Seminar details:
- 🗣️ Jani Erola, Professor of Sociology at the University of Turku, Director of the INVEST Research Flagship Center, and the Mapineq project leader
- 📆 Wednesday, 10 December 2025, 13:00 -14:00 (CET)
Event review:
The final online seminar organized in the framework of the Mapineq project was focused on the role of education for social mobility in Europe. The presentation was based on the project results summarized in its White Paper on Social Inequalities in Europe: From Early Childhood to Retirement.
Erola began by outlining widely accepted views: education is seen as the central mechanism for reducing inequalities related to family background, a foundation for skill development and inclusive growth, and one of Europe’s major policy achievements, from early childhood education to higher education. Investment in human capital has been regarded as a guaranteed return for societies, and Europe has followed this principle for decades.
However, the Mapineq findings highlight important caveats. Although education remains Europe’s “best bet”, it is also a major pathway and source of social inequalities. Expanding access to higher education no longer reduces family-background differences as effectively as before, and in some countries the effects have even reversed. Erola stressed the need to consider policy approaches that span several domains rather than relying on education alone.
The presentation reviewed persistent benefits and barriers linked to family background. Higher parental education continues to provide advantages across countries, with inequalities smaller in less selective systems (such as the UK, Belgium, and Finland) and stronger in more selective ones (such as Austria, Italy, and Hungary). Barriers arising from the loss of family human capital—through parental separation or death—remain substantial and appear in all social strata. Gains from parents’ further education or repartnering do not translate into improvements for children in the long run.
Local opportunity structures were shown to matter greatly. Increasing the local availability of higher education reduces inequalities, and a significant share of differences in educational attainment is regional rather than national. Yet moving to high-opportunity areas does not offset the negative long-term effects of residential mobility for children. Findings on early childhood education and care (ECEC) remain mixed: while many disadvantaged children benefit, country differences are wide. Evidence from Finland shows no direct long-term educational gains from daycare expansion, though ECEC supports children’s chances to meet their potential and improves women’s labour-market attachment.
Erola also discussed local opportunity barriers. Examples included widened urban–rural skill gaps during the COVID-19 pandemic, improvements in exam scores following a low-emission zone in Madrid, and unequal impacts of sustained heat exposure on academic performance. These findings point to regional differences in exposure to external conditions.
The presentation then turned to the links between family education, childhood economic circumstances, and later outcomes. Across Europe, childhood poverty is more closely related to parental education than to family structure, and mothers’ income continues to influence children’s educational attainment even in egalitarian contexts. Stable employment was shown to be nearly as important as income.
Beyond education, factors such as health, ECEC availability, local economic conditions, and gender influence labour-market outcomes, family formation, and late-career trajectories. For example, young adults in poor health have, on average, an over 30% points higher probability of being Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) compared to their very healthy counterparts.
Erola concluded by emphasising differences between regions and nations, the role of spillovers across life domains, and the impact of societal shocks such as COVID-19. He highlighted ongoing data limitations and underscored the importance of regional detail, better data infrastructure, and policies that recognise both universal needs and targeted interventions.
The presentation offered a comprehensive overview of lessons from the Mapineq project and underscored the need for approaches that recognise how inequalities emerge across multiple life domains and geographic contexts.
Watch the full presentation here: