抄録
The Research Committee of the Japan Sociological Society conducted in 1952 a sample survey of social stratification and social mobility in the six large cities of Japan (cf. Japanese Sociological Review, No.12, 1953). In order to supplement the defects of the 1952 survey, and to make some experiments with new techniques of data collection and analysis, the Committee undertook a second survey in 1955. This time the survey was not limited to the six large cities ; a national sample was taken, and in addition, an attempt was made at detailed analysis of the ranking of occupations, class self-identification and social attitudes in a few selected communities (Tokyo metropolitan area, Kanazawa City, and two rural communities in Okayama and Iwate Prefectures). This interim report, prepared primarily for the Third World Congress of the International Sociological Association to be held at Amsterdam in August 1956, is confined to an outline of the data on social mobility only emerging from the tabulation and preliminary analysis of the 1955 survey. (Ch. I Introduction.)
In the present survey, as in the previous one, social mobility was defined as change in the hierarchical structure of a society by virtue of change in the social status of its individual members, either in their own lifetimes, or between the generations within a single line of lineal succession. In measuring social status, three different approaches were used : 1) an objective approach in which social status was measured based mainly upon respondents' ranking of occupations ; 2) a subjective approach in which individuals were ranked according to their own subjective evaluations of social status ; and 3) an approach similar to W. Lloyd Warner's Evaluated Participation. As measures of delineating social mobility, an Index of Succession, an Index of Association and an Index of Persistence were used. Another analytical tool for the study of occupational careers was a series of patterns - “rising, ” “descending, ” etc. (Ch. II The Measurement of Social Status and Social Mobility.)
The date on social mobility outlined in this report are divided into the following three parts : 1) those on inter-generation mobility ; 2) those on mobility within the individual's lifetime ; and 3) those on the relation of the patterns of mobility with various social attitudes of respondents. The aspects of inter-generation mobility considered are : a) occupational mobility, b) changes in educational background, c) respondents' subjective evaluations of the relative statuses of themselves, their fathers and grandfathers, and d) the relation between objective occupational mobility and respondents' subjective evaluations of changes in status. (Ch. III Inter-generation Social Mobility.)
The forms of mobility within the individual's lifetime dealt with here are : a) respondents' own occupational careers, b) their own subjective evaluations of changes in their social status over a period which includes the upheaval of the recent war, and c) the relation between the occupations respondents desire for their children and patterns of their own occupational careers. (Ch. IV Social Mobility within the Individual's Lifetime.)
With regard to the relation between mobility patterns and social attitudes, the following problems are discussed : a) inter-generation mobility and attitudes, b) subjective evaluations of status changes and attitudes, and c) occupational career patterns and attitudes. (Ch. V Social Mobility and Attitudes.)
Finally, the results of the present survey are compared with those of our 1952 survey and the 1950 National Census. (Ch. VI Comparison with Other Similar Studies.)
