ABSTRACT
In chapter 3 we were at pains to locate our Taipei respondents in the system of social stratification in Taiwanese society. This involved the exploration of respondents' current occupational status. In this chapter we turn to the more dynamic side of stratification, social mobility, that is, the extent and patterns of vertical movement up and down in the occupational structure. Such a question is extremely important in any highly competitive society like Taiwan. It is one thing to know the distribution of people in higher and lower occupations at a given point in time. But through what combination of achievement and ascription did people come to occupy their present occupational position? How does the occupational status of the 1963 and 1991 Taiwanese respondents compare with their fathers' occupations? With their own first occupations? Two main topics will be covered in this chapter. First, the amount of social mobility: how much vertical occupational movement is there between fathers and respondent sons? Second, why does such mobility or immobility between fathers' and respondents' occupations take place? This will involve applying the models of status attainment research to the Taipei data, to get at some of the processes, as opposed to the sheer amount, of social mobility.
