Education and Intergenerational Social Mobility in Europe and the United States

Richard Breen is Professor of Sociology and Fellow of Nuffield College, University of Oxford.Walter Müller is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Mannheim University.

• 1. Introduction: Social Mobility and Education in the Twentieth Century-Richard Breen, Walter Müller2. Methodological Preliminaries-Richard Breen3. The Land of Opportunity? Trends in Social Mobility and Education in the United States-Florian R. Hertel, Fabian T. Pfeffer4. Sweden, the Middle Way? Trends and Patterns in Social Mobility and Educational Inequality-Richard Breen, Jan O. Jonsson5. Intergenerational Mobility and Social Fluidity in France over Birth Cohorts and Age: The Role of Education-Louis-André Vallet6. Education as an Equalizing Force: How Declining Education Inequality and Educational Expansion Have Contributed to More Social Fluidity in Germany-Reinhard Pollak, Walter Müller7. The Swiss El Dorado? Education and Social Mobility in Twentieth-Century Switzerland-Julie Falcon8. The Role of Education in the Social Mobility of Dutch Cohorts, 1908–1974-Richard Breen, Ruud Luijkx, Eline Berkers9. Education and Social Fluidity in Contemporary Italy: An Analysis of Cohort Trends-Carlo Barone, Raffaele Guetto10. Intergenerational Social Mobility in Twentieth-Century Spain: Social Fluidity without Educational Equalization?-Carlos J. Gil-Hernández, Fabrizio Bernardi, Ruud Luijkx11. Social Mobility in the Twentieth Century in Europe and the United States-Richard Breen and Walter Müller

"This book is a must-read for anyone interested in educational policy and social mobility. This team of leading international scholars use innovative comparative analysis to corroborate the claim that the expansion and equalization of education enhances mobility between social classes."—Yossi Shavit, Tel Aviv University "Breen and Müller confront the belief that equalizing opportunity can solve Western nations' problems with inequality. Their sophisticated analysis shows why equalizing opportunity may be good in itself but is not the solution to today's problems. Western nations must confront rising inequalities in employment, income, and political voice directly and soon."—Michael Hout, New York University "In this book, first-rate scholars show how social mobility among women and men has changed in the twentieth century, and how this change was influenced by educational expansion and by changes in the association between social origin and education. Their reliable analyses will be of great value to professionals and political actors with interest in social mobility and educational attainment."—Robert Erikson, Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University "What sets Education and Intergenerational Social Mobility inEurope and the United States apart from previous, less empirical,discussions is the way the bigger picture emerges from an analysis of large datasets....The book is methodologically rigorous, heavily referenced and data-rich, incorporating many detailed tables and graphs."—Veronica Coram, Interngenerational Justice Review