SOCIAL MOBILITY

Social Mobility

Social Mobility

Introduction

The study of social mobility is also applied to groups within a society. If a country has an accepted caste system, which essentially keeps children within a particular social level, there is little if any chance for mobility to occur for either the individual or the social group. Countries like the United States, on the other hand, do not have recognised class designations. Consequently, the potential for social mobility of children and groups is maximised (Nunn, 2007).

Sociological research has correctly pointed out that the potential for increased social mobility is directly related to the degree of child poverty reduction that can be accomplished. This is exemplified in Norway, Denmark, and Finland, where high levels of social mobility are associated with flatter income distributions, which have the added benefit of reducing child poverty levels. In the United States, on the other hand, the range of economic inequalities is greater and levels of child poverty are consequently much higher (Birdsall, 2000).

For example, in the United States in 2005, 12.3 percent of the country's population were living below the poverty line. However, the percentage of children living in poverty was approximately 18 percent in that same year. Child poverty is a compelling problem. Being poor as a child will usually mean there will be deficiencies in nutrition, which can impair the development of sound cognitive abilities in the early years of life. It has also been shown that poor children are at a disadvantage in the educational system (Borjas, 2006).

Perhaps no sociologist has contributed more to the study of social mobility than the Russian scholar Pitirim Alexandravitch Sorokin. He came from a peasant childhood in Russia and rose to prominence as an esteemed member of the sociology faculty at Harvard University. Sorokin defined social mobility as the shifting of people within social space. He was less concerned with the study of individual social mobility than with the movements of social groups within a social structure.

Sorokin used the concept of social stratification in his studies of mobility. Social stratification, which he considered to be a permanent characteristic of a social system, can be seen in three distinct forms: 1) economic stratification, which is based on differences between the rich and the poor; 2) political stratification related to authority and power; and 3) occupational stratification, in which a system recognises some occupations to be more respectable than others (Haveman, 2006).

The concept of social mobility

Social mobility can be thought of in absolute and relative terms. The former refers to processes of adjustment in the income or occupational structure of the economy. The latter, sometimes called social fluidity is associated with an individual's opportunities for progression within the social hierarchy. Social mobility can also be thought of as intra-generational (chances for social progression within an individual's own life time) and inter-generational (a comparison of achieved social position with that of one's parents) (McMurrer, 2008).

Further, the study of social mobility can be differentiated into two distinct traditions: a sociological tradition and an economic ...