Zysiak, Agata

Social mobility in Eastern Europe after 1945: In her ERC-funded project CLASS-UP, historical sociologist Agata Zysiak investigates social mobility – i.e. changes in social positions within society – in Eastern European socialist states after 1945. In contrast to the well-studied Western contexts, this qualitative comparative study focuses on how state socialist systems created specific forms of social mobility. CLASS-UP examines how upward mobility was defined, understood and experienced under socialism, focusing not only on measurable indicators but also on the cultural, political and social meanings attributed to mobility. By combining analyses of official discourses, press reports, sociological studies and an innovative cross-generational biographical method, Zysiak aims to reveal how mobility shaped family histories across generations, including the transmission of privileges and the social costs of upward mobility.