John Goldthorpe's 1994-95 Annual Research Report

John Goldthorpe (Official Fellow) worked mainly in the areas of comparative macrosociology and sociological theory. One concern was to produce an exaplanation for the persistence in most modern societies of market class differentials in educational attainment. A paper on this topic was presented at a conference at the University of Essex in April and a revised version, incorporating further work undertaken with Richard Breen (Queen’s University Belfast), was given at a meeting of ISA Research Committee on Social Stratification and Mobility held in Burlington, Vermont in August. During the year he also wrote several other papers in the field of social stratification, and continued work on a larger project on the relationship between quantitative analysis in sociology and the theory of social action. He gave lectures on related topics at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Southampton.

He remained active as a member of the Executive Board of the European Consortium for Sociological Research, attending a conference on the Sociology of Labour markets organised by the Consortium and the European Science Foundation in Espinho, Portugal in November; and as member of the Editorial Board of the European Sociological Review, he was involved in negotiations that led to the Review becoming the official journal of the Consortium. He also continued to serve as a member of the Scientific Council of the Max Planck Institut für Bildungsforschung in Berlin and on the Editorial Board of Stato e Mercato. He became a charter member of the newly founded Society for Comparative Research based at the Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung, Berlin.

Publications

‘Class and Politics in Advanced Industrial Societies’, Greek Political Science Review, 4, 1995 (in Greek).

‘Le “noyau dur”: fluidité sociale en Angleterre et en France dans les années 70 et 80’, Revue française de sociologie, 36, 1995.