Education and intergenerational social mobility in Europe and the United States

This volume examines the role of education in shaping rates and patterns of intergenerational social mobility among men and women during the twentieth century. Focusing on the relationship between a person's social class and the social class of his or her parents, each chapter looks at a different country-the United States, Sweden, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. Contributors examine change in absolute and relative mobility and in education across birth cohorts born between the first decade of the twentieth century and the early 1970s. They find a striking similarity in trends across all countries, and in particular a contrast between the fortunes of people born before the 1950s, those who enjoyed increasing rates of upward mobility and a decline in the strength of the link between class origins and destinations, and later generations who experienced more downward mobility and little change in how origins and destinations are linked. This volume uncovers the factors that drove these shifts, revealing education as significant in promoting social openness. It will be an invaluable source for anyone who wants to understand the evolution of mobility and inequality in the contemporary world.

1, Introduction: Social Mobility and Education in the Twentieth Century -Richard Breen, Walter Muller 2. Methodological Preliminaries -Richard Breen 3. The Land of Opportunity? Trends in Social Mobility and Education in the United States -Florian R. Hertel, Fabian T. Pfeffer 4. Sweden, the Middle Way? Trends and Patterns in Social Mobility and Educational Inequality -Richard Breen, Jan O. Jonsson 5. Intergenerational Mobility and Social Fluidity in France over Birth Cohorts and Age: The Role of Education -Louis-Andre Vallet 6. Education as an Equalizing Force: How Declining Education Inequality and Educational Expansion Have Contributed to More Social Fluidity in Germany -Reinhard Pollak, Walter Muller 7. The Swiss El Dorado? Education and Social Mobility in Twentieth-Century Switzerland -Julie Falcon 8. The Role of Education in the Social Mobility of Dutch Cohorts, 1908-1974 -Richard Breen, Ruud Luijkx, Eline Berkers 9. Education and Social Fluidity in Contemporary Italy: An Analysis of Cohort Trends -Carlo Barone, Raffaele Guetto 10. Intergenerational Social Mobility in Twentieth-Century Spain: Social Fluidity without Educational Equalization? -Carlos J. Gil-Hernandez, Fabrizio Bernardi, Ruud Luijkx 11. Social Mobility in the Twentieth Century in Europe and the United States -Richard Breen and Walter Muller