On September 5, the LINEup Project was presented at the ECSR 2025 Conference, with a contribution focused on the Systematic Literature Review of Longitudinal Studies on Educational Inequalities, developed by the Consortium under the leadership of the University of Piraeus Research Center (UPRC).

The European Consortium for Sociological Research (ECSR) Annual Conference is one of the leading venues in Europe for scholars working on social stratification and inequality. This year’s edition, hosted by the Department of Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of Cologne, focused on the theme ‘Demography and Social Inequality’. The conference addressed how demographic change shapes welfare states, social inequalities, and social cohesion, while offering opportunities for innovation in policy and practice.

Veronica Mobilio, LINEup Scientific Coordinator, presented the project and the outcomes of the LINEup systematic literature review in one of the sessions dedicated to ‘SES and Educational Inequalities’. Particular attention was devoted to discussing the LINEup conceptual model of variables identified as factors and predictors of inequalities in education, illustrating how student-, family-, teacher-, school-, and system-level dimensions interact over time. The presentation also highlighted how these findings align with established theoretical frameworks in the literature – such as the Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), the Cumulative (Dis)advantage Model (Merton, 1988), the Model of Educational Attainment (Mare, 1977), as well as more recent approaches including intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989; Grant & Sleeter, 2007; Gillborn, 2015) and the OECD framework on educational equity (OECD, 2012; 2023). Together, these perspectives offer new insights into the mechanisms through which inequalities in education emerge and persist.

An iterative process is now underway to update and finalise the LINEup conceptual model: starting from the literature review outcomes, integrating the findings of the dataset mapping, and – by the end of the project – incorporating the evidence emerging from the qualitative case studies. As part of this process, the consortium will also release the first comprehensive mapping of longitudinal datasets in 32 European countries – a unique resource for researchers and educational stakeholders – to be presented at the LINEup Interim Event in Athens on 17 October 2025. 👉 Discover more about the LINEup Systematic Literature Review