ABSTRACT
In the last three chapters of this book we consider the nature of middle-class formation directly. Since the pathbreaking work of Goldthorpe (1980), drawing upon the theoretical insights of Giddens (1973), it is now widely recognised that processes of social mobility are central to an understanding of how social classes form as ‘stable collectivities’. In Giddens’ words, ‘the greater the degree of “closure” of mobility chances – both inter-generationally and within the career of the individual – the more this facilitates the formation of identifiable classes’ (quoted in Goldthorpe 1987: 25).
