Abstract

This article presents the main results of a survey aimed at highlighting the process of choice-making related first to whether to continue or stop at the end of upper secondary education and then propensities toward those continuing their studies at the tertiary level in the various subject fields. In the case of those opting for a university, the aim is to reconstruct the cognitive process producing proximity or distance to the various potential fields of study through a technique called ‘mapping’. For the analysis, a configurational approach is adopted to explore and synthesise the composition of choices. On the one hand, through synthesis techniques for qualitative variables (multiple correspondence analysis, cluster analysis) in terms of the composition of choice baskets with moderate selectivity (low stake); on the other hand, through the simultaneous representation of choices using SNA-Social Network Analysis, to increase the level of selectivity (high stake). Once the choice baskets have been identified and characterised according to the ascriptive variables, systematic distortions of choice, according to social origin, gender, etc., are revealed