Trends In Social Mobility Research Articles

Educational Status as a Mediator of Intergenerational Social Mobility in Europe: A Positional Analysis Approach

This paper investigates the transmission of educational attainment from parents to offspring as a mediator of intergenerational class mobility in Europe. The study covers the last two decades with data drawn from a cross-national large-scale sample survey, namely the European Social Survey (ESS), for the years 2002–2018. Interest has focused on the question of the persistence of inequality of educational opportunities by examining the attainment of nominal levels of education and the association between the educational attainment of the parent with the highest level of education and their descendants. The study also covers new trends in social mobility that consider education as a “positional good”, and a novel method of incorporating educational expansion into the transition probabilities is proposed, providing answers to whether the rising accessibility of educational qualifications attenuates the association between social origin and educational attainment. Therefore, the concept of positionality is taken into account in the estimation of intergenerational transition probabilities, and to complement the analysis, mobility measures are provided for both methods, nominal and positional. The proposed positional method is validated through a correlation analysis between the upward mobility scores (nominal and positional) with the Education Expansion Index (EEI) for the respective years. The upward mobility scores estimated via the positional method are more highly correlated with the EEI for all years, indicating a better alignment with the broader trends in educational participation and achievement.

Trends in social mobility in postrevolution China

In this paper, we study long-term trends in social mobility in the People's Republic of China since its inception in 1949, with two operationalizations: 1) intergenerational occupational mobility and 2) intergenerational educational mobility. We draw on an accumulation of administrative and survey data and provide comparable estimates of these measures for birth cohorts born after 1945. To help interpret the results, we compare trends in China to those in the United States for the same birth cohorts. We find an increase in intergenerational occupational mobility in China due to its rapid industrialization in recent decades. Net of industrialization, however, intergenerational occupational mobility has been declining for recent cohorts. Intergenerational educational mobility in China shows a similar declining trend. In addition, mobility patterns have differed greatly by gender, with women in earlier cohorts and from a rural origin particularly disadvantaged. We attribute the general decline in social mobility to market forces that have taken hold since China's economic reform that began in 1978. In contrast, social mobility by both measures has been relatively stable in the United States. However, while social mobility in China has trended downward, it is still higher than that in the United States, except for women's educational mobility.

The Role of Higher Education in Reproduction of Social Inequality in the Labor Market of Kazakhstan

The author analyzes how the modern education system contributes to the formation of socio-economically determined choice of higher education, where the latter includes a decision on continue studying, choosing a university and specialty.The functioning of the higher education system is analyzed in the context of the interconnections of education, the labor market and family resources, which reflect the movement of human capital and current trends in social mobility in Central Asia, as exemplified by Kazakhstan.The article presents data from a study conducted among young professionals aged 21 to 29 years with a different level of education. The sample represents the Republic of Kazakhstan and amounts to 1000 respondents. The survey was conducted using the technique of personal formalized interviews at the respondents’ work place.The data obtained indicate that the expansion of accessibility of higher education in Kazakhstan is accompanied by its stratification, which is projected in the inequality in the labor market for young people with a different «background» of family capital. This trend is hidden. The family’s resource capital affects the range of choice of educational trajectory (level of education, university, specialty), in the future, the level of education and prestige of a young specialist’s university determine career opportunities.

Data from the COVID-19 epidemic in Florida suggest that younger cohorts have been transmitting their infections to less socially mobile older adults.

We analyzed the daily incidence of newly reported COVID-19 cases among adults aged 20–39 years, 40–59 years, and 60 or more years in the sixteen most populous counties of the state of Florida from March 1 through June 27, 2020. In all 16 counties, an increase in reported COVID-19 case incidence was observed in all three age groups soon after the governor-ordered Full Phase 1 reopening went into effect. Trends in social mobility, but not trends in testing, track case incidence. Data on hospitalization do not support the hypothesis that the observed increase in case incidence was merely the result of liberalization of testing criteria. Parameter estimates from a parsimonious two-group heterogeneous SIR model strongly support the hypothesis that younger persons, having first acquired their infections through increasing social contact with their peers, then transmitted their infections to older, less socially mobile individuals. Without such cross-infection, an isolated epidemic among older people in Florida would be unsustainable.

Zdvořilý řečový habitus jako sociokulturní regulativ vztahové sítě

The article aims to monitor the functional range of communication and speech based on the essence of language markets in geographically and politically different social configurations. Speech behavior, which is part of all human interaction with other people, is a very broad phenomenon, and one of its modularities is the specific area that we call speech courtesy or politeness. Speech politeness is one of the characteristics of human behavior in society, and arises from the need to respond to the structure of this society, to relationships between individuals, to social stratification, and to archetypal standards of behavior; all of this is then reflected in the language by coded entities that reveal trends in social mobility, as well as in the type of social modalities of linguistic ethnicity. However, this is not just a phenomenon that arises as a reaction, reflecting the aforementioned cultural and social facts in merely one way; it is also a phenomenon that shapes and maintains the structure of society, its stratification, and the relationships between individuals itself. Speech politeness is thus an immanent part of all linguistic behavior of man, and one can observe its characteristic aspects, which are either i) common for the studied linguistic communities or ii) different, which then appear as distinctive features of two culturally linguistic formulas.

Market Transition, Industrialization, and Social Mobility Trends in Post-Revolution China

Stratification scholars have long speculated about the influences of political institutions and economic development on intergenerational social mobility. China provides a unique opportunity to evaluate these speculations, as it has experienced rapid industrial expansion as well as the demise of socialism since its economic reform that began in 1978. Analyzing intergenerational data from six comparable, nationally representative surveys between 1996 and 2012, we uncover two countervailing social mobility trends in post-revolution China. On the one hand, there is evidence of a decline in social fluidity following China’s transition from state socialism to a market economy, as the link between origin and destination in vertical social status has significantly strengthened. On the other hand, horizontal mobility between the agricultural and nonagricultural sectors has increased sharply during the country’s rapid industrialization. Despite its recent decline, social fluidity in China is still much higher than that in mature capitalist societies. Moreover, cross-national comparisons reveal that a faster pace of industrialization is associated with greater horizontal mobility between the farming and non-farming classes. Finally, mobility in China is characterized by disproportionate flows between the farming and the managerial/professional classes and between farming and self-employment—patterns that are unique products of the Chinese household registration (hukou) system.

Market Transition, Industrialization, and Social Mobility Trends in Postrevolution China

This study examines trends in intergenerational class mobility in China by analyzing six comparable, nationally representative surveys between 1996 and 2012. Defying a simplistic, unidirectional ac...

The Evolution of Social Mobility: Norway during the Twentieth Century

AbstractWe document trends in social mobility in Norway using intergenerational income elasticities, the associations between the income percentiles of fathers and sons, and brother correlations. The results of all approaches suggest that social mobility increased substantially between cohorts born in the early 1930s and the early 1940s. Father–son associations remained stable for cohorts born after World War II, while brother correlations continued to decline. The relationship between father and son income percentile ranks is highly non‐linear for early cohorts, but it approaches linearity over time. We discuss increasing educational attainment among low‐ and middle‐income families as a possible mechanism underlying these trends.

The Evolution of Social Mobility: Norway Over the 20th Century

This paper documents trends in social mobility in Norway starting from fathers born at the turn of the 20th century and ending with sons born in the 1970s. We measure social mobility with intergenerational income elasticities, associations between fathers' and sons' income percentiles, and brother correlations. All approaches suggest that social mobility increased substantially between cohorts born in the early 1930s and the early 1940s. Father-son associations remained stable for cohorts born after WWII, while brother correlations continued to decline. The relationship between fathers' and sons' income percentile ranks is highly nonlinear for the early cohorts, but approaches linearity over time. We discuss increasing educational attainment among low- and middle-income families as a possible mechanism behind these trends.

The Evolution of Social Mobility: Norway Over the 20th Century

This paper documents trends in social mobility in Norway starting from fathers born at the turn of the 20th century and ending with sons born in the 1970s. We measure social mobility with intergenerational income elasticities, associations between fathers' and sons' income percentiles, and brother correlations. All approaches suggest that social mobility increased substantially between cohorts born in the early 1930s and the early 1940s. Father-son associations remained stable for cohorts born after WWII, while brother correlations continued to decline. The relationship between fathers' and sons' income percentile ranks is highly nonlinear for the early cohorts, but approaches linearity over time. We discuss increasing educational attainment among low- and middle-income families as a possible mechanism behind these trends.

Social Mobility Trends among Young Families with Small Children

Social Mobility Trends among Young Families with Small Children

How Has Educational Expansion Shaped Social Mobility Trends in the United States?

This contribution provides a long-term assessment of intergenerational social mobility trends in the United States across the 20th and early 21st century and assesses the determinants of those trends. In particular, we study how educational expansion has contributed to the observed changes in mobility opportunities for men across cohorts. Drawing on recently developed decomposition methods, we empirically identify the contribution of each of the multiple channels through which changing rates of educational participation shape mobility trends. We find that a modest but gradual increase in social class mobility can nearly exclusively be ascribed to an interaction known as the compositional effect, according to which the direct influence of social class backgrounds on social class destinations is lower among the growing number of individuals attaining higher levels of education. This dominant role of the compositional effect is also due to the fact that, despite pronounced changes in the distribution of education, class inequality in education has remained stable while class returns to education have shown no consistent trend. Our analyses also provide a cautionary tale about mistaking increasing levels of social class mobility for a general trend towards more fluidity in the United States. The impact of parental education on son's educational and class attainment has grown or remained stable, respectively. Here, the compositional effect pertaining to the direct association between parental education and son's class attainment counteracts a long-term trend of increasing inequality in educational attainment tied to parents' education.

A New Infrastructure for Monitoring Social Mobility in the United States.

The country's capacity to monitor trends in social mobility has languished since the last major survey on U.S. social mobility was fielded in 1973. It is accordingly difficult to evaluate recent concerns that social mobility may be declining or to develop mobility policy that is adequately informed by evidence. This article presents a new initiative, dubbed the American Opportunity Study (AOS), that would allow the country to monitor social mobility efficiently and with great accuracy. The AOS entails developing the country's capacity to link records across decennial censuses, the American Community Survey, and administrative sources. If an AOS of this sort were assembled, it would open up new fields of social science inquiry; increase opportunities for evidence-based policy on poverty, mobility, child development, and labor markets; and otherwise constitute a new social science resource with much reach and impact.

By Slow Degrees: Two Centuries of Social Reproduction and Mobility in Britain

This paper discusses long term trends in patterns of intergenerational social mobility in Britain. We argue that there is convincing empirical evidence of a small but steady linear trend towards increasing social mobility throughout the period 1800-2004. Our conclusions are based upon the construction and analysis of an extended micro-social dataset, which combines records from an historical genealogical study, with responses from 31 sample surveys conducted over the period 1963-2004. There has been much previous study of trends in social mobility, and little consensus on their nature. We argue that this dissension partly results from the very slow pace of change in mobility rates, which makes the time-frame of any comparison crucial, and raises important methodological questions about how long-term change in mobility is best measured. We highlight three methodological difficulties which arise when trying to draw conclusions over mobility trends - concerning the extent of controls for life course effects; the quality of data resources; and the measurement of stratification positions. After constructing a longitudinal dataset which attempts to confront these difficulties, our analyses provide robust evidence which challenges hitherto more popular, politicised claims of declining or unchanging mobility. By contrast, our findings suggest that Britain has moved, and continues to move, steadily towards increasing equality in the relationship between occupational attainment and parental background.

The Mobility Transition: Social Mobility Trends in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century

Trends in absolute rates of both career and intergenerational mobility in Britain since the 1950s are outlined and some of the cultural consequences of the resulting heterogeneity in class composition are briefly considered. It is argued that while supply-side factors – educational attainment, ability, etc. – may determine who has been mobile or not, aggregate rates and changes in aggregate rates are largely dictated by demand-side factors. But current trends in the composition of the working population are necessarily self-limiting. A forecast of the occupational structure in the first half of the twenty-first century together with the assumption of some continuity in the pattern of class advantages, indicates a ‘mobility transition’ in which trends are likely to reverse within the next thirty years or so. The long-run replacement of recruitment heterogeneity by homogeneity of social experience in the enlarged middle class suggests that, in contrast with present-day pluralism, there will emerge the structural conditions for a greater cultural uniformity and the onset of an era of orthodoxy.

The Mobility Transition: Social Mobility Trends in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century

Trends in absolute rates of both career and intergenerational mobility in Britain since the 1950s are outlined and some of the cultural consequences of the resulting heterogeneity in class composition are briefly considered. It is argued that while supply-side factors-educational attainment, ability, etc.-may determine who has been mobile or not, aggregate rates and changes in aggregate rates are largely dictated by demand-side factors. But current trends in the composition of the working population are necessarily self-limiting. A forecast of the occupational structure in the first half of the twenty-first century together with the assumption of some continuity in the pattern of class advantages, indicates a `mobility transition' in which trends are likely to reverse within the next thirty years or so. The long-run replacement of recruitment heterogeneity by homogeneity of social experience in the enlarged middle class suggests that, in contrast with present-day pluralism, there will emerge the structural conditions for a greater cultural uniformity and the onset of an era of orthodoxy.

教育と社会移動の趨勢

The purpose of this paper is to examine the trends in social mobility in postwar Japan. We obtained the following results based on the SSM survey data. First, the importance of education in status attainment has increased. It can be explained naturally by the decline of self-employed sectors. Secondly, while this trend increased society's openness to some extent, a class difference in educational opportunity remains the same as it was in the past. Thirdly, the linkage between education and occupational status hasn't changed in spite of upgrading in the level of education of workers. The same observation applies to the middle stage of careers beyond the entrance stage. Furthermore, the difference in attainment made by university's academic prestige is stable. It seems reasonable to conclude that our society has maintained the same mobility structure for these decades.

Demographic and Social Mobility Trends in Early Seventeenth-century Korea: An Analysis of Sanŭm County Census Registers

A nationwide census was taken every three years during the Yi dynasty in Korea, producing thousands of census registers ( hojŏk ) for each county. The present study uses the 1606 and 1630 registers for Sanŭm County to study the extent and direction of social mobility in the county during the twenty-four-year period between the two registers. Analysis of Sanŭm County census registers shows that the overall direction of social mobility in the county between 1606 and 1630 was downward, though a small percentage of households was recorded as having undergone upward mobility during the period. Some of the upward mobility may be attributed to government policies enacted during the Hideyoshi invasions of Korea to allow citizens to purchase higher status with grain contributions. The study suggests that the rigid stratification of Yi-dynasty society could no longer be maintained following the Hideyoshi invasions, and that social mobility was predominantly, though not exclusively, downward.

Social Mobility and Class Relations in Britain

Trends in social mobility in the U.S.A. suggest that upward mobility has been increasing while downward mobility has been decreasing. In the ten years 1952-62, Blau and Duncan note, 'an increasing proportion from manual origins moved up into white-collar positions, yet there was no compensatory increase in downward mobility from white-collar origins; on the contrary, increasing proportions of those originating at this level remained there'.1 In Britain the way in which the post-war expansion of secondary and higher education seem to have benefited middle-class as much as working-class children would lead one to expect a similar pattern of change in social mobility rates here.2 The questions arise firstly, as to whether this expectation can be confirmed for Britain by direct evidence; and secondly, what the implications of such changes for the structure of society might be.

General Trends in Social Mobility in Yugoslavia

General Trends in Social Mobility in Yugoslavia