Creating a Framework for Understanding Social Mobility

What factors determine our chances of leading a successful life?

In 2023, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) took on the task of studying that question through a review of research across a wide variety of disciplines.

NASEM’s recently released consensus study report, Economic and Social Mobility: New Directions for Data, Research, and Policy, develops a framework for ongoing research to understand and expand opportunities for economic and social mobility in the United States.

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The report was written by a committee of 14 experts in sociology, economics, medicine, public policy and related fields, including Tyson Brown, director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University and professor of Sociology and Medicine.

In May, Brown will participate in a panel at the Population Association of America conference in St. Louis, MO, where he’ll discuss key findings from the report. In the following interview, he highlights some of the main takeaways from his work on the NASEM committee, as well as the important role interdisciplinary research centers, like the Cook Center at Duke, can play in supporting policy initiatives that create pathways for social mobility.

How did your role on the NASEM committee connect to your own research and the goals of the Cook Center?

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My role on the committee was to help develop the consensus report’s conceptual framework and to contribute to the sections on wealth mobility and new directions for research and policy. That connected directly to my own research, which looks at how inequality is produced and reproduced over time and across generations, including through racial inequality in wealth accumulation and opportunity. 

One of the report’s central points is that mobility is shaped by families, institutions, neighborhoods, education and public policy contexts, as well as broader social conditions across the life course. It asks us to think seriously about the opportunity structures that shape people’s life chances.

That perspective is also central to the Cook Center, an interdisciplinary research hub focused on understanding the causes and consequences of inequality and producing research that can inform solutions. Our Educational and Economic Opportunity pillar, led by Anna Gassman-Pines, is closely tied to the Center’s broader focus on systems of inequality and the conditions that shape whether people have a real chance to thrive. 

What are some of the main takeaways from the report and how do you hope it will be used?

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One of the main takeaways is that the United States falls short of its own ideals around opportunity. The report shows that upward mobility in the U.S. isn’t stronger than it is in other affluent countries, and in some ways it has become more constrained over time. It also makes clear that mobility is shaped by multiple, connected domains, including early life and family resources, neighborhoods and place, postsecondary education, local labor markets, housing, discrimination, credit and debt, wealth transfers and policy contexts.

Another key takeaway is that there isn’t a single fix. The report offers a roadmap for research and policy by highlighting the importance of early investments, the role of segregation and place, the uneven benefits and costs of postsecondary education, equitable opportunities in the labor market, the importance of wealth in transmitting advantage across generations and the need for stronger data infrastructure. More broadly, it pushes us to think seriously about the systems and structures that shape opportunity. My hope is that the report will be useful to both researchers and policymakers who are serious about expanding opportunity in ways that are evidence-based and durable.

How can interdisciplinary centers contribute to research on economic and social mobility, as well as initiate strategies for change?

Mobility doesn’t fit neatly within any single discipline, so interdisciplinary centers have an important role to play. They create space for scholars across the social sciences, law, business, public health, education, policy and the humanities to work together on shared questions. That kind of intellectual infrastructure matters if we want to understand how opportunity is shaped across systems and across the life course. It also brings together different kinds of insight, from quantitative analysis to historical and interpretive perspectives, which are all important for understanding how inequality is produced and sustained.

Centers also matter because they can help move research into action. At the Cook Center, bridging research and practice is central to our mission. Through partnerships with policymakers, practitioners and community organizations, we work to translate strong evidence into insights that can inform policy and public discourse. Our focus on systems of inequality also means we’re interested in understanding the institutional and structural forces that produce disparities and identifying strategies that can change those conditions. A center like Cook can help ensure that rigorous scholarship helps point toward meaningful change.

I see the report as a blueprint for future research, collaboration and teaching. It will shape my own work, as well as the Cook Center’s broader efforts around research, training and public engagement, including our focus on the systems that structure opportunity in American life. 

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