Cohort: ESOL 38°
Topic of the thesis: Geography and Social Stratification: The Impact of Geographical Origin, Mobility, and Local and Trans-regional Social Ties on Life Chances

Abstract: Geography and social stratification are interconnected topics with heavy implications for patterns of internal migration and within-country regional disparities. This study thus aims to integrate aspects of geographical origin, geographical mobility, and local and trans-regional ties to assess individuals' future life chances via occupational attainment and social mobility. Taking Italy as an example, regional inequalities are omnipresent alongside vast patterns of internal migration from marginal to central areas. Thus, the study of individuals' life chances along geographical lines should provide insight to the realities of these disparities. The analysis of novel and expansive datasets will allow for study of these topics through methods of standard statistical analysis, fixed effects regression models, and social network analysis of local and trans-regional social ties. Three main innovations add to the literature, namely, this project being among the first studies focusing on the impact of geographical area of origin on life chances in Italy, providing a comparative analysis of geographic mobility, and expanding the applicability of literature on social ties from the international to the national level of internal migration.

Research interests: Geographic mobility and migration; Social policies and socio-economic inequalities

Graduated from: Smith College (BA); Universität Bremen (MA); Università degli Studi di Milano (MA)

Degrees obtained: BA in Political Science and Italian Studies; MA in European Labour Studies and Social Policy

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