Marta Veljkovic

Research field(s)

Dissertation title: Career Mobility and Class Trajectories. A Contribution to the Study of Social Stratification in France Between 1970 and 2015

Summary: Professional careers in contemporary societies are both the product and one of the mechanisms of social stratification, as they can represent patterns of both accumulation and compensation of initial social (dis)advantages over the life-course. This thesis analyzes social mobility over the career to examine the evolution of class and gender inequalities while accounting for major transformations in the social structure, the labor market and the labor force characteristics in France over the past half-century. Drawing on the Formation-Qualification Professionnelle surveys (Insee, 1970; 1977; 1985; 1993; 2003; 2014-2015), I observe mobility dynamics from the first job and at five-year intervals from both a period and a cohort approach. I complement the analysis of the mobility structure with an annual reconstruction of class trajectories derived from the Histoire de vie survey (Insee, 2003). I study mobility resources by analyzing the social origin of individuals and their conjugal and parental histories. The results reveal a slow but continuous change in intragenerational mobility whose explanation goes beyond the transforming social structure alone. However, increasing career fluidity is not accompanied by a major change in the proximity and distance between different social classes. These results suggest only a partial change in the career regime in France, with an evolution of the flux and a maintenance of the barriers to mobility.

Members of the thesis committee:

Carlo Barone , Professeur des Universités, Institut d’études politiques de Paris
Nicolas Duvoux , Professeur des Universités, Université Paris VIII Vincennes - Saint Denis (examiner)
Daniel Oesch , Professeur associé, Institut des Sciences Sociales, Université de Lausanne
Delphine Remillon , Chargée de recherche, Institut national d’études démographiques (supervisor)
Olivia Samuel , Professeure des Universités, Université Paris Nanterre (examiner)
Louis-André Vallet, Directeur de recherche CNRS, GEMASS, Sorbonne Université (supervisor)

PhD thesis defended on December 5, 2022 at Institut d’études politiques de Paris.