In their widely cited study, Shavit and Blossfeld report stability of socioeconomic inequalities in educational attainment over much of the 20th century in 11 out of 13 countries. This article outlines reasons why one might expect to find declining class inequalities in educational attainment, and, using a large data set, the authors analyze educational inequality among cohorts born in the first two-thirds of the 20th century in eight European countries. They find, as expected, a widespread decline in educational inequality between students coming from different social origins. Their results are robust to other possible choices of method and variables, and the authors offer some explanations of why their findings contradict Shavit and Blossfeld's conclusions.

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Collectivist versus individualist mobility regimes? Structural change and job mobility in four countriesDiPrete, Th.A.; de Graaf, P.M.; Luijkx, R.; Tåhlin, M.; Blossfeld, H.-P.

Presents the results of the comparative analyses of absolute mobility and social fluidity in 11 European countries covering the period 1970 to 2000. Findings are presented separately for men and for women. We find a marked convergence between countries in their patterns and rates of absolute social mobility. There is also a widespread tendency for class inequalities in mobility chances to diminish over time, though there remain quite substantial variations in this respect between countries.

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The dominant view in economics is that increasing demands for flexibility on the labour market jeopardizes employment security. However, against the prediction of a negative relationship or a 'trade-off ' between flexibility and security, there is evidence for a positive, mutually reinforcing relationship known as the 'flexicurity' thesis. Using comparative panel data for 14 European countries, we elaborate dynamic outcome indicators for flexibility and employment security to assess the differences across countries and welfare regimes in balancing the two.We estimate transition models to explain the observed mobility patterns. The outcomes confirm the impact of the institutional set-up indicated by regime type on these transitions supporting the 'variety of capitalism' approach.The regulated Southern and Continental regimes perform worst and the unregulated Anglo-Saxon and Nordic regimes best in attaining high levels of flexibility and employment security simultaneously, though for both regimes with a small loss either in flexibility or in security. KEY WORDSemployment security / flexibility / flexible contracts / flexicurity / job mobility / labour market / welfare regimes Background and purpose of the study

Summarizes the findings of the previous 12 empirical chapters and discusses issues in the development of explanatory theories of social mobility. The chapter also addresses two sorts of explanation of variations in social mobility: micro-models in which the role of education is central, and macro-models, which seek to relate mobility to features of societies as a whole such as their level of inequality and of economic development. The chapter looks at the policy consequences that follow from our results, particularly as these concern the role of the educational system. A final assessment in which the adequacy of existing theories of social mobility is called into doubt concludes the chapter.

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