Educational field of study and social mobility: disaggregating social origin and education

We examine the relationship between social origin and education by looking at it in more detail than is usually done. Rather than seeing origin and education as hierarchical characteristics, we argue that both should be disentangled in more detailed combinations of hierarchical levels and horizontal fields. Using Dutch survey data for men, we show that children often choose fields of study in which affinity is found with the class fraction of their father. This way, social selection into fields of study is guided by the domain of the father’s occupation. Importantly, affinity in domains across generations hampers intergenerational social mobility.