What we have learned: RC28's contributions to knowledge about social stratification

After 55 years of research on social stratification and mobility, we take stock of RC28's contributions to knowledge. Our review identifies 19 empirical generalizations and several orienting themes. Some of the items come from an open discussion of the state of the research committee at the World Congress in 2002. Others reflect our own reading of the literature. The generalizations span the fields of interest within the research committee, including individual life chances, classification and scoring of social positions, education, state and labor market processes, and family structure. The orienting themes are for the most part overly simple, but they are powerful and useful images that orient research and have, to this point, contributed to the research committee's productivity.