가족사를 통해 본 사회 구조 변동과 계급 이동 = Class Mobility and Societal change: Interpretations through Family Histories

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper explores the trajectory and processes of class mobility over three generations in the period of rapid societal change in Korea. The period covers about 100 years from 1900 to 2000 when Korean society has undertaken rapid structural changes along with wars. The data is 14- case history of families collected by in-depth interviews about their family genealogy and life stories. The paper is organized to reveal how and in what ways individual families translate rapid societal change into class mobility in critical moments. Then, it is to verify the channel of class mobility and its barriers, analyzing class differences in mobility patterns among siblings and their trans generational influences. The findings of research show that a long-distance mobility crossing over class boundaries is rarely observed over two-generation, though comprehensive mobility flux has taken place last 100 years in Korea. Over three generations, upward mobility has been possible overrunning owner peasants and above but not those of share holders or landless poor farmers. Not only the distance but also the pace should be considered in mobility studies. And three-generation mobility pattern and trajectory presents clear cleavages between classes of professionals, managers and capitalists and those of petit bourgeois and proletariats. No class barriers are observed between and withn professionals, capitalists and managerial classes while they exist between them and the rest. A very strong and trans generational class barriers are observed between the above two classes. The latter are different from the former in nature and pattern of mobility. The starting point of the paper is to broaden the concept of class mobility shifting the focus from individual occupations to families. And also it tackles the survey paradigm of mobility studies, emphasizing the importance of specific historical contexts. The result of the study affirms the importance of family-based perspectives in mobility studies: And the impact of historical contingencies on individual families cannot be overemphasized. In sum, family histories rephrase connections between social structure and agents in more concrete ways through complex processes involving class mobility and class reproduction.