Mobility and Change in Modern Society PDF
Preview Mobility and Change in Modern Society
MOBILITY AND CHANGE IN MODERN SOCIETY By the same author SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL RESEARCH EMPLOYMENT AND OPPORTUNITY Mobility and Change in Modern Society Geoff Payne Dean. Faculty 0/ Social Science Plymouth Polytechnic M © Geoff Payne 1987 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1987 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1987 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS L TD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the worId Typeset by Vine & Gorfin Ltd, Exmouth, Devon British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Payne, Geoff Mobility and change in modern society. I. Social mobility-Great Britain 2. Great Britain-Occupations I. Title 305.5'0941 HN400.S65 ISBN 978-0-333-41826-0 ISBN 978-1-349-18529-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-18529-0 Contents List 0/ Tab/es vi Acknowledgements Vll Introduction IX 1 Perspectives on Mobility 2 Mobility, Occupations and Class 16 3 Occupations in Capitalist Society 30 4 Occupations in Post-Industrial Society 51 5 Class and Labour Markets in Contemporary Society 71 6 Social Mobility in Britain: The OId Evidence 88 7 The New Account of Mobility 118 8 Mobility in Modern Society 146 Notes 150 Bibliography 155 Author Index 166 Subject Index 170 v List of Tables 3.1 The logic of industrialisation 54 6.1 Occupational transition in Scotland, England and Wales- 1921, 1951 and 1971: economically active males, aged 20-64 95 6.2 Occupational distributions of generations 96 6.3 Occupational distributions of fathers and sons in Social Mobility in Britain 101 6.4 Occupational distributions of fathers and sons in SMS, 1975 103 6.5 Proportions of 'manual' respondents in four cohorts as reported in Social Mobility in Britain 105 6.6 Changes in proportions of 'manual' and 'non-manual' economically active men aged 20-64 in Scotland, England and Wales, 1921, 1931 and 1951 106 7.1 Intergenerational male mobility 123 7.2 Proportions of mobility associated with classes 124 7.3 Intergenerational outflow, mobility 128 7.4 Sectoral share of upward mobility, 1930-39 and 1960-69 143 7.5 Intrasectoral changes, 1930-39 and 1960-69 143 7.6 Mobility and educational qualifications 144 vi Acknowledgements This book is one outcome of a large-scale piece of research wh ich lasted for a number ofyears and involved literally hundreds of people, not least nearly 5000 Scots who provided the basic information about patterns of mobility. They cannot all be thanked by name, but there are several individuals who des erve particular mention. Mick Carter appointed me as Director of the Scottish Mobility Study, which furnished the empirical data and the experience on which this book is based. He was never less than completely fair and honest, and had the strength of character to let me go my own way and yet to back me up when the going got tough. More recently, Richard Brown's patient encouragement and careful criticisms of earlier drafts ensured that I eventually completed the project. Judy Payne not only carried out all the normally acknowledged duties of an author's spouse, but organised and ran computer runs at short notice - even in the middle of the night. Her contribution by way of support has been every bit as important as her sensible comments on some of my more hare-brained ideas. Among other people involved, Graeme F ord and Catherine Robertson, the other original members of the Scottish Mobility Study team, worked very hard in the fieldwork stage. Graeme was a particularly stalwart aide in those early days: he cheerfully took on whatever work was needed, even when his splendidly agnostic turn-of mind made hirn doubt its value. Robert Moore was another source of support in Aberdeen, while I am also grateful to the undergraduates and postgraduates (Tony Chapman in particular) at Plymouth Polytechnic whose work has continued to stimulate my interest in social mobility. I have been fortunate to receive excellent secretarial support throughout my research, both in Aberdeen and Plymouth. Mae Lowe helped greatly by removing administrative burdens from me at key points, and was a further source of encouragement. The final preparation of the typescript was carried out by Jane Doughty, Dawn Cole and Carole Vincent with great tolerance and goodwill; indeed, all the office staff des erve my thanks for the way they shared the burden. Some parts of this book have appeared as journal or conference papers: numerous readers and audiences have helped to clarify what I meant to say. As always, the author must take the blame for any remaining shortcomings. Part of Chapter 4 is taken from an article in Sociological Review, vol. 25, no. 1; Chapter 6 largely appeared 10 Vll viii A cknowledgements Sociology, vol. 11, no. 2; and Chapter 7 combines material from articles in the Scottish Journal ofSociology, vol. 1, no. 1, and the British Journal of Sociology, vol. 34, no. 1. I am grateful to the respective editorsand publishers for permission to reprint the substance of these articles. The research was financed by a grant from the Social Science Research Council, while the writing of this book was made possible by a period of sabbatical leave from Plymouth Polytechnic which was spent at the Research Centre for the Social Sciences, Edinburgh University. GEOFF PAYNE Introduction 'Social' or 'class' mobility is normally thought of as a movement between social classes, whereas it is operationalised in occupational terms and what is actually measured is movement between broad groupings of occupations. It is therefore often forgotten that social mobility is in fact occupational mobility, and so it is a product of employment processes which have taken place in specific historical and economic circumstances. The sociological literature contains few attempts at an occupational explanation of social mobility or accounts of how changes in mobility in the class structure have been altered by many social and economic events like two world wars, or the Great Depression. In order to gain a fuller understanding of mobility, and to return it to both mainstream sociology and the comprehension of the ordinary person in the street, mobility needs to be treated in a more concrete sense than in earlier studies, which have taken an interest in mobility only to the extent that it shedlight on theories of stratification. An important step in achieving this is to understand how a number of theoretical perspectives have informed mobility analysis. The opening chapter therefore starts with a consideration of earlier key contributions, and attempts to show that mobility research has become increasingly restricted to a limited number of concerns. Sorokin's original multidimensional and all-encompassing vision has been replaced with more specific technical concerns ab out comparative analysis of how 'open' societies have become, or how national, educational and class recruitment systems operate. There are, however, a number of other links which can be made to wider sociological concerns. Conceiving of mobility in occupation terms makes it easier to see what such links would be like (for example, with labour market theory, occupational transition, or theories of post-industrial society). That is not to say that mobility is not about stratification: indeed, quite the reverse. But before one can deal with the abstractions of mobility and class analysis, it is necessary to establish the occupational base on which a number of theoretical class models have (often unwittingly) been built. The present study concentrates more on this basic task as a necessary first step rather than theorising in detail on the current state of social dass in Britain. Central to the analysis of occupational mobility is the question ofth e ix
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