Four Field-Related Educational Resources and Their Impact on Labor, Consumption, and Sociopolitical Orientation

Abstract

In modern societies, understanding the role of education in social inequality requires more than the study of the level of education attained. Attention should also be paid to the field of study in which people are educated. The authors propose that fields of study supply four types of resources to students: cultural, economic, communicative, and technical. Drawing on data from a nationally representative Dutch survey, they developed scales that measure the prevalence of these four types of resources across 11 fields of study. These scales are related to a wide range of variables in three domains: the labor market, consumption patterns, and sociopolitical orientations. Controlling for level of education, individuals who obtained many cultural resources more often participate in highbrow culture and attain a high cultural occupational status. Individuals who were trained in fields that provide economic resources are more materialistic and conservative in their behavior and attain high economic-status jobs. Those whose field of study attended to communicative qualities are more liberal in their sociopolitical orientation and participate more often in voluntary organizations. Technically educated people tend to have low occupational-status jobs and lifestyle preferences directly associated with their technical skills.