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LIFECOURSE OF THE SOCIAL MOBILITY PARADIGM 213

profoundly affected by what happens in the the lifecourse perspective away from a rather
lifecourse of their family members, and vice individualistic stance, and anchors it in the
versa. We are all born to parents, who usually comparative analysis of the interplay
care for us and expect some form of care and between individuals, groups, and institutions.
love as they age. A similar relationship binds
a large proportion of middle-aged individuals
to their own children as well, and indeed it is Explicit and implicit uses of the
experienced in the context of increasingly lifecourse perspective in recent
diverse families, intact, single parent or social mobility research
reconstituted. This has critical consequences
for the lifecourse of individuals, not only These principles are increasingly inspiring
when they are young or aged and dependent, researchers in social mobility, who are asking
but also when they are middle-aged and shar- new questions and identifying new factors in
ing the burden of caring for dependents in implicit reference to Sorokin’s view of the
their families, in their communities, and in key role of a variety of institutions.
their society’s institutions (e.g., pension Hout and DiPrete’s review of the field
schemes). (Hout and Diprete, 2006) provides strong
Finally, lives are lived in social contexts. indications in this respect. We cannot do
Individuals are embedded not only in fami- better than refer the reader to this document,
lies, but also in communities, which can offer and briefly paraphrase its summary of recent
various levels of opportunities (for instance developments and findings (mostly using
jobs, quality of schools and childcare serv- the paper’s substantial subtitles). According
ices, physical security, quality of the environ- to them:
ment, availability of commercial services)
and of support (sociability, community ● Educational tracking increases the variance of
organizations). These obviously shape the educational outcomes.
trajectories of residents, especially in the ● School-to-work transitions are smoother and
case of the more place-bound sub-popula- early job mobility is lower in countries where the
tions, such as children, the aged, the handi- school curriculum is oriented towards providing
vocational training and certification for entry into
capped, and the poor. States also play a key
specific occupations.
role in shaping lifecourses, through their
● Strong welfare states and institutionalized labour
policies in the fields of health, education,
markets reduce poverty and the growth in wage
social assistance, urban affairs, transportation,
inequality.
the environment, and so on. Research reveals ● Social welfare policies that facilitate the combin-
striking differences even among advanced ing of work and motherhood cause women’s
societies, which Esping-Andersen (1990, work careers to be more continuous, and societal
1999) has characterized as differences in differences in these policies create societal differ-
welfare regimes. Such regimes represent ences in the structure of women’s careers over
different global and historically resilient the lifecourse.
models of organizing the production and dis- ● Strong welfare states smooth the dynamics of the
socioeconomic lifecourse by buffering the impact
tribution of welfare by markets, States, fami-
of mobility events.
lies, and communities: liberal countries
● Welfare states and labour markets affect occupa-
emphasize markets and residual social pro-
tional mobility via their impacts on the process of
grammes, social-democratic countries offer
vacancy creation in the labour market, and on the
universal social protection while emphasizing size of the self-employment sector.
widespread participation in the labour market, ● State intervention in the mobility process has cre-
and conservative countries tend to rely more ated historical periods (typically of limited dura-
on families and on occupation-based social tion) where particular groups or classes defined
insurance schemes. This last element draws by occupation, employment status, or political