All rise: studies in population social status mobility (England, 1851-1911)

Thesis

By measuring what individuals could typically achieve in a given place and time, studies of social mobility provide an essential perspective on historical inequalities, economic development, and migration. However, the literature’s preoccupation with elites (whether of gender, race, confession, or class) and essentialist, singular groups (such as immigrants of one nationality or another) leaves fundamental questions about population mobility unanswered. This thesis takes up three such questions using the full-count English census between 1851-1911. Are mobility estimates affected by the omission of certain groups (such as women and people with ordinary names)? How socially mobile was the late-industrial English population and what factors influenced life chances most, on average? And finally: by comparing the conditions faced by different 19th century immigrant groups in England, what do we learn about the centrality of social capital and institutions to life chances in the liminal modern world? My findings suggest high, declining, and increasingly unequal levels of social mobility in late industrial England, with intergenerational and institutional factors imposing strong determining effects. The uneven distribution of ordinary social mobility highlighted by this thesis furthers our understanding of the long-term effects of poverty and precarity, relocations, and human capital formation. In addition to novel insights, it also offers solutions to longstanding methodological problems.

Authors: Thomas, R

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-exz7qoybr
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: socioeconomic status; institutions; intergenerational mobility; nominal record linkage; welfare; social capital; lifetime (career) mobility; Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM); precarity; gender; social mobility
• Subjects: Migration; Social sciences and history; Economic history--1750-1918; Social capital (Sociology); Social mobility--Great Britain