Search Results (6)

This article examines intergenerational social mobility as a driver of sustainable development on the case of Lithuania, a country in Eastern Europe. Using data from the European Social Survey (2020), the analysis explores how parental education and occupation shape individual educational and occupational outcomes. Descriptive, correlational, and regression analyses reveal that while structural mobility has been facilitated by Lithuania’s transition from Soviet rule to a market economy and subsequent European integration, family background remains a decisive factor. The study also highlights the key factors that promote or constrain social mobility in contemporary Lithuania. The interaction between mothers’ and fathers’ education fosters the attainment of higher levels of education, whereas mothers’ occupational status and respondents’ gender (male) appear to limit it. Similarly, the achievement of a higher occupational level is positively influenced by the interaction between parental education and the respondent’s own highest educational attainment, while negatively influenced by gender. These findings demonstrate that education not only determines social mobility but also supports the broader objectives of sustainable development by reducing inequality, fostering human capital, and advancing gender equality. The results underscore the importance of inclusive social policies that ensure equitable access to quality education and align educational opportunities with labor market demands, thereby reinforcing social mobility as a foundation for long-term social resilience and sustainability. Full article

This article examines how processes of social closure promote persistence at the top of the occupational hierarchy and how they vary by gender. We focus on the links between professional closure strategies and intergenerational immobility in professional employment among Italian graduates. Italy displays the highest levels of service market regulation across Europe, and professionals are the largest occupational group within the upper class; therefore, it is crucial to analyse the link between professional closure and labour market outcomes among Italian graduates. Using ISTAT’s survey on Italian graduates’ labour outcomes and replicating the analyses of men in the ILFI survey, the origin-destination association is investigated at the big-, meso-, and micro-levels. We employ log-linear nested models and logistic regressions. The SPL sample offers a unique opportunity to analyse social mobility at the beginning of professionals’ careers and provide in-depth explanations of the micro-level dynamics of social reproduction. The analyses indicate that children of regulated professionals have a higher propensity to follow in their parents’ footsteps (micro-classes). Self-employment among professionals strongly increases intergenerational immobility at the top of the occupational hierarchy. The findings demonstrate that the combination of specific parental resources strongly helps professionals’ sons and daughters to avoid social demotion. Full article

Although both childhood and adult economic conditions have been found to be associated with mortality, independently or in combination with each other, less is known about the role of intermediate factors between these two life stages. This study explores the pathways between childhood economic conditions and adult mortality by taking personal attributes as well as adult socioeconomic career into consideration. Further, we investigate the role of intergenerational income mobility for adult mortality. We used data from a prospective cohort study of individuals that were born in 1953 and residing in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1963 who were followed for mortality between 2002 and 2021 (n = 11,325). We fit Cox proportional hazards models to assess the association of parental income, cognitive ability, social skills, educational attainment, occupational status, and adult income with mortality. The income mobility is operationalized as the interaction between parental and adult income. Our results show that the association between parental income and adult mortality is modest and largely operates through cognitive ability and adult educational attainment. However, our results do not provide support for there being an effect of intergenerational income mobility on adult mortality. In a Swedish cohort who grew up in a comparatively egalitarian society during the 1950s and 1960s, childhood economic conditions were found to play a distinct but relatively small role for later mortality. Full article

Based on the 1% sample survey of the National Population Census (2015), this paper empirically analyzes the impact of intergenerational occupational mobility levels on labor migration in terms of push and pull factors. We found that increasing the degree of intergenerational occupational mobility has a significant “agglomeration effect” on registered and mobile labor: reducing the emigration willingness of household registered labor and increasing the immigration probability of labor from cities with a lower degree of intergenerational occupational mobility. Labor migration generally occurs from cities with lower intergenerational occupational mobility to cities with a higher degree of intergenerational occupational mobility. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the agglomeration effect of a city on native labor is insignificant in east, northwest and northeast China. Rural laborers, highly educated laborers and rural laborers with high education levels are more likely to move from their registered cities. The mechanism analysis finds that improving the city’s comprehensive economic incremental competitiveness will enhance the city’s agglomeration effect on native labor, while increasing the degree of educational returns will strengthen the city’s agglomeration effect on mobile labor from cities with a lower degree of intergenerational mobility. Moreover, after using IV-probit, IV-2SLS and heteroscedasticity-based IVs to deal with endogenous problems, the above conclusions are still robust. Our findings may contribute to realizing sustained demographic dividends through internal migration. Full article

This paper sets changes in Britain’s class structure since 1945 alongside the parallel sociological controversies about class. Since the 1970s, the class scheme developed by John Goldthorpe and colleagues for initial use in their study of social mobility in Britain has become sociology’s standard template for thinking about and researching class. Versions have been adopted by the UK government and the European Union as their official socio-economic classifications. This paper does not dispute that the Goldthorpe scheme is still the best available for classifying by occupation, or that occupation remains our best single indicator of class, or that a constant class scheme must be used if the purpose is to measure trends over time in rates of relative inter-generational mobility. Despite these merits, it is argued that the sociological gaze has been weakened by failing to represent changes over time in the class structure itself and, therefore, how class is experienced in lay people’s lives. There has been a relative neglect of absolute social mobility flows (which have changed over time), and a pre-occupation with the inter-generational and a relative neglect of intra-career mobilities and immobilities. Full article

Health differences in social mobility are often analysed by income differences or different occupational positions. However, in early adulthood many young people still have very diffuse income situations and are not always fully integrated into the labour market despite many having finished school. This article focusses on the link between intergenerational educational pathways and self-rated health (SRH) among young adults considering their SRH in adolescence. The data source used is the German KiGGS cohort study. The analysis sample comprises 2175 young people at baseline (t0: 2003–2006 age 14–17) and first follow-up (t1: 2009–2012 age 19–24). Combining parent’s and young people’s highest school degree, the data can trace patterns of intergenerational educational pathways (constant high level of education, upward mobility, downward mobility, constant low level of education). Young people’s SRH was recorded at t0 and t1. During adolescence and young adulthood, participants were less likely to report poor SRH if they had a constant high intergenerational education or if they were upwardly mobile. The differences were particularly striking among young adults: average marginal effects (AME) for poor SRH showed much higher risk among downwardly mobile compared to peers with an intergenerational constant high education (AME: 0.175 [0.099; 0.251]), while the upwardly mobile had a significantly lower risk for less than good SRH than peers with an intergenerational constant low level of education (AME: −0.058 [−0.113; −0.004]). In the context of great societal demands and personal developmental needs, educational differences in health tend to increase in young adulthood. Public Health should pay more attention to educational and health inequalities in young adulthood. Full article