Modelling Trends in Social Fluidity: The Core Model and a Measured Variable Approach. Published in European Sociological Review, Vol 10 No 3

In this paper we employ Erikson and Goldthorpe's core model of social fluidity and a ?measured variable? approach to analyse trends in social mobility among men in the Republic of Ireland. Our analyse provides no evidence that the changes associated with industrialisation have led to the increases in social fluidity predicted by the liberal theory of industrialisation. The measured variable approach we employ consistently provides a better fit to the Irish data than the core model. The application of the former model points to a degree of importance of the hierarchy dimension which is not captured adequately by the core model. It also suggests that the well-known distinctiveness of the Irish social mobility regime is open to explanation in terms of general dimensions rather than the peculiarities of the Irish case.