IOG: News+Events: Social Mobility Study

Scottish Affairs web site

This ESRC-funded research project investigates patterns of social mobility in Scotland with particular attention to the role played by education in the process of social mobility between generations. Underlying current policy debates about social inclusion are the questions of the extent to which the social structure is fluid – for example, whether it is possible for people to move as adults to a different social class from that in which they grew up – and of whether education offers opportunities to make such transitions.

Over the last century Scotland has experienced very important and radical changes in its school system, most notably in the setting up of a full secondary system by 1936, and the unification of that system with the ending of all formal selection between public sector schools by the late 1970s. It has also experienced even greater changes in the structure of its labour market, most notably the linked processes of a declining manufacturing sector, a growing service sector, and a growing rate of participation by women. The project adopts an historical and comparative perspective to investigate how educational and occupational changes may have affected patterns of social mobility in Scotland. It uses the Scottish Household Survey (2001), the British Household Panel Study (1999), and the Scottish Mobility Survey (1974). The research analyses trends in the rate and patterns of social mobility, gender and religious differences in these patterns, and the effects of institutional (especially educational) changes on the processes of social mobility during the 20th century.

Full details, including access to working papers and briefings that may be downloaded, are at http://www.ces.ed.ac.uk/SocMobility/mobility.htm

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Education and Social Mobility in Scotland in the 20th Century

Cristina Iannelli and Lindsay Paterson

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