The Highway to succes? Dynamics of Access to the Upper Fractions of the French Social Space (1918-1972)

Abstract

The sociology of social mobility and the sociology of the elite often focus on how one's social background shapes access to prestigious curricula that open pathways to the top of the social hierarchy. This is especially true in France, where a significant portion of the political, economic, scientific, and cultural elite consists of graduates from the prestigious Grandes Écoles. This narrow focus tends to underestimate the reproduction of inequalities within these institutions and beyond, especially in French sociological works. To shed light on these little-known mechanisms, we focus on the professional paths of graduates from these elite institutions born between 1918 and 1972, based on an original dataset that compiles data from the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) Labor Force Surveys. Our analyses nuance the common idea of the *Grandes écoles* as the gateway for access to elite status within the French social space. If public service appears to be a safe path for alumni from working-class backgrounds, the shift towards the private sector appears to be more characteristic of former students who are better socially endowed. These findings underscore the relevance of combining two sociological fields of inquiry that remain largely segmented: the sociology of social mobility and the sociology of elites. It also reveals how the neoliberal turn in France has been mainly driven by the most socially privileged fraction of the French social space