Abstract: How do individuals achieve upward mobility in education despite the well-documented mechanisms that foster reproduction of inequalities? This question presents a fundamental puzzle for social science researchers and has generated an increasing body of research. The present article tackles the puzzle using a life course and personal network lens. Studying educational trajectories in Germany of students whose parents have low educational degrees, it asks: What paths did students take through the education system, what personal network factors were important for their educational attainment, and how did these factors change over students' life courses? In contrast to most studies that zoom in on a specific transition or time period, the article uses data from 36 retrospective in-depth interviews that allow a sweeping view of respondents' educational careers. Thanks to a systematic case selection scheme, the data also enables comparisons between students who became upwardly mobile and

A central question in criminology is the degree to which adult transitions are sources of stability or change throughout the life course. Transitions in the form of marriage and employment are said to represent turning points for those most prone for a life course of persistent offending, as such experiences 'knife off' a criminal past. Few studies, however, have considered college completion as an adult transition capable of redirecting one's criminal trajectory. Moreover, research largely assumes that any attainment represents a positive turning point, but whether transitions like educational attainment really are positive depends on how these resources compare to prior generations, such as those of one's parents. The study of social mobility broadens our understanding of socioeconomic attainments by encompassing continuity and change within the life course, as certain achievements may be indicative of stability while others may represent a change - either positive or negative. For instance, obtaining a high school diploma may symbolize a positive turning point for those who grew up in poverty, while similar achievements for those from a higher social class may reflect a loss in social status if it is not followed by further educational attainment. Drawing on theories of social mobility, strain, and relative deprivation, I analyze the relationship between educational mobility and crime using data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). First, I examine the relationship between educational mobility (i.e., one's own achieved education in relation to parents' attainment) and various types of crime (i.e., instrumental crime, violent crime, and illegal drug use). Next, I investigate how gender and race/ethnicity moderate the association between educational mobility and crime. Finally, I assess the concern of selection into educational mobility pathways via propensity score analyses, with the purpose of accounting for the confounding bias that may explain the alleged educational mobility and crime association. Results show that upward and downward intergenerational mobility are associated with decreases and increases in financial stressors and social psychological measures. Moreover, downward educational mobility is associated with greater increases in crime for females compared to males, and upward mobility results in greater reductions in crime for blacks and native-born Hispanics. Finally, results show that overall patterns of intergenerational mobility are robust when incorporating a series of propensity score techniques that account for confounding bias. In total, this dissertation contributes to the long speculated socioeconomic status and crime connection by integrating social mobility and education into criminological research as meaningful sources of change in the life course.

The deeply-ingrained perception that equality of opportunity exists for all Americans, dubbed the myth of upward social mobility, suggests that continued expansion of educational opportunities is the most viable conduit for intragenerational upward social class mobility. Viewed through a class structural perspective, individual placement within the economic structure determines the life chances or opportunities available to individuals, and individual economic success may depend upon educational attainment. Two general orientations toward educational attainment in the United States are the meritocratic perspective and the reproductive prospective. McMurrer and Sawhill (1998) suggest since fewer available opportunities are provided within the current environment of declining economic dynamism, educational processes may actually operate to maintain or reproduce class structures instead of making class structures more permeable (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1973; Gilbert, 2003) thus limiting upward mobility. Absent from the meritocratic and reproductive perspectives concerning social mobility research is the dimension of individual agency and how individual action may influence the permeability of class boundaries. The purpose of this study is to describe and discover the perceptions scholarship recipients who obtained college degrees may have concerning their own intragenerational social mobility and how those perceptions may affect the broader issues of social and economic inequity through a qualitative exploration grounded in life course research, structuration theory, interpretative phenomenology, and Heideggerian hermeneutics. This study is important because it may serve as a springboard for further research concerning scholarship intervention in educational attainment and intragenerational social mobility by looking at the perceptions of individuals who have attempted through educational attainment to move through class barriers. Conceptualization of the findings may create a holistic picture of the role scholarship receipt and educational attainment play in intragenerational social mobility.

"In Moving: A Memoir of Education and Social Mobility author Andy Hargreaves tells the story of his working-class roots, his education, and his experiences with social mobility. Beginning with his youth in the small working-class town of Accrington in Northern England and ending with his experiences at University, the author relates his journey through the education system and all that education has done for him. The author describes what it means to be working-class, his personal successes and failures, and the ways that education allowed him to lift himself out of poverty. However, he also describes the ways that many others were left behind and never given the chance to be socially mobile. The author believes that there are lessons that can be learned from his experience of social mobility and that these lessons can be applied to society at large. In particular, educators can use these lessons to encourage and support students' social mobility and increase the number of students who can become socially mobile. These lessons can also be used to create schools that are kinder to working-class students and to students who are socially mobile. Readers will connect to the engaging, heart-felt story of the author's life and, through it, learn about the reality of social mobility, how it is experienced, and how it can be supported"--

"Upward mobility through the path of higher education has been an article of faith for generations of working-class, low-income, and immigrant college students. While we know this path usually entails financial sacrifices and hard work, very little attention has been paid to the deep personal compromises such students have to make as they enter worlds vastly different from their own. Measuring the true cost of higher education for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, Moving Up without Losing Your Way looks at the ethical dilemmas of upward mobility--the broken ties with family and friends, the severed connections with former communities, and the loss of identity--faced by students as they strive to earn a successful place in society"--Dust jacket.

This thought-provoking book analyses recent innovations for researching travel behaviour over the life course. Original in its approach, it synthesises quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods to contribute to conceptual, methodological and empirical advancements in the field.

Combines classic and cutting-edge scholarship on personal social networks. A must-have resource for both newcomers and seasoned experts.