Social status, social position and social class in post-war British society

Abstract

In this chapter I consider the question of why the first substantial survey based empirical investigation of social mobility in Britain was conceived not through the lens of social class mobility but in terms of movements between social status groups. This presents itself as a puzzle because the principal investigator, David Glass was, arguably, an intellectual Marxist who might reasonably be thought to have some sympathy with a class framework. In the course of answering this question I discuss the web of personnel interconnections that contributed to Glass’ formation as a sociologist during the 1930s. I also uncover a wholly unexpected connection between his inquiry and a rather different tradition of empirical investigation with its roots in the 1930s—Mass Observation