Education, Tolerance and Social Cohesion

Abstract

In the two previous chapters, we examined the effects of inequality in the distribution of skill and education across adult populations. We found that at a national level there are cross-sectional and over-time associations between educational inequality and a range of social cohesion outcomes. Perhaps surprisingly, educational (and not just income) inequality is important in terms of social cohesion. In this chapter we shift our concern to what many would consider to be another key element of social cohesion — tolerance. Here the relationship between education, equality and social cohesion is not as straightforward as might be expected.