Toward Open Societies? Trends in Male Intergenerational Class Mobility in European Countries during Industrialization

Do the observed increases in intergenerational mobility in European societies in recent decades have their origin in 19th-century industrialization, as is posited by the industrialization thesis? Using over 600,000 marriage records and an internationally and historically comparative measure of occupational class, the authors study total and relative intergenerational mobility of men in Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Sweden between 1800 and 1914. For these countries together and for most countries separately the preindustrial period was characterized by stable or decreasing total and relative mobility, whereas a trend toward greater mobility took place during industrialization, lending qualified support to the industrialization thesis.