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Press Release

Rising inequality in the UK undermines mobility and social cohesion

5 July 2010

New research, presented at a major international conference in London, demonstrates how inequality in education, skills and incomes reduces opportunity and undermines social cohesion. In education, for example, the social and ability mix of the school has a major impact on how well a child performs. Professor Andy Green, Dr Germ Janmaat and Dr Tarek Mostafa show this 'peer effect' is particularly strong in the UK where school intakes and performance vary widely. High levels of inequality in skills are, in turn, associated with growing income gaps and declining levels of social and political trust.

Other research presented by Professor Lorna Unwin, Professor Geoff Mason and Professor Ingrid Schoon, will highlight growing regional inequalities in the UK in adult training, teenage mobility, and social and economic conditions more generally.

The conference, Exploring Inequality and its Consequences: Education, Labour Markets and Communities, is organised by the Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES), and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

'One of the main aims of the conference is to bring together the most recent evidence on inequality from different fields of research so that the implications for policy can be debated and highlighted.' says Professor Green, director of LLAKES. Presentations will include the latest findings from LLAKES research projects as well as keynote presentations from leading academics working on inequality in the UK and around the world, including; Martin Carnoy, Danny Dorling, John Hills, Roger Jowell and Sylvia Walby.

The conference brings together over 70 delegates from the UK and abroad and takes the form of an extended seminar, with a mixture of plenary and smaller group sessions.



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