Understanding trends in social fluidity in Western Europe: class structural change and the OED triangle
Abstract
Abstract We start from a general theory of intergenerational class mobility previously proposed as an alternative to the ‘liberal’ theory. In further evaluating these theories, we report empirical analyses of relations within the origins–education–destinations (OED) triangle, drawing on data for individuals born 1923–1977 in 17 European societies. In contrast with earlier research, we treat education in relative terms. We find that the tendency for fluidity to increase within class structures after World War II, rather than being the expression of a ‘worldwide secular trend’, was restricted to a distinctive historical period of rapid economic growth and class structural change. Furthermore, in accounting for this increasing fluidity, the role of education may easily be exaggerated. The weakening of the ‘direct’ OD association is of at least comparable importance to changes in the OE and ED associations. Consistently with the proposed theory, class structural change, insofar as it promotes greater upward mobility, would also appear to provide a favourable context for increasing fluidity. Where downward mobility increases, the growing motivation and the capacity of more advantaged parents to protect their children against déclassement constitutes a powerful source of resistance to change in endogenous mobility regimes.
Ingestion failed: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/srv/app/app/worker.py", line 85, in run_once process_job(db, job) File "/srv/app/app/worker.py", line 39, in process_job pdf_path, info = fetch_pdf_temp(candidate["url"]) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/srv/app/app/downloader.py", line 129, in fetch_pdf_temp raise ValueError(f"PDF source returned HTTP {response.status_code}.") ValueError: PDF source returned HTTP 403.
No local PDF is available.
GROBID Extracted text; discontinued.
This text is generated from TEI extraction for accessibility, search, and TTS. Formulas, tables, figures, page layout, and references may not perfectly match the original PDF.
No accessible text representation is available. The text extraction service has been discontinued for the time being. If you require this service, for accessibility or any other reason, please submit an issue/request on this page.
Metadata
Issues
No public issues have been filed for this DOI.
Submit an issue
Record history
| When | Event | Field | Old | New |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-18 19:37:53.011249+00:00 | identifier_assigned | DSEID | DSEID-001-2787485 |