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Cultural capital or relative risk aversion? Two mechanisms for educational inequality compared 1
Author(s) -
Van De Werfhorst Herman G.,
Hofstede Saskia
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the british journal of sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.826
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1468-4446
pISSN - 0007-1315
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-4446.2007.00157.x
Subject(s) - cultural capital , operationalization , social reproduction , highbrow , social mobility , social class , educational inequality , economics , cultural reproduction , risk aversion (psychology) , inequality , reproduction , sociology , demographic economics , social capital , positive economics , social psychology , psychology , financial economics , social science , expected utility hypothesis , epistemology , art , mathematical analysis , philosophy , ecology , literature , mathematics , market economy , biology
In this paper we empirically examined two explanatory mechanisms for educational inequality: cultural reproduction and relative risk aversion, using survey data taken from secondary school pupils in Amsterdam. Cultural reproduction theory seeks to explain class variations in schooling by cultural differences between social classes. Relative risk aversion theory argues that educational inequalities can be understood by between‐class variation in the necessity of pursuing education at branching points in order to avoid downward mobility. We showed that class variations in early demonstrated ability are for a substantial part cultural: cultural capital – measured by parental involvement in highbrow culture – affected school performance at the primary and secondary level. However, relative risk aversion – operationalized by being concerned with downward mobility – strongly affects schooling ambitions, whereas cultural capital had no effect. Thus, we conclude that ‘primary effects’ of social origin on schooling outcomes are manifested through cultural capital and not through relative risk aversion (in addition to other potential sources of class variations such as genetics). Relative risk aversion, and not cultural capital, affects schooling ambitions, which is relevant for our understanding of secondary effects.