DIGCLASS seminar series: 2nd session on intergenerational mobility and vote

The second session of the DIGCLASS seminar series on intergenerational social mobility and vote will take place next Tuesday, November 30th from 15.00 to 16.00 (CET) in an open-access online format. Below you can find all the details and the link to the session.

Background

The DIGCLASS seminar series is expected to facilitate the exchange of cutting-edge ideas and debates related to social inequality, labour economics and political economy between JRC researchers and beyond by attracting external scholars, policy-makers and a general audience.

Visit the DIGCLASS website to check the full programme!

Drop us a line at JRC-CAS-DIGCLASSec [dot] europa [dot] eu (JRC-CAS-DIGCLASS[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu) if you want to stay tuned with our seminar series and other activities.

Title

Intergenerational social mobility, political socialization, and support for the left under post-industrial realignment

Abstract

This study investigates how class of origin and specific patterns of intergenerational social mobility impact left-wing party support among new and old core left-wing constituencies, in the context of post-industrial electoral realignment and occupational transformation. Many individuals originally from working-class backgrounds (traditional left constituencies) have a different (post-industrial) class location than their parents. We investigate the remaining legacy of political socialization in class of origin using panel data from the UK, Germany, and Switzerland. The results indicate enduring effects of production worker roots, that are weaker for younger generations and in more realigned contexts. We demonstrate that part of the contemporary middle-class left-wing support is a legacy of industrial class-party alignments. Moreover, we do not observe the development of such a legacy among new left-wing constituencies. Our findings imply that exclusively considering respondents’ destination class underestimates the relevance of political socialization in class of origin, thereby overestimating electoral realignment

Speaker*

Macarena Ares is a Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral fellow at the Democracy, Elections and Citizenship research group, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). She completed a PhD in Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute in 2017. Her research interests are in the study of class politics, social policy, electoral behaviour, political participation and public opinion.

*Joint work with Mathilde M. van Ditmars, Postdoctoral researcher at Universität Luzern.

Link to the recorded session

https://webcast.ec.europa.eu/intergenerational-mobility-and-vote-2021-11-30

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Venue

Online, EU