Social Mobility Bibliography

Abstracts, Syllabus, Journals, Books on Social Mobility, Horizontal Social Mobility, Vertical Social Mobility, Social Mobility, Stratification

Social mobility is the movement from one class or social status to another. The upward or downward movement within a stratification system. Social mobility is the transition of an individual or social object or value from one social position to another.

(Book Review) Social Mobility and Social Structure. Will, Jeffry A.

Sorokin, Pitirim A. [1927] "Mechanism of Social Testing, Selection, and Distribution of Individuals Within Different Social Strata." Pp. 182-211 in Social and Cultural Mobility. New York: The Free Press, 1959.

Duncan, Otis Dudley. 1961. "A Socioeconomic Index for All Occupations" and "Properties and Characteristics of the Socioeconomic Index." Pp. 109-138 and pp. 139-161 in Occupations and Social Status, edited by Albert J. Reiss, Jr. New York: Free Press of Glencoe.

Treiman, Donald J. 1977. Occupational Prestige in Comparative Perspective. New York: Academic Press. Chps. 1 and 5.

Goldthorpe, John H., and Keith Hope. 1972. "Occupational Grading and Occupational Prestige." Pp. 19-80 in The Analysis of Social Mobility: Methods and Approaches, edited by Keith Hope. Oxford Studies in Social Mobility Working Papers I. Oxford: Clarendon.

Wright, Erik Olin. 1985. Classes. London: Verso. Chapter 5.

Goldthorpe, John H., Catriona Llewellyn, and Clive Payne. 1987. Social Mobility and Class Structure in Modern Britain, 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon. Pp. 40-43.

Western, Mark and Janeen Baxter. 2001. "Introduction." Pp. 1-3 in Janeed Baxter and Mark Western Reconfigurations of Class and Gender.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Blau, Peter M., and Otis Dudley Duncan. 1967. The American Occupational Structure. New York: Wiley. Chp. 5.

Sewell, William H., and Robert M. Hauser. 1975. Education, Occupation, and Earnings: Achievement in the Early Career. New York: Academic. Pp. 89-112.

Blossfeld, Hans-Peter, and Yossi Shavit. 1993. "Persisting Barriers: Changes in Educational Opportunities in Thirteen Countries." Pp. 1-24 in Persistent Inequality: Changing Educational Attainment in Thirteen Countries, edited by Yossi Shavit and Hans-Peter Blossfeld. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Duncan, Otis Dudley. 1966. "Methodological Issues in the Analysis of Social Mobility." Pp. 51-97 in Social Structure and Mobility in Economic Development, edited by Neil J. Smelser and Seymour Martin Lipset. Chicago: Aldine.

Duncan, Otis Dudley. 1968. "Inheritance of Poverty or Inheritance of Race?" Pp. 85-110 in On Understanding Poverty, edited by Daniel P. Moynihan. NY: Basic Books.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. "The Aristocracy of Culture." Pp. 11-96 in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge: Harvard.

Gerber, Theodore, and Michael Hout. 1998. "More Shock than Therapy: Market Transition, Employment, and Income in Russia, 1991-1995." American Journal of Sociology101: 1-50.

Walder, Andrew. 1992. "Property Rights and Stratification in Socialist Redistributive Economies." American Sociological Review57:524-39.

Róna-Tas, Ákos. 1994. "The First Shall Be Last? Entrepreneurship and Communist Cadres in the Transition from Socialism." American Journal of Sociology100:40-69.

Treiman, Donald J., Matthew McKeever, and Eva Fodor. 1996. "Racial Differences in Occupational Status and Income in South Africa, 1980 and 1991." Demography 33:111-32.

Mare, Robert. 1981. "Change and Stability in Educational Stratification." American Sociological Review 46(1): 72-87.

Mare, Robert D. and Meei-Shenn Tzeng. 1989. "Fathers' Ages and the Social Stratification of Sons." American Journal of Sociology 95(1): 108-131.

Marsden, Peter V. and Jeanne S. Hurlbert. 1988. "Social Resources and Mobility Outcomes: A Replication and Extension." Social Forces 67(1): 86-107.

Matthijs, Kalmijn. 1991. "Status Homogamy in the United States." American Journal of Sociology 97(2): 496-523.

McClendon, McKee. 1977. "Structural and Exchange Components of Vertical Mobility." American Sociological Review 42(1): 56-74.

McClendon, McKee. 1978. "The Occupational Status Attainment Processes of Males and Females." American Sociological Review 41(1): 52-64.

McRoberts, Hugh A. and Kevin Selbee. 1981. "Trends in Occupational Mobility in Canada and the United States: A Comparison." American Sociological Review 46(4): 406-421.

Montgomery, James D. 1992. "Job Search and Network Composition: Implications of the Strength-of-Weak-Ties Hypothesis." American Sociological Review 57(5): 586-596.

Montgomery, James D. 1994. "Weak Ties, Employment, and Inequality: An Equilibrium Analysis." American Journal of Sociology 99(5): 1212-1236.

Morgan, William, D. Alwin and L. Griffin. 1979. "Social Origins, Parental Values, and the Transmission of Inequality." American Journal of Sociology 85(1): 156-166.

Nock, Stephen and P. Rossi. 1978. "Ascription Versus Achievement in the Attribution of Family Social Status." American Journal of Sociology 84(3): 565-590.

Otto and Haller. 1979. "Evidence For a Social Psychological View of the Status Attainment Process." Social Forces 57(3): 887-914.

Pampel, Fred C. and Melissa Hardy. 1994. "Status Maintenance and Change during Old Age." Social Forces 73(1): 289-314.

Parcel, Toby L. and Elizabeth G. Menaghan. 1994. "Early Parental Work, Family Social Capital, and Early Childhood Outcomes." American Journal of Sociology 99(4) 972-1009.

Polodny, Joel M. 1993. "A Status-Based Model of Market Competition." American Journal of Sociology 98(4): 829-872.

Rosenfeld, Rachel. 1978. "Women's Intergenerational Occupational Mobility." American Sociological Review 43(1): 36-46.

Rumberger, Russell W. 1983. "The Influence of Family Background on Education, Earnings and Wealth." Social Forces 61(3): 755-773.

Rytina, Steve. 1989. "Life Chances and the Continuity of Rank: An Alternative Interpretation of Mobility Magnitudes Over the Life Cycle." American Sociological Review 54(6): 910-928.

Sakamoto, Arthur and Meichu D. Chen. 1991. "Inequality and Attainment in a Dual Labor Market." American Sociological Review 56(3): 295-320.

Seeman, Melvin. 1977. "Some Real and Imaginary Consequences of Social Mobility." American Journal of Sociology 82(4): 757-782.

Sewell, William, Robert Hauser, and Wendy Wolf. 1980. "Sex, Schooling, and Occupational Status." American Journal of Sociology 86(3): 551-583.

Simkus, Albert. 1984. "Structural Transformation and Social Mobility." American Sociological Review 49(3): 291-307.

Singlemann, Joachim and H. Browning. 1980. "Industrial Transformation and Occupational Change the U.S.: 1960-1970." Social Forces 59(1): 246-284.

Slomczynski, Kazimierz M. and Tadeusz K. Krause. 1987. "Cross-National Similarity in Social Mobility Patterns: A Direct Test of the Featherman-Jones-Hauser Hypothesis." American Sociological Review 52(5): 598-611.

Smith, D. Randall. 1983. "Mobility in Professional Occupational Internal Labor Markets." American Sociological Review 48(3): 289-305.

Smith, D. Randall and Andrew Abbott. 1983. "A Labor Market Perspective on the Mobility of College Football Coaches." Social Forces 61(4): 1147-1167.

Snipp, Matthew. 1985. "Occupational Mobility and Social Class: Insight from Mens' Career Mobility." American Sociological Review. 50 (Auqust) 475-492.

Breiger, Ronald L. and Jerry A. Jacobs. 1987. "On Occupational Mobility and Social Class." American Sociological Review 52(3): 413-416.

Snipp, Matthew. 1987. "More on Occupational Mobility and Social Class." American Sociological Review 52(3): 416-418.

Sobel, Michael E. 1981. "Diagonal Mobility Models." American Sociological Review 46(6): 893-906.

Sobel, Michael E. 1983. "Structural Mobility, Circulation Mobility and the Analysis of Occupational Mobility: A Conceptual Mismatch." American Sociological Review 48(5): 721-727.

Sobel, Michael E., Michael Hout, and Otis Dudley Duncan. 1985. "Exchange, Structure, and Symmetry in Occupational Mobility." American Journal of Sociology 91 (September) 359-372.

Sřrensen, Aage. 1977. "The Structure of Inequality and the Process of Attainment." American Sociological Review 42(6): 965-978.

Spilerman, Seymour and Tormod Lunde. 1991. "Features of Educational Attainment and Job Promotion Prospects." American Journal of Sociology 97(3): 689-720.

Stevens. 1981. "Social Mobility and Fertility: Two Effects in One." American Sociological Review: 46(5): 573-585.

Stevenson and Boyd. 1980. "The Importance of Mother: Labor Force Participation and Intergenerational Mobility of Women." Social Forces 59(1): 186-199.

Stier, Haya and David B. Grusky. 1990. "An Overlapping Persistence Model of Career Mobility." American Sociological Review 55(5): 736-756.

Stryker, Robin. 1981. "Religio-Ethnic Effects on Attainments in the Early Career." American Sociological Review 46(2): 212-231.

Szelenyi, Szonja. 1987. "Social Inequality and Party Membership: Patterns of Recruitment Into the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party." American Sociological Review 52(5): 559-573.

Taylor, Patricia A. 1987. "The Celebration of Heroes Under Communism: On Honors and the Reproduction of Inequality." American Sociological Review 52(2): 143-154.

Tolbert, Charles M. II. 1982. "Industrial Segmentation and Men's Career Mobility." American Sociological Review 47(4): 457-476.

Treas, Judith. 1983. "Trickle Down or Transfers? Postwar Determinants of Family Income Inequality." American Sociological Review 48(4): 546-559.

Treiman, Donald and K. Terrell. 1975. "Sex and the Process of Status Attainment." American Sociological Review 40(2): 174-200.

Tyree, Andrea, Moshe Semyonov and Robert W. Hodge. 1979. "Gaps and Glissandos: Inequality, Economic Development and Social Mobility in 24 Countries." American Sociological Review 44(3): 410-424.

Messner, Steven F. 1981. "Comment on 'Gaps and Glissandos: Inequality, Economic Development and Social Mobility in 24 Countries'." American Sociological Review 46(1): 137-138.

Urton, William L. 1981. "Mobility and Economic Development Revisited." American Sociological Review 46(1): 128-136.

Tyree, Andrea. 1981. "Reply to Messner and Urton." American Sociological Review 46(1):138-139.

Raftery, Adrian. 1983. "Comment on 'Gaps and Glissandos...'." American Sociological Review 48(4): 581-583.

Tigges, Leann M. 1988. "Age, Earnings, and Change Within the Dual Economy." Social Forces 66(3): 676-698.

Tyree, Andrea, and Moshe Semyonov. 1983. "Social Mobility and Immigrants or Immigrants and Social Mobility." American Sociological Review 48(4): 583-585.

Useem, Michael and Jerome Narabel. 1986. "Pathways to Top Corporate Management." American Sociological Review. 51 (April) 184-200.

Walder, Andrew G. 1995. "Career Mobility and the Communist Political Order." American Sociological Review 60(3): 309-328.

Webster, Murray, Jr. and James E. Driskell Jr. "Beauty as Status." American Journal of Sociology 89(1): 140-165.

Wegener, Bernd. 1991. "Job Mobility and Social Ties: Social Resources, Prior Job, and Status Attainment." American Sociological Review 56(1): 60-71.

Western, Mark. 1994. "Class Structure and Intergenerational Class Mobility: A Comparative Analysis of Nation and Gender." Social Forces 73(1): 101-134.

Western, Mark and Erik Olin Wright. 1994. "The Permeability of Class Boundaries to Intergenerational Mobility among Men in the United States, Canada, and Norway." American Sociological Review 59(4): 606-629.

Winfield, Idee, et al. 1989. "Career Processes in Great Britain and the United States." Social Forces 68(1): 284-308.

Wolf, Wendy and Rachel Rosenfeld. 1978. "Sex Structure of Occupations and Job Mobility." Social Forces 56(3): 823-844.

Wong, Raymond Sin-Kwok. 1990. "Understanding Cross-National Variation in Occupational Mobility." American Sociological Review 55(4): 560-573.

Yamaguchi, Kazuo. 1983. "The Structure of Intergererational Occupational Mobility: Generality and Specificity Resources, Channels and Barriers." American Journal of Sociology 88(4): 718-745.

Zhou, Min and John R. Logan. 1991. "In and Out of Chinatown: Residential Mobility and Segregation of New York City's Chinese." Social Forces 70(2): 387-407.

Acs, Gregory and Seth Zimmerman. 2008. “Like Watching Grass Grow? Assessing Changes in U.S. Economic Mobility over the Past Two Decades.” Washington, DC: The Urban Institute and The Economic Mobility Project.
Auten, Gerald E., and Geoffrey Gee. 2007. “Income Mobility in the U.S.: Evidence from Income Tax Returns for 1987 and 1996.” OTA Working Paper 98, U.S. Treasury, May 2007.
Bradbury, Katharine, and Jane Katz. 2002. “Women’s Labor Market Involvement and Family Income Mobility When Marriages End.” New England Economic Review. 2002(Q4): 41-74.
Bania, Neil and Laura Leete. 2007. “Income Volatility and Food Insufficiency in U.S. Low-Income Households, 1992-2003,” Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Paper #125-07. Madison, WI: Institute for Research on Poverty.
Batchelder, Lily. 2003. “Taxing the Poor: Income Averaging Reconsidered,” Harvard Journal on Legislation. 40(2): 395-452.
Caroll, Robert, David Joulfaian, and Mark Rider. 2006. “Income Mobility: The Recent American Experience.” International Studies Program Working Paper 06-20, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies July 2006.
Cox, W. Michael, and Richard Alm. 1996. “By Our Own Bootstraps: Economic Opportunity and the Dynamics of Income Distribution.” Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Annual Report 1995.
Duncan, Greg, Timothy Smeeding, and Willard Rodgers. 1991. “W(h)ither the Middle Class?
A Dynamic View.” The Jerome Levy Economics Institute of Bard College Working Paper No. 56.
Dynan, Karen E., Douglas W. Elmendorf, and Daniel E. Sichel. 2007. “The Evolution of Household Income Volatility.” Unpublished paper, Federal Reserve Board and Brookings Institution.
Fletcher, Michael A. 2008. “Can’t Get Ahead, Hard to Keep Up; A New Poll Finds Americans Feeling a Lot More Squeezed.” Washington Post, April 10, 2008, p. D01.
Gosselin, Peter G. & Seth Zimmerman. 2007. “Trends in Income Volatility and Risk, 1970-2004.” Paper presented at the 2007 Association for Public Policy and Management Annual meeting in Washington, DC..
Gottschalk, Peter and Sheldon Danziger. 1998. “Family Income Mobility: How Much is There and Has It Changed?” In J. Auerbach and R. Belous, eds. The Inequality Paradox. (pp. 92–111) Washington, D.C.: National Policy Association.
Gottschalk, Peter and Robert A. Moffitt. 2006. “Trends in Earnings Volatility in the U.S.: 1970-2002. Paper presented at the 2007 Annual American Economic Association Meetings, Chicago, IL.
Gottschalk, Peter and Robert A. Moffitt. 2002. “Trends in the Transitory Variance of Earnings in the United States.” The Economic Journal. 112(478): C68-C-73.
Gottschalk, Peter and Robert A. Moffitt. 1995. “Trends in the Covariance Structure of Earnings in the U.S.” Boston College Working Papers in Economics. Boston College
Gottschalk, Peter and Robert A. Moffitt. 1994. “The Growth of Earnings Instability in the U.S. Labor Market,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. 25(2): 217-272.
Hacker, Jacob S. 2006. The Great Risk Shift. Oxford University Press: New York.
Haider, Steven J. 2001. “Earnings Instability and Earnings Inequality of Males in the United States: 1967-1991.” Journal of Labor Economics. 19(4): 799-836.
Hungerford, Thomas. 2008. “Income Inequality, Income Mobility, and Economic Policy: U.S. Trends in the 1980s and 1990s.” Congressional Research Service Report RL34434. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service.
Sawhill, Isabel V., and Mark Condon. 1992. “Is U.S. Income Inequality Really Growing?:
Sorting Out the Fairness Question.” Policy Bites. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.
Isaacs, Julia B., Isabel V. Sawhill, and Ron Haskins. 2008. Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America. Washington, DC: Economic Mobility Project, an Initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/Economic_Mobility_in_America_Full.pdf.
Mazumder, Bhashkar. 2008. Upward Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Economic Mobility Project, an Initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_Upward_Mobility.pdf.
Taylor, Paul, Rich Morin, D’Vera Cohn, Richard Fry, Rakesh Kochhar, and April Clark. 2008. Inside the Middle Class: Bad Times Hit the Good Life. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
http://pewsocialtrends.org/assets/pdf/MC-Middle-class-report.pdf.

Social Mobility and Social Structure. (Book Review) Will, Jeffry A.
Ronald Breiger's collection of papers

Research on social and economic mobility has been one of several main pillars within U.S. sociology for over three decades. Within the past 20 years we have seen growing recognition that a more "structural" understanding and improved methodological approaches are essential. Ronald Breiger's collection of papers presented in Social Mobility and Social Structure represents an important contribution to the efforts to improve this understanding.

In his introduction, Breiger traces the history of stratification research, from the early work of Blau and Duncan -- the "Status Attainment" origins -- through the rise of "the new structuralism," which constitutes the foundation of the papers presented in this volume by an impressive array of authors. In Part 1, John Padgett examines the intricacies of the congressional committee assignments. Peter Marsden and Karen Campbell provide a discussion of the impact of social networks on employment. Andrew Abbott ties in historical data to provide an understanding of the structural constraints and the "vacancy" metaphor as a means of understanding these research problems. Christopher Jencks offers a provocative examination of the theoretical and empirical problems encountered when examining social mobility and equal opportunity.

In part 2, Breiger takes us "beyond occupations," presenting us with research on a variety of areas including organizational careers (Gaertner), labor market practices (Brittain and Wholey), and issues of social class and mobility (Breiger). Most interesting in this section is Jerry Jacobs's discussion of sex segregation, and the extent to which occupational sex types inhibit mobility.

The impressive array of essays and authors not withstanding, there are some problems with Breiger's production. While the authors present us with important contributions -- predominately in the form of methodological applications to areas of concentration seen frequently in these authors' repertoires -- the dated nature of these projects is somewhat disappointing. Several of the articles are mirror modifications of previously presented materials, a point acknowledged by Breiger in his introduction -- most notably, Karen Gaertner's essay was originally published 10 years prior to this book. While Gaertner's chapter is important to the focus of the book, an update as to more recent contributions or attempts at replicating her methodology would have been useful.

Similarly, a number of the articles in parts 1 and 2 could have benefited from a review of more recent efforts at improving the examination of mobility and social structure. Chapters 2 through 9 show only a handful of references to works after 1984, save for references to the recent work of the chapters' authors. In addition, some attention to the timeliness of the data could have been included. For example, John Padgett's discussion of the committee seat selection processes in Congress during the 1960s would have benefited greatly from some discussion of how this process might be affected by structural changes. Specifically, how might the change from the powerful position of the Democrats during the 1960s to the period of Republican Presidencies through the 1980s play out in this selection process. Granted, data may not be available to test these changes (although I believe such may indeed be at hand), but some theoretical discussion along these lines would have been helpful for graduate students and newcomers to the study of social mobility.

The most promising chapters in the text are those in part 3. Lin, Rosenbaum, and Althauser and Kalleberg not only bring the individual back in, but bring the reader back in as well. Nan Lin offers a solid application of how, where, and why social mobility research can be of value within the discipline. Although one may not enjoy his agenda, Lin's presentation of three directions for the future analysis provides a solid platform from which an emerging body of research can proceed. Rosenbaum shows us how this analysis can be integrated into the timely discussion of affirmative action and other issues of social policy. Althauser and Kalleberg lay bare the prevailing models for examining internal labor markers allowing us a better understanding of the constraints and problems inherent in our approach to these processes.

In all, Breiger has presented us with an important contribution to the study of social mobility and social structure. Though the reader should be aware of the shortcomings of the first two sections of the book, the utility of this book for the student of social mobility is unquestionable.

Reviewer: JEFFRY A. WILL, University of North Florida
COPYRIGHT 1994 University of North Carolina Press

Class Passing Social Mobility In Film And Popular Culture

Social Mobility In Europe

Economic and Social Mobility in America

Class Mobility and American Social Policy

Ethnicity Social Mobility and Public Policy

Education as an Engine for Social Mobility

Social Structure and Social Mobility

The Social Mobility of Women

Mobility and Social Captial

Social Mobility and Modernization

Social Mobility in a Changing World

Social Mobility and Class Structure in Britain

Qualitative Approach to Social Mobility

Life Chances And Social Mobility

Intergenerational mobility, class mobility and social mobility

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