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We analyse social mobility in London and seek to address two paradoxes. Among people living in London, relative mobility, or social fluidity, appears to be remarkably low when compared with other regions of Great Britain. But social fluidity among people who were brought up in London is similar to that of people brought up elsewhere in Britain. This is our first paradox. Furthermore, it is widely held that social fluidity is higher among people with higher levels of education, yet, the proportion of people with a University degree is much higher among people living in London than in any other region: how is this compatible with its relatively low social fluidity? This is our second paradox. We address these puzzles and find that they are largely explained by patterns of migration into and out of London by two groups that have received little attention hitherto in studies of mobility in the capital: International migrants and people who were brought up in London but who no longer live there., (© 2023 The Authors. The British Journal of Sociology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of London School of Economics and Political Science.)

Promoting social mobility seems to be simple common sense. However, the solutions proposed in the UK under successive governments reflect a problematic individualism that is not about helping all of the poorest children, but about encouraging the poor to become as ruthless and competitive as the middle and upper classes. This article shows how the emphasis on competition is delivered in social mobility policy through the language and metaphors that are used. It examines how the problem of social mobility is represented through a critical discourse analysis of "Cracking the Code: How Schools Can Improve Social Mobility." This 2014 report, produced by the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission, uses metaphors, especially sporting metaphors, to engage the reader in its discourse. These include 'key steps' and 'marginal gains', 'walking the walk' and 'stepping up to the plate', being 'sharp-elbowed', and 'cracking the code' itself. These metaphors tell a story of competitiveness. The report exemplifies a wider climate in which we are now trying to 'crack' entrenched issues such as poverty, but still working within the neoliberal framework where the solution is yet more competition. Through metaphor, the report seeks to justify, disguise and normalise such competition, and make it seem common-sensical.

In 2019 Ofsted introduced cultural capital (CC) into the Early Years Inspection Handbook and defined it as 'essential knowledge' related to 'educated citizenship'. This paper investigates Ofsted's use of CC to critically examine the potential implications for early years work. Due to the feminised nature of early years work, a critical feminist approach is engaged to explore the potential impact of introducing CC into the regulation of the sector. This paper examines the differences between Ofsted's use of CC, CC's theoretical origins, and analyses sector responses. Our contention is that "how" Ofsted have employed CC may represent 'symbolic violence' against the working-class women working in the early years, by further devaluing their habitus and sustaining the stratification of society through forms of capital. This paper is the first to interrogate CC in Ofsted's early years documentation, and will have an international impact for any countries following UK education practices.

Purpose: The paper explores the relationship between vocational education and training (VET), the labour market and social justice in the current conjuncture. Approach: The paper adopts an approach rooted in critical policy analysis. It consequently sets the discussion within the wider socio-economic and political context. Such an approach enables an exploration of the changing nature of waged labour in current conditions. Results: A critical policy analysis facilitates a discussion of the labour process, waged labour and its intensification. At the same time these processes are allied to the effective expulsion and marginalisation of particular groups of workers from employment. Importantly, such processes need to be placed in their localised and spatial context within particular social formations. Conclusion: Equity models of social justice that emphasise equal opportunities, are restrictive and can be contrasted with equality models which have a more expansive and philosophically rooted understanding of justice. The paper through its examination of the salience of VET in the current conjuncture as well as its significance for a post austerity democratic and radical politics, argues for a relational analysis that seeks to interrupt the patterns of inequality precipitated by neo-liberalism.

A systematic review of qualitative primary data (2010-2021) was undertaken to understand how inequality is experienced by undergraduate students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds transitioning to the UK labour market. A ten-step protocol for qualitative synthesis was adapted to guide the study, whilst the PRISMA flow diagram was used to report the search. Data was extracted from 14 papers with thematic synthesis used to analyse the results inductively. This review illustrates multiple barriers faced by disadvantaged socio-economic students in a competitive graduate labour market and the severe impact this may have on student career development. Disadvantaged students often apply more effort than advantaged counterparts in seeking work and internship opportunities and live more precariously, as they lack finance to buffer them. In contrast, advantaged socio-economic status students can act quickly to build their employability profiles from the beginning of their degree studies, with the strategic application of social, cultural and economic capital. The qualitative papers in this review complement previous quantitative research, illustrating that despite participation rates in high education increasing for disadvantaged students, their career outcomes have not generally improved relative to their more advantaged peers. The review includes recommendations for stakeholders including government, universities, careers services and employers.

Research in social stratification has shown that children from working-class backgrounds tend to obtain substantially lower levels of educational attainment and lower labor market positions than children from higher social class backgrounds. However, we still know relatively little about the micro-level processes that account for this empirical regularity. Our study examines the roles of two individual-level characteristics-cognitive ability and locus of control-in mediating the effect of individuals' parental class background on their educational attainment and social class position in Britain. We find that cognitive ability mediates only about 35% of the total parental class effect on educational attainment and only about 20% of the total parental class effect on respondents' social class position, net of their educational attainment. These findings contradict existing claims that differences in the life chances of children from different social class backgrounds are largely due to differences in cognitive ability. Moreover, we find that although individuals' locus of control plays some role in mediating the parental class effect, its role is substantially smaller than the mediating role of cognitive ability. We measure individuals' social class positions at different points in their careers-at labor market entry and at occupational maturity-and find that the mediating roles of cognitive ability and locus of control are remarkably stable across individuals' working lives., (© 2020 London School of Economics and Political Science.)

The uniformly positive view of social mobility in the United Kingdom overlooks the difficulties working-class young people have in reconciling a working-class background with the middle-class environments of the university and the professional labour market. But even more hidden are the subtle processes of exclusion and exclusivity that permeate social life in, particularly, the elite universities. Here, working-class students' marginalisation in relation to advantageous social activities and networks, compromises their chances of later success in the labour market. This paper scrutinises working-class students' experiences of elite higher education through the lens of Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capitals and field. Drawing on a research project on working-class young people who gain entry to elite universities it analyses the disjunctures between working-class habitus and the field of elite higher education, focusing on the emotional and social consequences for working-class students. The findings raise concerns--largely unexplored in existing research--about working-class reception in elite fields. The paper concludes with a call to look beyond the attitudes and actions of working-class students to those of their upper- and middle-class peers, and the culture and ethos of the elite universities.

This paper draws on an oral history project which focuses on former coalminers' experiences of education and training. It presents the stories of five participants, all of whom undertook significant programmes of post-compulsory education during or immediately after leaving the coal industry and achieved a degree of social mobility over the course of their working lives. The paper compares and contrasts their experiences with those which now exist in Britain's former coalmining communities which, it is argued, have been substantively attenuated over time, especially for young men. Whilst it is evident that individual choice and motivation can play an important role in helping (or hindering) young people's journeys through education and employment, the central argument of the paper is that individual labour market success lies at the intersection of structure and agency – although the data presented also demonstrate the extent to which opportunities available to young men in the former coalfields have been diminished by de-industrialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its first years in office, the Labour Government set out a wide-ranging and ambitious set of policies aimed at reducing poverty, inequality and social exclusion. A decade on, with the party facing probable catastrophic defeat in the next general election, how far can these ambitions be said to have been met? This article summarises the evidence. It also examines the most recent government White Paper on social mobility, New Opportunities: Fair Chances for the Future, published in January 2009, and asks whether this paper represents a serious last attempt to renew the equal opportunities agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the history of the expansion of educational opportunities in the UK, to understand how different generations of ­working-class students managed to access HE. Based on 23 life-story interviews with working-class students, the study highlights how the changing dynamics of the structure of compulsory education and the labour market have shaped working-class students' views of HE. Exploring the changing structure of opportunity, and how this has shaped working-class students' sense of social position, is key to understanding the uneven pattern of working-class pathways to HE across generations. It is evident that different types of secondary school experience and opportunities in the labour market affected working-class pathways to university with the nature of the school environment and employment shaping various expectations. This article concludes that people's understanding of their social position within the educational and occupational opportunity structure leads to variations in ­working-class transitions to university across different generations.

Since the 2000s, successive governments in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have embraced the idea of "raising aspiration" among young people as a solution to persisting educational and socio-economic inequalities. Previous analyses have argued that these policies tend to individualise structural disadvantage and promote a "deficit" view of working-class youth. This paper adopts a novel approach to analysing aspiration discourses combining Michel Foucault's four dimensions of "ethics" and Mitchell Dean's notion of "formation of identities". Applying Foucault's and Dean's work in this way provides a new lens that enables an examination of how policy encourages particular forms of subjectivation, and, therefore, seeks to govern individuals. The findings presented in the paper complicate previous research by showing that raising aspiration strategies portray disadvantaged youth both in terms of "deficit" and "potential", resulting in a requirement for inner transformation and mobility through attitudinal change. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for the identity formation of young people and for conceptualising contemporary forms of governmentality.

As working-class female academics, this paper examines the constructions of our identities focusing on both what unites and differentiates us as working-class women. We focus on the structuring forces in our lives such as our class, our whiteness and our gender, but we also discuss how our experiences have been shaped by space and place as a complex set of time-sensitive inter-relationships involving domination and subordination. Here, our different stories of "where," "when" and "how" we grew up are discussed as we attempt to make sense of these in relation to our construction of class and its intersectionality with these important aspects of our lives. We examine how these shaping features of our identities influence the personal investment we place in our work and how the middle-class 'status' inferred upon us by our educational 'success' and engagement within academia almost always feels contradictory to our own subjectivities and working-class loyalties.

The vocational and academic routes that make up the English education system have different purposes, for different stakeholders, with different outcomes; they can be complementary routes but are not analogous. Consequently, calls for parity of esteem belie the fundamental intention and importance of each. While these calls have persisted for over 70 years, parity between the two routes has not been achieved. This paper questions whether the term parity of esteem is useful or simply political rhetoric. It argues that parity of esteem is unachievable when one of the routes is regarded without much esteem at all, and that political rhetoric focussing on social mobility through education, specifically higher education as a means to achieving it, actively undermines the vocational route, making parity of the routes a political pipe dream.

The paper draws on the Wolf (2015) report ("Heading for the Precipice: Can Further and Higher Education Funding Policies Be Sustained?") and other quantitative data, specifically that derived from HEFCE's Participation of Local Area (POLAR) classifications. In addition it explores key literature and debates that associate higher education in further education (HE in FE) with the pursuit of social justice. This enables an interrogation of conceptualisations of vocationalism as well as a consideration of its articulation with class and gender. Whilst the paper is set within a particular and English socio-economic context, it addresses issues that have a much broader global significance. The paper argues that whilst HE in FE has limited traction in facilitating social mobility it does serve as a resource in the struggle for social justice.

In the past decades, income inequality has risen in most developed countries. There is growing interest among economists in international comparisons of economic and educational mobility. This is aided by the availability of internationally comparable, large-scale data. The present paper aims to make three contributions. First, we introduce the Japan Child Panel Survey (JCPS), the first longitudinal survey of school-age children that includes cognitive and non-cognitive measures, and plentiful household information. The JCPS was developed to measure dynamic inter-relationships among children's academic and social outcomes, their family background, and local policy and environment, in a way that allows comparison of the results with international data. Second, based on JCPS data, we present selected results of the dynamics of inequality in multiple indicators of children's educational and behavioral outcomes. We found that changes in cognitive achievement across parental income groups, the degree of mobility of cognitive test scores, and the correlation between the difficulty score and parental education in Japan are similar to those of other countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany. Finally we discuss issues underlying the globalization of education research based on our experiences with the JCPS. We discuss reasons and strategies for further globalization of education research in Japan, and propose suggestions as to how Japanese education research can move toward better international collaboration, particularly in research on economic and educational mobility.

After 2005, approximately two million Poles emigrated, choosing mostly Britain as their destination. Quantitative reports paint a picture of the typical Polish immigrant as a person between the ages of 31-39, who, with a vocational (or equivalent) education, is active on the labor market. This paper reports on a qualitative study of six typical Polish families in Nottingham and of the staff from two Catholic schools that the Polish children attend. The study aimed to reconstruct the typical, long-term adaption and integration strategies as seen from the perspective of the children's participation in education. The data comprise 12 overt interviews with Polish mothers/fathers/workers (six interviews) in Nottingham and with school staff (head teacher, special needs coordinator, teacher assistants) in two Catholic primary and secondary schools in Nottingham in the period of 2009-2013. Our results reveal the unusual "luck" experienced by the Polish children. This "luck" refers to the Catholic educational trajectories that are accidentally accessed thanks to the children having Catholic baptismal certificates in a non-Catholic country. These educational trajectories, in consideration of the parents' social status, would never have been experienced by these children in Poland. We call it luck, because, again, in consideration of the parents' cultural capital, it was not part of the wider immigration plan.

Education--and in particular higher education--is often regarded as a route to social mobility. For this to be the case, however, the link between family background and adult outcomes must be broken (or at least reduced) once we take account of an individual's education history. This paper provides new evidence on differences in graduates' earnings by socio-economic background, exploiting rich individual-level data to account for more of the ways in which graduates from different socio-economic backgrounds differ from each other than has been possible in previous research on this topic. We continue to find significant differences between the earnings of graduates from lower and higher socio-economic backgrounds, even after accounting for a rich array of characteristics, skills and experiences from before individuals went to university, as well as their labour market experiences subsequently. These results suggest that it is not enough simply to encourage more young people to go to university, or even to ensure that they graduate with "good" degrees; policymakers interested in increasing social mobility also need to focus on what happens to them once they leave university to ensure that higher education is truly able to "level the playing field" between those from different socio-economic backgrounds.

This paper contributes to debates around social mobility and social capital by exploring the links between social class background, assistance from non-parental personal contacts for finding employment, and social class destination. The literature on social mobility, social capital and social networks is reviewed, drawing a conceptual distinction between social capital and social networks. Previous research has focussed on help from parents, yet much of the literature indicates that wider social networks are more important for labour market advancement. Using the 1970 British Cohort Study, with data collection at respondent ages 10 and 42, the relationship between help received from relatives or friends in getting jobs and social class is examined. The likelihood of receiving help varies according to class origin, yet the strongest predictor of social class destination is social class background, not social capital.

This paper explores the educational and migrational pathways which a number of middle-class women from Bangladesh took as they grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. It draws on qualitative research, conducted between July and November 2011, with highly educated Bangladeshi women who migrated to Britain in the early 2000s. French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's critique of education, as a means of middle-class social reproduction [Bourdieu, P., and Jean-C. Passeron. ([1977] 1990). "Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture". 2nd ed. Translated from the French by Richard Nice. London: Sage], and his notion of "academic capital" [Bourdieu, P. 1984. "Distinction: A social Critique of the Judgement of Taste". Translated from the French by Richard Nice. London: Routledge; Bourdieu, P. 1986. "The Forms of Capital." In "Handbook of Theory and Research" For the Sociology of Education, edited by J. G. Richardson, 241-258. New York: Greenwood] are applied to this empirical data. While the participants' experiences of early education confirms Bourdieu's arguments, in terms of the centrality of the family's educational and cultural capital in making a qualitative difference to their children's academic achievements, the analysis of the participants' higher education complicates this picture. Here, the paper calls Bourdieu's umbrella term "academic capital" into question. The author suggests that three categories of academic capital were needed to explain the different and unequal "value" of the participants' academic qualifications before and after migration. These are--elite, standard and general. Through this exploration of these women's educational and migrational pathways, and the classed and gendered nature which many of them took, this paper seeks to further the feminist project of making Bourdieu's theories "useful" in understanding contemporary issues which affect women's lives (Adkins, L. 2004. "Introduction." In "Feminism After Bourdieu", edited by L. Adkins and B. Skeggs, 110-128. Oxford: Blackwell, 3).

This paper reports findings from a study of 49 young first-year UK undergraduates who had undergone one or two weeks of work experience at school between the ages of 14 and 16. Previous studies focusing on the whole school cohort suggested that the nature of work experience placements was strongly predicted by class. In particular, middle class families were seen as being able to secure higher-quality placements than working class families through their higher levels of social capital. This study of young people in the large minority subset subsequently progressing to higher education also found evidence of stereotypical placement choices. However, this was situated in low-quality placements that were irrelevant to the participants' eventual career path. One notable finding was that a significant proportion of working class students had exercised considerable personal agency to secure high-quality placements. This could challenge structuralist interpretations of young people's decision-making, although the possibility of a retrospective construction of an explanatory narrative is noted. This paper concludes that more effort is needed to push academically-able working class young people towards placements that will increase motivation and widen horizons and that government needs to be clearer about its policy aims in this area.

Purpose: In the UK, the majority of university students specialise and study just one subject at bachelor degree level, commonly known in the UK as a single honours degree. However, nearly all British universities will permit students if they wish to study two or even three subjects, so-called joint or combined honours degrees, internationally known as a double major. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether educational advantage, measured by the "Participation of Local Areas" (POLAR) classification, correlated with rates of graduate destinations for joint and single honours graduates. This study focused particularly on Russell Group and Post-92 Universities. Design/methodology/approach: The authors analysed the complete data set provided from the Higher Education Statistics Agency Destination of Leavers from the Higher Education survey, and combined this with data from the POLAR4 quintiles, which aggregate geographical regions across the UK based on the proportion of its young people that participate in higher education. The data were analysed to establish whether there was a difference in the highly skilled graduate employability of the joint honours students, focusing particularly on Russell Group and Post-92 Universities, in order to build on previous published work. Findings: Single honours and joint honours graduates from higher participation POLAR4 quintiles were more likely to be in a highly skilled destination. However at both the Russell Group and the Post-92 universities, respectively, there was no trend towards a smaller highly skilled destinations gap between the honours types for the higher quintiles. For the highest POLAR4 quintile, the proportion of joint honours graduates was substantially higher at the Russell Group than at Post-92 universities. Furthermore, in any quintile, there were proportionately more joint honours graduates from the Russell Group, compared with single honours graduates, and increasingly so the higher the quintile. Research limitations/implications: This study focused on joint honours degrees in the UK where the two or three principal subjects fall into different Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) subject areas, i.e. the two or three subjects are necessarily diverse rather than academically cognate. This excluded the class of joint honours degrees where the principal subjects lie within the same JACS subject area, i.e. they may be closer academically, although still taught by different academic teams. However, the overall proportion of joint honours graduates identified using the classification was in line with the UCAS (2017) data on national rates of combined studies acceptances. Practical implications: All Russell Group graduates, irrespective of their POLAR4 quintile, were far more likely to be in a highly skilled destination than single or joint honours graduates of Post-92 universities. Even the lowest quintile graduates of the Russell Group had greater rates of highly skilled destination than the highest quintile from Post-92 universities, for both single and joint honours graduates. This demonstrated the positive impact that graduating from the Russell Group confers on both single and joint honours graduates. Social implications: This study could not explain the much smaller gap in the highly skilled destinations between single honours and joint honours graduates found in the Russell Group, compared with the Post-92. Why do a higher proportion of joint honours graduates hail form the upper POLAR4 quintiles, the Russell Group joint honours graduates were more disproportionately from the upper POLAR4 quintiles and the joint honours upper POLAR4 quintiles represented such a larger proportion of the Russell Group overall undergraduate population? Other student characteristics such as tariff on entry, subjects studied, gender, age and ethnicity might all contribute to this finding. Originality/value: This study demonstrated that, averaged across all universities in the UK, there was a trend for both single honours and joint honours graduates from higher participation POLAR4 quintiles to be more likely to be in a highly skilled destination, i.e. the more educationally advantaged, were more likely to be in a highly skilled destination, as a proportion of the total from each honours type. This accorded with HESA (2018b) data, but expanded those findings to include direct consideration of joint honours graduates.

This paper is based on research that examined intergenerational dynamics amongst British South Asians regarding education and family life. The study investigated the perspectives of grandparents, parents and young people to establish how family attributes and education were perceived by these three groups. The methods used to gather data were focus groups and individual interviews. These were complemented by digital ethnography, which involved using photographs taken by the young people for reflection during interviews. Drawing on Bourdieu, Putnam and Coleman's theses of cultural and social capitals, the paper forwards the concept of educational capital, as the findings suggest a high emphasis on the acquisition of educational capital for upward social mobility amongst all groups. (Contains 1 note.)

This paper argues that working-class widening participation in education is not necessarily new. While it can be argued that it was established in the late twentieth century as a concept and government strategy, aspects of its origins can be traced back to movements such as the mechanics' institute movement, first established by the 1850s. Such developments provide some evidence of working-class individuals accessing general, vocational, elementary, and even higher education which would otherwise have been denied to them. However, what this paper argues is that, whilst there were some comparable features between the two centuries, others reveal a policy environment and discourse in the twenty-first century that serves to maintain the position of working-class individuals, rather than supporting social mobility. Adult, informal and vocational courses at various levels can provide alternative routes to that of higher education. It also provides an example of how awareness of historical developments can be illuminating of today's policy discourse.

Higher education (HE) is often viewed as a conduit for social mobility through which working-class students can secure improved life-chances. However, the link between HE and social mobility is largely viewed as unproblematic. Little research has explored the possible impact of academic failure (in HE) on the trajectories of working-class students or the ways in which working-class students may re-construct their career aspirations as a result of such academic failure. This paper seeks to fill this apparent gap by focusing on a group of non-traditional students enrolled on a BA undergraduate programme in a post-1992 university. Utilising Bourdieu's notion of habitus, the paper identifies how academic failure contributes to possible trajectory interruptions and whether these are temporary or possibly permanent. It specifically focuses on how working-class students interpret and respond to their academic failure and the possible impact this has on their social mobility.

This paper draws on qualitative data exploring the experiences of first-generation middle-class Black Caribbean-heritage parents, their own parents, and their children. We focus on the different ways in which race and class intersect in shaping attitudes towards education and subsequent educational practices. We argue that the nature of racism has changed, but it still remains, mainly in more subtle, insidious forms. We conclude that race cannot be simply "added on" to class. Race changes how class works, how it is experienced, and the subjectivities available to individuals. The paper illustrates how the two intersect, in complex ways, in different historical "moments".

This paper examines the theoretical perspectives I utilised in my doctoral research to uncover the role of class and gender in my respondents' stories and experiences of their career success. I argue that adopting an economic model for conceptualising the influence of social class and gender in the respondents' stories and experiences of their career success is inadequate because it has historically neglected to take account of women's position in the labour market. Drawing on an example from my data examining the influence of the respondents' familial attitudes and dispositions towards education, the paper contends that Bourdieu's concept of habitus is an invaluable tool for theorising senior female academics' pathways to career success by bringing together a cultural, social and economic understanding of social class and gender. (Contains 1 table.)

Intra- and inter-generational social mobility have been implicit to a wide range of UK Government policies aimed at promoting social inclusion through a focus on education and employability. Framed by these policy initiatives and a critical look at widening participation in higher education, this paper reflects on the impacts of university learning on the self and the family among students with dependent children. With emphasis on, and differences highlighted between, male and female undergraduate students' own (often gendered) constructions of the impact of their university experiences and aspirations for social mobility, the paper suggests that while these students face numerous and varied barriers to their learning, they are motivated by the impact their studying will have on themselves and their families. Of notable significance is how higher education is perceived to reverberate within the home, promoting a culture of learning among, and encouraging the educational aspirations of, children. The paper concludes that this potential and perceived social mobility necessitates a bridging of the rhetoric of access with a reality of accessibility and retention for those students with caring responsibilities and offers a number of recommendations to encourage this. (Contains 1 table.)

This article represents a lecture given by Professor Steve Smith at the Association of University Administrators Annual Lecture on 20 October 2009. There has been considerable change in the sector since the lecture was delivered, however, the Editor and author felt that the issues still pose significant challenges to higher education (HE), and publication also provides a useful yardstick against which to gauge the speed at which those challenges have either crystallised or become more complex. In this article, Smith focuses on the key challenges for the future. He discusses the major themes of the new HE Framework which are likely to include: (1) funding; (2) the "New Industry, New Jobs" agenda; (3) greater flexibility of provision; and (4) social mobility. He also urges the HE sector to work together as a united sector, celebrating difference, not seeing it as hierarchy, and always celebrating excellence in all its forms.

This paper analyses the relationship between education, meritocracy and redistribution. It first questions the meritocratic ideal highlighting how it relates to normative expectations that do not hold fully neither in their logic nor in practice. It then complements the literature on persistent inequalities by focusing on the opportunities for change created by current trends in the economy and in social aspirations. As the meritocratic argument that education is strongly linked to certain rewards in the labour market comes under pressure, increasing social dissatisfaction with education and skills wastage could be expected, as already noted in part of the political economy literature. This literature, however, has tended to conclude from such observations that educational expansion cannot deliver equality. The paper contributes to the debate by focusing on the opportunities created by current trends for the reorganisation of the relationship between education, the economy and society.

This paper provides a critical review of papers in this special issue on Bourdieu and practice. What is different about this collection is that, in analysing policy and practice through a Bourdieusian lens, the thinking tools of field, disposition (collective and individual), logics of practice and doxa have been mobilised with regard to the "social practices" of educational policy--its production, circulation and reception. First, these papers illustrate how, as a field, education has its own language, boundaries and power relations informed by particular modes of distinction and legitimation around different forms of capital formation, thus providing explanations for both social mobility and social stratification. Second, this collection foregrounds "policy as practice" in terms of the social practices involved in the production of policy, the practices involved with the articulation and vernacularisation of policy through the processes of its reception, as well as the intent and effects of policy changing practice. Third, in focusing on specific policy problematics in higher education and schools, teacher professional development, leadership and educational reform, these contributions illustrate multiple methodological approaches as to how Bourdieu's thinking tools can be used to theorise educational policy, change, practice and effects. The value of Bourdieu's work lies on getting past the impasses between divisions between material and cultural analyses, between the materialist and linguistic focus, by talking about social practices, what people are doing, how they are thinking and how they are acting.

This paper takes a feminist perspective on the UK literature on mass higher education in the 21st century, building on US critiques about marketization, neo-liberalism and "academic capitalism". Concepts of equality and diversity have been transformed by neo-liberalism and how these changes have constrained democratic contributions to UK higher education policies and practices is the focus. Diversity has replaced more traditional conceptualizations of socioeconomic inequalities, and has shifted from being about ethnicity/race to one of "widening participation" or "fair" access to higher education, including social class, disabilities, gender and age. Debate focuses on individual students on first or undergraduate degrees, whether full or part-time, and how higher education institutions can contribute to graduate employment, individual or social mobility, rather than re-inscribing social stratification. I present an analysis that demonstrates the challenges and dilemmas about equality and diversity in UK mass higher education and conclude that despite expansion of higher education "persistent inequalities" remain. I reveal UK policy shifts around gender as concerning women, as students or academics, to one about lack of educational opportunities in post-compulsory education for young men from poor or disadvantaged family backgrounds as students, ignoring the question of women's opportunities and contributions to new forms of academic practice. I argue that this illustrates how new forms of higher education, despite expansion and increasing participation, remain resistant to some of the feminist and critical yet creative challenges about transformations in academic practice and development.

The title of this article comes from the editorial written for this journal by Olive Banks, Len Barton, Roger Dale, David Hargreaves, Roland Meighan, Ivan Reid and Graham Vulliamy (Banks et al. 1980, 4) that appeared in its first issue, and set out its remit. The seven scholars who wrote that editorial pledged to "publish high quality work of any theoretical orientation." Three major themes are addressed in this paper: Olive Banks's contribution to sociology of education up to 1973; the fate of her work after 1973; and her work as a case study of the troubled relationship between sociology of education and sociology itself. Two important works by Olive Banks form the core of the paper. Banks and Finlayson (1973) "Success and Failure in the Secondary School," and her textbook "The Sociology of Education" (Banks 1968, 1971, 1976). Banks (1955) Parity and Prestige in English Secondary Education is the subject of another paper in this volume (Edwards, 2008, this issue): a recognition that it is her most important work. Before focusing on the three themes used to structure the paper, there is a brief contextual section.

The paper looks at arguments for and against private schools, first in general and then, at greater length, in their British form. Here it looks first at defences against the charge that private schooling is unfair, discussing on the way problems with equality as an intrinsic value and with instrumental appeals to greater equality, especially in access to university and better jobs. It turns next to charges of social exclusiveness, before looking in more detail at claims about the dangers private schools pose for democratic government. It then examines complications arising from shifts in the notion of "private" education since the 1980s, before concluding, in the light of recent articles in "JOPE" about criteria for admission to university, with a discussion of Brighouse's proposal for the reform of private schooling. There are also shorter discussions of other suggestions for such reform.

Discussion of the relationship between higher education (HE) and public good can be traced to Kant's argument that universities critically held society to account. Mill, Newman and Arnold suggested knowledge itself was a public good. In the twentieth century, economists argued education could drive national technological progress. More recently the public good of HE has been linked to social justice through increasing social mobility. In this paper I explore how the definition of public good has shifted over time and how UK government HE policies have incorporated these changes. I argue policy shifts have had an impact in altering the social contract between universities and the state. I suggest that current policy and practice is moving universities away from Arendt's notion that educators have a moral and social responsibility to inculcate new generations into the pre-existing knowledge of society and onto more individualised outcomes.

This paper reveals findings from a small-scale research project which explored how university careers advisers experience their role in guiding clients within a labour market where barriers to social mobility prevail. The research discovers that advisers' daily work gives them a depth of insight into social mobility. The professional turbulence in which advisers operate and the evolution of their role from in-depth work to a focus on breadth is chronicled. University environments vary with regard to the scope advisers have to impact lives, but a strong set of values anchors them. Recommendations are made with regard to how high quality careers information, advice and guidance can support social mobility for traditionally disadvantaged students into the labour market.

Extant research on family migration for education has focused almost exclusively on the education of children. We thus know very little about family migration when it is driven by the educational projects of parents. To begin to redress this gap, this paper explores the experiences of families who have moved to the United Kingdom primarily to enable the mother or father to pursue a degree. It argues that, in common with what we know of UK student-parents, both choices about and experiences of higher education are strongly differentiated by gender.