SOCIAL CHANGE AND
EDUCATION IN GREECE
A New Book by Spyros
Themelis, Middlesex
University
Social Change and Education in Greece
This book takes a challenging and refreshingly novel
approach to the way education and social mobility are researched and theorised.
The key message it delivers goes against the dominant post-war orthodoxy, which
has postulated that education is both a mechanism for upward social mobility
and an engine for economic growth in liberal capitalist countries. The
conclusion the author reaches flies in the face of mainstream political
consensus that perceives social mobility as panacea for the provision of
occupational opportunities and an instrument for the levelling of the playing
field. Much of what lays beneath social mobility, Spyros Themelis argues (apart
from a great deal of sophisticated number-crunching) is a celebration and acceptance
of an unequal system of allocation of opportunities.
This is one among very few studies that explore social mobility and attendant processes with the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The author views social mobility not merely as the outcome of the movements of individuals from one income or occupational group into another, detached from their societal, community and family context, as in conventional mobility studies. Instead, he examines social mobility as a complex process, where socio-economic (e.g. migration), cultural (e.g. marital practices and community values) and political (e.g. political patronage) forces, experiences, arrangements and strategies interact and interconnect in impeding or enhancing individuals' and families' social mobility movements.
The book makes some contribution to the ongoing debate about
the economic crisis that has hit Greece since 2009. It suggests that
the failure of education to promote equality of opportunities is symptomatic of
the failure of the wider system to prioritise fair and equitable arrangements.
If Greece 's current
situation is to teach us a lesson, this is to urgently rethink about the whole
system, not only in Greece
but in the rest of the Western world too. The myth of education-based
meritocracy and unfettered social mobility has anaesthetised Western societies
to the multitude of social inequalities with which they are permeated. These
might be hard times, but all the more appropriate to urge us to think about
positive social change.
Dr Spyros Themelis
is a Senior Lecturer in Education, Department of Education, Middlesex University , UK
The book can be ordered
from this link: http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=537469
It is published in the Palgrave Macmillan Marxism and Education Series: http://www.palgrave.com/products/SearchResults.aspx?s=ME&fid=3658
Congratulations Spyros! I look forward to reading it, and also the book launch - Glenn Rikowski
**END**
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Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ
(live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor , north Wales );
and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo
(new remix, and new video, 2012)
'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor
Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8
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