Glossary

Successful collaboration begins with a shared language, hence the need for a glossary. This joint effort of contributors from several teams ensures, on the one hand, terminological and conceptual coherence across not only our theoretical approaches, but also the qualitative case studies and quantitative research conducted in OPPORTUNITIES. On the other hand, our glossary facilitates communication between the academic side of the project and the fieldwork conducted by NGOs, uniting our teams working from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Mauritania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Senegal.

For more information about the Structure and Objectives of the Glossary, click here...)

Equality

In the English language, equality is defined as “the condition of being equal in quantity, amount, etc.” (see the definition in the Oxford English Dictionary). In social terms, equality implies the condition of being equal in law, rights, powers, opportunities, etc. It should be noted that the condition of being equal in law is more about equality of opportunity than equality of outcome. It is often claimed that equality of opportunity, e.g. in education, provides a level playing field for all. But equality of opportunity is the starting point and a necessary condition for having a level playing field. The sufficient condition for a level playing field is equality of outcome. A child from an educated family performs, on average, better than a child from a poorly educated family and therefore – despite both having the same equality of opportunity to start with – will have different equality of outcome.

⇢ see also: Level Telling Field

Category: A

Work Package: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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