Objective/subjective: The two facets of social mobility

How does objective social mobility, traditionally measured using mobility tables drawn up by sociologists, relate to feelings about mobility, i.e., how individuals perceive, explain and assess their social trajectory? Using a question from Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques [INSEE]'s Formation, Qualification Professionnelle (FQP) survey, subjective mobility was statistically assessed in order to compare results of the two approaches to mobility and measure the (considerable) frequency of discrepancies between them. Subjective mobility was then analyzed qualitatively on the basis of interviews with a subsample of survey respondents. This way of proceeding provides information on and helps account for the observed discrepancies while making it possible to identify the bundle of parameters people use to assess their own mobility. This in turn allows for pointing up a number of methodological and conceptual limitations in classic statistical surveys on social mobility.