Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Ritzen, Jo
Author-Email: ritzen@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT, and Maastricht University
Title: A renaissance for social mobility and its significance for the bridge towards 
	 postsecondary education
Abstract:  Inequality in earned wages is in our western society on the increase. 
	 Social mobility is on the decrease. The contribution of education to 
	 equality of opportunity is decreasing, because education adapts more 
	 slowly to the increasing complexities of our societies than the home and 
	 social environment of the upper class and the upper part of the middle 
	 class. These are the forewarnings of a meltdown of the nuclear fusion 
	 reactor providing the energy of our societies: trust between social 
	 groups and hope of social betterment now and in the future for the next 
	 generation.  
	 Can meltdown be prevented by education, by a renaissance of social 
	 mobility and what social engineering would be needed to bring this 
	 about? This is the main question we address here, focused on K-12 (as 
	 well as Early Childhood Development), against a substantiation of the 
	 above background. We address this question in the context of the 
	 transition from high school to postsecondary education.  
	 This paper is written for a seminar-session on the transition of 
	 youngsters through the education system, from ECD through K-12 from the 
	 perspective of the potential future participation in higher education 
	 and from the prospects of children for a future, solid position in 
	 society, which always starts with the position on the labour market.
Classification-JEL: I23, I24, I25, I28, J62, O15
Keywords: postsecondary education, higher education, income inequality, 
	 income distribution, job mobility, social mobility, economic 
	 development, education policy 
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 2011
Number: 2011-057
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2011/wp2011-057.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2011057