This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (14) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Blackburn, R. M. Articles by Prandy, K. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Reproduction of Social Inequality

Kenneth Prandy

Ideological assumptions of equality and economic individualism have permeated the traditional analysis of social mobility. This is shown most clearly in the use of perfect mobility as the theoretical model that underlies most of the empirical analyses. A major consequence is that these analyses have offered a poor conceptualisation of the nature of the structure within which movement occurs, and have tended to ignore the question of relative distances between the objects, typically conceived as social classes, making up that structure. A further consequence is that they have concentrated on the issue of how much mobility, rather than on why it does, or does not, occur. It is argued that a more adequate conceptualisation would involve a move away from rigidly defined class categories towards a recognition of the hierarchical structure of occupational groups.

Key Words: inequality • mobility • reproduction • social distance • social structure • stratification

Sociology, Vol. 31, No. 3, 491-509 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/0038038597031003007


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. Prandy and W. Bottero Social Reproduction and Mobility in Britain and Ireland in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Sociology, May 1, 2000; 34(2): 265 - 281. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. Reay `Class Acts': Educational Involvement and Psycho-Sociological Class Processes Feminism Psychology, February 1, 1999; 9(1): 89 - 106. [Abstract] [PDF]

				R. M. Blackburn A New System of Classes: But What are they and Do We Need Them? Work Employment Society, December 1, 1998; 12(4): 735 - 741. [PDF]