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LIFECOURSE OF THE SOCIAL MOBILITY PARADIGM 207

possibility of distinguishing structural and of much improved comparative data and
non-structural sources of mobility. Developing analytical techniques has allowed for new
an overview of the different generations of combinations of quantitative (continuous
these methodologies, Ganzeboom et al. variables) and ‘qualitative’ (categorical vari-
(1991) propose to distinguish three genera- ables) approaches, and for a more thorough
tions in mobility studies. The first generation examination of the effects of ‘social contexts’
focused on the degree of ‘openness’of differ- on social mobility. As a consequence, they
ent social structures, as measured by the rate say, there now is a convergence of approaches
of occupational mobility between genera- used in the previous two generations of stud-
tions. Some sociologists of this generation ies. While many of the developments they
proposed to make a distinction between point out are indeed innovative, we ourselves
structural and circulation (or exchange) interpret them less as an extension of previous
mobility, the former being determined by the efforts, and more as a shift in paradigm,
amount of mobility required by the very towards a lifecourse perspective. Before
structure of the table (changes in the mar- we examine these new trends, however, we
ginal distributions between one generation should turn to the decades of normal science
and the next). which characterized generations two and
Sociologists of the second generation crit- three.
icized these concepts, arguing that they were
statistical artefacts with no clear substantive
interpretation. The use of multivariate statis-
tical techniques – path analysis or structural A TURN TO NORMAL SCIENCE
equation modelling – allowed them to go
beyond mobility as such to study status An examination of the articles published in
attainment from an individualistic perspec- the specialized journal Research in Social
9
tive, as proposed by Blau and Duncan Stratification and Mobility (RSSM) allows
(1967). The use of continuous quantitative us to highlight the major shared assumptions
variables allowed for the assessment of the of this much focused and very productive
relative importance of various paths to occu- field of sociological research. We argue
pational status, involving schooling and the that most articles share a meritocratic per-
direct transmission of status across genera- spective as well as an individualist view of
tions through other mechanisms. institutional mediations. Again, due to excel-
The third generation is characterized by a lent available reviews of the field, we
return to the analysis of intergenerational will focus mainly on the exceptions to the
occupational mobility using qualitative cate- rule, on the articles that diverge from the
gories. In this generation, new statistical mainstream.
techniques such as log-linear and log-multi-
plicative analysis allow for a clear distinction
between absolute and relative mobility (see Meritocratic assumptions
Erikson and Goldthorpe, 1992). Differences
among countries as to how occupational Though the social mobility paradigm allows
structures vary from one generation to the for a wide range of ways of describing the
next largely explain how their mobility social structure and interpreting longitudinal
regimes vary; in other words, the basic struc- trajectories, most of the articles published in
ture of mobility chances is common to all RSSM provide a conventional meritocratic
industrial societies. interpretation of social mobility: education is
Treiman and Ganzeboom (2000) have the main factor in upward mobility, and
recently identified a fourth generation of occupational positions are the rewards of
studies. According to them, the availability individual educational achievements.