Change or continuity? Intergenerational social mobility and post-communist transition

Regime change experienced in post-communist societies is of great significance for research in social stratification and mobility. Nonetheless, the existing literature does not provide a clear answer if cross-national differences in social mobility are determined by communist legacies or by the dive...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gugushvili, A
Format: Journal article
Published: Elsevier 2017
_version_ 1826258610335776768
author Gugushvili, A
author_facet Gugushvili, A
author_sort Gugushvili, A
collection OXFORD
description Regime change experienced in post-communist societies is of great significance for research in social stratification and mobility. Nonetheless, the existing literature does not provide a clear answer if cross-national differences in social mobility are determined by communist legacies or by the divergent paths these countries followed in their transition to the capitalist system. It is hypothesised that higher income inequality and an overall decline in material wellbeing would increase the importance of parental economic capital, whereas the relative role of parental cultural capital in offspring’s life chances would decline. For 24 societies in Central and Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, I find evidence on the decisive role of social origins, particularly parental education, in predicting individuals’ educational and occupational attainment. However, significant and systematic changes in intergenerational social mobility from pre- to post-transitional cohorts are not observed. The derived findings are robust to alternative specifications of social origins and destinations. Arguably, differences in intergenerational links between parents’ and offspring’s socio-economic status resulted from historical discrepancies in the communist period rather than the consequences of idiosyncratic developments in post-communist transition.
first_indexed 2024-03-06T18:36:41Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:0b7bbb5d-6335-4385-babf-d02a8ca99c6f
institution University of Oxford
last_indexed 2024-03-06T18:36:41Z
publishDate 2017
publisher Elsevier
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:0b7bbb5d-6335-4385-babf-d02a8ca99c6f2022-03-26T09:29:36ZChange or continuity? Intergenerational social mobility and post-communist transitionJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:0b7bbb5d-6335-4385-babf-d02a8ca99c6fSymplectic Elements at OxfordElsevier2017Gugushvili, ARegime change experienced in post-communist societies is of great significance for research in social stratification and mobility. Nonetheless, the existing literature does not provide a clear answer if cross-national differences in social mobility are determined by communist legacies or by the divergent paths these countries followed in their transition to the capitalist system. It is hypothesised that higher income inequality and an overall decline in material wellbeing would increase the importance of parental economic capital, whereas the relative role of parental cultural capital in offspring’s life chances would decline. For 24 societies in Central and Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, I find evidence on the decisive role of social origins, particularly parental education, in predicting individuals’ educational and occupational attainment. However, significant and systematic changes in intergenerational social mobility from pre- to post-transitional cohorts are not observed. The derived findings are robust to alternative specifications of social origins and destinations. Arguably, differences in intergenerational links between parents’ and offspring’s socio-economic status resulted from historical discrepancies in the communist period rather than the consequences of idiosyncratic developments in post-communist transition.
spellingShingle Gugushvili, A
Change or continuity? Intergenerational social mobility and post-communist transition
title Change or continuity? Intergenerational social mobility and post-communist transition
title_full Change or continuity? Intergenerational social mobility and post-communist transition
title_fullStr Change or continuity? Intergenerational social mobility and post-communist transition
title_full_unstemmed Change or continuity? Intergenerational social mobility and post-communist transition
title_short Change or continuity? Intergenerational social mobility and post-communist transition
title_sort change or continuity intergenerational social mobility and post communist transition
work_keys_str_mv AT gugushvilia changeorcontinuityintergenerationalsocialmobilityandpostcommunisttransition