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How do technology resources such as computer ownership help create opportunity equality and facilitate income mobility? This is an important question because opportunity constraint, or the lack of opportunity equality, often manifests in low income mobility in many countries. This study addresses this question by examining the spillover effects of computer ownership of households in terms of household income mobility considering spatial proximity and social proximity. Drawing on knowledge spillovers theory, we hypothesize that households experience upward income mobility due to increased computer ownership among households in spatial proximity. Further, drawing on social capital theory, we hypothesize that households experience higher upward mobility due to increased computer ownership among households in the region that are socially proximate or in the same caste. Our empirical analysis of data from over 32,000 households across all states in India from two waves (2005 and 2011) of the Indian Human Development Survey supports our hypotheses. Our exploratory analyses suggest that households in regions with high social harmony experience higher upward income mobility from increased computer ownership among households in the region. We also found that increased computer ownership among households in the region helps households belonging to disadvantaged castes overcome low income mobility. Overall, the study shows how the returns to computer ownership in terms of household upward income mobility go beyond private returns, and spill over to other households in spatial proximity, particularly to those belonging to the same caste. A key implication for policymakers is to use twin levers of social harmony and technology resources to create opportunity equality to facilitate income mobility, instead of focusing solely on technology resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study explores how economic development and gender-egalitarian ideologies and institutions are associated with gender inequalities in the intergenerational transfer of socio-economic status within families. Using 2005 EU-SILC survey data from 21 European countries, it examines how fathers’ and mothers’ roles and statuses during their children’s adolescence influence their achievements in adulthood, and whether these effects vary with changes in economic development and gender equality from 1955 to 1991. The results show significant gender disparities in parental roles and how mothers’ specialization, socio-economic status, and bargaining power affect children’s outcomes. Gender-friendly institutions and policies are more strongly associated with gender equality of opportunity than economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-functioned society depends on its ability to nurture, attract, and deploy talents in critical sectors. However, the implementation of some meritocratic principles to allocate positions often leads to unjust social hierarchies. Is there, then, a solution to meritocracy's dysfunctional hierarchical effects? This paper attempts to answer this by drawing on the real-world cases of Singapore and the USA to investigate the relationship of toxic social hierarchies with meritocracy. It proposes three solutions to curb the unjustifiable social stratifications and the erosion of social cooperation often associated with social meritocracy. These reflections could help to shed light on the grounds for the ongoing debates on social hierarchies and provide valuable insights into how to weigh up existing socio-political structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are two ways, broadly speaking, that one might conceive of meritocratic education. On a standard, ‘narrow’ conception, a meritocratic approach to education is one which distributes certain educational goods and opportunities according to merit. On a second, ‘broader’ conception, however, meritocratic education is an educational system suited to a commitment to meritocracy – where ‘meritocracy’ refers to a particular conception of distributive justice. In this article, I argue that these two conceptions are incompatible with each other, and so the standard ‘narrow’ conception of meritocratic education is, in fact, incompatible with a commitment to meritocracy, at least given the typical way of understanding meritocracy. Of particular importance is that while meritocracy, as a view of distributive justice, requires a commitment to equality of opportunity principles, the narrowly meritocratic conception of education does not. The reason has to do with differences in the underlying justifications of the merit-based principles in each: Meritocracy appeals to moral desert, while the educational desert that is grounded by one’s merits is best thought of as a kind of institutional desert. Thus, I will argue, while meritocracy (and so the broad conception of meritocratic education) is constrained by a fair equality of opportunity requirement, narrowly meritocratic education is not. Recognizing the relationships between meritocracy, meritocratic education, and equality of opportunity, I argue, sheds considerable light on disagreements in the debate over equality of opportunity in education.

This paper discusses the findings of a study of students with parental responsibility (student-parents) in England and Scotland. Exploring participants' experiences of pastoral and academic support during their university journey, the study builds on previous small-scale research projects into the needs of student-parents (Todd, 2023a; 2023b) and was undertaken in the wake of both the UK's Universities and Colleges Admissions Service's (UCAS) new question inviting student-parents to self-identify when applying to university and the 2023 introduction of the Office for Students' (OfS) Equality of Opportunity Risk Register (EORR) for institutions based in England. The study's findings reveal pockets of institutional good practice but also systemic failures in pastoral and academic support for studentparents across the sector, which pose a considerable risk to their retention, progression and success. This paper links these failures to the risk factors identified in the EORR, explores recommendations for practice to minimise these risks, and shares the findings that contributed to the OfS's decision, in January 2024, to include studentparents in the EORR, meaning all providers in England will now be obliged to have regard to this cohort in their Access and Participation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political egalitarians hold that there is a distinct ideal of political equality, which defines and justifies democracy. So what is political equality? The orthodox view says it is equality of opportunity for political influence, not equality of political influence. The first goal of this article is to argue against this view about the nature of political equality. From 1962 to 1983, Australia's First Nations citizens had the right to vote, but unlike other citizens they did not have the duty to vote. First Nations citizens were made politically unequal without being given any less opportunity for influence; the most plausible explanation for why they were made politically unequal is instead that they were made to exert less influence. The second goal is to use this challenge to illuminate the point of political equality. The orthodox view is typically undergirded by taking political equality to be concerned with some cosmic injustice that inheres in states of affairs, depending on the distribution of power. This is doubly mistaken. The point of political equality is deontic, not telic; and what it prescribes is not distributive, but relational. More specifically, the point of political equality is for the state to treat each citizen as an equal coauthor of the law. The overarching goal is to catalyze a more vigorous debate about political equality, akin to the long-standing debates about other dimensions of equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fact that financial exclusion leads to income inequality is detrimental to sustainable economic growth. Digital finance facilitates the provision of financial services to poor people and has the potential to promote income mobility so that to reduce income inequality. This study uses the Digital Financial Inclusion Index and household data from the China Household Finance Survey to examine the association between digital finance and households' income mobility. Results show a significantly positive association between digital finance and upward income mobility. Underlying mechanism analyses suggest that digital finance is positively associated with upward mobility through the channels of equal opportunity and financial capability. Further heterogeneous analyses find that asset, education, and age can be moderators in the relationship between digital finance and income mobility. The findings demonstrate the importance of digital finance in promoting the income mobility of disadvantaged people and achieving the goal of inclusive and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implicitly or explicitly, youth work practitioners, scholars and advocates typically invoke a set of egalitarian values to explain, justify and promote the ethical basis of their work. Despite such commitments, there exists conceptual ambiguity surrounding equality across much of the youth work literature which has significant consequences for how youth work is framed and defended. This article introduces the interdisciplinary field of Equality Studies and argues that an Equality Studies approach provides a means to (i) clarify equality-related normative goals within the youth work field and (ii) enhance radically orientated youth work by strengthening the conception of equality at its core. It analyses three areas of conceptual ambiguity within the youth work literature with respect to the value of equality, in each case demonstrating how an Equality Studies approach can help remedy the problem. These areas are: (i) the assumption that equality means 'sameness'; (ii) the limits of equality of opportunity and anti-discrimination; and (iii) the relationship between equality and other values. It then evaluates the concept of 'equity', arguing that it is a vague, inadequate and unnecessary vehicle for capturing egalitarian concerns. The article concludes with some comments on the feasibility of radically egalitarian youth work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2024, the European Commission announced the latest development in the European Education Area: the European Diploma. The aim is to create a new type of qualification that will be automatically recognised throughout the EU. This project responds to various trends currently observed. For example, the consolidation of the knowledge economy; the need to achieve strategic autonomy; and the urgency of combating growing social inequalities, which contribute to creating polarised societies. Analysing the European Diploma from a sociological perspective reveals its paradoxical nature. The Diploma seeks to be inclusive and to foster European identity, yet it is intrinsically exclusive. This is due to two of the programme's requirements: multilingualism and international mobility. This article will show how, while these elements can benefit students, they can also reproduce discriminatory dynamics. Attention will be paid to understanding how social origin can affect language learning and the possibility of international mobility.

Over the past 20 years, a number of political theorists have been focusing on the just political treatment of linguistic diversity in liberal democratic societies. This body of work, known as the 'linguistic justice' literature, has mainly examined two specific categories of linguistic groups: autochthonous linguistic minorities and immigrants. However, it has entirely neglected non-resident citizens, that is, citizens of a country who reside in a different one, and their distinctive language interests and rights. In this article, we address this gap by developing a theory of linguistic justice for non-resident citizens, using diaspora institutions as a case study. More specifically, we draw on the linguistic justice literature to outline two categories of non-resident citizens' language interests and rights, that is, those related to opportunity access and to democracy. We finally suggest ways in which language-related diaspora institutions could be reformed in order to better fulfil non-resident citizens' language interests and rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies educational inequality in the Philippines from 1950 to 2015, examining changes in the association between social origin and educational attainment against a backdrop of educational expansions and fluctuating economic conditions. Using data from the World Bank STEP Skills Survey, the study employs a sequential logit model to illustrate trends in secondary and college completion, followed by a multinomial logit model to look into differences in college destinations (type and status) between advantaged and disadvantaged students. The findings indicate that despite sustained expansions in the past six decades, disparities in secondary and tertiary completion deepened in relation to social background. The paper also finds that although expansions occurred mainly in public higher education institutions, it did little to alter the trends in college destinations, with advantaged students still more likely to complete in "high-status" universities than disadvantaged ones. Finally, the paper sheds light on how economic recessions have varying consequences on educational attainment, routing disadvantaged students out of college in the short term, while resulting in significant declines in the likelihood of completing higher education for advantaged students enrolled in "high-status" public entities in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to identify variables that explain students’ academic performance, determine their relative importance, and consequently, develop an index to distinguish advantaged and disadvantaged schools in pursuit of educational equality. By using this index, we intend to build a model for evaluating schools’ overall performance based on their equality of opportunity. The research is structured within the quantitative research paradigm and the relational research design has been adopted. The research was carried out in 52 secondary schools and analysis were performed on data collected from 1143 students, 1600 teachers and 141 school administrators. While collecting the data, a monitoring exam was used to measure student achievement, which is the dependent variable. Data on independent variables were collected with student, teacher, and administrator surveys. Hierarchical linear modelling and ratio analysis were employed while analysing the data. It was found that student-level variables explain success more than school-level variables. Twenty different variables in total at the student and school level were found to be effective on student achievement. Based on these variables, a school advantages index was created. It has been observed that schools with a high school advantage index are also better off in terms of average school achievement. However, when evaluated together with the school advantages index, it was revealed that the effectiveness order of the schools changed. Our suggestion is that education systems need to have a more holistic approach to evaluate school performances. To provide both fair and radical equality of opportunity, each school should chart a course considering its own conditions regarding the education of disadvantaged students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most common approach to measuring inequality of opportunity in income is to apply the Gini inequality index or the Mean Log Deviation (MLD) index to a smoothed distribution (i.e., a distribution of type mean incomes). We show how this approach can be naturally extended to include life outcomes other than income (e.g., health, education). We propose two measures: the Gini and MLD indices of multivariate inequality of opportunity. We show that they can be decomposed into the contribution of each outcome and the dependence of the outcomes. Using these measures, we calculate inequality of opportunity in health and income across European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the relationship between social mobility and economic development. First, we map the geography of intergenerational mobility in education for 52 Latin American regions, and examine its evolution over time. Then, through a new weighting procedure considering the level of participation of various cohorts in the economy in each year, we estimate the association between changes in mobility and regional economic indicators, such as income per capita, inequality, poverty, labor formality, and luminosity. Our findings show that increasing social mobility is consistently associated with economic development and growth in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Method Results Conclusion Justice Capital provides a theoretical framework for explaining individual differences in the belief in a just world (BJW). However, this framework has yet to receive empirical validation.Using Round 9 of the European Social Survey, a large (n = 43,209) multi‐country (N = 29) sample, I conduct multilevel latent profile analysis and multilevel multinomial logistic regression to determine the latent profiles that emerge at a population level and map the demographic and experiential covariates of these profiles.Incorporating measures of general BJW, distributive and procedural justice, and the belief in equality of opportunity, I find three latent profiles: meritocrats, moderates, and egalitarians. Compared with egalitarians, meritocrats (strong just world believers) are more likely to be male; younger; have a higher income; have attained more years of education; to be politically conservative; and have no recent experience of discrimination or crime. Meritocrats were overrepresented in countries with a higher Human Development Index.This study demonstrates the feasibility of Justice Capital for understanding individual variation in general BJW and related justice beliefs; discussion centers on anomalous findings and extension of this theoretical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Pädagogik is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many research institutions and funders have recently stated their commitment to actively support and promote 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) in various aspects of health research including Patient and Public Involvement (PPI). However, translating this commitment into specific research projects presents significant challenges that existing approaches, practical guidelines and initiatives have not adequately addressed. In this paper, we explore how the lack of clear justifications for the EDI commitment in existing guidelines inadvertently complicates the work of those involved with PPI and we stress the need for conceptual clarity for any EDI effort to yield meaningful results. Our focus centres on the first principle of the EDI discourse, 'equality', particularly in the form of 'equality of opportunity' as outlined in current guidance provided by the National Institute of Health Research in the United Kingdom. We examine challenges related to justifying and implementing a general, unspecified commitment to equality of opportunity and explain that this reflects a lack of consensus regarding the moral value of PPI in research – a profound problem that remains unaddressed. We then discuss how the presence of several opposing moral perspectives on PPI, makes determining the most appropriate way of addressing barriers to involvement complex and controversial, raising ethical implications for the work of health researchers, PPI specialists and coordinators. Finally we make suggestions on how future research can enrich the concept of 'equality of opportunity' in PPI and improve practice. While our primary focus is on the NIHR, a strong advocate of PPI in research, this analysis will point to normative and ethical considerations that may be relevant to other research institutions and funding organisations aiming to promote equality of opportunity in their public and patient involvement strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2006, universities in England that want to charge higher fees to their domestic undergraduates have been required to agree a plan with an access regulator appointed by the government. This article identifies the objective for the regulation as equalising opportunity, then considers its effect, drawing on policy literature, ministerial statements, legislative and regulatory texts, and national data. In doing so, it exposes how the policy objective has been implemented through legislation, regulatory guidance and university practice, and how this has yielded improving but not equalising opportunity. This is due to the limited influence of the powers available to, and guidance issued by, the regulators in a system of competing autonomous universities, which yields stratification based on the entry grades of young people and their social background. The lesson for higher education policy is the imperative for closer alignment between policy objectives, legislation to empower their implementation, approaches taken by regulators and university practice. In competitive systems within which universities have autonomy in relation to their admissions, policies to equalise opportunity require legislation and regulation that is influential enough for universities to prioritise more equitable outcomes ahead of other imperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Imagens da Educação is the property of Universidade Estadual de Maringa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article shows that post-Keynesian economics is more closely tied to the proposal of equality of place rather than that of equality of opportunity. More precisely, it advocates for the approach of utilizing equality of place as a means to attain equality of opportunity. These are two conceptions of social policy. Equality of opportunity distinguishes between poor and non-poor, and state intervention is focused on poor people. This mode of intervention promotes individuals' improvements in human capital, assuming that the poor can reach the position they want through a competitive process. In contrast, the idea of equality of place is intertwined with the concept of decommodification and supply-side subsidies. It envisions a scenario in which markets might not ensure that people can access fundamental rights. Consequently, it suggests an alternate role for state intervention. Because some heterodox and post-Keynesian authors have identified with the principle of equality of opportunity, it is important to clarify the nature of the relationship between social policy and post-Keynesian economics. The principle of equality of place can provide a framework of social policy that is consistent with the tenets of the post-Keynesian tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Complutense de Educación is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of the study is to identify variables that explain students’ academic performance, determine their relative importance, and consequently, develop an index to distinguish advantaged and disadvantaged schools in pursuit of educational equality. By using this index, we intend to build a model for evaluating schools’ overall performance based on their equality of opportunity. The research is structured within the quantitative research paradigm and the relational research design has been adopted. The research was carried out in 52 secondary schools and analysis were performed on data collected from 1143 students, 1600 teachers and 141 school administrators. While collecting the data, a monitoring exam was used to measure student achievement, which is the dependent variable. Data on independent variables were collected with student, teacher, and administrator surveys. Hierarchical linear modelling and ratio analysis were employed while analysing the data. It was found that student-level variables explain success more than school-level variables. Twenty different variables in total at the student and school level were found to be effective on student achievement. Based on these variables, a school advantages index was created. It has been observed that schools with a high school advantage index are also better off in terms of average school achievement. However, when evaluated together with the school advantages index, it was revealed that the effectiveness order of the schools changed. Our suggestion is that education systems need to have a more holistic approach to evaluate school performances. To provide both fair and radical equality of opportunity, each school should chart a course considering its own conditions regarding the education of disadvantaged students.

After municipalities (local governments) and county level governments were established in Hungary in 1990, public education was operated, governed and financed by these elected bodies with the financial support of the central government until the end of 2012. In this decentralised system differences in local wealth and income of municipalities led to significant inequalities in the funding and performance of their schools, and the learning outcomes of the children studying in these. The FIDESZ-KDNP coalition government that took office in 2010 radically centralised the system of governance and funding of schools, claiming that this will be a remedy to the problems of the system. Based on a large set of research interviews and previous research results our paper investigates the declared goals of this reform, and tries to explore its motives as well. According to our research interviews granting equal opportunity in education to every child seems to be the overarching goal of centralisation, and there are three more other goals as well, including the creation of a more efficient and cost-effective system of institutional management. However, some characteristics of the selection of these goals and the seemingly complete lack of the monitoring of their fulfilment, together with the fact that independent research already proved that the centralisation was definitely unable to achieve its main declared goal, may substantiate the claim that this just served as a cover or pretext, and there probably exists a hidden agenda that is more important for the government than the publicly declared goals. Based on interviews with former politicians, education researchers, advisors and school headmasters we tried to find some of the possible real motives and hidden goals. Although the existence of such goals is impossible to prove exactly, we found several circumstances that may substantiate their existence.

Copyright of International Journal of Social Sciences (IJSS) / Uluslararasi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of International Journal of Social Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the light of the recent literature on the intellectual history of inequality, this paper offers the first survey and a tentative classification of the Italian literature addressing issues related to social mobility, from the late 19th century to the "Economic Miracle" of the 1950s. During these decades, the foremost Italian economists and statisticians (among others, Pareto, Gini, Einaudi and Pantaleoni) worked on issues highly related to the modern understanding of social mobility, from the role of inheritance to the intergenerational transmission of status. While reflecting the evolution and debates in Italian society, these authors also participated in a broader international debate, which should lead us to reconsider the supposed lack of interest in inequality among the economists of this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of affirmative action on the incentives to human capital accumulation are ambiguous from a theoretical perspective and the scarce empirical evidence on the matter provides mixed results. In this paper, we address this issue by investigating the impacts of Brazil's Law of Quotas on the students' performance in the college entrance exam, the ENEM. We provide causal evidence that the law fostered incentives to pre-college human capital accumulation, inducing students to attain higher ENEM scores. Moreover, the effects of the quotas were greater in quantitative-intensive subjects and these impacts increased throughout the first years after the law's implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we discuss concepts of procedural fairness and equality of opportunity, and review the descriptive evidence regarding such procedural fairness preferences and their dynamic consistency. We then review the empirical relationship between equality of opportunity and preferences for redistribution. We discuss evidence derived from both survey and experimental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Social Research & Behavioral Sciences / Sosyal Araştırmalar ve Davranış Bilimleri Dergisi is the property of Journal of Social Research & Behavioral Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)