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Social Interactions and Educational Inequality

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Social Inequalities and Occupational Stratification

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Abstract

Hitherto we have focussed upon occupational positions, but in this chapter we explore the extent to which data on educational experiences can be introduced into the analyses of social interactions and social stratification. We explore whether we might get a different and more compelling result if we used data on educational experiences in addition to (or instead of) occupational data in the analysis of social interactions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    That is, many divisions in educational experience, such as the specific school attended, or exact degree class obtained, are rarely measured in survey instruments. On most social surveys, for example, most readers of this book would belong to the same category of educational experience and attainment as the prominent conservative politicians David Cameron and Boris Johnston (i.e. holding university-level qualifications), but few will feel that they have had the same educational experience (Cameron and Johnston’s education is often characterised as being elitist and exceptionally privileged).

  2. 2.

    Indeed, since categorical measures of educational qualifications are difficult to process consistently over countries or across time, there is a good case for representing educational differentiation through gradational rather than categorical measures (cf. Buis 2010; Prandy et al. 2004).

  3. 3.

    Occupational distributions do also evolve over time, but the scale of occupational change is much less substantial, and its pace less rapid, than that of educational expansion and restructuring. In addition, individuals themselves may evolve in their occupations in times of social change (whereas educational measures for individuals usually remain ‘stuck’ at the qualifications obtained at a young age).

  4. 4.

    Many other studies have used comparable statistical approaches to scale educational categories according to their relationship with occupational categories for the same individuals (e.g. Wong 2010; Clogg and Shihadeh 1994; Duncan-Jones 1972).

  5. 5.

    Re-expressing the results of the same data, we could say that whilst 3.8% of the female partners of all cohabiting males had attended private school, 3.2% of cohabiting males who had not attended a private school were nevertheless living with a privately educated partner, compared to 21.6% of those males who were privately educated.

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  1. University of Stirling, Stirling, UK

    Paul Lambert & Dave Griffiths

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  1. Paul Lambert
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Lambert, P., Griffiths, D. (2018). Social Interactions and Educational Inequality. In: Social Inequalities and Occupational Stratification. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-02253-0_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-02253-0_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-02252-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-02253-0

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