Stratified cities, unequal education: social class, segregation, and educational trajectories in metropolitan Bogotá

Education in Latin America operates within deeply stratified socio-spatial contexts. Despite extensive research on educational inequality, a critical gap persists in understanding how multidimensional social class - structured through economic, cultural, and social capital - interacts with residential and school segregation to produce differentiated educational trajectories across the full schooling cycle. Drawing on Bourdieusian field theory, this study examines metropolitan Bogotá as a paradigmatic case of a highly stratified Latin American metropolis in which class and territory jointly shape life-course educational opportunities. The study tests two hypotheses: (H1) individuals from lower social classes have lower probabilities of accessing, persisting in, and completing education; and (H2) living in residentially and school-segregated contexts of concentrated socioeconomic disadvantage independently reduce these probabilities.

The study integrates three large-scale official datasets: the 2018 National Population and Housing Census (n ≈ 3 million), SABER 11 standardized tests (2010-2022; n ≈ 1.5 million graduates), and the 2021 Multipurpose Survey (292.281 people, of whom 87.183 are aged 3-24). A multidimensional class scheme was constructed through dimension-reduction techniques (PCA, MCA, and CATPCA) and k-means clustering. Residential and school segregation were measured across six complementary dimensions at multiple spatial scales and summarized into synthetic PCA indices. Educational trajectories across five transitions - from preschool access to high school graduation - were modeled through multilevel logistic regressions to distinguish individual capital effects from contextual territorial mechanisms.

Six empirically distinct and hierarchically ordered social classes were identified: Elite (0.2%), Upwardly Mobile Upper Class (2.6%), Established Middle Class (33.5%), Emerging Middle Class (6.5%), Consolidated Working Class (55.2%), and Precariat (2.0%). While nearly all Elite students complete upper secondary education, only 75% of those in the Precariat do so. Embodied cultural capital emerges as the strongest determinant of progression in primary education (OR = 4.18), with effects varying by stage - institutionalized cultural capital (parental education) gains salience at graduation (OR = 1.61). Territorial segregation independently amplifies inequalities: Precariat membership reduces graduation probability by 96% compared to the Elite, even after controlling for individual resources. Intraclass correlation coefficients indicate that territory accounts for between 6% and 23% of variance across educational transitions, peaking at secondary level.

Findings empirically substantiate Bourdieusian class theory in a Latin American context while extending it by demonstrating that the three forms of capital operate through stage-specific mechanisms rather than uniformly across the educational trajectory. Residential and school segregation operate as mechanisms of social closure that exceed individual-level disadvantages. A pattern of "double segregation" - wherein school segregation surpasses residential segregation among elite groups - reflects deliberate strategies of social distance maintenance through school choice. Universalist educational policies that overlook this territorialized class structure have limited transformative potential; structural measures simultaneously addressing territorial planning, public education strengthening, and social integration are required. The mechanisms identified are likely present in other highly unequal Latin American metropolises, with significant implications for educational policy design across Latin America.