Conclusion

Abstract

In this section, I revisit the main findings presented in this book and demonstrate what role education has had in social mobility of different groups in Protopi, where the study was conducted. By specifically exploring intra- and intergenerational social mobility, I aim to show the impact of education on social change in a spatially and temporally specific context, namely in Protopi from the late 1940s to the late 2000s. For older-generation respondents (born from 1914 to 1937), evidence showed that the lack of education did not significantly impede their social mobility chances. Most of those respondents were either primary-school graduates or left school with no qualifications. Secondary and, in particular, tertiary education were restricted to a very small number of individuals. The reasons for such a low educational attainment were linked to the proto-capitalist mode of production prevalent until the late 1950s and the concomitant socioeconomic organization of production based on subsistence agriculture. As a result, education-based occupations were rare and time spent in education was perceived as foregone income.