A family affair: cultural class and micro-class reproduction in academia

Abstract Academics occupy a privileged position in society. They enjoy high levels of status, above-average incomes, and play a vital role in both producing scientific knowledge and educating the future labour force. Yet, while the diversity of academics in terms of gender, ethnicity and internationalisation has long been prominent on the public and sociological agenda, the issue of class background has been comparatively absent. This gap has been partly driven by a lack of large-scale representative data sources. In this article we combine rare population-wide Norwegian register data linked with information collected from all Norwegian academic institutions to investigate how class background shapes recruitment to the Norwegian academic profession. We then push further conceptually to examine the impact of more specific micro-class background (that is, having a parent in academia or with a PhD) and ‘capital-specific’ class origin (that is, having a parent with differing stocks of economic versus cultural capital). Our findings demonstrate that while Norwegians from privileged class backgrounds are significantly overrepresented in academia, it is those from cultural upper-class backgrounds that enjoy a particular advantage in accessing academic positions, and have done so consistently over the last 30 years. Micro class reproduction is also becoming increasingly significant in Norwegian academia, with those with parents holding a PhD and/or an academic profession enjoying a growing advantage over time when compared to individuals with a masters degree and higher.