Context: At the beginning of chapter 11 of the Ferris & Stein (2023) textbook, Kerry Ferris, a college professor and one of the authors of your textbook, has graphed her occupational family tree. It spans three generations and is limited to parents of each generation only. After reading these introductory pages, create your own three-generation occupational family tree and discuss your family’s experience of social mobility in the U.S. Remember that if either of your parents, any of your grandparents or great-grandparents immigrated to the U.S., you will need to consider social forces that impacted them prior to immigration as well.
Short Paper: Address each of the questions and points below as you examine social mobility in your family. Do not include the diagram as part of your submission.
- Summarize the occupations of your great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents, using Dr. Ferris’ model and discussion as your guide. (my grandparents and parents are from Dominican Republic)
- What kind of social mobility over do you see across the three generations in your family? What kind of mobility do you see? What evidence of mobility are you using?
- What patterns do you see in types of occupations within and across generations in your family?
- What explanation(s) can you offer for the variety, or lack of variety, revealed by the observable intergenerational pattern you describe? (Hint—remember what C. Wright Mills said about the intersections of history and biography). What social forces might have contributed to your ancestors’ choices?
- What structural factors contributed to the patterns reflected by your family’s social mobility? Do/did they promote or impede social mobility? Are/were these challenging to resolve or were they opportunities for advancement?
- What social institutions (identify one for each generation) do you see having played a role in choices made by your ancestors, and by you, that affect social mobility? Do different social institutions shape people in different ways today?
- Discuss the extent to which your family’s intergenerational social mobility pattern can be explained by using Weber’s theory of life chances, the theory of meritocracy, and intersectionality theory.
Key concepts: communities, gated communities, gentrification, immigration, migration, poverty, poverty line, redlining, Section 8 housing, social forces, subculture, suburbanization, urban renewal, urbanization, white flight.
Preparation and writing guidelines
Required reading preparation: Ferris & Stein (2023) chapters 9-15. Recommended: resources on Canvas. Additional peer-reviewed/scholarly sources as needed to support your points. Encyclopedias are not accepted.
Required Format: Typewritten, double-spaced, checked for grammar and spelling. APA format for title page, in-text citations, and resources on final page titled References. Headings are optional. No subheadings, no abstract.
References required: Textbook, scholarly information sources.
Length: 5-5 ½ pages