The Educated Underclass
Students and the Promise of Social Mobility
We live in a world with too many graduates fighting for too few jobs; where Deliveroo and FedEx drivers have advanced degrees.
The Educated Underclass offers a much-needed look at this societal restructuring from the perspective of students. Gary Roth examines the way that universities often reproduce traditional class hierarchies, the mechanisms that enable upward and downward social mobility, and how the 'overproduction of intelligence' hinders students, calling for a realignment of how social classes function today.
The dream of social mobility is dying. Where previous generations where expected to surpass their parents' level of economic success, prospects for today's graduates are increasingly bleak.
The Educated Underclass offers a much-needed look at this societal restructuring from the perspective of students. Gary Roth examines the way that universities often reproduce traditional class hierarchies, the mechanisms that enable upward and downward social mobility, and how the 'overproduction of intelligence' hinders students, calling for a realignment of how social classes function today.
The dream of social mobility is dying. Where previous generations where expected to surpass their parents' level of economic success, prospects for today's graduates are increasingly bleak.
Gary Roth is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Rutgers University, Newark. He is the author of The Educated Underclass (Pluto, 2019) and Marxism in a Lost Century: A Biography of Paul Mattick (Brill/Haymarket Books, 2015).
'Modern American capitalism is producing a vast population of under-employed and unemployed yet highly educated people. Gary Roth provides a meticulously researched dissection of this phenomenon.' - Steve Fraser, author of 'Class Matters: The Strange Career of an American Delusion'
'A fascinating analysis that plots the distance between what we think we know about education and what the reality actually is. Cuts through the cloudiness of our long-held illusions.' - Alfred Lubrano, author of 'Limbo: Blue Collar Roots, White Collar Dreams'
List of figures and tables
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
1. Higher Education and Class
2. The Overproduction of Intelligence
3. Class in Transition: Historical Background
4. Underemployment Through the Decades
5. Class Status and Economic Instability
6. Into the Future
Notes
Index
Published by Pluto Press in Apr 2019
Paperback ISBN: 9780745339221
eBook ISBN: 9781786804426
eBook ISBN: 9781786804426
135mm x 215mm