Introduction

There is overwhelming evidence in this special issue that even the developed world is a long way from delivering the educational improvements that will ‘temper the deleterious effects resulting from cross-generational cycles of disadvantage’ and, in the process, ‘generate wider benefits in terms of better health, crime and social capital outcomes’ (Machin 2006, 19). Analysis in this special edition reveals a disheartening picture of complex patterns of inequality across and within individual countries, together with an incomplete understanding of the intersectional mechanisms – political, ideological, social and cultural – which link poverty and educational disadvantage.