Social Mobility

Social mobility is the movement of the members of a particular society in terms of their social status, usually defined in terms of occupation and income (vertical mobility), or from one social group to another, not necessarily with concomitant change in social position (horizontal mobility). Human societies, apart from the most primitive, have been stratified and have had varying degrees of social mobility. The correlation between societal progress and social mobility is not clear, as many socially immobile societies experienced sudden progress through revolutions, while for others, increased education led to improvements in society but a decline in social mobility. Ultimately, social mobility may need to be redefined such that changes in occupation and social group are not connected to changes in social value, in other words these become horizontal in nature, and vertical mobility could be reserved for increased respect due to seniority or experience.

|Contents                                                                                     |
|[hide]                                                                                       |
|1 Definition                                                                                 |
|2 Positive and Negative Aspects                                                             |
|3 Examples of Social Mobility and Immobility                                                 |
|4 Basic Theories, Trends, and International Comparison                                       |
|4.1 Post-War Industrialization 1950-1970                                                     |
|4.2 Post-Industrial Societies after 1970                                                     |
|4.3 Transitional Societies                                                                   |
|4.4 Impact of Globalization                                                                 |
|5 Conclusion...