Social Mobility and France's "Transclasses"

Traditionally perceived as stable and rigid, France's class stratification has evolved significantly since the 1960s. However, inequalities based on one's socioeconomic origins persist. Accordingly, the transclasses—those individuals having acquired a different class status over their lifetime—have attracted a great deal of recent attention: do they confirm the existence of social mobility or are they the “exception that proves the rule of social reproduction?” Through historical, sociological, and literary analysis we will debate this question. Sections will include: the history of socioeconomic inequality; French sociological theories that explain both continuity and change of class structure; current literary figures who embody the transclasse experience.