Social mobility is the degree to which, in a given society, an individual's social status can change throughout the course of their life (known as intragenerational mobility), or the degree to which that individual's offspring and subsequent generations move up and down the class system (intergenerational mobility). Generation (From the Greek γιγνμαι), also known as procreation, is the act of producing offspring. ...

Social system

One example of a society without social mobility has been Hindu society under the caste system. Only with rare exceptions could individuals leave the caste into which they were born, regardless of wealth or merit. Societies which use slavery are an example of low social mobility because, for the enslaved individuals, upward mobility is practically nonexistent, and for their owners, downward mobility is practically outlawed. This article discusses the adherents of Hinduism. ... The word Caste is derived from the Portuguese word casta, meaning lineage, breed or race. ... For the business meaning, see Wealth (economics). ... Look up Merit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Slave redirects here. ...

Social mobility is normally discussed as "upward only", but it is a two-sided phenomenon - where there is upward mobility, there can also be relative downward mobility. If merit and fortune play a larger role in life chances than the luck of birth, and some people can manage a relative upward shift in their social status, then some people can also move downward relative to others. This is the risk that motivates people in power to increasingly devise and commission political, legal, education, and economic mechanisms that permit them to fortify their advantages. However, by controlling that inclination, it is possible in a growing economy for there to be greater upward mobility than downward - as has been the case in Western Europe!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Social status is the honor or prestige attached to ones position in society (ones social position). ...

Official or legally recognized class designations do not exist in modern western democracies and it is considered possible for individuals to move from poverty to wealth or political prominence within one generation. Despite this formal opportunity for social mobility, recent research suggests that Britain and particularly the United States have less social mobility than the Nordic countries and Canada.^[1][2] Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows what he found. ... For the business meaning, see Wealth (economics). ... Political map of the Nordic countries and associated territories. ...

Not only does social mobility vary across types of countries, it can also change over time. Comparing the United States to the United Kingdom, there was social mobility of different degrees existing between the two countries during different historical periods. In the United States in the mid-19th century inequality was low and social mobility was high. In the late 19th century, the U.S. had much higher social mobility than in the UK, due to the common school movement and open public school system, a larger farmer sector, as well as higher geographic mobility in the United States. However, during the latter half of the 20th and early 21st centuries, the difference between the social mobilities of the two countries has declined, as social inequality has grown in both countries, but particularly in the United States. In other words, the individual's family background is more predictive of social position today than it was in 1850.

In market societies like the modern United States, class and economic wealth are strongly correlated. However, in some societies, such as feudal societies transitioning to market societies, there is a reduced probability that class status and wealth overlap. Usually, though, membership in a high social class provides more opportunities for wealth and political power, and therefore economic fortune is often a lagging indicator of social class. In newly-formed societies with little or no established tradition (such as the American West in the 19th century) the reverse is true: Made wealth precipitates the elite of future generations. Look up Market in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... ‹ The template below is being considered for deletion. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... See published material by Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky on the Theory of Combined and Uneven Development. This discussed the dramatic disproportionality between economic and social development, between separate regions, adjacent nation states and within nation-states themselves. ...

Examples

Popular examples of upward social mobility from America include Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton, who were born into working-class families yet achieved high political office in adult life, and Andrew Carnegie, who arrived in the U.S. as a poor immigrant and later became a steel tycoon. Examples from other countries include Pierre Bérégovoy who started working at the age of 16 as a metal worker and later became Prime Minister of France and Sir Joseph Cook, an Englishman who had no schooling and worked as a coal miner at the age of nine and went on to become Prime Minister of Australia. For other uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation). ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... Andrew Carnegie (last name pronounced , )[1] (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish industrialist, businessman, a major philanthropist, and the founder of Pittsburghs Carnegie Steel Company which later became U.S. Steel. ... Immigration is the act of moving to or settling in another country or region, temporarily or permanently. ... For other uses, see Steel (disambiguation). ... A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a mogul, tycoon, or industrialist is a person who controls a large portion of a particular industry and whose wealth derives primarily from this control. ... Pierre Eugène Bérégovoy (December 23, 1925 - May 1, 1993) was a French Socialist politician of russian origin. ... The Prime Minister of France (Premier ministre de la France) is the functional head of the Cabinet of France. ... Rt Hon Joseph Cook Sir Joseph Cook (December 7, 1860 - July 30, 1947), Australian politician and sixth Prime Minister of Australia, was born in Silverdale, a small mining town near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. ... Judicial High Court Lower Courts Constitution State and territory governments Executive Governors and Administrators Premiers and Chief Ministers Legislative Parliaments and Assemblies State electoral systems ACT - NSW - NT - Qld. ...

Social Mobility v. Economic Mobility

The ability for an individual to become wealthy out of poverty does not necessarily indicate that there is social mobility in his or her society. Some societies with low or nonexistent social mobility afford free individuals opportunities to initiate enterprise and amass wealth, but wealth fails to "buy" entry into a higher social class. In feudal Japan and Confucianist China, wealthy merchants occupied the lowest ranks in society (at least in theory). In pre-revolutionary France, a nobleman, however poor, was from the "second estate" of society and thus superior, at least in theory, to a wealthy merchant (from the "third estate"). Confucius (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kung-fu-tzu), lit. ...

References

1. ^ Intergenerational Mobility in Europe and North America, Blanden
2. ^ Matthew Taylor (25 April 2005). UK low in social mobility league, says charity. The Guardian.

External links

• Jo Blanden; Paul Gregg and Stephen Machin (April 2005). Intergenerational Mobility in Europe and North America. The Sutton Trust.
• Nancy Birdsall; Miguel Szekely (July 1999). Intergenerational Mobility in Latin America: Deeper Markets and Better Schools Make a Difference. Carnegie.
• Boushey, Heather (2005). Horatio Alger is Dead, Center for Economic and Policy Research Economics Seminar Series.
• The New York Times offers a graphic about social mobility, overall trends, income elasticity and country by country. European nations such as Denmark and France, are ahead of the US. [1]
• Li Yi. 2005. The Structure and Evolution of Chinese Social Stratification. University Press of America. ISBN 0-7618-3331-5