The constant flux
Subtitle: a study of class mobility in industrial societies
By: Robert Erikson and John H. Goldthorpe.
Contributors: Goldthorpe, John H.
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 1992
Place of publication: Oxford [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 429
Subjects: Social mobility -- Europe -- History -- 20th century; Social mobility -- History -- 20th century; Social classes -- Europe -- History -- 20th century; Social classes -- History -- 20th century; Europe -- Economic conditions -- 1945-
Description: This is a study of social mobility within the developing class structures of modern industrial societies based on a unique data-set constructed by Robert Erikson and John Goldthorpe. The focus is on the experience of European nations--western and eastern--in the period of the 'long boom' following the Second World War; but the book also devotes separate chapters to examining the experience of the USA, Australia, and Japan. The authors combine historical and statistical approaches in their analysis of both trends in mobility and of cross-national similarities and differences. They show that wide variation at the level of actually observed mobility coexists with a surprising degree of constancy and commonality in underlying patterns of social fluidity. The empirical results of their study serve as the basis for a critical re-examination of current theories of mobility and for raising more general issues of the proper concerns and methods of comparative macro-sociology.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [399]-422) and indexes.