RC28’s Contributions to Knowledge

Comment’s on Mike Hout’s perspective on “What We Have Learned”

Thomas A. DiPreteDuke University

Mike’s List of Findings Findings Re “2nd” & “3rd” Generation of

Intergenerational Mobility Research The Treiman constant: invariance of prestige. Common Social Fluidity, with some variance

in strength of association. Education is the Main Factor in Intergenerational

Mobility. Trends in IGM refute convergence prediction of

modernization theory Class Effects on Education vary across Educational

Transitions.

Mike’s List of Findings, continued Gender.

Occupational Distributions are Gendered. Trends in Educational Stratification Favor

Women. Educational Process.

Tracking increases the variance of educational outcomes.

School-to-Work Transitions are Conditioned by Institutions.

My Characterization of Mike’s List Very Good Stuff. Heavy on Intergenerational Mobility. Light on “4th Generation” Work (Kerckhoff,

Ganzeboom & Treiman). Heavy on research that dominated the RC28 agenda

in the 1970s and 1980s. Light on research that has become an increasingly important part of the RC28 agenda in the 1990s and post-2000.

Awareness of this Trend? An Anecdote Aage Sørensen, (AJS, 2000), argued that

“class as life conditions” is the dominant conception in empirical sociology

“class as life conditions” and “class as exploitation” are the two dominant conceptions of class in theoretical work.

My 2001 RC28 paper (AJS, forthcoming), which called for a broader approach to social mobility based on household instead of individual measures of “life conditions,” used life course mobility as the primarily illustration for this critique.

An offshoot of this work is forthcoming in a jointly published issue of Current Sociology and Sociologie et Societé.

Noteworthy: one reviewer from CS/SS asserted that “the vast majority of sociological research on social mobility is devoted to intergenerational mobility” and urged a statement at the start of the paper as to why the sociological reader should be concerned about life course/career mobility.

So….New Footnote in My Paper Footnote: A search of indexed items in Sociological

Abstracts since 1990 found 245 items with keywords/words in Abstract/Title

that included {“occupational” or “class”} and {“mobility”} and {“intergenerational”}….

In contrast, there were 295 items with keywords/words {“occupational” or “class”} and {“mobility”} and {“career” or “intragenerational” or “life course”} and {NOT “intergenerational”}

The count rises to 332 if the {NOT “intergenerational”} condition is removed from the search.

Trends in the Research of RC28 My student, Yunus Kaya, is creating a database of RC28

research from 1983 (or earlier: HELP if you have earlier data!) to the present (1579 entries to date)

We are coding the kind of work done by RC28 members to study trends.

Simple Illustration: Highlight references to The Life Course Labor Markets & School to Work Welfare States Income/Wages/Earnings Inequality/Povertyd Gender

Compare presentations in 1983 (3 pages worth) with the first three pages of presentations from 2001.

Titles for selected years : 1983 What theories of Social inequality really Explain. Social mobility and Class Formation: On the Renewal of a Tradition in sociological inquiry. Changes in the Status Attainment model The Concept of Social Closure in Class Analysis. Some examples from Italian Experience. Three Plastic laws of oligarchy Social Mobility as a Political Safety Valve. Status Groups in Hungary. Jordanian and Palestanian systems of Stratification: The Impact of External Events. The Polish Intelligentsia in Exile. An ontological Model of Class Counsciousness: Confirmatory Likelihood factor Analysis. Anxiety and Social Stratification in Poland. Long Crawl, from Common Man to Academic man in Denmark Education for Self Recruitment: A Nigerian case Study. The Treatment of Non-Working parents in Schoolcareer-research. Temporal Changes in the Skill Levels of Work in the Netherlands 1960-1977. Trends in Educational Stratification in Canada and The US. How Does structure Constrain Mobility? Couting the ways: Structural Change and Mobility in Hungary: 1938-1973. Determining Mobility Effects: Re-examined. Social Mobility Measures for Cross-national Comparisions. Matrix Representation of Structural and Circulation Mobility A Scale of Occupational Stratification in Modern Society.

1983, p. 1

1983, p. 2

Societal Transformations and Institutionalization of the life course Class Structure ans Career Mobility of Men in three in Advanced Societies. A Comparision of Austria, France and The United States. A Multidimensional Analysis of Longitudinal Data: Methodological perspectives and Substantive Results. A comparision of Intergenerational Mobility between 1965-1970 in France and West Germany. A Comparative Analysis of Status Attainment in Israel, Japan and The US. Comparing Social Mobility in Hungary and Netherlands Changes in Social Mobility in Two Semi-Peripheral Societies: A Hungarian- Irish Comparision. Social Mobility Case of American Exceptionalism Alternatives to Conspiracy Theory: Simulating residential and Occupational Segregation The Social Mobility of Norwegian Women. Industrial Differentiation and Occupational Complexity: Race and Sex Difference Dutch Calvinists and Roman Catholics, Their Mobility in the Occupational Hierarchy. Occupational Mobility in the Netherlands in 1954 and 1977. Paterns of Marriage and the Openness of Society: the Connection Between the Education of (Marriage) Partners in the Netherlands in 1959, 1971 and 1977 The Recruitment of Directors of the Largest Dutch Firms. Class, Status and Income Inequality. Differentiation of Living Conditions and of the Way of Life in Hungary by Social Classes and Strata. Untouchables and Social Mobility A Model of Social Status Changes Resulting from Intergenerational Mobility

Inheritance as a second option. Birth order and Social Mobility in Two irish Populations. Unfulfilled Systematic Functions of Social Mobility: The case of Poland. The Withering away of Class and status. The Occupations of the Welfare State. Investigation of Social Background for Students in Higher education by Use of register Information. Ownership and Classes in Max Weber's Sociology. On the way from the Agricultural to Industrial and Classless Society Alineation and social class Friedrich von Vieser on Power and Class formation. Uncocering a socialogical pioneer

1983, p. 3

Titles for selected years : 2001 Globalisation and the Great U-turn: Income Inequality Trends in Sixteen OECD Countries Self-employment Dynamics in Advanced Economies Rising Income Inequality and the Role of the Welfare State Second Chance Education and Inequalities in Israel Property Privatisation and Adaptation of the Russian Population to Market Globalisation, Recommodification and Social Stratification: Changing Patterns of Early Career in Italy Professional Gender Segregation in Lithuania in a Period of Transition Trends in Social Mobility, 1970-2000 DECOMPOSING CHANGE IN SOCIAL FLUIDITY: SWEDEN, 1976-19 Measuring Gender Segregation and Inequality: an Integrated Approach Overeducation and Human Capital Endowments - The Role of School Achievement and Vocational Training Quality The Educational Achievement of Immigrant and Native-born Students: A Comparative Analysis of Western Industrialised Societies Labour Market Opportunities and Women's Employment Exit and Re-entry Education and Class Membership Fluctuations by Cohorts in France and the USA (1960-2000) States, Markets, and Fertility: Shifting the Sexual Division of Labor Parental Resources in Different Stages of the Educational Career in the Netherlands: Income, Beaux Arts Participation or Reading Behaviour? Labour market conditions at labour market entry and occupational careers Life Chances, Life Course Risks, and Adjustment Strategies: toward an Expanded Agenda for Mobility Research Does the Household Type Matter? The Case of Hungarian Income Distribution during the Socio-economic Transformation

2001, p. 1

Has the Dutch nobility retained its social relevance during the 20th century? The Theory for Stratification Analysis in Russia The New Geography of World Income Inequality The Virtues of Employment Protection: Unemployment Incidence in the United States and West Germany Participation in High Culture: the Effects of Family and School from Adolescence to Adulthood Recent Trends in Intergenerational Occupational Class Mobility: Men and Women in the Netherlands 1970-1999 The Welfare State, Gender Stratification and the Home: a Cross-national Study of the Domestic Division of Labour School to Work in Post-war Russia: Breakdown of Tight Institutional Linkage Temporary Employment: Chance or Risk? An Analysis of the Working Careers of Employees with Fixed-term Contracts Who are the Losers? Differential Effects of Pension Privatisation "Windows of Opportunity" in the East German Labour Market after 1989: Have they Been the Same for the Old and the Young? Transition to Adulthood in Great Britain and the Process of Globalisation Is Politics Crowded Out? The Evolution of Inequality in the 1980s and 1990s Linguistic Capital: Language as a Socio-economic Resource among Minority Women in Turkey Changes in the Labour Market Patterns during the Nineties: a Cross-national Comparative View Constructing the Beneficiaries as Strangers: Understanding Neo-liberal Welfare Reforms in New Zealand Cohorts and Competition from School to Work in the Context of Economic and Demographic Change Educational Progress for African Americans and Latinos in the United States from the

2001, p. 2

1950s to the 1990s: the Interaction of Ancestry and Class Self-employment Trajectories in Japan: Entry into and Exit from Self- employment Education and Occupational Attainment: What do Employers Really See as Merit? Regional Poverty and Income Inequality in the European Union: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study Socio-economic Status and the Role of Kinship in Social Networks The New and Old Politics of Welfare State Retrenchment: a Comparative Analysis of Cutbacks in Social Rights in Eighteen Countries 1980-1995. Self-employment among Israeli Women, Trends and Advantages 1970-1995 Flow of Persons among Positions under Radical Changes in the Labour Market Global Competition, Labour Market Restructuring and Welfare Retrenchment: the Transition into the Labour Market in Germany Recent Trends in Intergenerational Occupational Class Mobility: Men and Women in the Netherlands 1970-1999 Structural and Individual Determinants of Poverty among Jews and Arabs in Israel Historical Changes in Attitudes Toward State Egalitarian Policies: the Trajectory of Change in Hungary and Poland Decline of the Social Economic Reform, the Turn to Globalisation, and Impacts on the Labour Market and Stratification in Israel Social Mobility in Africa: Trends and Determinants Trends in Income Instability in the U.S. and Germany Structural Economic Change and Advantage in the Labour Market: the Stratification Effects of Economic Change

On the Adjusted Rate of Return to Women's University Education: a Preliminary Study of OECD Countries

Educational Expansion and Inequality in Korea

2001, p. 3

4th Generation Generalizations: Some Examples

Inequality The long-term trend in within-nation income inequality is not

monotonic. Inequality rises with urbanization and then falls, though in recent years this decline has been reversed in liberal market-oriented societies.

Inequality and poverty rates are greater in liberal welfare states than in social democratic welfare states, with conservative and Mediterranean welfare states in the middle.

Inequality is growing faster in liberal market-oriented industrial societies than in societies with strong unions, and centralized/coordinated wage-setting mechanisms.

Most of the world’s inequality is between-nation. This component of total inequality experienced long-term growth, but is no longer growing.

Life Course Mobility The level of career occupational mobility is an inverse function of state

licensing and credentialing of occupations. The life course earnings turbulence of women is lower in societies whose

institutional arrangements facilitate the combining of work and childbearing.

Turbulence in the life conditions of women is positively related to institutional arrangements that facilitate divorce.

The impact of divorce on men’s life course income turbulence depends on male-female earnings differences, national institutions that facilitate the combining of work and childbearing, national-level fertility rates, and social institutions that enforce legal obligations on men to pay child support.

Turbulence in life conditions is lower in societies with more extensive social insurance programs, more progressive tax systems, and more compressed wage distributions.

Intergenerational Mobility – beyond B&D or the 3rd generation Poverty has independent effects on status attainment,

affecting educational achievement and the income and poverty chances of the next generation.

At least in some societies, wealth appears to have an independent effect on mobility, after controlling for SES and education. The extent to which wealth effects are distinct from poverty effects are not yet well understood.

Social capital has universally positive effects on mobility. The extent to which social capital is a mediator (and thus reproducer) of origin class or an independent factor (and thus an engine of social mobility is not yet known. Partial evidence suggests that the effects of social capital on attainment varies with societal institutions (cf. Treiman and Yip).

Intergenerational Mobility, cont. Household structure affects status attainment,

primarily through its impacts on the amount of family socioeconomic resources available to any particular child. HH structure effects have been confirmed in many countries, though the direction of their effects is not uniform E.g., in African countries, female headship appears to be

associated with greater, not fewer educational opportunities for children.

E.g., the negative effect of siblings on attainment is not present many developing countries.

Intergenerational Mobility, 4th generation, continued Neighborhood context, school context, and labor market

context have been shown in innumerable studies to affect mobility, both intergenerationally and over the life course.

The size of these contextual effects on intergenerational mobility are generally smaller than are the effects of family of origin.

Welfare state structures and national wage-setting mechanisms affect the occupational distribution; Nation-specific changes in these institutions will therefore affect absolute rates of mobility, though the distribution of these effects between intergenerational and career mobility are unclear.

Concept and Measurement Increases in the labor force participation, and increased

heterogeneity and instability of family forms, are undermining one of the principal justifications for our traditional, individual-level occupation-based measures, namely that they accurately and adequately (and comparably across societies) measure the “life conditions” and changes in life conditions of individuals.

Because educational systems are more variable across nations than is the division of labor, metrics for comparative educational research are more problematic than metrics for comparative research on occupational or class mobility.

Conclusions 2nd & 3rd generation intergenerational mobility

research were virtually “owned” by the RC28. The broader stratification agenda, including

questions about inequality, poverty, & life course mobility, and especially including the “4th generation” agenda as applied to these issues, is not “owned” by the RC28, even though we make substantial contributions to these topics. This creates both competition and opportunities for growth. May both of these facts contribute positively to the quality and quantity of RC28 research on these topics.

Postscript “Trends in Educational Stratification Favor Women”

(Mike Hout’s Empirical Generalization #5) “The descriptive result is widely appreciated. The RC has

not kept up with this trend however, and few members have endeavored to explain it.” (Hout 2003, p. 12)

Attend “Educational Stratification II” (Mon, 3-5pm) and listen to Claudia Buchmann’s presentation on “Do Rises in Parental Resources Affect the Growing Female Advantage in U.S. Higher Education?” for evidence that RC28 members are indeed endeavoring to explain this trend.