Øyvind Wiborg

Social origin and the risks of disadvantage in Denmark and Norway: the early life course of young adults

This study uses comparable Danish and Norwegian administrative registers in the period 1992 to 2003 to examine how social origin affects unemployment risks and social assistance reception over the early life course. Denmark and Norway have traditionally been viewed as similar in political, cultural and social aspects. However, labour market regulation in Denmark is more liberal than in Norway. This study therefore serves as a unique comparison of the impact of social origin under varying conditions of labour market regulation. Although the absolute probability of being disadvantaged decreases as individuals progress in age from 20 to 30 and varies between Denmark and Norway, the relative impact of social background is stable and similar. The results offer little support to theories that put a strong emphasis on inter-generational transmission through educational achievements, but rather point toward the importance of ascriptive resources. Generalised estimating equations are used to assess the repeated outcomes.

Interlocking Inequalities: Digital Stratification Meets Academic Stratification

This article examines the effects of digital inequality in conjunction with curricular tracking on academic achievement. Capitalizing on an original survey administered to seniors (fourth-year secondary school students), our survey data (N = 972) come from a large American public high school with a predominantly disadvantaged student body. The school’s elective tracking system and inadequate digital resources make for an excellent case study of the effects of a differentiated curriculum and digital inequalities on academic achievement. Multilevel random-effects and fixed-effects regression models applied to the survey data reveal the important role played by digital inequalities in shaping academic achievement as measured by GPA. As the models establish, academic achievement is positively correlated with both duration of digital experience and usage intensity regarding academically useful computing activities, even when students’ curricular and class placement are taken into account. In contrast, both leisure computing and smartphone usage are negatively correlated with academic achievement as measured by GPA. Also with regard to GPA, findings show that students in the higher curricular tracks benefit more from longer durations of digital experience than do students in lower curricular tracks. These results underscore the importance of focusing attention on the ways in which digital inequalities combine with curricular tracking in shaping academic achievement.