Education and Social Mobility

About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about education and social mobility, focusing in particular on: (i) the exploration of whether education can eliminate the impacts of the class system on limiting social mobility; (ii) the high rates of social mobility since the second world war as a result of greater emphasis on education; (iii) differentiating absolute and relative intergenerational mobility, with former being the likelihood that an individual will exceed their parents’ income and the former being the impact of an individual’s parents’ socioeconomic status on their own status; (iv) Goldthorpe’s 2012 review of 1970 cohort data concerned with social mobility in Britain, which found that only around 1/3 of professional managers came from working class families; (v) the trend for social mobility changes being that men’s mobility has reduced while women’s, especially middle class women, has improved; (vi) a lack of progression being a key problem for individuals in lower paid work; (vii) the UK social mobility commission, which found that graduates have only a 15% chance of experiencing downward social mobility, compared to 30% of non-graduates; (viii) Lee Elliot Major’s argument for greater social mobility and reduced inequality; (ix) a view that acceptance of individuals should be based purely on their presence as a person, rather than the potential value they bring to society and economies.

About the lecturer

Dr Lin Ma is a lecturer in sociology in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. Dr Ma’s research interests are in diversity and sustainable development. Some of Dr Ma’s recent publications include ‘Doing diversity inclusively: ‘East Asians’ in western universities’ (2022) and ‘Religious encounter and identity formation among international students’ (2022).