College Oxford, a Fellow of the British Academy, a Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. He has written extensively on social class and social mobility since the 1960s.

'Bukodi and Goldthorpe quantify the key inequalities of the last thirty years. A person born into Britain's top class is twenty times more likely than a person born into the lower class to find a top-class job in adulthood. That was true in the 1970s and is still true today. Many will be surprised to learn that galloping income inequality did not tilt the odds further in favor of the privileged, nor could expanding education bring them closer to even. Bukodi and Goldthorpe argue persuasively that simple generalities about schooling will not make Britain more equal. Their last chapter discusses why policy must be much more disruptive if Britain is to become more socially mobile.' Michael Hout, Director of Center for Advanced Social Science Research, New York University

• Introduction; 1. Social class as the context of social mobility; 2. Class mobility in absolute terms: the end of the Golden Age; 3. Class mobility in relative terms: resistance to change; 4. The pattern of social fluidity within the class structure: hierarchy, inheritance and status effects; 5. Education and social mobility: the OED triangle; 6. Social origins, ability and educational attainment: is there a wastage of talent?; 7. Education and the labour market: is education now class destiny?; 8. Origins versus education: are there 'glass floors' and 'glass ceilings'?; 9. Lifelong learning: compensation or cumulative advantage?; 10. Social mobility in Britain in comparative perspective: is Britain a low mobility society?; Conclusions.