Abstract
Empirical analysis of social mobility is typically framed by outcomes recorded for only a single, recent generation, ignoring intergenerational preconditions and historical conferment of opportunity. We use the detailed geography of relative deprivation (hardship) to demonstrate that different family groups today experience different intergenerational outcomes and that there is a distinct Great Britain-wide geography to these inequalities. We trace the evolution of these inequalities back in time by coupling family group level data for the entire Victorian population with a present day population-wide consumer register. Further geographical linkage to neighbourhood deprivation data allows us to chart the different social mobility outcomes experienced by every one of the 13,378 long-established family groups. We identify clear and enduring regional divides in England and Scotland. In substantive terms, use of family names and new historical digital census resources are central to recognising that geography is pivotal to understanding intergenerational inequalities.
Highlights
Empirical analysis of social mobility is typically framed by outcomes recorded for only a single, recent generation, ignoring intergenerational preconditions and historical conferment of opportunity
The Great Britain-wide Index of Multiple Deprivation[9] (IMD) provides a summary measure of the relative degree of hardship experienced by the residents of every neighbourhood area
While acknowledging that it is a misnomer to describe all Smiths or Browns as constituting a ‘family group’, we argue that the term is appropriate for the bearers of most all other family names—albeit that it connotes shared geographic origins more strongly than common ancestry
Summary
Empirical analysis of social mobility is typically framed by outcomes recorded for only a single, recent generation, ignoring intergenerational preconditions and historical conferment of opportunity. Cheshire and Longley[11] and Kandt et al.[6] have documented the tendencies for geographic concentrations of most British family names to endure between generations, and for them to diffuse over time to areas adjacent to their ancestral heartlands (contagious diffusion) or cascade through high to successively lower order urban areas in the settlement system (hierarchical diffusion). This may result from residential mobility during the household lifecycle or migration in response to differentials in economic opportunity[14]. Until at least the current generation, family names have usually been passed down the male line, but the historical tendency for marriages to be formed between local partners[15] means that issues of gender do not exert a significant impact upon regional concentrations or over-all geographic patterns
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