Berkeley’s Sociology Department is known around the world for its excellence in research and teaching. Our faculty advance cutting edge research and teach in most sociological specialities. Our PhDs are leaders in universities and research centers across the US and in many other countries. And our BAs populate the ranks of innumerable professions, bringing with them the skills and special perspective of Berkeley sociology.
We are proud to make these contributions from the world’s leading public university. At Berkeley, we combine intellectual rigor with a commitment to public service through our research, teaching, and service on campus and beyond.
For the past six decades, Berkeley’s Sociology Department has consistently been ranked among the world’s top sociology departments. Our graduate program is ranked #1 in the latest U.S. News and World Report, and our undergrad degree is currently the best in the US according to College Factual and features on Grad Reports’ Best College List 2020.
News & Events
Prof. Einstein served graduate students as a model of prudence in remaining unfashionably true to the grand…
A Theory of Fields
Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order-from political movements to market meltdowns-is one of the enduring problems of social science. A Theory of Fields draws together far-ranging insights from social movement theory, organizational theory, and economic and political sociology to construct a general theory of social organization and strategic action. In a work of remarkable synthesis, imagination, and analysis, Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam propose that social change and social order can be understood through what ...
Departmental Colloquium Series
Xi Song, "Occupational Restructuring and Worker Mobility in the United States"
Monday, October 21st, 2024 at 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm followed by a Reception
Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building & Via Zoom
Previous research on social mobility has primarily emphasized circulation mobility, leaving significant theoretical and empirical gaps in our understanding of structural mobility. We revisit the topic of structural mobility with three innovations. First, we define occupational restructuring using short-term and long-term occupational growth and decline. Second, we move beyond the limitations of traditional log-linear models by introducing a discrete choice model that integrates the effects of occupational growth and decline along with the constraints of job opportunities on worker mobility. Third, we leverage large-scale administrative data from the U.S. Occupational Outlook Handbook (2000-2020) to investigate how occupational restructuring affects workers’ mobility. Our results show that workers in both growing and declining occupations experience higher mobility than those in stable occupations. However, the direction of movement differs. Those in declining occupations tend to move laterally to other declining positions, often experiencing downward mobility. Conversely, workers in growing occupations have a wider range of mobility options, with many achieving upward mobility through higher-paying transitions. These results underscore how recent shifts in occupational structures exacerbate existing disadvantages for workers facing declining job opportunities.