ABSTRACT
Social scientists undertaking comparative, macro-sociological analysis of "whole societies", of an institutional sphere (the economy), or even of selected aspects of stratification take on a heavy burden. Large differences between the mobile and the non-mobile in attitudes and behavior presumably rooted in cultural and social discontinuity are seldom reported in the literature. The analysis suggests that in approaching the effects of mobility in modern stratification systems we should specify types of discontinuity, combine past social mobility with present mobility orientation, and then discover how men variously located in the structure respond to their experience and prospects. The most impressive theoretical and empirical discussions of the effects of social mobility concentrate on various social or cultural discontinuities presumably involved. That the effects of social discontinuity are conditioned by economic and political context is even more readily grasped if the authors examine work establishments and occupational groups.
