Recommended readings on social Mobility

Seloth

Hey,

I'm writing a paper on the topic but despite being such a large topic I'm finding it difficult to find any papers/articles etc on the subject.

If anybody could recommend a few that would be great thanks.So far google scholar has provided very little.

Ostrom

Could you be more specific - are you looking for research papers (i.e. data on mobility) or something more theoretical?

Seloth

Well a bit of both tbh.

I've only been able to find few articles on Intra and Inter generational mobility but I'd rather have some stronger articles or papers about the two.

Also I working on how some societies promote or restrict this but any additional ones that could be recommended would be grateful.

As for hard data this would be extremely helpful.I have found a some articles which discuss American,UK and Chinese mobility in such a way but Id like to have more on African states.

Sorry about bothering people in this section but I've still not quite just yet got the hang of finding research papers so any help is greatly appreciated.

Ostrom

Will try to grab a minute later to put something more substantial

Theoretically, Bourdieu might be a good place to start - there should be plenty of introductory readers in your library. In particlar, his arguments of the role of cultural capital and habitus in class reproduction. This argument has been used by education researchers to theorise intergenerational mobility - and conversely to explain stable patterns in differential dropout rates across class cohorts. For data, you should be able to find some in this http://www.esri.ie/news_events/latest_press_releases/no_way_back_the_dynamics_/index.xml

The link to the full report is at the end. You should also be able to find feeder school data and league tables.

Beyond this (for sociology anyway) you might look for papers by Goldthorpe and Erikson, as these are the classical accounts of class measurement. I cant help with African studies, sorry!

Seloth

Thanks a million

Cat Melodeon

I'm doing a bit of general research into the class system in Ireland with a particular interest in working class identities. I'm currently reading An Irish Working Class by M Silverman and have The Ruling Trinity by Chris Eipper to go through next. Eipper's looks particularly interesting as it employs a proper Marxist framework when looking at class in Co Cork. I haven't come across too many studies that do that, most seem to be done as social histories or as measurements of socioeconomic factors pointing to disadvantage rather than explorations of different class identities or of conflicts between classed identities.

More generally I've been looking at Jonathon Rose's Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, Beverly Skeggs, some history of the Irish Labour movement stuff and the standard Irish sociology textbooks as well as some ESRI reports from the like of Chris Whelan and Emer Smyth.

I'm not working towards any particular objective with this, I'm just looking for hidden gems of books or papers that people might have come across. Any further hints or tips for a general reading list would be greatly appreciated.

Ostrom

E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class might be useful for context to the above? He published some papers in economy and society (I think) if you cant get hold of the book.

Have you seen Chris Curtin's Irish Urban Cultures? (collection). Beyond those you mentioned you're probably going back a bit earlier for that kind of research - and most of it is rural aside from Humphrey's New Dubliners (which deals with in-migration from rural areas).

Cat Melodeon

Cheers efla, I've read Thompson but had never heard of the Chris Curtin collection - I'll track it down, sounds good. Is that Chris Curtin of NUIG?