New and Old Pathways to Social Mobility: Lessons from Life Histories from the Global South

Monday, 7 July 2025: 09:00-10:45
Location: SJES007 (Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences (JES))
RC28 Social Stratification (host committee)

Language: English and Spanish

Social mobility has been traditionally conceptualized as a change in position within the social structure, particularly through higher educational and income levels. Although there has been a shift from predominantly quantitative (Goldthorpe, 1992) to including qualitative approaches (Bertaux and Thompson, 1997; Friedman, 2016; Méndez, 2008; Lareau, Evans and Yee, 2016), there has been less presence of research that combines both perspectives (Lareau, 2003; Breen and Jonsson, 2005). Additionally, it tends to be dominated by views that render invisible key aspects such as gender, race or ethnicity, territory, among others.

This panel discusses cases from the Global South that apply qualitative approaches and reflect on how their national trajectories in economic, political, and cultural matters intertwine with the life stories of upwardly mobile individuals. We address themes that connect to social mobility such as: neoliberalism today; extractivism; colonial past; intersectionality; meritocracy; elites; migration; indigenous peoples; territories/cities; social malaise and emotional costs.

Session Organizer:
Maria-Luisa MENDEZ, Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
Discussants:
Maria Jose ALVAREZ RIVADULLA, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia and Joel STILLERMAN, Grand Valley State University, USA
Oral Presentations
Upwardly Mobile Men in Chile: First-Generation University Graduates, Meritocratic Striving and Its Costs
Carlos PALMA AMESTOY, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
Social Mobility of Migrants in Chile
Carolina STEFONI ESPINOZA, Universidad de Tarapacá, Chile
Distributed Papers