Schooling Choices of Wealthy Families in Germany

Karen Lillie

Which schooling choices are made by wealthy families and how do these choices fit into broader mechanisms of social reproduction? In the US and the UK, education has been proven to act in the (re-)production of status. How education functions in the German context, however, remains unclear. Germany appears to have an egalitarian educational system, yet it still has low levels of social mobility and high levels of inequality. The project therefore aims to explore how education and inequality intersect in this context. Contributing to the fields of elite studies and sociology of education, this research sheds light more broadly on processes of social reproduction in Germany, particularly in comparison to the US and the UK. Data for the project will come both from interviews with families and ethnographic work in schools.

Go to Editor View