Cultural Mechanisms of Class Mobility

• In Event: 358 - Regular Session. Culture and Inequality

Abstract

Theories of culture and class explain how culture is linked to class reproduction but pay little attention to how culture is linked to class mobility. We draw upon longitudinal interview data from the National Study of Youth and Religion to uncover how cultural frames, scripts, and ideas are linked to upward and downward mobility. Regarding downward mobility, we find that individuals who are born into college-educated professional families but who themselves do not find professional jobs tend to use frames that are too distant from necessity. That is, their ideas of education, work, and a good life are misaligned with those that workplaces expect and reward. Individuals born into college-educated professional families who reproduce their parents’ class position instead use frames and scripts that are aligned with those that workplaces reward. By the time of the ASA 2016 meeting we will also have findings about upward mobility.

Authors

• Jessi Streib, Duke University

• Lauren Valentino, Duke University