Onwards and upwards? Exploration of the inter-generational social mobility effects on subjective wellbeing through life trajectories of the Aberdeen Cohort

Onwards and upwards? Exploration of the inter-generational social mobility effects on subjective wellbeing through life trajectories of the Aberdeen Cohort

The dominant academic and political discourses of social mobility in the UK have almost entirely focused on heated debates over mobility rates and problems of mobility measurement (Payne, 2017). Rates of social mobility as measured by 'objective' markers, predominantly income and occupation, have become indicators of a 'healthy' and just society which has inadvertently solidified the notion of upward mobility as a socially progressive force (Friedman, 2014). The impact of social mobility on subjective wellbeing (SWB), and the experience of social mobility, as topics of sociological interest, remain relatively unexplored. However, the contemporary literature on the topic that does exist is deeply divided along the lines of quantitative and qualitative paradigms...