Education and Social Inequality Flashcards

These flashcards explore the interconnected factors of social inequality, comparing the influence of education against income, housing, health, and structural economic forces.

Social Inequality

A condition shaped by a wide range of interconnected factors, including education, income, housing, health, access to services, and structural forces such as discrimination and government policy.

Education

A powerful influence on social inequality because it affects employment, income, and long-term life chances.

Income and wealth inequality

The most fundamental drivers of social inequality because they shape access to education, housing, health, and opportunities in the first place.

Cultural capital

A benefit of education that includes confidence, networks, and knowledge.

Cycles of deprivation

Processes passed between generations in areas with poor educational outcomes, such as parts of inner-city Birmingham, Liverpool, or East London.

Place-based inequality

A key theme in Changing Places where structural barriers in deprived neighborhoods limit mobility, even for people with a good education.

Housing inequality

A factor that determines environmental quality, exposure to pollution, safety, and access to transport and services.

Health inequality

Both a cause and consequence of social inequality that reduces the ability to work, educational performance, and long-term earning potential.

Service deprivation

A form of inequality relating to lack of access to transport, healthcare, childcare

Structural factors

Forces including discrimination (race, gender, class), government policy, and globalisation that shape opportunities for entire communities.

Deindustrialisation

A process that created long-term unemployment and deprivation

Secondary influence

The classification of education's role in social inequality relative to deeper structural economic inequalities.