IS EDUCATION STILL AN IMPORTANT DIMENSION FOR SOCIAL MOBILITY? A perspective of educational inequalities in Southern Europe and in the European context With the widespread expansion of educational processes in Europe, some approaches that have been proposed argue that the educational dimension has been weakened as a factor involved in social mobility processes and as a structural element in social opportunities and inequalities. In this line, such perspectives advocate at the same time that with the intensification of financial crisis, the increase of unemployment, job insecurity and underemployment, and the reduction of capacity of benefits and functions of the welfare state, the school is today in an institutional crisis, putting into question the validity of resources (and results) that it can generate. This paper discusses these proposals, contradicting them through alternative theoretical positions and a solid empirical base of support. The developed analysis will envisage educational inequalities and their impacts on social mobility and inequality in targeted manner in Southern Europe and in the European context. This perspective will also be sustained by a comparison between countries and a comparison of how great educational dynamics have been recognized over time (last 50 years), in particular regarding educational mobility and inequality indicators. Some questions will be developed, empirically sustained, particularly concerning the importance of socio-educational backgrounds in the socio-education and socio-occupational destinations and the identification of patterns of social fluidity and educational inequalities, drawing matches with different educational transitions in national terms. While developing this study, we used several empirical references and sources. We used as central database the European Social Survey (2012). For a more contextual perspective and to identify the main dynamics of schooling, in addition to ESS databases, other sources used are Eurostat, UNESCO, etc., allowing for multi-scale comparisons and a broad diachronic perspective. These will therefore be very useful to the debate on educational inequalities and social mobility, providing for an articulated and joint reading of these various sources of information.

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Educational inequalities,social mobility,Southern Europe,European context