What Factors Determine a Successful Life?

A group of scholars sought to find out

Person standing at a podium
Tyson Brown, director of the Cook Center

What are the factors that determine one’s chances of living a successful life? That’s the question that Tyson Brown, director of Duke’s Cook Center on Social Equity, was charged with answering as part of a committee brought together by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM).

The committee included 14 experts from a range of disciplines, including sociology, economics, medicine and public policy, who studied that question by reviewing research from an array of fields. Brown is a professor of sociology and medicine.

The NASEM committee’s report, Economic and Social Mobility: New Directions for Data, Research and Policy, developed a framework for ongoing research to understand and expand opportunities for economic and social mobility in the United States.

Brown said one of the report’s unifying themes is that mobility is shaped by families, institutions, neighborhoods, education and public policy contexts, as well as broader social conditions across the life course. 

“It asks us to think seriously about the opportunity structures that shape people’s life chances,” said Brown, who added a similar perspective informs the interdisciplinary research at Duke’s Cook Center. 

Brown shared several highlights of the report. Namely, the United States falls short of its own ideals around opportunity. Nor is there a single fix to widen avenues toward social mobility. 

“Mobility doesn’t fit neatly within any single discipline, so interdisciplinary centers have an important role to play,” he said. 

Brown explained that interdisciplinary centers can help move research into action. “At the Cook Center,” he said, “bridging research and practice is central to our mission. “

To learn more about the report, to go the Cook Center for Social Equity. Here, watch Brown discuss the power of mentorship as part of The Duke Campaign’s Blue Chair Conversation Series.