Social mobility, social network and subjective well-being in the UK

Abstract

This paper examines the intergenerational mobility trajectory (class) effects on social connection and, through this, on subjective well-being in contemporary UK society. Drawing on data from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study, we measured four types of formal and informal social network (civic engagement, neighbourhood cohesion, diversity and size of social networks) and used three indictors for well-being. We find that social network does play a significant role on well-being but the impact is much smaller than that of class. We also find that class is more closely related to the formal than the informal domains of social network. Demographic attributes show some influences but social network, employment, and prior levels of well-being in particular, have more salient effects on well-being. Over and above all this, class as an indicator of cumulative advantages and disadvantages has a persistent and systematic influence. Overall, the analysis shows that while enriching social connection would contribute to well-being, reducing classbased inequality is of greater importance. IntroductionLike other developed societies, the UK has witnessed persistent or even growing socio-economic inequalities in the last few decades. Risks of employment insecurity have increased, income disparities have grown, and civic engagement and social cohesion have declined. Underlying these and other aspects of social change are class differences related not only to people's current position in the labour market but also to the inequality in mobility chances. Class-based inequalities are fed into people's perception of their quality of life. These developments have attracted the attention of academic, government and third-sector researchers alike. For instance, several initiatives have been launched in recent years by the central government departments in the UK to monitor public well-being, due to the recognition that the government has a responsibility not only to promote people's material standards of living but also to enhance their subjective experience of well-being (Cameron, 2010; Cabinet Office, 2013; DCLG, 2012).Much research has shown that people's well-being is closely related to the socio-economic position they hold in society and to formal and informal networks they have in their social lives, but how these factors are related to one another, what relative importance they have for well-being and, more importantly, how they are related to the social reproduction processes has been under-researched. Social scientists have made numerous efforts in trying to understand how people's subjective perceptions of life quality are shaped by personal and structural factors,

(Re)discovering the lost middle: intergenerational inheritances and economic inequality in urban and regional research

“…Following Christophers (2017), who explored the concept of financial inheritances of wealth from parents to children for the purchase of housing, we seek to broaden the scope of the inheritances literature to include the more subtle and cultural realms of (dis)advantage. Whilst money may represent the most tangible part of the scaffolding of support that can be bestowed by parents, inheritances can impact educational outcomes (Ballarino and Panichella, 2016;Morris, Dorling, & Davey Smith, 2016;Playford et al, 2016), occupational attainment (Ralston et al, 2016), well-being (Li, 2016) and prosperity in older age (Blackburn et al, 2016). Thus, by moving beyond parental income, we include occupation, education, housing and residential location, health behaviours and other social activities, social preferences and values (see Erikson and Goldthorpe, 2002; for an ethnographic example Vance's (2016) recent autobiography 'Hillbilly Elegy' is recommended).…”

Measures that increase social equality are effective in improving life satisfaction in times of economic crisis

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Bienestar subjetivo y económico: análisis longitudinal para Ecuador

“…Sin embargo, dada la creciente disponibilidad de datos de panel, principalmente en países desarrollados, la evidencia sobre cómo la movilidad económica puede incidir en el bienestar de las personas, así como los mecanismos que estarían detrás, ha crecido considerablemente (Graham y Pettinato, 2002;Hadjar y Samuel, 2015;Li, 2016;Molnar y Kapitány, 2006;Nikolaev y Burns, 2014;Zang y de Graaf, 2016).…”

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