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Purpose: The paper aims to argue that there has been a privileging of the private (social mobility) and economic (social efficiency) purposes of schooling at the expense of the public (democratic equality) purposes of schooling. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a literature review, policy and document analysis. Findings: Since the late 1980s, the schooling agenda in Australia has been narrowed to one that gives primacy to purposes of schooling that highlight economic orientations (social efficiency) and private purposes (social mobility). Practical implications: The findings have wider relevance beyond Australia, as similar policy agendas are evident in many other countries raising the question as to how the shift in purposes of education in those countries might mirror those in Australia. Originality/value: While earlier writers have examined schooling policies in Australia and noted the implications of managerialism in relation to these policies, no study has analysed these policies from the perspective of the purposes of schooling. Conceptualising schooling, and its purposes in particular, in this way refocuses attention on how societies use their educational systems to promote (or otherwise) the public good. (Contains 3 notes.)

Historically, males from low socio-economic backgrounds have been a difficult demographic for educators to reach and engage. Despite efforts to widen participation in Australia, males who would be considered 'first-in-family', remain severely underrepresented in higher education. For those who do attend, they often encounter significant barriers and are at a higher risk of attrition. Experiences with employment can be a determiner of their success at university both in terms of informing or reaffirming their prospects for future employment. While recent policies in Australia have sought to integrate working-integrated learning (WIL) into university studies, these are not available to all students thus opportunities to develop skills and attributes through WIL remains a fragmented picture. As a result, we are witnessing many young people who are concerned about their future employability seeking out non-formal WIL opportunities to bolster their CVs. This paper explores the motivations of first-in-family males to pursue non-formal WIL opportunities and the effects these endeavours had upon their aspirations.

Despite suspicions concerning the global expansion of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) education, the teaching of Chinese is often a mainstay within global citizenship and elite education. With this paradox in mind, the paper draws on theories of classed selfhood and learner identities to explore the possibilities of CFL to influence the learner identities of five working-class girls. Through drawing on their narratives, we glimpse the ways in which the pedagogic practices of CFL inform their understandings of their education and future -- specifically their academic aspirations, career choices, and dreams of wealth. Considering the role of CFL in their lives requires a criticality regarding the neoliberal agenda shaping the educational experiences of young women as well as how they construct their subjectivities in relation to what makes a 'good' student and an 'ideal' citizen.

The links between vocational qualifications and occupational destinations are weak in many Anglophone countries, even though the explicit purpose of vocational qualifications is to prepare individuals for occupations. Using Australia and Canada as case studies, this is explained at three levels of analysis: at the national level by systems of skill formation and student transition; at the meso level by skill ecosystems; and by whether qualifications are used as a signal in regulated occupations or as a screen in unregulated occupations. The paper outlines three roles for qualifications in providing pathways to enter and progress in work, transition to higher level studies, and support social mobility. The paper concludes that improving links between postsecondary qualifications and occupations depends more on the structure of the labour market than on the nature of qualifications: it is mainly an issue of the demand for qualifications rather than their supply.

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.

Australia is indicative of a country that is deeply confused and conflicted around a policy discourse of inclusion that is sutured within an existential context heavily committed to the tenets of neoliberalism. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of higher education, in which the proportion of young people from backgrounds of "disadvantage" has remained implacably stuck at around 15% for several decades. The research from which this paper comes is an innovative community-based university-provided programme for young people for whom university education was never a realistic possibility--because of family histories, interruption to their lives, of having undertaken forms of secondary education that prevented them from gaining university entrance qualification, or who had terminated their education before completing the secondary years of schooling. This paper explores the story of one young person in his first year in a university programme, as he struggled with obstacles and impediments of a higher education system and set of neoliberal policy discourses that remain deeply sceptical and antagonistic to his trajectory.

This paper discusses the emergence of aspiration as a keyword linked to higher education equity policy in England and Australia since 1997. Aspiration serves multiple purposes when constructed as a problematic site in which policy must intervene. For example, it can be understood as a vector for new technologies of governance that operate through the production of entrepreneurial dispositions; as a signifier for groups that have experienced upward social mobility; and as a personality trait that correlates with future earnings and thus can be defined as a dimension of human capital. It has also provided a rallying point for equity work in higher education. Focusing on English and Australian policy contexts, as well as the recent education work of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), we examine the different perspectives of a range of stakeholders on the strategy of "raising aspiration" for higher education and how these have changed over time; the partnership work undertaken in the HE systems of both countries under the aegis of aspiration-raising policies; and recent policy developments in both contexts. In particular, we consider how aspiration-focused policies have affective effects on policy actors and seek to control affects directly by modulating feelings about capacities for action in the future. Two data sets provide the empirical basis for the paper: (a) document analysis of major equity policies in England since 1997 and in Australia since 2008, as well as a review of relevant OECD policy documents; and (b) analysis of nine interviews with equity practitioners and policy personnel in England, Australia, and located within the OECD.

This paper investigates achievement gaps between low and high socioeconomic students in 19 high-income countries. On average, math scores of students with indicators of high socioeconomic status (SES) are over one standard deviation above those with low SES indicators. The paper estimates the extent to which these achievement gaps can be attributed to differences in classroom- and school-level resources available to students from different SES backgrounds. In some countries, achievement gaps can be largely explained by differences in the characteristics of schools attended. However, in many other countries, the gap appears more closely related to differences in the characteristics of the students. The results point to the importance of institutional difference among countries in explaining international differences in the quality of education received by different groups within a nation. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures and 13 notes.)

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 investigated linguistic practices and choices of Australian children of Indian descent, an under-researched group, who are studying Hindi in primary education. Data was collected using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with sixty participants across 3 primary schools in the Sydney area. The findings revealed, as expected, that being born in Australia was associated with greater use of English, and that it was the India-born students who saw a purpose in speaking their "mother tongue". Of those children born in Australia, who had maintained their heritage language in the home, certain cultural groups--Nepalese and Punjabi--had stronger religious loyalties and favourable attitudes towards these languages. Furthermore, it was the grand-parents and non-working mothers who were driving the language maintenance process in the home environment. The conclusion highlights education as a driver for social mobility and raises questions about language and cultural shift as children from Indian backgrounds grow up and are educated in an Australian context.

The field of youth sociology has been challenged to reconsider the role of parenting in the lives of young adults. This paper presents a multiple-case study investigation into young men's transitions from school into further education in an Australian context. We will argue that relationships with parents are materially, socially and emotionally salient throughout the period during which young men move out of adolescence and into young adulthood during their final year of senior schooling and beyond. In considering how the young men constituted their identities in the context of family relationships, we will highlight the dynamic interplay between three relational identities: dependent, independent and interdependent. We show that a main locus of tension was the negotiation of power and agency in the representation of self in relation to parents, specifically in the context of a period in which educational achievement was highly emphasised.

Higher education is understood as essential to enabling social mobility. Research and policy have centred on access to university, but recently attention has turned to the journey of social mobility itself--and its costs. Long-distance or "extreme" social mobility journeys particularly require analysis. This paper examines journeys of first-in-family university students in the especially high-status degree of medicine, through interviews with 21 students at an Australian medical school. Three themes are discussed: (1) the roots of participants' social mobility journeys; (2) how sociocultural difference is experienced and negotiated within medical school; and (3) how participants think about their professional identities and futures. Students described getting to medical school "the hard way", and emphasised the different backgrounds and attitudes of themselves and their wealthier peers. Many felt like "imposters", using self-deprecating language to highlight their lack of "fit" in the privileged world of medicine. However, such language also reflected resistance to middle-class norms and served to create solidarity with community of origin, and, importantly, patients. Rather than narratives of loss, students' stories reflect a tactical refinement of self and "incorporation" of certain middle-class attributes, alongside an appreciation of the worth their "difference" brings to their new destination, the medical profession.

Although any "choice" young people make about higher education incorporates a subtle interplay of individual agency, circumstance and social structure, the centrality of identity in such life choices for rural young people cannot be underestimated. Since mobility is an ontological absolute for most rural young people accessing university, it is essential to understand better how identity, choice, agency and social structure work together as social capital. In a 4-year study of young rural women from small towns in Australia who move to an elite city university, I found that "deciding" to access university education involved a complex amalgam of imbricating factors, but all involved a strong identity construct as "one who would move". Bourdieu's concept of symbolic power is re-appropriated and utilised here to explain the evidence of what I call in this paper a "conferred identity"--symbolic power conferred onto the young women over time that works to enable and propel their mobility.

This paper reviews previous social science knowledge about non-English speaking background (NESB) immigrant communities in rural Australia with the aim of systematising what has been a diverse and fragmented literature. We propose a number of unifying themes which suggest the outlines of an emerging social science of ethnic minorities in rural Australia. These themes include demography; influences on NESB people's decisions to settle in rural areas such as cultural continuity, social exclusion and chain migration; access to resources and services; gender relations; intergenerational social mobility, and farming practices and natural resource management. In conclusion, we suggest that social capital is one theoretical approach that holds the potential to bring together aspects of the settlement experiences of immigrants in rural Australia. (Contains 7 footnotes.)

Informal caregiving for a person living with glioma can be both rewarding and multidimensionally challenging, given the potential for debilitating symptoms, cognitive impairment or personality changes, as early as diagnosis. There is growing evidence that, due to the demands of care, experiences and feelings of loneliness and isolation among informal caregivers are widespread, and opportunities for quality or meaningful social connectedness are lacking. While considerable research has quantified the causes and effects of loneliness and isolation in informal care contexts, the lived experience of loneliness has received relatively little attention. The aim of this study was to better understand the everyday experiences of a group of home‐based informal caregivers of people living with glioma in Queensland, Australia. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with 32 informal caregivers, purposively sampled, and recruited through a tertiary hospital, in this paper, we explore how the various experiences, demands, and social and relational dynamics in/of informal care (re)produce forms of isolation and loneliness. Using the framework approach to thematic analysis, we derived four themes: (a) the 'need' to be near the care recipient, and the implications for caregiver mobility; (b) the strong sense of responsibility for care, and the virtues of 'good' caring; (c) experiences of loneliness in the company of others and (d) postponement of social connection and minimising the self. The findings, we argue, are reflective of broader social and moral norms and expectations within experiences of home‐based informal care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widening participation has been a vehicle to facilitate access and support towards the successful completion of university studies for underrepresented groups who are less likely to pursue higher education. Yet, despite its widely accepted importance and adoption across countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom, studies to date remain largely fragmented -- often employed through the lens of a single institution, or a particular priority group. Amidst this backdrop, universities and other higher education providers are increasingly probed as to their role in supporting social capital mobility, of which widening participation plays a vital component in delivering wider societal imperatives. In addition, the COVID-19 effect has worsened university participation and completion rates, as the global pandemic has placed vulnerable students (often those involved in widening participation initiatives) in more precocious conditions than ever before. Nevertheless, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic literature review comprising 102 journal articles that derive 15 meta-themes to provide a timely introspection of widening participation, show key trends over time, and chart future areas of investigation for scholars and practitioners in this space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overcoming the socio-economic disparity between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australians is a long-standing social policy objective: one largely shared by Indigenous people. Achievement will require Indigenous individuals and households to be socially mobile, a process integrally involved with social capital, existing and requisite. The lack of research on Indigenous social mobility or its attendant social capital connections is addressed in this paper through an exploratory analysis of this interaction across three dimensions: distinctive patterns of Indigenous social capital; the transferability of Indigenous social capital; and traversing the social capital divide. The implications drawn, while tentative, indicate that for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the intersection of the processes of social mobility and social capital is vexed, and contains hazards and costs not fully shared by socially mobile non-Indigenous households. The Indigenous-specific factors of a gendered professional class, the identity- social capital link, and Indigenous labour market circumstances all indicate that more research and a more nuanced understanding of Indigenous social mobility is necessary. Social policy recommendations include broadening the concept of cultural leave to include bonding social capital obligations, especially for women, and re-evaluation of how to support Indigenous career trajectories and transferable skill sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to explore the interaction between a liminal rural Australian city (Lithgow) and the development of higher education options across the city's history. The paper proposes a nuanced interaction between national, social, religious, political, regional and local forces to explain why an industrial city such as Lithgow, with obvious educational strengths, would be overlooked while others (such as Wollongong and Bathurst) were not. Design/methodology/approach -- The paper takes the form of a longitudinal study of educational institutions, placed in their historical contexts, in order to demonstrate the fluctuation of educational vision with the rise and fall of socio-economic contributors to the town's fortunes. Findings -- The paper finds that the city's formation and dependence on war-related industries created boom-bust cycles which negatively impacted on its entrepreneurial, managerial and working class elites, and so on its ability to bring cultural and political influence to bear in the formation of local higher education options, across a period in which higher education becomes an increasingly federal responsibility. Practical implications -- The paper suggests policy ramifications for the support of higher education options in the city. Social implications -- The paper supports the interpretation that it is not merely that education itself promotes social mobility, but that what type of education is important, along with an eye to how education contributes to the overall well-being and cross-class profile of the city of Lithgow. Originality/value -- This paper fills a gap in historical knowledge about Lithgow's educational institutions, the study of which heretofore has tended to be located with either labor historical or heritage approaches. This paper takes a socio-cultural and longitudinal/holistic approach which brings together a variety of approaches previously not treated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While several studies have estimated returns to education in Australia, there is limited evidence regarding the influence of health on the returns. This paper identifies how health affects returns to education in the labour market using the Heckman selection bias-corrected model. We measured health status using a self-rated health item with five response categories 'poor, fair, good, very good, and excellent'. The findings show that poor health or being unhealthy (defined as 'poor' or 'fair') interacts with education, such that the benefits of education (i.e. higher hourly wage rate) are curtailed in those with health problems; the adverse effect is stronger for those in lower skilled jobs. The estimated returns to an additional year of schooling on average over 2001-2017 is 7.43% and 6.88% for the healthy and unhealthy groups, respectively. Thus, the return for workers with poor health is 7.4% lower than the return for healthier workers (for each additional year of schooling). This gap in the returns is equivalent to a productivity loss of about $19-25 billion per year. The lower returns to education for workers with poor health likely results from lower productivity while at work rather than loss of working days as the estimate is based on an hourly wage rate (rather than days or hours absent from work). These lower returns may also be explained by unhealthy workers accepting lower paid jobs given the same levels of experience, skills and education that healthier counterparts have. The cost of poor health to labour market returns is further amplified in low-skilled occupations, a process which is likely to exacerbate socio-economic inequalities and undercut social mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air travel has become central to Australian academic practice, with flying increasingly seen as crucial to the progression of successful academic careers. This paper seeks to understand why academic air travel has come to be perceived as so necessary, particularly given its significant environmental, social, and economic implications. Drawing on the mobilities paradigm and social practice theory, we seek to understand how air travel practices are a key part of contemporary academic careers. We conducted an online survey of 301 academics and 24 in depth semi-structured interviews to understand academic air travel in Australia, finding that it is seen as a means to connect and collaborate within and between academic communities, and to counteract the effects of 'remoteness'. This remoteness is experienced domestically and internationally, by Australian academics who feel they must travel to perceived centres of knowledge production to further their careers. Academics often frame their 'need' for connections as necessarily involving physical co-presence. Air travel offers career benefits for those who can take advantage of it, and corresponding drawbacks for those 'stuck on the ground'. We conclude by discussing the need for valuing localised forms of collaboration as markers of success, and developing imaginative alternatives to academic flying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mobility is a fundamental requirement for social inclusion in low density rural/regional Australia. • Pre-school children emerge as a new regional group at risk of mobility-related social exclusion. • Increasing trip rates and building bridging social capitalare key ways to reduce exclusion risks. • Public transport services can support regional mobility and reduce exclusion risk. Mobility is a fundamental requirement for well-functioning regions and for socially included residents. The paper first examines the role of mobility in promoting social inclusion of regional residents. Discussing the groups of regional people most likely to be at risk of social exclusion, because of poor mobility opportunities, the paper notes pre-school children as a new focus for policy and research attention. It then highlights the importance of trip making and building bridging social capital to reduce the risk of social exclusion in a regional setting, showing that, while regional people at high risk of social exclusion may achieve relatively high trip making (mobility, often via active travel), they may still have problems taking trips that build their bridging social capital. Public transport services can play a supportive role here, with indicative service levels outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, social housing in Australia operated as a springboard for social mobility. For many working families, public housing tenancy was an opportunity to save for a house purchase deposit. Latterly, tenant exits from public to private housing have declined to very low levels. This has raised concerns about systemic barriers to residential and social mobility for social renters, and about the consequent longer waiting times for applicants in need of social housing. Drawing on administrative data collected by social housing providers in NSW and Victoria, and in-depth interviews with 95 former and current social housing tenants in both states, this paper examines tenant attitudes, intentions and motivations as regards future house-moves. We argue that the primary disincentives to exit relate to affordability and security of tenure in private rental, rather than factors related to the social housing system itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobility is often overlooked in debates about spatial disadvantage, which tend to focus on place. In this paper, the focus is on residential mobility and the ways in which it derives from, and contributes to, processes of social disadvantage. Building on David Clapham’s concept of ‘housing pathways’, mobility-based disadvantage is analysed with a focus on questions of housing quality, control over residential moves and accumulation of economic, social and cultural capital through such moves. These themes are considered in an empirical study of the housing pathways of sixty low-income households in Australia, through which four typical patterns are identified as ‘mobilities of disadvantage’: hectic private rental pathways; pathways of homelessness; pathways out of homeownership; and, repeat moves in and out of social housing. These pathways represent one neglected aspect of the ‘unfair structure’ of the Australian city, as a network of pathways rather than a mosaic of places. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rural communities represent a large proportion of Australia's most disadvantaged areas, with a growing percentage of older people concentrated in these locations. Older people residing in these communities are subject to both the disadvantages of rural living, as well as the health and mobility issues associated with ageing. This paper reviews the literature relating to rural disadvantage, and find that the issues are far more complex than previously thought. As well as disadvantages, there are also benefits to rural living, which can alleviate disadvantage for many older people. However, these same socio-cultural and structural factors are inter-related, and can also mask or increase rural disadvantage in certain circumstances or for particular groups. These factors are dynamic, interactive, and often invisible, and can impact on quality of life. Findings suggest a need for research into the relationship between disadvantage, the experience of rural living and the concept of healthy ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following its rise to international prominence, sustainability has become an official principle or goal in many countries. Due to contextual differences, countries have followed different paths in the pursuit of sustainability. Approachescan be classified into three categories: green planning; institutional reform; and social mobilization. None of these courses on its own is likely to achieve sustainability. Yet, countries often appear to develop a path dominated by one of these approaches. This paper focuses on Australia, sketches the extent to which green planning, institutional reform and social mobilization have been playing a role in the pursuit of sustainability, and illustrates the difficulties of developing a pathway that combines these approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider whether certain countries are particularly adept (or particularly poor) at getting children from disadvantaged homes to study for a bachelor's degree. A series of university access models are estimated for four English-speaking countries (England, Canada, Australia and the USA), which include controls for comparable measures of academic achievement at age 15. Our results suggest that socioeconomic differences in university access are more pronounced in England and Canada than Australia and the USA and that cross-national variation in the socioeconomic gap remains even once we take account of differences in academic achievement. We discuss the implications of our findings for the creation of more socially mobile societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linking physical and social mobilities to a modernity typified by increased foci on individualization, consumption, workplace flexibilization and the need for further (and further) education, this paper argues the need for mobility scholars to pay greater attention to the role played by educational institutions in family formation and the decisions associated with where to locate oneself in relation to these institutions. The research project under consideration took place in a remote Australian resource boomtown, an epicentre of global capital concentration and a concomitant mobile modernity. It focuses on educational decision-making that absorbs increasing amounts of energy among middle-class families in various parts of the globe, exploring the sociological implications of this and the links with physical and social mobilities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses findings from Australian research that used a qualitative and participatory methods approach to understand how children develop and negotiate their everyday mobility. Children's mobility negotiations are discussed in reference to interactions with parents, peers and places; journeys in relation to their multi-modality, compositionality and temporality; and mobility formations in terms of ‘companionship’ – travel companions, companion devices and ambient companions. Children's mobility is characterised byinterdependenciesthat both enable and configure this mobility.Three themes –compositions,collaborationsandcompromises– are used to detail and describe some of the ways these interdependencies take shape and unfold. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to conversations about school, post-compulsory and further education policy by reporting findings from a three-year study with disaffected students who have been referred to special ‘behaviour’ schools. Contrary to popular opinion, our research finds that these ‘ignorant yobs’ do value education and know what it is for. They also have aspirations for a secure, productive and fulfilled life, although it may not involve university-level study. Importantly, we found that students who responded negatively with regard to the importance of schooling tended to envision future lives and occupations for which they believed school knowledge was unnecessary. The implications of this research for school, post-compulsory and further education policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Information communication technologies have permeated new consumer markets at remarkable speeds, diffusing to even the most remote and economically marginalised populations. In remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory of Australia, residents have until recently been isolated from these symbols and facilitators of globalisation. But the rapid diffusion of Internet based technologies in recent years raises important questions about future residential migration aspirations as residents engage with the global order. In this paper we critically review these ‘technologies of change’ for their propensity to alter remote Indigenous spatiality. We propose a theoretical reconstruction of transitional migration theory, as it has been previously applied, and denote the implications for policy makers, researchers and service providers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A lack of understanding of the dynamics of housing mobility and its difference across the major cities in Australia can have significant policy ramifications. In particular, a spatial mismatch in the demand and supply of higher density housing will arise if planning for resource allocations continues to be based on urban density targets without a complete understanding of the dynamics of housing mobility patterns. Therefore through the application of a unique 3-fold longitudinal study this paper examines the housing mobility patterns over time by measuring changes in housing characteristics of housing tenure, dwelling type and location using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA). It was found that the most typical transition to a higher dwelling density in Australia is from a detached house to multi-storeyed units under 3 storeys. Downsizing moves for retirees are most frequent and a decrease in household income is closely related to downsizing. Also notable is the significantly higher level of downsizing moves found in Melbourne when compared to other cities over the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographers have become increasingly engaged with the notion of policy mobility. It is argued that in a globalised world policies have become more internationally mobile: we now live in an era of ‘fast policy’. Drawing on core concepts of mobility, neoliberalisation, and globalisation - and with a background primarily in geography and urban studies - policy mobility scholars have developed new ideas about how policies circulate internationally. In the process, however, theories of policy change developed within political science have been rather overlooked. In this paper it is shown how a political science theory with a shared interest in flows – the Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) – is complementary to policy mobilities scholarship. Two issues in particular are illuminated by the MSA: first, what constitutes policy, and, second, the role of the nation state in structuring the possibilities for, and timing of, policy change. In turn, policy mobilities scholarship highlights the different geographies of the multitude of objects, ideas, problems, processes, organisations, and regulations that constitute policy. It also raises questions about the validity of analytically separating politics from policy proposals, as advocated by the MSA. These issues are considered using the empirical case of smart electricity metering policy in Australia, in the period 2000–2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address social inequality, many western governments have sought to pursue principles of 'widening participation' as a key policy response in higher education. Though originally intended to complement social justice policy agendas, alignment of education policies with broader neoliberal policy frameworks has led policymakers, such as those in Australia, to focus instead on the potential for widening participation to foster social mobility through higher education. Resultant policy discourse focusing on mobility outcomes signals to students that the doxic utility of higher education studies is to pursue an occupation which enables social mobility. This study seeks to explore whether there is evidence that such shifts in policy discourse result in closer alignment with doxic aspirations amongst students from low-socioeconomic status (SES) and non-metropolitan backgrounds than privileged students. This study assessed applications data across fields of education (FoE) for Australian university applicants in 2018, disaggregated across two demographic characteristics (SES and location), to determine the proportionality of applications within and between each demographic sub-classification, as well as between and within each FoE. Through analysing student applications to courses of study at university, it was determined that there are significant differences in the manner in which students from disadvantaged backgrounds actuate their aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of change in socio-economic status (SES) from childhood to adulthood (SES mobility) on adult diet is not well understood. This study examined associations between three SES mobility variables (area disadvantage, education, occupation) and adult diet quality. 1482 Australian participants reported childhood area-level SES in 1985 (aged 10–15 years) and retrospectively reported highest parental education and main occupation (until participant age 12) and own area-level SES, education, occupation and dietary intake in 2004–2006 (aged 26–36 years). A Dietary Guidelines Index (DGI) was calculated from food frequency and habit questionnaires. A higher score (range 0–100) indicated better diet quality. Sex-stratified linear regression models adjusted for confounders. Area-level SES mobility was not associated with diet quality. Compared with stable high (university) education, stable low (school only) was associated with lower DGI scores (males: β = –5·5, 95 % CI: −8·9, –2·1; females: β = –6·3, 95 % CI: −9·3, –3·4), as was downward educational mobility (participant's education lower than their parents) (males: β = –5·3, 95 % CI: −8·5, –2·0; females: β = –4·5, 95 % CI: −7·2, –1·7) and stable intermediate (vocational) education among males (β = –3·9, 95 % CI: −7·0, −0·7). Compared with stable high (professional/managerial) occupation, stable low (manual/out of workforce) males (β = –4·9, 95 % CI: −7·6, –2·2), and participants with downward occupation mobility (males: β = –3·2, 95 % CI: −5·3, –1·1; females: β = –2·8, 95 % CI: −4·8, –0·8) had lower DGI scores. In this cohort, intergenerational low education and occupation, and downward educational and occupational mobility, were associated with poor adult diet quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the stories of eleven middle-class professionals from Bogotá, Colombia living in Melbourne, Australia. They reflect on class and status while trying to navigate the Australian social structure and position themselves and others in it. Drawing on theories of migration and class, we argue that the participants position themselves in Australian society not only in relation to the local social structure but also through beliefs they have about Colombian social structures, particularly the socioeconomic stratification system. This involves reinterpretation and adaptation of pre-conceptions and beliefs according to the new reality. Further unexpected findings included that English proficiency is crucial to the social mobility and integration of Colombian migrants in Australia. Most respondents perceived education as their best asset, but felt that their chances of success depended on English skills. This research contributes to knowledge of Latin American migrants in Australia and the Colombian socioeconomic stratification system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social mobility research mainly investigates directional change in socio-economic circumstance. This article contributes to the strand of social mobility research that examines subjective experiences of economic movement. It analyses social mobility as a set of relationally, temporally and spatially embedded social practices, subjectively experienced and interpreted. The interactive nexus between social and spatial mobility is a fruitful line of inquiry, and the experiences of international migrants are distinctly suited for developing this analysis. Drawing on a qualitative study of migrants' mobilities, both social and spatial, post-arrival in Australia, we argue that social mobility is experienced as sets of contingent social practices. These in/variably co-exist with aspirations for a sense of belonging and connectedness, a sense of security and other non-economic needs and desires and are also always adjusted over time. In addition, migrants' status as legal, cultural or social Others shapes the experience of social mobility in distinctive ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most people misperceive economic inequality. Learning about actual levels of inequality and social mobility, research suggests, heightens concerns but may push people's policy preferences in any number of directions. This mixed empirical record, we argue, reflects the omission of a more fundamental question: under what conditions do people change their understanding of the meritocratic or non-meritocratic causes of inequality? To explore mechanisms of belief change we field a unique randomized survey experiment with representative populations in Australia, Indonesia, and Mexico—societies with varying levels of popular beliefs about economic inequality. Our results highlight the importance of information, perceived social position, and self-interest. In Indonesia, information describing (high) income inequality and (low) social mobility rocked our participants' belief in meritocracy. The same information made less of a splash in Mexico, where unequal outcomes are commonly understood as the result of corruption and other non-meritocratic processes. In Australia, the impact of our informational treatment was strongest when it provided justification for people's income position or when it corrected their perception of relative affluence. Our findings reveal asymmetric beliefs about poverty and wealth and heterogeneous responses to information. They are a call to rethink effective informational and policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a theoretical and methodological application of Tilly's [Tilly, C. (1998). Durable inequaliry. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press] assertions that inequalities are inherently relational and categorical. We focus on the specific proposition that inequalities are exaggerated when categorical social distinctions are mapped onto positional distinctions internal to organizations. Using samples of Australian and U.S. organizations we examine the influence of sex and other status distinctions upon between-class wage inequality. In both countries class inequality is exaggerated when workers are women and managers men. These between-class inequality producing processes are also present for other categorical distinctions available in the data we use (education, permanent vs. temporary worker, dominant vs. marginal linguistic group in Australia, permanent vs. temporary worker and white vs. non-white in the U.S.). In the U.S. the coefficients for relational sex composition are twice as large as in Australia, suggesting historical-institutional differences between the countries enables gender to exert a stronger influence on between-class inequality in the U.S. We further examine the institutional differences in these categorical bases for inequality by examining the extent to which they vary within the two countries as a function of two historically relevant institutional distinctions in wage setting regimes-formalization in the U.S. and centralized wage awards in Australia. As expected these institutional differences shape the extent and type of between-class wage inequality. We conclude that researchers should move methodologically towards observing relations within organizations to reflect the theoretical advances of the past two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calls for an understanding of itinerancy of Australian youth as characterized by floating signifiers of identity and meaning. Concerns over the claimed links between social mobility and educational nonachievement; Basis of conceptual difficulty; Inclination of itinerancy to swing as illustrated by the education of circus people in the country.

This paper builds on ideas proposed by Naphtali, McIntosh and Williams [7] who use a reduced form to explain net mobility between occupations in the twelve months preceding both November 1972 and December 1975. Their approach involves regressing net mobility on relative wages, relative rates of unemployment, the income-persons overlap between occupations, relative social status, the years of training required to move between occupations, and two dummy variables to capture movements to and from the rural sector. Overall, however, their results are highly unsatisfactory. The estimated equations (year and sex specific) have very little explanatory power, and individual coefficients are often insignificant, of the wrong a priori expected sign, unstable over time, or some combination of these characteristics. In an attempt to overcome some of these problems, a more formal structure has been imposed on the process of occupation changing. Mobility is still interpreted from the worker's point of view, but it is hypothesized that the decision to change jobs can be broken into two independent stages: that of leaving an original occupation, and that of deciding which new occupation to enter. Different explanatory variables influence the two stages. The probability of moving from occupation i to occupation j is then viewed as the product of the probabilities first of moving out of i and then of moving into j. It is realized that the decision concerning which occupation to enter may not be taken independently of one's original occupation, but in this exploratory analysis, possible interdependencies of this type are not considered. (The limited data available would not, in any event, allow empirical investigation of such interdependencies.) Empirical estimation of this model yields results superior to those obtained using the simpler reduced form approach, but the results are still far from satisfactory. Although poor data may afford some explanation for this, evidence... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns have been raised internationally about whether alternative learning programmes are producing low‐skilled labourers for rapidly disappearing twenty‐first‐century jobs. Researchers claim that learners in alternative programmes are more at risk due to the focus on low‐level vocational and basic skill attainment, with a lack of formal academic pathways available to them. This article questions whether and in what ways an alternative learning programme supports young people to achieve successful transitions to sustainable social mobility for informed citizenship through a holistic approach to learning; or if class stratification is being re/enforced through systems' accountability discourses. Hesitant hopes in alternative learning are explored through an ethnographic study of one alternative learning programme across five sites in regional Australia. Contextually, not‐for‐profit community agencies provide physical infrastructures as well as youth workers and volunteers, while a publicly funded School of Distance Education provides teacher oversight of the curriculum. Findings suggest that the theme of 'hesitant hope' is constructed through the analysis of the discourses of supporting wellbeing, life skill development and academic learning. These discourses facilitate further analysis of the concept of social mobility, suggesting a conceptual starting point for an engaging critique of the differing perspectives on how support could be providing these marginalised young people with a sense of hope for a socially mobile future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]