The Truth about Class Inequality

Abstract: A strongly recommended conclusion in sociology about trends in class inequality has been summarised by Goldthorpe as a high degree of 'temporal constancy & cross-national communality'. This conclusion, here called 'the stability thesis', was first challenged by Ringen in 1987 & again, on more methodological grounds, by Ringen & Hellevik in two papers published in 1997. These challenges resulted in a process of debate & reassessment. It is now possible to sum up & conclude. The stability thesis rests on empirical results from odds-ratio readings of mobility table data. The authority of this methodology is re-examined in terms of normative significance & statistical validity. Mobility table data which have generated stability thesis findings are re-analysed with the standard gini-index methodology in the study of inequality, then yielding different findings which contradict the stability thesis. The main conclusion is that the stability thesis can now be considered overturned

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Veröffentlichungsversion ; begutachtet ; In: Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review ; 42 (2006) 3 ; 475-492

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Mannheim
• (when): 2006
• Creator: Ringen, Stein

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-56517
• Rights: Open Access unbekannt; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 25.03.2025, 1:47 PM CET