Tag Archives: meritocracy

The perception of inequality of opportunity – and the reality

Posted on April 6, 2017 by

In a guest post, Paolo Brunori – an Assistant Professor at the University of Bari, and blogger at Lavoce – summarises his new paper on the perception of inequality of opportunity in Europe, recently published in the Review of Income and … Continue reading →

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Educational Inequalities in Parents’ Time with Children

Posted on July 5, 2013 by

In a guest post, Pablo Gracia looks at inequalities in how parents spend time with their children, using his own research on the UK and Spain – and then considers the likely causes, consequences, and what this might all mean for … Continue reading →

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So should we bother with ‘microclasses’?

Posted on March 14, 2013 by

Earlier in the year I published two blog posts on ‘microclasses’ – the idea that your specific occupation is an important structuring factor for the social world, beyond its position in a broader class. In this post I look back at … Continue reading →

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Social mobility and ethnicity in the UK

Posted on June 6, 2012 by

In a guest post, Neil Smith reviews the evidence – including his own – on the links between ethnicity and life chances in the UK, and why this matters for the drive to improve social mobility. In March 2012, we … Continue reading →

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A few things that inequality causes

Posted on February 14, 2012 by

Of the endless stream of papers that flash in front of my eyes every week, a large number are ‘Spirit Level style’ – that is, they look at the relationship of inequality and a ‘bad thing’ between countries/areas. If I … Continue reading →

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What the public thinks of ‘fair chances’

Posted on July 26, 2011 by

The other week I wrote about how ‘fair chances’ are not necessarily ‘equal chances’, spurred by writings of the philosopher Elizabeth Anderson.  In one of those satisfying coincidences that happen from time-to-time, these ideas helped explain a conundrum that Karen … Continue reading →

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When a fair chance isn’t an equal chance

Posted on June 30, 2011 by

Even without knowing him personally, it should be obvious from the title of his book on school choice, ‘How Not To Be A Hypocrite’, that Adam Swift is an interesting guy.  This is the sort of moral philosophy that tries … Continue reading →

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The rise and fall of a killer chart

Posted on June 16, 2011 by

No single graph has captured the political imagination quite like Leon Feinstein’s killer chart.  In one go, it showed that talent was no substitute for parental advantage even at early ages – and has since been endlessly used to justify … Continue reading →

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Two cheers for the Social Mobility Strategy

Posted on April 7, 2011 by

You can see what they’re trying to do. In the midst of the most savage cuts to public spending in several generations, the UK Coalition Government wants to have a positive, socially conscious message alongside all the bad news. And … Continue reading →

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A theory of everything? Part two.

Posted on February 23, 2011 by

On 6th May, the British Sociological Association and the Open University are hosting a postgraduate conference on inequality; abstracts will be accepted up until the 28th February. The main theme of the conference is on whether we need on overarching … Continue reading →

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