Social Mobility & Work

• STATISTICS:

  • Only 1/4 of working-class people gain middle-class jobs
  • 37% of the people born in the lower quartile remained there for the rest of their life
  • Even when working-class people achieve the same degrees and go to the same universities they earn £7000 less
  • 58% of university students in London are working class, with the national average being 32%. Nearly 20 years ago, in 2005, this statistic was 25%
• Give 4 different studies that give reasons for social inequalities within work and social mobility:

  1. Crompton - social closure
  2. Marx - social reproduction
  3. Bourdieu - social capital
  4. Friedman & Laurison - the class ceiling
• Crompton

  • Social Closure - people from lower-class backgrounds are prevented from gaining entry to middle-class jobs. eg uni interviews and jobs requiring cultural capita
• Which sociologist gives social closure as the reason for why there are inequalities within social mobility and work?

  Crompton
• Marx

  • Social Reproduction: there are several ways the rich and poor remain in their positions within generations.
• Bourdieu

  Social capital: people who have middle-class backgrounds have connections to help gain high-status jobs
• Firedman & Laurison

  Class ceiling

  they argue it is harder for working-class people to gain elite professional jobs. Even when wc has the same qualifications and goes to the same unis they are estimated to earn 7000 pounds less than a mc person
• Which sociologist talk about the "class ceiling"?

  Firedman & Laurison