The Truth about Class Inequality

Abstract

A strongly recommended conclusion in sociology about trends in class inequality has been summarised by Goldthorpe as a high degree of 'temporal constancy & cross-national communality'. This conclusion, here called 'the stability thesis', was first challenged by Ringen in 1987 & again, on more methodological grounds, by Ringen & Hellevik in two papers published in 1997. These challenges resulted in a process of debate & reassessment. It is now possible to sum up & conclude. The stability thesis rests on empirical results from odds-ratio readings of mobility table data. The authority of this methodology is re-examined in terms of normative significance & statistical validity. Mobility table data which have generated stability thesis findings are re-analysed with the standard gini-index methodology in the study of inequality, then yielding different findings which contradict the stability thesis. The main conclusion is that the stability thesis can now be considered overturned.