This study deals with what P. Sorokin calls “inter-generation occupational mobility.” It endeavours to ascertain the extent to which occupation is transmitted from father to son, and the occupational transfers that occur when sons do not follow their fathers' occupations. Similarity of occupation between father and son is called occupational stability; change of occupation from father to son is referred to as occupational mobility. Our study is concerned with both occupational stability and occupational mobility.
We started with the conviction that research of this kind can contribute to the knowledge of social stratification and social mobility in the province of Quebec. In fact, it is not easy to study social stratification as such. In almost any contemporary society what we call social stratification is a generalized concept which may refer to one or the other of several scales of stratification depending on the point of view adopted. Sorokin, for example, distinguishes three scales of social stratification. “Concrete forms of social stratification are numerous. The majority of them may, however, be reduced to three principal classes: the economic, the political, and the occupational stratification. As a general rule, these forms are closely intercorrelated with each other.”