Mobility Networks Project (funded by SNFS)

How do people move between jobs and occupations? How is occupational position inherited between generations? These core sociological questions have spurred a large body of research. This project addresses these same questions but adopts a fundamentally different approach compared to contemporary studies. We use advances in network modelling to examine how social relations structure labour market inequalities and mobility patterns. This challenges existing assumptions that an individual’s traits cause observed labour market structures and instead empirically models how such structures emerge endogenously, i.e., how internal labour market dynamics and feedback processes determine mobility structure.

In this project we analyse inter-generational mobility – the relation between parent and child occupation – intra-generational – mobility the movement between occupations over the life-course – and organisational mobility – changing workplace and employer. This necessitates the development of new methodology that allows modelling emergence in mobility networks.

MoNAn software and manual published

The software and manual to analyse mobility networks is publicly available (see MoNAn package tab).

PhD & Postdoc positions available

If you are interested in being part of the project team, please contact Per Block.

• Block, P. (2023). Understanding the self-organization of occupational sex segregation with mobility networks. Social Networks, 73, 42-50.
• Block, P., Stadtfeld, C., & Robins, G. (2022). A statistical model for the analysis of mobility tables as weighted networks with an application to faculty hiring networks. Social Networks, 68, 264-278.