Contents: Part I: Introduction -- 1. Key challenges for the sociology of education - theoretical, methodological, and empirical issues / Rolf Becker -- Part II: Theoretical foundations -- 2. A sociological perspective on education as a lifelong process / Gwendolin Josephine Blossfeld, Pia Nicoletta Blossfeld and Hans-Peter Blossfeld -- 3. How does education depend on social origin? / Robert Erikson -- 4. The rational choice paradigm in sociology of education / Volker Stocké -- 5. Multiple social contexts of education: Systematic commonalities, differences and interrelations / Steffen Hillmert -- 6. The problem of meritocracy: The belief in achievement, credentials, and justice / David B. Bills -- 7. Measurement of skills and achievement - a critical assessment of theoretical and methodological concepts / Sabine Weinert and Cordula Artelt -- Part III: Methodological problems -- 8. Longitudinal data analysis in the sociology of education - key concepts and challenges / Thorsten Schneider -- 9. Experiments in the sociology of education: Causal inference and estimating causal effects in sociological research on education / Christoph Zangger and Rolf Becker -- Part IV: Modernisation and educational expansion -- 10. Educational expansion and inequalities: How did inequalities by social origin and gender decrease in modern industrial societies? / Andreas Hadjar -- 11. Gender segregation in education / Irene Kriesi and Christian Imdorf -- Part V: Organization of education and outcomes -- 12. How do educational systems affect social inequality of educational opportunities? The role of tracking in comparative perspective / Jan Skopek, Moris Triventi and Sandra Buchholz -- 13. Early educational inequality - growing up in different learning environments / Birgit Becker -- 14. The equalising effect of schools and its limits / Anne Christine Holtmann and Fabrizio Bernardi -- 15. Educational institutions and inequalities in educational opportunities / Jörg Dollmann -- 16. Vocational education and training in comparative perspective / Corinna Kleinert and Marita Jacob -- 17. Vertical and horizontal stratification in higher education / David Reimer and Jens Peter Thomsen -- 18. Still a safety net? Revisiting the role of vocational education and training in school-to-work transitions in Europe / Irena Kogan -- 19. The social structure of schools and classrooms / Dominik Becker -- 20. Teachers - their characteristics and their role in the education system / Martin Neugebauer -- 21. Disability and inequality in educational opportunities in life course perspective / Justin J.W. Powell and Lisa Pfahl -- Part VI: Benefits of education and returns to education -- 22. Returns to adult education and inequality - a life course perspective / Felix Weiss -- 23. Socioemotional skills in education and beyond: Recent evidence and future research avenues / Clemens M. Lechner, Silke Anger and Beatrice Rammstedt -- 24. Returns to education in the life course / Michael Gebel and Guido Heineck -- 25. Knowledge capital and economic growth / Eric A. Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann -- Part VII: Migration, education, and social integration -- 26. Ethnic inequality in educational attainment / Bernhard Nauck -- 27. Language assimilation and the education of immigrant students / Cornelia Kristen -- Part VIIi policy implications of research in sociology of education -- 28. Large-scale assessments of educational systems / Manfred Prenzel and Christine Sälzer -- 29. Simulation of outcomes of educational policies and programmes / Volker Müller-Benedict -- 30. Beyond schools - the social embeddedness of educational inequality / Camilla Borgna, Christian Brzinsky-Fay, Martina Dieckhoff, Anne Christine Holtmann and Heike Solga -- Index.