Social Change and Education in Greece

Spyros Themelis is Lecturer in Education at Middlesex University, UK. His publications adopt a critical perspective on issues of education and meritocracy, social mobility, Roma/Gypsy/Travellers and minorities, and social and educational policy. He has published in various journals, including the British Journal of Sociology of Education, Journal of Youth Studies, Research in Comparative and International Education, and Romani Studies.

'Social Change and Education in Greece is a probing and trenchant analysis of the class dynamics of Greek society and the social, cultural, and educational fallout from the war on Greek democracy by the transnational capitalist class. This is necessary reading for any comprehensive understanding of capitalism today.' - Peter McLaren, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, USA "Spyros Themelis's research on social inequalities and their relationship to education is an insightful analysis of social reality in postwar and post-civil war Greece. Discussing a time when education still functioned as a vehicle for social mobility, this book illuminates how a cultural minority, a semi-agrarian Gypsy community, fought its way into mainstream society. Seen from the perspective of the growing gap between a diminishing middle class and the real holders of material and symbolic capital in post-crisis Greece, Themelis's book could explain also why the integrative pattern he describes for the past is no longer valid for large segments of the population undergoing a painful experience of downward social mobility in contemporary Greece." - Athan Gotovos, Professor of Education, University of Ioannina, Greece

• PART I Social Stratification and Class Analysis Social Mobility: Types, Trends and Critique The Political Economy, Social Stratification and Class Formation in Postwar Greece Education, Social Mobility, and the Question Of Meritocracy PART II Contextualizing the Case Study Quantitative Aspects of Social Mobility Occupational Trajectories and Experiences of Mobility Educational Experiences and Pathways to Social Mobility Alternative Pathways to Social Mobility: The Role of Emigration, Marriage and Political Patronage Epilogue/Discussion Appendix 1: The Major Political, Economic and Social Events in Greece, 1936-2011 Appendix 2: The Register Appendix 3: Quantitative Data Analysis