Showing papers on "Vertical mobility published in 1954"
TL;DR: Deasy et al. as discussed by the authors found that a large minority or even majority of men are engaged in occupations with socio-economic status different from their fathers, and that individuals who leave their home communities become detached from stable status relationships and manifest unusual mobility.
Abstract: STUDIES of social stratification in the United States have shown a striking contradiction in findings. The few studies of vertical mobility' report that a large minority or even majority of men are engaged in occupations with socio-economic status different from their fathers. The community-focused investigations of social classes, on the other hand, either neglect to report any observed vertical mobility or imply strongly that mobility is rare and class lines are firm.2 An exception is a recent community study by Deasy,3 who took the novel step of inquiring directly about new and former members of the elite group and about families who had failed in their attempts to enter the elite. It is significant that she found a considerable influx into the upper-upper class. Some of the sociologists engaged in the study of stratification have found it possible to reconcile these divergent findings. First of all, it is apparent that certain of the more active students of American stratification are not diligently looking into evidence on mobility. A second interpretation, which has been discussed at some length by Florence Kluckhohn,4 is based on observation of the failure in the community studies of stratification to record the origins and careers of individuals migrating into or away from the community. It is to be expected that individuals who leave their home communities become detached from stable status relationships and manifest unusual mobility. The present study attempts to test this hypothesis. The Kentucky community studied, containing about 1500 white households, is within an hour's drive of two moderate sized cities and within a hundred miles of two metropolitan centers. The "fathers" reported on are the white male household heads residing in the community and having one or more sons aged 15 or older who have completed their schooling. The sons are divided into two groups: those who have remained in the community, and those who have migrated. For each of these two groups occupations of fathers and sons are scaled and compared with each other. In addition, inter-generation occupational mobility is related to general social status scores of the fathers based on four combined indices: occupation, type of house, dwelling area, and prestige ratings by local judges.5 The combinations of occupations for each set of sons and fathers are shown in Table 1; the complete table is included because of the paucity of similar mobility data in the literature. The patterns of occupational inheritance and mobility here displayed resemble those found in the studies 1 Richard Centers, "Occupational Mobility of Urban Occupational Strata," American Sociological Review, 13 (1948), pp. 197-203; H. D. Anderson and P. E. Davidson, Occupational Mobility in An American Community, Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1937; C. C. North and P. K. Hatt, "Jobs and Occupations: A Popular Evaluation," in L. Wilson and W. L. Kolb, Sociological Analysis, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1949, p. 473. 2 The widely known studies published by W. L. Warner and his associates are particularly in point here. 3 Leila Calhoun Deasy, Social Mobility in Northtown (Cornell University Dissertation), 1953. 4Florence R. Kluckhohn, "Dominant and Substitute Profiles of Cultural Orientation," Social Forces. 28 (1950). p. 388. 5 The scales used, except for prestige, were those presented in W. L. Warner, M. Meeker, and K. Eells, Social Class in America: a Manual of Procedure for the Mleasurement of Social Status, Chicago: Science Research Associates. 1949. Perforce, parental reports of migrant sons' occupations were used.PI
14 citations