social mobility

• Social mobility


  The movement of individuals up or down the social scale. Measured in two ways: Intergeneration mobility & Intragenerational mobility
• Intergenerational mobility


  Mobility between generations
• Intragenerational mobility 


  Movement between classes by an individual during their working life
• Open society


  Where there are few obstacles to those with talent rising out of their social class (meritocracy).
• Closed society


  One where there is little or no social mobility, eg. Feudal system - most individuals stayed at the same social rank as their parents
• Problems of researching social mobility

  Classifying occupations is difficult. Studying the mobility of women - most older studies of social mobility focused on the mobility of male heads of households only. Studying the mobility of the very rich & poor - the very wealthiest & poorest people in society are usually ignored in studies of social mobility. Studying current patterns of social mobility - can't really draw conclusions about how far people are mobile until they're well established in their careers.
• Goldthorpe - Oxford Mobility study


  Studied a sample of around 10,000 men & compared the occupational class of sons & fathers.Found that in the period after WW2, there had been considerable upward social mobility, though much less downward mobility.Suggested that the introduction of free secondary education was not as important as many people believed, he argued that chances in the mid-20th century, there was a reduction in the size of the working class & an increase in the size of the intermediate & service classes.This points to an increase in absolute social mobility.
• Marshall - Evaluation of the OMS

  Found evidence of inequality in relative mobility, with someone starting off in the service class having 7x as much chance of ending up in the service class as someone from a working-class background.
• Saunders: 'We should focus on absolute rather than relative mobility rates & that the increasing number of working-class children who do well in education & go on to service-class jobs should be celebrated'
• Goldthorpe's arguments


  Have a left-wing bias, presenting Britain as a class-ridden closed society, rather than highlighting the opportunities presented by capitalism for everyone to achieve
• Goldthorpe


  Makes the mistake of assuming that innate ability in the form of intelligence is evenly distributed throughout the social class
• Children of the service class

  Are likely to inherit higher levels of intelligence & thus have a better chance of achieving service-class jobs because of their ability rather than because they have more opportunities
• Stanworth & Abbott - Evaluation of the OMS

  Criticised like the OMS for focusing exclusively on men - Goldthorpe claimed there was no need for research on female mobility as in most households men were the main wage-earners & most women took their class position from their husband or father - this ignores the importance of women as wage-earners.Argues that women's experiences of mobility are likely to be different from men's.
• Top jobs & private schools

  71% of senior judges attended fee-paying schools 44% of the Sunday Time Rich List attended fee-paying schools Only 7% of the UK population attended fee-paying schools
• Savage & Egerton: The NCDS study


  A recent study of social mobility in Britain. Used data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS). A longitudinal survey of people born in 1958, based on the class people had reached by 1991. Included women.
• Roberts - The NCDS study


  Adapted data from the OMS & the NCDS studies in order to analyse changes in social mobility in the 20th century.
• Roberts - The NCDS study


  Found that:The working-class continued to contract & the intermediate & service classes to expand, this provided opportunities for upward mobility from the working class.The chances of escaping the working-class did not increase greatly - 55% of men originating in the working-class stayed in that class.The chances of working-class men rising to the service class did increase significantly from 16% to 20%.Women have different patterns of mobility from men.
• Government policy & the Social Mobility & Child Poverty Commission

  Government recognised the issue of barriers to social mobility in the UK by setting up the Social Mobility & Child Poverty Commission in 2010. One example of its success - The 'London effect', where attempts to improve education for the poorest children in London, particularly focusing on primary schools, have meant that in London as a whole poorer children in the rest of the country.
• Social Mobility & Child Poverty Commission

  Criticised the government in 2013 for failing to do more to tackle issues such as child poverty that hold back the most disadvantaged children.
• Wilkinson & Pickett - Government policy & the social mobility & child poverty commission


  Demonstrates that countries with the highest levels of income inequality also have the lowest levels of social mobility.