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The Experience of Social Mobility: Social Isolation, Utilitarian Individualism, and Social Disorientation

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Abstract

The dissociative thesis states that social mobility is a disruptive and detrimental experience for the individual. Despite the absence of convincing evidence either for or against it, this thesis is generally accepted in sociology. I investigate this thesis by considering three dimensions of dissociation—i.e., social isolation, utilitarian individualism, and social disorientation. I use data from a large-scale survey in Flanders (Belgium) and apply Diagonal Reference Models to study consequences of intergenerational social mobility. I find support for asymmetric acculturation for each dimension, i.e., upwardly mobile individuals adapt more to the new social status position, compared to downwardly mobile individuals. Moreover, both for social disorientation and utilitarian individualism, I find detrimental effects of the experience of downward social mobility. As I find no detrimental consequences of both upward and downward mobility, the results do not provide evidence for the dissociative thesis.

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Notes

  1. Sobel originally termed these models Diagonal Mobility Models, but De Graaf and Ganzeboom (1990) argued that Diagonal Reference Models was more appropriate. Currently, Diagonal Reference Models is used to refer to the models developed by Sobel.

  2. Sorokin mentions additional specific dimensions of dissociation, e.g., “superficiality,” “cynicism,” “the hunt for sensual pleasure”. However, an overarching framework on the exact nature of dissociation is lacking in his writing.

  3. The concept of social disorientation aligns with the concepts of “purposelessness” (Dean 1961) and “meaninglessness” (Seeman 1975).

  4. Models were also estimated using two alternative operationalizations of social position of origin, i.e., “educational level of the father” and “highest educational level of the parents”. These analyses result in the same conclusions as the analyses presented here.

  5. Diagonal Reference Models are also applied to study effects of other forms of status inconsistency, for example, heterogamy (e.g., Eeckhaut et al. 2013; Sorenson and Brownfield 1991; van der Slik et al. 2002).

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Acknowledgments

I am very grateful to Piet Bracke, Willem de Koster, Henk Roose and Jeroen van der Waal for kind and insightful comments on a previous version of this manuscript. I am also grateful to Guido Van Der Ratz for enlightening, and often strange, conversations.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Ghent University, Korte Meer 5, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Stijn Daenekindt

  2. Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Stijn Daenekindt

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Daenekindt, S. The Experience of Social Mobility: Social Isolation, Utilitarian Individualism, and Social Disorientation. Soc Indic Res 133, 15–30 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1369-3

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