Social mobility and class segregation in personal networks over time: evidence from longitudinal data

This study examines how class-based network homogeneity evolves over time and whether intragenerational social mobility reshapes personal network composition in Chile. Drawing on four waves of longitudinal data from the Chilean Longitudinal Social Survey (ELSOC, 2016-2023), we assess the extent to which class stability and different forms of social mobility-conjunctural, structural, and cumulative-influence the degree of class homogeneity in personal networks. We use the position generator instrument to measure cross-class social ties across 13 occupations, calculating the proportion of ties belonging to respondents' own class. Our findings reveal that class homogeneity remained relatively stable across the period (40-45%), with both upper-middle-class and working-class respondents reporting similarly high proportions of same-class contacts (above 40%). Class-stable individuals consistently exhibit higher network homogeneity than mobile individuals, supporting theoretical expectations regarding cumulative homophily effects. Upwardly mobile individuals generally display lower homogeneity than downwardly mobile individuals in short- and medium-term transitions, although this asymmetry becomes less consistent when cumulative mobility trajectories are considered. Stable lower-middle-class individuals exhibit significantly lower homogeneity than stable working-class or upper-middle-class respondents. Long-term mobility patterns-whether upward, downward, or oscillatory-correspond to more diverse social networks compared to stable class locations, with less consistent differences between mobility directions. These results demonstrate that class boundaries, while permeable through mobility, continue to have a bearing on the structure of social relationships, with class-based network segregation reflecting deeply embedded structural and cultural mechanisms that resist transformation through individual mobility alone.