Taking advantage: informal social mechanisms and equal opportunities policies
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
ISSN: 0144-333X
Article publication date: 21 June 2011
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how factors including class position, education, social network membership and cultural capital contribute to the intergenerational transmission of class advantage for women and men in different European welfare states.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyses the European Social Survey round 1 data.
Findings
Education is the dominant institutional mechanism for reproduction of privilege, but social network membership plays an important subsidiary role. The contribution of membership is highly gendered, even in the overtly more open social democratic and liberal societies.
Research limitations/implications
There were data limitations in ESS: no time‐series data, and no data on wealth.
Practical implications
The findings are of particular policy relevance at a time when reform programmes are stressing individual opportunity and shifting responsibility from state to citizen, so that informal pathways to the reproduction of privilege become more significant. These include network membership, contacts and cultural capital.
Social implications
The research indicates the importance of social network membership and sheds light on how this works to the advantage of middle and upper class groups and men in different European countries.
Originality/value
No other studies have used these data to explore these issues to the author's knowledge, and one needs to understand more about these issues in the context of current concerns about inequality and opportunity.
Keywords
Citation
Taylor‐Gooby, P. (2011), "Taking advantage: informal social mechanisms and equal opportunities policies", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 31 No. 5/6, pp. 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443331111141255
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited