Middle class education strategies and residential segregation in Athens

Abstract

This paper uses census data to investigate educational inequality in different types of residential areas in Athens, focusing on drop-out rates from secondary education, access to higher education and to particular degrees within it. The unequal socio-spatial distribution of educational attainment is linked to antagonistic middle class education strategies centred on school choice. Different forms of such strategies are identified broadly corresponding to different groups within the middle class hierarchy. Each form of school choice strategy has a particular relation to residential segregation. The latter is growing as a result, but under various forms and spatial scales that sometimes challenge the usual assumptions for the evaluation of neighbourhood effects.