Social Mobility and the Survey Method: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

Abstract It goes without saying that the study of social mobility is fundamental to the study of social structures and relationships. The processes which inhibit and facilitate social mobility play a vital role in constructing and transmitting social inequalities (e.g. Blau and Duncan 1967; Goldthorpe et al. 1980; Parkin 1979). And, the factors which affect an individual’s life chances include virtually every aspect of social life-including labour market processes, the family, education, locale, social networks, gender, ethnicity, and race. Finally, people’s experience of mobility through social space is encoded in their life-styles, attitudes and actions, both individual and collective (e.g. Bourdieu 1984; Giddens 1973). In short, the study of social mobility is central to any social scientific analysis. However, in the years since 1945 its study has become a highly specialized branch of sociological inquiry detached from the concerns of most historians and many sociologists, and it can be argued that much work in the field no longer realizes the promise of its subject-matter.