This article analyses the role of education, particularly fields of study, in intergenerational class mobility in the Netherlands. In highly educated societies, children of all social classes need to invest in education to avoid downward mobility. We argue that members of the various social classes aim primarily for class maintenance, and apply educational strategies to realize this aim. Children of manual working-class families tend to prefer technical fields of study, in order to reach at least their parents' social class or probably even higher. Children of the self-employed or of small employers need financial and commercial skills to be able to take over the business. Children from farming backgrounds benefit from agricultural training in getting to work on a farm themselves. These strategies equip them with valuable types of skills and knowledge, even if they drop out of school early. Children of service-class origins tend to opt for general types of training at secondary school, and prestigious fields like law and medicine in tertiary education. Empirical results of analyses on two Dutch nationally representative surveys (N = 1566 men) generally support these claims. Because of these rather conservative strategies, relatively low mobility rates are found, which impedes upward mobility of working-class children.
Arum, R. and Shavit, Y. (1995) “Secondary Vocational Education and the Transition from School to Work”, Sociology of Education68: 187-204.
2.
Blau, P.M. and Duncan, O.D. (1967) The American Occupational Structure. New York: Free Press.
3.
Boudon, R. (1974) Education, Opportunity, and Social Inequality. New York: Wiley.
4.
Boudon, R. (1998) “Social Mechanisms Without Black Boxes”, in P. Hedström and R. Swedberg (eds) Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory, pp. 172-203. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5.
Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (Orig. edn 1977.)
6.
Bourdieu, P. and Passeron, J.C. (1990) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London: Sage Publications. (Orig. edn 1979.)
7.
Breen, R. and Goldthorpe, J.H. (1997) “Explaining Educational Differentials: Towards a Formal Rational Action Theory”, Rationality and Society9: 275-305.
8.
Breen, R. and Goldthorpe, J.H. (2001) “Class, Mobility and Merit: The Experience of Two British Birth Cohorts”, European Sociological Review17: 81-101.
9.
Breen, R. and Jonsson, J.O. (2000) “Analyzing Educational Careers: A Multinomial Transition Model”, American Sociological Review65: 754-772.
10.
Collins, R. (1979) The Credential Society: A Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification. New York: Academic Press.
11.
Davies, S. and Guppy, N. (1997) “Fields of Study, College Selectivity, and Student Inequalities in Higher Education”, Social Forces75: 1417-1438.
12.
De Graaf, N.D. , De Graaf, P.M., Kraaykamp, G. and Ultee, W.C. (1999) Family Survey Dutch Population 1998 (Datafile). Nijmegen: Department of Sociology, University of Nijmegen.
13.
Dronkers, J. (1993) “The Precarious Balance between General and Vocational Education in the Netherlands”, European Journal of Education28: 197-207.
14.
Dryler, H. (1998) “Parental Role Models, Gender, and Educational Choice”, British Journal of Sociology49: 375-398.
15.
Elder, G. H. (1963) “Achievement Orientations and Career Patterns of Rural Youth”, Sociology of Education37: 30-58.
16.
Erikson, R. and Goldthorpe, J.H. (1992) The Constant Flux: A Study of Class Mobility in Industrial Societies. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
17.
Erikson, R. and Jonsson, J.O. (1996) “Introduction. Explaining Class Inequality in Education: The Swedish Test Case”, in R. Erikson and J.O. Jonsson (eds) Can Education be Equalized? The Swedish Case in Comparative Perspective, pp. 1-63. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
18.
Erikson, R. and Jonsson, J.O. (1998) “Social Origin as an Interest-bearing Asset: Family Background and Labour Market Rewards among Employees in Sweden”, Acta Sociologica41: 19-36.
19.
Gamoran, A. and Mare, R.D. (1989) “Secondary School Tracking and Educational Inequality: Compensation, Reinforcement, or Neutrality?”, American Journal of Sociology94: 1146-1183.
20.
Goldthorpe, J.H. (1996) “Class Analysis and the Reorientation of Class Theory: The Case of Persisting Differentials in Educational Attainment”, British Journal of Sociology47: 481-505.
21.
Goldthorpe, J.H. (2000) On Sociology. Numbers, Narratives, and the Integration of Research and Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
22.
Goux, D. and Maurin, E. (1997) “Meritocracy and Social Heredity in France: Some Aspects and Trends”, European Sociological Review13: 159-177.
23.
Grusky, D.B. (1983) “Industrialization and the Status Attainment Process: The Thesis of Industrialism Reconsidered”, American Sociological Review 48: 494-506.
24.
Hansen, M.N. (1997) “Social and Economic Inequality in the Educational Career: Do Effects of Social Background Characteristics Decline?”, European Sociological Review13: 305-321.
25.
Hohn, H.W. (1988) “What is Qualification? Lifestyle and Personality as Selection Criteria”, in P. Windolf and S. Wood with H.W. Hohn and T. Manwaring Recruitment and Selection in the Labour Market: A Comparative Study of Britain and West Germany, pp. 83-112. Aldershot: Avebury.
26.
Ishida, H. , Müller, W. and Ridge, J. M. (1995) “Class Origin, Class Destination, and Education: A Cross-National Study of Ten Industrial Nations”, American Journal of Sociology101: 145-193.
27.
Kalmijn, M. and Van der Lippe, T. (1997) “Type of Schooling and Sex Differences in Earnings in the Netherlands”, European Sociological Review13: 1-15.
28.
Kelsall, R.K. , Poole, A. and Kuhn, A. (1972) Graduates: The Sociology of an Elite. London: Methuen.
29.
Loury, L.D. (1997) “The Gender Earnings Gap among College Educated Workers”, Industrial and Labour Relations Review50: 580-593.
30.
Marshall, G. , Swift, A. and Roberts, S. (1997) Against the Odds? Social Class and Social Justice in Industrial Societies. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
31.
Need, A. and De Jong, U. (2000) “Educational Differentials in the Netherlands: Testing Rational Action Theory”, Rationality and Society13: 71-98.
32.
Shavit, Y. and Müller, W. (1998) From School to Work. A Comparative Study of Educational Qualifications and Occupational Destinations. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
33.
Thurow, L.C. (1975) Generating Inequality. New York: Basic Books.
34.
Ultee, W.C. and Ganzeboom, H.B.G. (1993) Netherlands' Family Survey 1992-93 (Datafile). Nijmegen: Department of Sociology, University of Nijmegen.
35.
van de Werfhorst, H.G. (2001) Field of Study and Social Inequality. Four Types of Educational Resources in the Process of Stratification in the Netherlands. Nijmegen: Interuniversity Centre for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS).
36.
van de Werfhorst, H.G. , De Graaf, N.D. and Kraaykamp, G. (2001) “Intergenerational Resemblance in Field of Study in the Netherlands”, European Sociological Review17: 275-294.
37.
Wilson, K.L. and Smith-Lovin, L. (1983) “Scaling the Prestige, Authority, and Income Potential of College Curricula”, Social Science Research12: 159-186.
38.
Witte, J.C. and Kalleberg, A.L. (1995) “Matching Training and Jobs: The Fit Between Vocational Education and Employment in the German Labour Market”, European Sociological Review11: 293-317.
39.
Wolbers, M.H.J. , De Graaf, P.M. and Ultee, W.C. (2001) “Trends in the Occupational Returns to Educational Credentials in the Dutch Labor Market: Changes in Structures and in the Association?”, Acta Sociologica44: 5-19.
