The pattern of social fluidity within the British class structure: A topological model

(2017) - Erzsébet Bukodi, John H. Goldthorpe, Jouni Kuha

Journal: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society)
Link:: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rssa.12234
DOI:: 10.1111/rssa.12234
Links::
Tags:: #paper #NCDS #SocialClass #Mobility
Cite Key:: [@bukodiPatternSocialFluidity2017]

Abstract

It has previously been shown that, across three British birth cohorts, relative rates of intergenerational social class mobility have remained at an essentially constant level among men and also among women who have worked only full time. We establish the pattern of this prevailing level of social fluidity and its sources and determine whether it also persists over time, and we bring out its implications for inequalities in relative mobility chances. We develop a parsimonious model for the log-odds-ratios which express the associations between individuals’ class origins and destinations. This model is derived from a topological model that comprises three kinds of readily interpretable binary characteristics and eight effects in all, each of which does, or does not, apply to particular cells of the mobility table, i.e. effects of class hierarchy, class inheritance and status affinity. Results show that the pattern as well as the level of social fluidity are essentially unchanged across the cohorts, that gender differences in this prevailing pattern are limited and that marked differences in the degree of inequality in relative mobility chances arise with long-range transitions where inheritance effects are reinforced by hierarchy effects that are not offset by status affinity effects.

Notes

“Results show that the pattern as well as the level of social fluidity are essentially unchanged across the cohorts, that gender differences in this prevailing pattern are limited and that marked differences in the degree of inequality in relative mobility chances arise with long-range transitions where inheritance effects are reinforced by hierarchy effects that are not offset by status affinity effects.” (Bukodi et al., 2017, p. 841)

“In previously reported research (Bukodi et al., 2015) it was found that in Britain among men in three birth cohorts whose lives span the later 20th and early 21st centuries relative rates of intergenerational social class mobility have remained virtually unchanged” (Bukodi et al., 2017, p. 841)

“ne could therefore say that for a substantial part of the active British population social fluidity within the class structure—i.e. individuals’ chances of mobility or immobility considered net of class structural change—has been at an essentially constant leve” (Bukodi et al., 2017, p. 841)

“First, the pattern of social fluidity as well as its level are essentially unchanging across the three cohorts.” (Bukodi et al., 2017, p. 858)

“Second, the pattern of social fluidity does not vary greatly by gender, at least if we limit our attention to women who have worked only full time.” (Bukodi et al., 2017, p. 858)

“Third, within the degree of cross-cohort and cross-gender similarity that prevails in the pattern of social fluidity, our model brings out marked differences in the levels of fluidity that exist in regard to different mobility transitions, and the sources of these differences.” (Bukodi et al., 2017, p. 859)