The Vanishing ‘Mass Education Society’
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15101044 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ryoji Matsuoka (0000-0002-5669-0683, Assistant professor and researcher at Waseda University’s Center for International Education, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 65-84 |
| Publication date | 2019-03-09 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Science Japan Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-1465 • E-ISSN: 1468-2680 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ssjj/jyy049 |
| OpenAlex | W2906788462 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 15 |
With a nationally standardised compulsory education system and the rapid expansion of upper secondary education, Japan was once characterised as a ‘mass education society’ with nationwide educational zeal. However, recent literature points to regional disparities in value orientations in the field of education, while no study has provided an empirical assessment of changes in regional disparities with comparable data collected during different periods. Thus, this study aims to investigate whether attitudes towards education became more divided between regions from the 1990s to the 2010s by using several waves of two nationally representative social surveys (SSM and SSP). Furthermore, by applying multilevel modelling to the SSP 2015 survey, this study clarifies how individuals’ places of residence relate to their attitudes towards education. The results indicate that regional disparities in people’s attitudes towards education emerged between the 1990s and 2010s. Moreover, disparities in cultural capital associated with socio-economic status partly explain the attitude gaps not only among individuals but also among neighbourhoods. Overall, this study’s empirical investigations validate the emerging regional disparities, indicating the collapse of the mass education society, and a differentiation mechanism based on socio-economic disparities between neighbourhoods.
Capital city · Demographic economics · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Human capital · Political science · Residence · Social capital · Social science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Demography · Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities · School Choice and Performance
Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education
Social Inequality in Post-Growth Japan
Distinction
The Mechanism(s) of Neighbourhood Effects
The Decision for Shadow Education in Japan
Neighborhood and Individual Factors Associated with Survey Response Behavior
Movement behind the Scenes
School socioeconomic compositional effect on shadow education participation
An invitation to reflexive sociology
Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
Concerted cultivation developed in a standardized education system
Emerging inequality in effort
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |