Empirical Social Research on Education and the Question of Unequal Educational Opportunities (Switzerland, 1950-1970)

The emerging discourse on unequal educational opportunities in the 1960s, which fundamentally changed educational policy and educational reforms, was based on sociological findings on educational inequalities. The article shows how the institutionalization of departments for sociology (of education) in universities after 1950 in Switzerland paved the way for country-specific empirical findings in this field. The paper traces the institutional and epistemological preconditions of sociological departments in Switzerland. With the expansion of higher education, the necessary (junior) positions were created. The sub-discipline took its cue from official statistics on higher education and American empirical social research.