Steffen Hillmert

University of Tübingen | EKU Tübingen · Department of Sociology

Social mobility research starts conventionally from the children's generation and looks at group-specific individual life chances. However, an immediate interpretation of these results as measures of social reproduction is often misleading. This paper demonstrates the usefulness of a related but alternative approach which looks at intergenerational...

Heterogeneity of local conditions and spatial dependencies are typical aspects of sociological phenomena. However, large-scale empirical data is often rather limited with regard to the spa- tial references that are (publicly) available to researchers. We describe several aspects of the problem and assess available options and consequences associate...

The neighbourhood environment has repeatedly proven to be a relevant context for central aspects of individuals' lives, such as educational attainment. The conventional approach of measuring neighbourhood characteristics within disjunct geographical units fixed at a particular scale is less suitable for representing the characteristics of individua...

Von einem korrelativen Zusammenhang zwischen zwei Variablen kann man nicht unmittelbar auf einen ursächlichen (kausalen) Zusammenhang zwischen ihnen schließen. Dieses Wissen hat sich in der Wissenschaft und inzwischen vermehrt auch im Alltag etabliert. Neben dem Problem der zeitlichen Abfolge von Ursache und Wirkung geht es hierbei insbesondere um...

Analysing trends in the social openness of society has for decades been a central aspect of sociological research on inequality. In this tradition, I describe long-term developments of intergenerational social mobility and reproduction in (West) Germany during the 20th century, paying particular attention to relevant mechanisms and conceptual issue...

This article investigates the relevance of local selectivity in study programmes for the probability of attaining a first academic degree. Empirical selectivity can be the result of both selection procedures of study programmes and self-selection of potential students. From higher-education research, complemented by prominent arguments from school...

Die Idee der Leistungsgerechtigkeit bildet eine zentrale Legitimation für Ungleichheiten in modernen Gesellschaften. Als empirisch verstandene Selbstbeschreibung der Gesellschaft erweist sie sich vielfach als Ideologie. Der entsprechende Fokus der Ungleichheitsforschung auf leistungsfremde, illegitime Diskriminierung stellt allerdings auch eine ent...

Against the background of considerable regional disparities, we test the “discouraged worker” hypothesis, which postulates that poor regional socioeconomic conditions foster students’ aspirations for more education, ultimately leading to an extension of their educational careers. Our two dependent variables are (i) whether students aspire to prolon...

Socio-economic contexts and spatial effects have received increasing attention at the intersection of sociology and education. This research group has laid substantial groundwork in this emerging field of research by developing concepts and methodological techniques for analysing spatial contexts, by collecting and preparing relevant contextual dat...

Link zum Eintrag "Ungleichheit in der Bildungsbeteiligung": https://doi.org/10.35468/wbeb2022-277 ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Das vorliegende „Wörterbuch Erwachsenen- und Weiterbildung“ is...

Based on available literature, this essay looks at trends in scholarly attitudes and academic practices, primarily within the sphere of social sciences, and asks whether they have been in line with Robert K. Merton’s institutional principles of science as they were formulated in his famous essay “The Normative Structure of Science.” This essay argu...

********************* Paper preview: https://rdcu.be/cVzEx ********************* Merkmale der akademischen Studienqualität werden für verschiedene Zwecke empirisch erhoben. Oft werden individuelle Bewertungen aus Befragungen aggregiert und als Merkmale zur Charakterisierung von Studiengängen oder anderen institutionellen Einheiten bis hin zu ganze...

This study examines the relevance of labour-market conditions for individual occupational status expectations. We are particularly interested in students’ status expectations in the final stages of their school careers. Occupational expectations are an important basis for adolescents’ biographical decisions and corresponding transitions to vocation...

Zusammenfassung: In einer experimentellen Vignettenstudie sollten die Befragten darüber entscheiden, ob Studienbewerber(innen) beispielsweise aufgrund ihres Migrationshinter grunds, ihrer sozialen Herkunft oder Anstrengung jeweils einen Bonus oder Malus auf die Zulassungsnote angerechnet bekommen sollen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Dimensionen sozi...

In an experimental vignette study, the respondents were asked to decide whether college applicants should be credited with a bonus or malus on the admission grade, for example due to their migration background, social origin, or effort. The results show that dimensions of social educational inequality tend to be considered in the direction of compe...

This paper focuses on the structure and extent of wage differences among graduates of different higher-education institutions in Germany. We ask how large these differences are and how they relate to fields of study and regional labour markets. The results from our application of cross-classified random-effects models to a cohort of the DZHW Gradua...

Der Beitrag beschreibt aus einem soziologischen Blickwinkel aktuelle Rahmenbedin-gungen für Bildungsinstitutionen und individuelles Bildungsverhalten in einer diffe-renzierten und dynamischen Gesellschaft. In Kombination einer Lebensverlaufs-perspektive und des Blicks auf zentrale gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen werden ver-änderte Bedingungen von B...

This paper proposes to broaden the focus of analysis when studying the importance of parental context for a child’s educational achievement and attainment. Research has assessed the relevance of social origin primarily in the form of effects of parental characteristics. However, two additional aspects require further attention: first, individual-le...

Students’ personal learning networks can be a valuable resource of success in higher education: they offer opportunities for academic and personal support and provide sources of information related to exams or homework. We study the determinants of learning networks using a panel study among university students in their first and second year of stu...

Analyses of social contexts are almost universal in social research. In many cases, however, they are not explicitly labelled or even recognized as such. The conceptual aspect of ‘context’ then remains implicit in the substantive research question – such as when investigating the effects of ‘social background’ as a characteristic of an individual’s...

Building on the sociological work by Lareau, this study examined the association between students' socioeconomic background, prior achievement and the perception of teacher support within the classroom. We expected that students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds would be more critical about the support they receive in the classroom and rate the...

Previous empirical studies have shown that there is an association between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and educational achievement. There is also evidence that high-quality teaching contributes to student achievement and that low-achieving students in particular profit from good teaching. In this paper we investigate if teaching quality con...

Today, most college students use the Internet when preparing for exams or homework. Yet, research has shown that undergraduates’ information literacy skills are often insufficient. In this paper, we empirically test the relation between information-seeking strategies and grades in university. We synthesise arguments from the literature on informati...

Educational and occupational aspirations at the end of secondary school: The importance of regional labour-market conditions* The transition from general schooling to vocational training or to the labour market marks a crucial threshold in the life course of young adults. It has been well documented that successful school-to-work transitions are in...

Spatial context effects are a topic in many scientific disciplines. This paper examines which conceptual steps are necessary for determining the extension, or the appropriate scale, of relevant spatial environments when contexts can be analytically disaggregated into context elements. Adequate models of scale need to specify not only the distance-d...

Building on the sociological work by Lareau (2003), this study examines the association between students' socioeconomic background, prior achievement and the perception of teacher support within the classroom. We expect that students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds would be more critical about the support they receive in the classroom and rat...

The Internet has become a pivotal source of information among university students. However, studies routinely show that many students lack digital information literacy skills (i.e. skills needed to find and evaluate information online). In this paper, we report results from an experimental study testing the effect of a workshop for third-year stude...

In this chapter, an interdisciplinary research group of sociologists and educational scientists discusses how the informational environments of college students influence potential and actual dropout behavior. Previous research has identified academic performance and social integration as the key predictors of student dropout. Our focus is on a fur...

------------------------------------------------ Winner of the 2017 NEPS Publication Award ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We investigate to what exte...

Die lebensverlaufsbezogene Forschung hat in den letzten Jahrzehnten auch innerhalb der soziologischen Bildungsforschung deutlich an Bedeutung zugenommen. Zum einen sind in der empirischen Forschung Längsschnittanalysen zunehmend wichtig geworden, welche die Analyseeinheiten nicht nur zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt, sondern über einen gewissen Zeitra...

In this article, an actor-centered model of households’ decision to obtain an Internet connection is set up to explain the diffusion of Internet technology. First, we derive a mechanism based on the demand and supply of online information, services, and goods which drives this diffusion. Afterwards, we link this mechanism to social inequalities wit...

Welche Rolle kann man der Struktur von Bildungssystemen als Erklärungsfaktor für soziale Bildungsungleichheiten zuschreiben? In der öffentlichen wie der wissenschaftlichen Diskussion wird hier häufig ein enger und direkter Zusammenhang unterstellt, nicht zuletzt auch in Debatten um Ergebnisse der PISA-Studie. Ein solcher Zusammenhang interessiert w...

Regional context conditions can have a crucial impact on school-to-work transitions and subsequently individual life chances. This paper aims to develop an approach to analyse the spatial references of regional socio-economic contextual settings young adults are embedded in. We apply this approach to assess the impact of regional unemployment on th...

Gender-specific segregation of occupations has remained a typical characteristic of contemporary labour markets. From an individual perspective, (gender-)specific positioning in the labour market is the result of longer-term developments over the life course; these may be influenced by specific macro-level conditions. For example, education and tra...

This paper describes mutual links between educational attainment and social inequality from a life course perspective. Analytically we distinguish between aspects of inequality with regard to access to education, consequences of education, and social reproduction through education. A special emphasis is put on the role institutions play in these pr...

Empirical studies indicate that immigrant students are disadvantaged in most educational systems, but also that the international variation in their relative situation is remarkable. However, little is known about the processes that lead to their disadvantage and to corresponding international differences. This paper explores the role of specific n...

Bildungschancen von Kindern hängen entscheidend vom familiären Hintergrund ab, insbesondere vom Bildungsniveau der Eltern. Darüber hinaus ist deren Bildungsniveau mit Prozessen der Partnerschaftsformierung und Familienbildung eng verbunden. Diese Prozesse sind dem Bildungserwerb der Kinder vorgelagert. Bedeutsam ist hier insbesondere das Phänomen d...

To what degree and extent is the educational distribution in successive generations affected by parental differential fertility and social inequalities in educational attainment? Lower educated women, for example, are likely to have more children than higher educated women, and the children of lower educated mothers are more likely to attain less e...

Der Beitrag analysiert die Folgen von Arbeitslosigkeit für das Erwerbseinkommen nach dem Wiedereinstieg in Beschäftigung. Größenordnung und Veränderungen dieser Effekte im Lebensverlauf werden auf Basis vorhandener Untersuchungen und mittels eigener Analysen beschrieben. Letztere basieren auf Daten der Versicherungskontenstichprobe (VSKT) 2006 der...

On the basis of inter-cohort comparisons, this paper describes patterns of intra-generational occupational mobility in Germany and their long-term trends since World War II. It also presents conceptual links between individual mobility and developments of inequality along the life course, with a special focus on the question of the extent to which...

Successful transitions from school to work are decisive for success later in life. The situation of young people at this stage is therefore an issue not only for scientific research, but also for public discussion. A high level of institutionalized coordination has traditionally been a core element of the German institutional system, not least with...

Zusammenfassung Die betriebliche Ausbildung im dualen System bildet nach wie vor das Kernstuck des deutschen Berufsbildungssystems. Traditionell gilt sie auch als ein entscheidender gesellschaftlicher Integrationsfaktor. In den letzten Jahren wird ihre Funktionsfahigkeit aber zunehmend in Frage gestellt. Oft ubersehen wird dabei die grose Heterogen...

Graduating from university is just the final step of an extended educational career. Sociological transition research has revealed that final educational attainment must be understood as the result of a sequence of successive decisions. With regard to graduation from university, one has to take into account that upper secondary school qualification...

Erfolgreiche Übergänge zwischen Schule und Beruf sind entscheidend für den weiteren Lebenserfolg. Die Gesamtsituation Jugendlicher und junger Erwachse- ner bei diesen Übergängen steht daher traditionell im Mittelpunkt der öffentli- chen Aufmerksamkeit. Auch jede systematische Planung von (weiterführenden) Bildungsangeboten ist unmittelbar damit kon...

Das Verhältnis von Bildung zu Prozessen sozialer In- und Exklusion ist in den letzten Jahren zunehmend ins öffentliche gesellschaftliche Bewusstsein gerückt. Unter sozialer Inklusion wird im Folgenden soziale und politische Teilhabe verstanden. Soziale Exklusion bedeutet dann den Verlust entsprechender Teilnahmechancen (vgl. auch Kronauer 2003; Bud...

Die lebensverlaufsbezogene Forschung hat in den letzten Jahrzehnten auch innerhalb der soziologischen Bildungsforschung deutlich an Bedeutung zugenommen. Dies lässt sich im Wesentlichen auf zwei Tendenzen zurückführen. Zum einen sind in der empirischen For-schung generell Längsschnittanalysenzunehmend wichtig geworden, welche die Analyse-einheiten...

Successful transitions from school to work are decisive for success later in life. The situation of young people at this stage is therefore an issue not only for scientific research, but also for public discussion. A high level of institutionalised coordination has traditionally been a core element of the German institutional system, not least with...

Modern societies depend on the successful and comprehensive provision of skills, and receiving vocational training in any form has been experienced by a majority of the population in younger cohorts. There has therefore been a constant demand for timely information about the various forms of training and their relations to a broader societal contex...

Zusammenfassung Aufgrund der demografischen Entwicklung ist in den kommenden Jahrzehnten mit einem deutlichen Rückgang des Erwerbspersonenpotenzials zu rechnen. Volkswirtschaftlich wie auch aus Gründen der individuellen Alterssicherung wird folglich die Einbeziehung Älterer in das Erwerbsleben zunehmend wichtig. Dabei stehen die wohlfahrtsstaatlich...

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in cross-national comparisons of education and training systems. But how similar or different are national skill systems? To what extent, how, and why do they change? The public and scientific discourse about the modern “knowledge society” seems to imply that they will follow uniform trends rat...

Ohne Zusammenfassung

This paper proposes a comparison of skill formation in Germany and Britain over the last decades. Taking historical trends into account, the two cases can be regarded as representing different types of skill production regimes. Institutional features include a relatively low degree of standardization of training and a larger amount of on-the-job tr...

"Ausgangspunkt des Beitrages ist eine theoretische Betrachtung der Bedeutung regionaler Disparitäten und regionaler Mobilität für die Analyse individuellen Arbeitsmarktverhaltens. Merkmale der regionalen Ebene (wie insbesondere die lokale Beschäftigungssituation) können das Ausmaß der verschiedenen Mobilitätsprozesse am Arbeitsmarkt entscheidend be...

This chapter looks at the consequences of political, institutional and market changes for life-course patterns in West and East Germany. It summarizes major institutional changes and developments on the macro level and discusses possible relationships to crucial events which mark the transition to adulthood: leaving education and training, entering...

How does social inequality in educational attainment develop along the life course? In this paper, we give a theoretical and empirical discussion of this typical aspect of educational careers. We distinguish two main chronological dimensions in educational trajectories: first, the institutionalized sequence of transitions in the educational system;...

Ohne Zusammenfassung

How does social inequality in educational attainment develop along the life course? In this paper, we give a theoretical and empirical discussion of this typical aspect of educational careers. We distinguish two main chronological dimensions in educational trajectories: first, the institutionalized sequence of transitions in the educational system;...

In gesellschaftlichen wie sozialwissenschaftlichen Diskussionen rücken Phänomene der Unsicherheit zunehmend ins Blickfeld, auch in Bezug auf das Bildungsverhalten. Allerdings ist das Themenfeld Unsicherheit sehr heterogen. Der vorliegende Beitrag liefert einen Überblick über ausgewählte soziologische Zusammenhänge mit Unsicherheiten im Rahmen von B...

In conditions of increasing economic uncertainty, a body of social stratification researchers claims that significant class inequality in life chances persists (Breen, 19976. Breen , R . (1997). ‘Risk, Recommodification and Stratification’. Sociology, 31(no. 3): 473–89. View all references; Goldthorpe, 200021. Goldthorpe JH (2000) ‘Social Class a...

Welche Rolle kann man der Struktur von Bildungssystemen als Erklärungsfaktor für soziale Bildungsungleichheiten zuschreiben? In der öffentlichen wie der wis-senschaftlichen Diskussion wird hier häufig ein enger und direkter Zusammen-hang unterstellt, nicht zuletzt auch in Debatten um Ergebnisse der PISA-Studie. Ein solcher Zusammenhang interessiert...

Abstract As in other advanced societies, education and training careers in Germany have extended and have become more complex,over the last few decades. A considerable ,number ,of young ,people undertake additional episodes of formal training in spite of the fact that they have already successfully completed,vocational or academic training. Inprevi...

Die 1980er und 1990er Jahre gelten als Jahrzehnte der Krise, geprägt durch Turbulenzen auf dem Ausbildungs- und Arbeitsmarkt, aber auch die historischen Entwicklungen im Zusammenhang mit der Wiedervereinigung. Wie gelang es unter diesen erschwerten Bedingungen jungen Menschen, Schule und Ausbildung zu absolvieren und im Erwerbssystem Fuß zu fassen?...

Die in diesem Buch beschriebenen Jahrgänge 1964 und 1971 traten während der 1980er und 1990er Jahre in Ausbildung und Erwerbstätigkeit ein. Beide Jahrzehnte waren unter anderem durch ausgeprägte wirtschaftliche Krisen gekennzeichnet. Inwieweit hat sich die recht unsichere Situation auf die wichtigen Lebensabschnitte von Ausbildung und Arbeitsmarkte...

Dieses Kapitel gibt einen Überblick über die gemeinsame Datenbasis der Beiträge dieses Buches. Das Projekt Ausbildungs- und Berufsverläufe der Geburtskohorten 1964 und 1971 in Westdeutschland ist die jüngste Teilstudie des Forschungsprogramms „Lebensverläufe und gesellschaftlicher Wandel“ am Forschungsbereich „Bildung, Arbeit und gesellschaftliche...

Like other advanced societies, Germany has experienced marked developments in its social structures during the last decades. But Germany has also been a rather special case due to historical events and institutional characteristics. This distinctiveness is now being called into question. This study traces the major changes in social structure durin...

Zusammenfassung In Debatten um Bildung und Ausbildung in Deutschland wird immer wieder auf die Zunahme von Mehrfachausbildungen hingewiesen. Dieser Beitrag gibt aus einer individuellen Lebensverlaufsperspektive einen empirischen Überblick zu diesem Themenkomplex: Er beschreibt die Häufigkeit von Mehrfachausbildungen, ihre zeitliche und inhaltliche...

This paper analyses theoretically the decision to enrol in university under the conditions of certain educational systems. In particular, the impact of an institutional alternative of vocational training (as in Germany) and the possibility of combining vocational and academic training are examined. The comparison of educational systems shows how di...