#socialmobility — Public Fediverse posts

Privately educated CEOs seen as ‘safer bet’ by investors, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/may/14/privately-educated-ceos-safer-bet-investors-class-bias-study #PrivateSchools #Education #Schools #Business #Ftse #FinancialSector #StockMarkets #SecondarySchools #Sociology #SocialMobility #Inequality #Society #UkNews #UsNews #WorldNews #ClassIssues

Privately educated CEOs seen as ‘safer bet’ by investors, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/may/14/privately-educated-ceos-safer-bet-investors-class-bias-study #PrivateSchools #Education #Schools #Business #Ftse #FinancialSector #StockMarkets #SecondarySchools #Sociology #SocialMobility #Inequality #Society #UkNews #UsNews #WorldNews #ClassIssues

Privately educated CEOs seen as ‘safer bet’ by investors, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/may/14/privately-educated-ceos-safer-bet-investors-class-bias-study #PrivateSchools #Education #Schools #Business #Ftse #FinancialSector #StockMarkets #SecondarySchools #Sociology #SocialMobility #Inequality #Society #UkNews #UsNews #WorldNews #ClassIssues

Privately educated CEOs seen as ‘safer bet’ by investors, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/may/14/privately-educated-ceos-safer-bet-investors-class-bias-study #PrivateSchools #Education #Schools #Business #Ftse #FinancialSector #StockMarkets #SecondarySchools #Sociology #SocialMobility #Inequality #Society #UkNews #UsNews #WorldNews #ClassIssues

2/4 These are fields - media and cultural studies and cultural theory - that are increasingly being framed as problematic, both ideologically and instrumentally. Yet they have played an important role in challenging the elitist tendencies of the mainstream, including those surrounding #socialmobility. If only either Seddon or Rajan had attended one of these institutions instead of having the disadvantage of studying for an undergraduate degree at #Oxford and #cambridge.

Still, we shouldn’t be surprised. This is, after all, a conversation on the #BBC between two Oxbridge-educated figures – albeit one is from South London the other West Yorkshire – taking about how social mobility might be used to include more people from #workingclass backgrounds in the system as it currently exists. It’s a social and educational system that was constructed in advance, although not by working-class people themselves, of course. A system that has in fact historically exploited and marginalised them.

2/4 These are fields - media and cultural studies and cultural theory - that are increasingly being framed as problematic, both ideologically and instrumentally. Yet they have played an important role in challenging the elitist tendencies of the mainstream, including those surrounding #socialmobility. If only either Seddon or Rajan had attended one of these institutions instead of having the disadvantage of studying for an undergraduate degree at #Oxford and #cambridge.

Still, we shouldn’t be surprised. This is, after all, a conversation on the #BBC between two Oxbridge-educated figures – albeit one is from South London the other West Yorkshire – taking about how social mobility might be used to include more people from #workingclass backgrounds in the system as it currently exists. It’s a social and educational system that was constructed in advance, although not by working-class people themselves, of course. A system that has in fact historically exploited and marginalised them.

2/4 These are fields - media and cultural studies and cultural theory - that are increasingly being framed as problematic, both ideologically and instrumentally. Yet they have played an important role in challenging the elitist tendencies of the mainstream, including those surrounding #socialmobility. If only either Seddon or Rajan had attended one of these institutions instead of having the disadvantage of studying for an undergraduate degree at #Oxford and #cambridge.

Still, we shouldn’t be surprised. This is, after all, a conversation on the #BBC between two Oxbridge-educated figures – albeit one is from South London the other West Yorkshire – taking about how social mobility might be used to include more people from #workingclass backgrounds in the system as it currently exists. It’s a social and educational system that was constructed in advance, although not by working-class people themselves, of course. A system that has in fact historically exploited and marginalised them.

2/4 These are fields - media and cultural studies and cultural theory - that are increasingly being framed as problematic, both ideologically and instrumentally. Yet they have played an important role in challenging the elitist tendencies of the mainstream, including those surrounding #socialmobility. If only either Seddon or Rajan had attended one of these institutions instead of having the disadvantage of studying for an undergraduate degree at #Oxford and #cambridge.

Still, we shouldn’t be surprised. This is, after all, a conversation on the #BBC between two Oxbridge-educated figures – albeit one is from South London the other West Yorkshire – taking about how social mobility might be used to include more people from #workingclass backgrounds in the system as it currently exists. It’s a social and educational system that was constructed in advance, although not by working-class people themselves, of course. A system that has in fact historically exploited and marginalised them.

2/4 These are fields - media and cultural studies and cultural theory - that are increasingly being framed as problematic, both ideologically and instrumentally. Yet they have played an important role in challenging the elitist tendencies of the mainstream, including those surrounding #socialmobility. If only either Seddon or Rajan had attended one of these institutions instead of having the disadvantage of studying for an undergraduate degree at #Oxford and #cambridge.

Still, we shouldn’t be surprised. This is, after all, a conversation on the #BBC between two Oxbridge-educated figures – albeit one is from South London the other West Yorkshire – taking about how social mobility might be used to include more people from #workingclass backgrounds in the system as it currently exists. It’s a social and educational system that was constructed in advance, although not by working-class people themselves, of course. A system that has in fact historically exploited and marginalised them.

Calls for ‘student premium’ to support disadvantaged young people after GCSEs https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/28/calls-for-student-premium-to-support-disadvantaged-young-people-after-gcses #SocialMobility #Inequality #Schools #Education #UkNews #Teaching #DepartmentForEducation #SchoolFunding

We need to build better and more equitable education systems. How rich you are born today influences way too much your chances at educational and professional success. Social mobility should be maximized!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wqduTqIGm1g
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility

#SocialMobility #Equality #WealthInequality #Piketty #Inequality #Equity #Freedom #Democracy

https://www.europesays.com/ie/334183/ New stats on wealth, income and social mobility should spark national debate on inequality: Observers #AnnualHouseholdIncome #AssociateProfessorTheseira #Business #ChristopherGee #Economy #Éire #IE #IncomeInequality #inequality #Ireland #NationalConversation #Singapore #SingaporeUniversity #Singaporeans #SocialMobility #WealthInequality

@greenparty_ie

There is a cynical pandering by mainstream Irish parties on issues of migration. It’s particularly notable in some of the stances taken by FG.

Rather that combatting disinformation, some have opted for a me too embrace of fear based xenophobic politics.

Its shameful stuff and a distraction from the glacial pace in governance addressing #affordability, the #HousingCrisis, physical and social #infrastructure, and #SocialMobility

#IrishPolitics

This looks set to be a brilliant event on understanding the needs of lower-income families, with many great speakers, including CPC-CG member Athina Vlachantoni, who will discuss how we should properly value both paid and unpaid work.

Register to attend in person or online on 10 Feb: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/unsung-britain-final-conference/

#demography #socialpolicy #socialscience #families #lowincome #costofliving #inequality #labourmarket #socialmobility #economy #livingstandards #poverty #welfare #caring #ageing #ukpolitics

‘Immoral’: Cambridge college urged to drop private school recruitment drive https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/jan/08/university-of-cambridge-trinity-hall-recruitment-private-schools #UniversityOfCambridge #OxbridgeAndElitism #PrivateSchools #Admissions #SocialMobility #AccessToUniversity #Students #HigherEducation #Universities #HigherEducationPolicy #Schools #Society #Education #UkNews

"No wonder the American Dream took such a beating in the July 2025 Wall Street Journal-NORC at the University of Chicago poll. Just 25% of people surveyed believed they “had a good chance of improving their standard of living,” the lowest figure since the survey began in 1987. And according to 70% of respondents, the American Dream no longer holds true or never did. That figure is the highest in 15 years.

In full carnival barker mode, Trump is once again claiming “we have the hottest economy on Earth.” But the respondents to the Wall Street Journal-NORC poll aren’t buying it. Just 17% agreed that the U.S. economy “stands above all other economies.” And more than twice that many, 39%, responded that “there are other economies better than the United States.” It’s a hard sell when the inflation-adjusted weekly wages of nonsupervisory workers are still lower than what they had been in 1973, now more than half a century ago.

And economic worries are pervasive. Three-fifths (59%) of respondents were concerned about their student loan debt, more than two-thirds (69%) were concerned about housing, and three-quarters (76%) were concerned about health care and prescription drug costs.

Rising housing costs have hit young adults especially hard. The median price of a home in 1990 was three times the median household income. In 2023, that figure had reached nearly five times the median household income. And the average age of a first-time homebuyer had increased from 29 in 1980 to 38 in 2024."

https://www.dollarsandsense.org/the-american-dream-we-hardly-knew-you/

#USA #SocialMobility #Capitalism #Economy #PoliticalEconomy #Inequality

NEXT WEEK - #CPCCGWebinar 27 Nov

🧑‍🏫 Ayse Guveli, Professor of #Sociology at the University of #Warwick, will discuss the consequences and long-term impact of #migration on #migrants using research from the 2000 #Families and The Third #Generation projects.

Register to join us online - all welcome: https://www.cpc.ac.uk/activities/event_calendar/955/CPC_CG_Webinar__Ayse_Guveli

#demography #socialscience #immigration #geography #Turkey #socialinequalities #socialmobility #family #lifecourse

There's an interesting paradox in the focus on social mobility in much education & social policy.

If status (which is what social mobility is partly about) is relative & is quite strongly related to income, then for people to rise up the ranks (to be socially mobile upwards) others, must surely be falling, either in absolute or relative terms.

(And for anyone about to quote the 'lump of labour' fallacy, this is why I focussed on relative status not absolute incomes.)

#SocialMobility

Social success not about who you know – it’s about knowing who knows whom https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jun/20/social-climbing-stanford-university-research #Highereducation #Socialetiquette #Socialmobility #Lifeandstyle #Friendship #Worldnews #Education #Students #Society #Science

"Our capital allocators – who, during the post-war, post-New Deal era were often drawn from working families – are now increasingly, relentlessly born to that role.

For the wealthy, this is the origin of the meritocracy to eugenics pipeline. If power and privilege are inherited – and they are, ever moreso every day – then either we live in an extremely unfair society in which the privileged and the powerful have rigged the game…or the invisible hand has created a subspecies of thoroughbred humans who were literally born to rule.

This is the thesis of the ultra-rich, the moral justification for rigging the system so that their failsons and faildaughters will give rise to faildestinies of failgrandkids and failgreat-grandkids, whose emergence from history's luckiest orifices guarantees them a lifelong tenure ordering other people around. It's the justification for some people being born to own the places where the rest of us live, and the rest of us paying them half our salaries just so we don't end up sleeping on the sidewalk.

"Hereditary meritocracy" is just a polite way of saying "eugenics." It starts from the premise of the infallible invisible hand and then attributes all inequality in society to the hand's perfect judgment, its genetic insight in picking the best people for the best jobs. If people of one race are consistently on top of the pile, that's the market telling you something about their genomes. If men consistently fare better in the economy than women, the invisible hand is trying to say something about the Y chromosome for anyone with ears to hear.

Capitalism's winners have always needed "a superior moral justification for selfishness," a discreet varnish to shine up the old divine right of kings."

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/20/big-cornflakes-energy/#caliper-pilled

#Capitalism #Inequality #SocialMobility #Meritocracy #Eugenics

#Homeownership #WealthInequality #SocialMobility #Housing
🏠 Who gets to own a home – and why?
New study by @jascha_draeger @nrmllr and @klauspforr shows:
➡️ #Inheritances & family gifts – even just expected – strongly influence who buys property. They account for up to 54% of homeownership gaps between social classes. Without these transfers, children from working-class families are far less likely to buy a home.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103190

Check out the newly published conference report “The Empire and I: Individuals in Empires and Postimperial Spaces”! The conference was organised by @GRK2571 at @unifreiburg (28–30 Nov 2024).

Written by Lara Forster & Kaja Plate, it explores personal perspectives on imperial frameworks.

🔗Read it here: https://t1p.de/conf-rep-24

@dfg_public @histodons @histodon #empires #histodon #histodons #conference #postimperial #academicpublishing #imperialbiographies #socialmobility #romanempire #ottomanhistory #habsburgempire #colonialhistory #genderedspaces #globalhistory #institutions #earlymodernhistory

Being on social benefits...

... in the UK has some interesting disadvantages 🤨

👇

#Welfare #SocialBenefits #SingleParent #Disability #Poverty #PovertyTrap #SocialMobility

Housebuilder’s charitable foundation launches new £200,000 funding programme

Persimmon say a total of £200,000 is available, with applications now open for two £50,000 donations, which will be awarded in May.

A second round of funding will open in June, with an additional two £50,000 donations awarded in September.

The latest winners in Wales were the charity arms of both Cardiff City and Swansea City football clubs.

Cardiff City FC Community Foundation delivers a range of impactful initiatives that engage individuals and communities, offering opportunities to develop skills, improve well-being, and foster community cohesion.

Swansea City AFC Community Foundation runs innovative programmes that address challenges such as social isolation, health inequalities, and educational gaps, focussing on building prosperity by inspiring educational achievement and entrepreneurial spirit.

Persimmon say the aim of the programme is to give more charities and community groups the opportunity to access Foundation donations. Applications are encouraged from organisations that focus on social mobility and youth development, including learning and training.

Anthony Vigor, Chair of the Foundation, said: “This new open application programme will create new opportunities for us to support organisations that tackle inequality and aid social mobility, helping us to change more lives.”

The deadline for applications for the first round of funding is 11.59pm on Sunday, April 13th. Charities can apply via the Foundation section of the Persimmon Corporate website at persimmonhomes.com/corporate/foundation

#Charity #community #football #grantFunding #Persimmon #socialMobility #Swansea #SwanseaCityFoundation

Typical "Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor" scenario:

"Many Americans are pinching pennies, exhausted by high prices and stubborn inflation. The well-off are spending with abandon.
The top 10% of earners—households making about $250,000 a year or more—are splurging on everything from vacations to designer handbags, buoyed by big gains in stocks, real estate and other assets.

Those consumers now account for 49.7% of all spending, a record in data going back to 1989, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. Three decades ago, they accounted for about 36%.

All this means that economic growth is unusually reliant on rich Americans continuing to shell out. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, estimated that spending by the top 10% alone accounted for almost one-third of gross domestic product.

Between September 2023 and September 2024, the high earners increased their spending by 12%. Spending by working-class and middle-class households, meanwhile, dropped over the same period.

“The finances of the well-to-do have never been better, their spending never stronger and the economy never more dependent on that group,” said Zandi, who oversaw the analysis, which was based on data from the Federal Reserve. The analysis runs through the third quarter of 2024 because that is the most recent data available.

Taken together, well-off people have increased their spending far beyond inflation, while everyone else hasn’t. The bottom 80% of earners spent 25% more than they did four years earlier, barely outpacing price increases of 21% over that period. The top 10% spent 58% more."

https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/us-economy-strength-rich-spending-2c34a571

#USA #Inequality #Poverty #SocialMobility #Capitalism #Plutocracy

working for a #betterworld for everybody definately pays off but unfortunately the #corruption in this #finance #system is MASSIVE #garycseconomics https://www.youtube.com/@garyseconomics/videos Gary's economics - #socialmobility - most people end up being as #rich or #poor as their #parents what this means: in #capitalism #possession is not taxed enough and #work is #tax ed too much
even worse: the #superrich basically avoid tax completely which of couse leads to massive social #inqeuality #economics #finance #money #bank #banks #wtf #stopthismadness

New research highlights the ‘lost Einstein’ problem: most Nobel science laureates grew up in households near the top 10% income bracket—over half in the top 5%.

Want your child to win a Nobel? The data suggests two tips: have a son and live in the U.S.

https://conference.nber.org/conf_papers/f209309.pdf

#Science #NobelPrize #socialmobility #class #classwar

A report relased today from the University of Glasgow, and commissioned by the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS), finds that ‘the median income for visual artists is just £12,500 a year. This represents a 40% decrease in earnings since 2010 (£16,000) and is 47% lower than the income of full-time minimum wage workers (£23,795).’

https://www.dacs.org.uk/news-events/artists-earnings-report-2024

The situation is even worse for women who earn 40% less than men, and disabled artists who earn a median of just £3,750.

#art #visualart #copyright #creative #socialmobility #disabilityjustice #women #workers

A future seems to be beckoning in the UK where an arts and humanities education will be available only to privileged people at a small number of so-called ‘top universities’. As it is, research just published by the Sutton Trust reveals that already ‘there are low proportions of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds on a range of creative degrees’.

Over half of the creative students at four such institutions – Oxford, Cambridge, King’s College London and Bath – are from upper-middle-class backgrounds. While Cambridge (4%), Oxford (5%), Bath (4%) and Bristol (5%) have the lowest percentages of students studying creative subjects who come from working-class backgrounds.

https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/A-Class-Act.pdf

#art #humanities #creative #class #classwar #universities #highered #socialmobility

And I don't see it changing any time soon.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/28/uk-loses-out-on-19bn-in-annual-gdp-growth-due-to-lack-of-social-mobility

#UKPOL #UKpolitics #Poverty #SocialMobility #UK

The American dream is dead for many. Social democracy can bring it back | Bhaskar Sunkara https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/16/social-democracy-america #Socialmobility #USpolitics #USeconomy #Society #Poverty #USnews

via @jayvanbavel
Believing in the American Dream increases affluent parents’ likelihood of "opportunity hoarding"

Affluent parents who believed in #socialMobility, unfairly advantage their children (eg misrepresenting their identities on school & job applications)
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2407230121?utm_source=TOC&utm_medium=ealert&TOC_v121_i37=&ref=d22276

#GOP Deploys the “#Mudsill Theory” to Destroy #SocialMobility

Eight Red states have made it easier for children to get trapped in a cycle of work that often ends their educational progress and consigns them to a lifetime of manual labor.

Eight other #Republican-controlled states are currently considering legislation to weaken #ChildLaborLaws, while 13 mostly Democratic-controlled states are in the process of tightening their restrictions

— Meanwhile, Republican-controlled states are waging war against universal quality #PublicEducation for their #Children
#elitism #billionaires @ThomHartmann
https://hartmannreport.com/p/why-the-gop-deploys-the-mudsill-theory-cd8?r=f9bh

How economic inequality harms societies | Richard Wilkinson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ7LzE3u7Bw&ab_channel=TED

http://www.ted.com

We feel instinctively that societies with huge income gaps are somehow going wrong. Richard Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows what gets worse when rich and poor are too far apart: real effects on health, lifespan, even such basic values as trust.

#Income #Disparity #HealthEffects #SocialDestruction #BirthRates #InfantMortality #SocialMobility