Against the Odds?

This is exactly what is needed to bring moral relevance to the calculus of class ... Anyone who has experience of this kind of comparative research can only admire the achievements here. The theoretical part is equally impressive and gives original insights into such difficult and intricate problems as fairness, social justice and meritocracy. * Times Literary Supplement *
The ambition of this book is to bring together the strongest possible empirical analysis of class inequality and the most solid possible theoretical analysis of social justice ... Anyone who has experience of this kind of comparative research can only admire the achievements here. The theoretical part is equally impressive and gives original insights into such difficult and intricate problems as fairness, social justice and meritocracy. * Times Literary Supplement *
This book is lucidly written, and the fact that all technical details and specialistknowledge have been put in the appendices make it very accessible. Both the political-philosophical and the empirical sociological analyses are thorough. The authors have provided us with important new information on the relation between social inequality and social mobility on the one hand and social justice on the other...Marshell et al are to be congratulated for their efforts. Their book is an important contribution to the academic debate in the field of social inequality and socialjustice British Journal of Sociology 7/1998
The authors provide clear definitions of their central concepts and construct their arguments in detailed, systematic fashion. Their study would be especially useful for graduate students examining stratification processes and status attainment researchers attempting to enrich their models. C.E. Hurst. Americal Journal of Sociology.