ABSTRACT
In older studies of the middle classes, analyses of spatial mobility were centre stage. Spatial metaphors were frequently used as a means of distinguishing types of middle class, as in Gouldner’s cosmopolitans and locals, or Watson’s spiralists and burgesses. The relationship between processes of spatial and social mobility was of major concern (Whyte 1957; Watson 1964; Blau and Duncan 1967), yet in the studies on social mobility discussed in the previous chapter such concerns are noticeably absent. They all measure social mobility within national boundaries, and do not consider the extent of spatial variations within these boundaries, or the way in which migration affects processes of social mobility. 1
