Page 237 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

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208 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

The social mobility literature at first trans- While media stars, gangsters, and famous
lates its interest in longitudinal trajectories sport players often represent archetypical
into a narrowly focused interest on the bivari- figures of ascending vertical mobility, no
ate relationship between the occupational article is devoted to the crucial role of such
classes of fathers and sons (and later on of organizations as sports clubs, criminal gangs,
mothers and daughters) (Treiman and and the arts.
Ganzeboom, 2000). It then turns to earnings Very few articles criticize such implicit
or income, and to education. Few papers assumptions as the theory of industrialism
refer to other aspects and determinants of and the normative theory of educational mer-
social position such as lifestyles (Sobel, itocracy. Only Jackson et al. (2005) and Dev
1983), life experiences through social inter- Sharda (2005) have tackled the former, while
action, cultural orientations, and political Wesolowski (1981) is very much alone in
action (Kingston, 1994), patterns of practices discussing the theoretical weaknesses and
involving residential selection, children’s social dangers of the meritocratic social doc-
peer groups, volunteer organizations trine. According to him, the social mobility
(Kendall, 2006), or region, housing, and cul- literature largely shares the following assump-
tural consumption (Ganzeboom et al., 1990). tions: the effort a young person invests in
While Sorokin’s pioneering work evoked obtaining higher levels of education should
many social mobility agencies such as the be adequately rewarded; persons with higher
army, the church, the family, political, as education contribute more, and therefore are
well as economic and professional organiza- entitled to obtain more; differential rewards
tions, schools appear as the conventional are necessary for social development.
channel of vertical circulation in RSSM. Most
of the papers try to understand differences in
educational attainment and aspirations, racial Individualist views of institutional
or ethnic inequalities in access to education, mediations
and, in a tacit use of human capital theory,
returns to schooling or training. By contrast, Most authors in RSSM study individual
few articles point to the crucial role of the effects rather than collective identities, beliefs
family in mediating social mobility through and attitudes, macro-social contexts, institu-
such mechanisms as inheritance of a business tions, collective processes, and cultures.
(Szelenyi and Manchin, 1989; Yonay and The modelling of mobility is more con-
Kraus, 2001), marriage and divorce (Cohen, cerned with ‘effects’ on social stratification
1986; Lichter and Landry, 1991; Park and than with social classes, seen as identity
Smits, 2005; Peterson, 1987), child care groups shaping their members’ individual
and family responsibilities (Maume and and collective destinies. A small number of
Dunaway, 1989; Spilerman and Schrank, articles analyze the ‘subjective’ aspects of
1991; Wenk and Rosenfeld, 1992). stratification and mobility, and many of these
A few focus on social networks (Cohen, exceptions can be found in the Marxist and
1986; Coverdill, 1998), political organiza- neo-Weberian traditions, where studies
tions (Frankel, 1991; Hanley and Treiman, examine patterns of class consciousness or
2005; Massey et al., 1992; Opper et al., 2002; class formation (Colbjornsen, 1988;
Useem, 1984), and community organi Eisenstadt, 1984; Wallace and Jepperson,
zations (Hoff, 2005; Rubin, 1992). While 1986; Western, 1998). Only a few papers focus
army and church have long been traditional on collective interests (Bills, 1998; Wilson,
channels of vertical circulation, only 2001), socio-economic beliefs (Jackman and
Dronkers (1985) has examined the role of Senter, 1983; Kluegel, 1988), public attitudes
religious affiliation in mediating mobility (Sikora, 2005), social perceptions (Ayalon
and no article considers the role of the army. et al., 1988), or social values (Silver and