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SOCIAL MOBILITY NOTES Sociology Ba Ma

Social mobility refers to the movement of a person or their family from one social strata to another, or up or down a "rung" on the social ladder. This can be measured in terms of income, occupation, education, health, housing, or even literal mobility from one place to another. The term was first introduced by Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin in 1927. Social mobility can be horizontal, vertical, inter-generational, or intra-generational. It can also occur in open or closed social systems.

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139 views4 pages

SOCIAL MOBILITY NOTES Sociology Ba Ma

Social mobility refers to the movement of a person or their family from one social strata to another, or up or down a "rung" on the social ladder. This can be measured in terms of income, occupation, education, health, housing, or even literal mobility from one place to another. The term was first introduced by Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin in 1927. Social mobility can be horizontal, vertical, inter-generational, or intra-generational. It can also occur in open or closed social systems.

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Roly Kumari Singh
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SOCIAL MOBILITY

What is Social Mobility?


When one thinks of "mobility", they might think of literal mobility from one
location to another. It could be a person's ability to move from one place to a
better one; perhaps from a city to the country or the country to a city.
Sociologists talk about a different kind of mobility that someone might have:
social mobility. Social mobility refers to the movement of a person or their
family from one social strata to another, or up or down a "rung" on the
proverbial social ladder. This can be measured in terms of income, occupation,
education, health, housing, or even literal mobility from one place to another.
The term was first introduced by Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin
in 1927. The concept has many historical implications and can be measured
in society in many ways.

Origin of the Social Mobility Concept

Russian-born American sociologist and political activist Pitirim Sorokin first


introduced the concept of social mobility in his book “Social and Cultural
Mobility.” He states that there is no society that is completely open (such as
the class system) and no society that is completely closed (like the caste
system in India).

According to Sorokin, no two societies are the same in terms of movement


allowed and discouraged, and that the speed of social mobility can change
from one time period to the next. It depends on how developed the society is.

Such a societal shift can happen over time as individuals move from one
position to another due to various social interactions. Mobility, more or less,
provides people with benefits as they are motivated by different factors in
society and work to reach new roles that offer them a better standard of
living and greater rewards. People compete and cooperate with others in
society to move up the social mobility ladder.
TYPES OF SOCIAL MOBILITY

# On the Basis of Direction

1) Horizontal Mobility: Horizontal Mobility refers to a movement of individual or a


group who changes their position in social structure without changing their position
in social hierarchy. For example- An agricultural worker migrates to city and
become wage laborer. But with industrialization every task requires specialization,
so you cannot move from one structure to another without knowing the specialized
skill, so skill restricts horizontal mobility.
We shouldn’t ignore Anthony Gidden’s point of view in this, he says, there is a
great deal of horizontal mobility in Modern society, and he prefers to define t as
Lateral Mobility.
For example: A person who was an engineer, did engineering from an average
college initially, he later did MBA from the same college and became a manager,
but there no such hike in his position. Initially he was doing engineering job and
later he is doing managerial job. So here we can see that his position remains the
same and that is why it is considered as horizontal mobility or lateral mobility.

2) Vertical Mobility: Vertical Mobility refers to change in position along social


hierarchy. Most people seek upward vertical mobility because it has got value and it
is seen as a reward in the society. On the other hand most people avoid downward
vertical mobility because it is stigma and it generates discontentment.
Anthony Giddens says that vertical mobility is an up and down movement on
socio-economic scale. Sociologically speaking vertical mobility is studied more as it
has social implications.

Anthony Giddens says that sometimes both horizontal and vertical the
mobility are seen in Tandem

For Example: A person who did engineering from below average college and later
he does MBA from a very renowned college say IIM, and gets a job in MNC i.e.
multinational company.
In the above example we can see both the mobilities happening together and thet
is because he has changed his skill type also and also his financial condition.
# On the basis of Speed of Mobility

1) Inter-generational Mobility: It refers to change in position between the


generations. For example: Son of rikshaw puller becoming professor or IAS officer.
Explanation: A rikshaw puller who works in a city and he works day and night to
send his children to school/ college to acquire knowledge and later his son/daughter
becomes an IAS officer or Professor. So here we can clearly see the change in the
in standard of living and social position of the father and son/daughter. The rikshaw
puller has worked hard in bettering his next generation. Therefore we can see the
inter-generational mobility here.

2) Intra-generational Mobility: It refers to change in the position within a


generation i.e. within the lifetime of a person. For example: A person is appointed
as clerk and then to become a superintendent. Generally this mobility is
experienced in occupation and entrepreneurial activity.
“Merton calls it a Status Sequence”, which means we can see sequential rise in
the status of a person.

#On the basis of System of Stratification

1) Open System: Open system is refers to a system of stratification where norms


allow or prescribe mobility. It further means that if you have skill then you can
move upward in the status hierarchy. Only Meritocracy leads to a situation where
you occupy top positions. In open society higher mobility can be seen. For
example: class system.

2) Close System: Close system refers to a system of stratification where norms


proscribe or ban mobility. It is also called as ascribed system which means if you
are born in higher caste or community only then are you accepted in the society
otherwise not. For example: caste system.

# Absolute Mobility VS Relative Mobility

The change in actual position of a person in actual terms is considered as Actual


Mobility. For example: Increase in income of a person. On the other hand Relative
Mobility is a situation in which mobility of a person is adjudged in comparison to
others. Like for example, A person is at a certain position and people around him
suddenly become poor, so in such a situation his status got increased in comparison
to his surroundings. It can be explained with another example also that, suppose if
a person’s salary is around 50k, and the salary of people around him increased
rapidly, so in that case the person’s social status and financial status disintegrates.
# Sponsored Mobility VS Contested Mobility (R.H. TURNER)

1) Sponsored Mobility: Mobility which occurs due to outside support. For example
like government sponsor lower caste with some concessions or reservations in
context of merit etc.

2) Contested Mobility: The mobility which is acquired through open competitions.

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