ABSTRACT
This chapter examines education and social mobility in France in relation to the structure of opportunity and the system of class relations. It shows the ways in which individuals and groups in French society accumulate advantages or disadvantages in the opportunity structure. The chapter also shows both considerable job mobility and much professional closure. It outlines the objective conditions of the economic and educational aspects of the opportunity structure in France. The education system's role in relation to social mobility is usually assessed by a consideration of inter-generational movement. The chapter finds some mobility at all levels of the occupational structure, both during normal careers, especially in the nationalized sector, and over the generations – movement probably made possible by diplomas gained in the education system. It emphasizes the hierarchial nature of educational institutions and its correlation with social origins at each level, but we must also insist once again on the importance of hierarchies.
