Nennstiel, Richard (2021). On the way to becoming a society of downward mobility? Intergenerational occupational mobility in seven West German birth cohorts (1944–1978). Research in social stratification and mobility, 73, p. 100609. Elsevier 10.1016/j.rssm.2021.100609
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Many studies on social mobility use operationalizations of social positions that do not take occupational upgrading into account. In order to estimate social mobility patterns net of occupational upgrading, I propose an operationalization involving administrative data to measure social positions by applying a percentile approach. Based on this measurement I calculate absolute and relative intergenerational mobility patterns.
Using this operationalization, I aim to answer the question of how far intergenerational mobility patterns have changed over time in West Germany. Therefore, I analyze the occupational data of 7,416 38- to 42-year-olds born between 1944 and 1978 belonging to the sixth starting cohort of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Compared to previous studies, I observe significantly higher rates of downward mobility. However, I do not find any cohort trends in absolute mobility rates and do not detect any changes in social fluidity patterns. I therefore conclude that there are no cohort trends in absolute or relative intergenerational mobility in West Germany, implying that it is not on its way to becoming a society of downward mobility. In contrast to previous studies, my results indicate high social fluidity and no changes in relative mobility over time. Hence, the picture of a rigid German social structure should be reconsidered.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
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Division/Institute: |
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Education > Sociology of Education |
UniBE Contributor: |
Nennstiel, Richard |
Subjects: |
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology |
ISSN: |
0276-5624 |
Publisher: |
Elsevier |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Richard Nennstiel |
Date Deposited: |
16 Nov 2021 11:51 |
Last Modified: |
05 Dec 2022 15:53 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1016/j.rssm.2021.100609 |
BORIS DOI: |
10.48350/160254 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/160254 |
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