2nd International Conference on SOCIOLOGY 12-15 MAY 2008, Athens, Greece A Contribution to the Study of Intergenerational Social Mobility in France: A Case Study of French University Professors
Ali AZIZI, Lecturer and PhD student at the University of Rouen Member of GRIS (Innovation and Society Research Centre) E-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract Intergenerational social mobility has been an important subject in Sociology, particularly since the Second World War in Europe. There is considerable research on social mobility, but little that has focused on university professors and what there is on this topic is mostly out of date. The purpose of this paper is to explain the process of university professors’ intergenerational social mobility in France. To achieve this, we surveyed professors at five universities. The data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. We have tested our hypothesis and found that a single theoretical approach cannot explain all intergenerational social mobility in later generations. Each generation should be studied separately according to the social environment in which each lives. In addition the results showed that, French society has been more fluid and mobile during the two last generations. According to our findings, economic and cultural capital cannot explain all dimensions of the upward social mobility process. Based on our collected data, fewer than half of the professors belong to the upper class, and the proportion belonging to the lower class is significant. This means that the openness of the social structure and the educational reforms as well as the special socio-economic and political conditions of the 1950s and 1960s have reinforced the social mobility process. Moreover, the social conscience of poor families has not necessarily been determined by their own economic capital. The aspirations, ambitions, and educational strategies of these families are close to those of the upper class.
