Moving Up and Down the Social Class Ladder in Scotland

Extensive mobility between class of origin and class of destination has been a characteristic feature of societies in Europe and North America since the middle of the twentieth century. Most mobility has been upward, and most of that has been explicable by occupational change – by the rise in the proportion of the labour force which works in the professions and the decline in the proportion in manual jobs. This Briefing draws on the main findings from an ESRC-funded research project which investigates patterns of social mobility in Scotland and the role played by education in the process of social mobility between generations.