social class inequalities in social mobility

Question 1

how can social mobility be measured?

Answer 1

1. intergenerational mobility refers to mobility between generations
   - for example a man whose father was a coal minor became a doctor which is upward social mobility
2. Intragenerational mobility refers to movement between classes by an individual during their working life
   - for example a woman might start off as a secretary and end up running the company

Question 2

what are open societies?

Answer 2

• research into social mobility is useful because it can tell sociologists a lot about the nature of the class structure of a society
• if there is a great deal of social mobility it suggests we are few obstacles to those with talent rising out of their social class
• this is sometimes referred to as a meritocracy

Question 3

what are closed societies?

Answer 3

• a closed society is one where there is little or no social mobility
• the feudal system that existed in western Europe in the middle ages would be an example of this, as most individuals stayed at the same social rank as their parents
• for example as peasants, knights and lords

Question 4

what are the problems of researching social mobility?

Answer 4

• research into social mobility has typically placed people into social classes based in their occupations and in the case of intergenerational mobility, the occupations of their parents
• researchers can then study a sample of people to see how many of them have changed their class position and by how much

Question 5

what are the problems with measuring social mobility?

Answer 5

• classifying occupations
• studying the mobility of women
• studying the mobility of rich and poor
• studying current patterns of social mobility

Question 6

how is classifying occupations a problem of measuring social mobility?

Answer 6

• as we noted previously, sociologists do not agree on how people should be classified by occupation
• comparing studies is therefore difficult researchers have used different classifications

Question 7

how is studying the mobility of women a problem of measuring social mobility?

Answer 7

• most older studies of social mobility

- for example the Oxford Mobility Study focused on the mobility of male heads of household only

Question 8

how is studying the mobility of rich and poor a problem of measuring social mobility?

Answer 8

• the very wealthiest people in society are not usually clearly identified in social mobility studies as they are often identified in social mobility studies as they are often categorised alongside professional and managerial occupations
• arguably these top positions are much more closed than those below them as the wealthy often acquire their positions through inheritance
• similarly, the poorest groups often have no occupations so focusing on the working population may ignore the extent to which they are trapped at the bottom of society

Question 9

how is studying current patterns o social mobility a problem of measuring social mobility?

Answer 9

• studies of social mobility cannot really draw conclusions about how far people are mobile until they are well established in their careers
• this is not usually until they are in their 40s or 50s
• this means that researchers are often studying the impact on social mobility of government policies on education or change in the labour market that took place 30 or more years ago

Question 10

what was Goldthropes oxford mobility study (1980)?

Answer 10

• Goldthorpe used the hope-Goldthorpe scale to compare the occupational classes of sons and their fathers
• Goldthrope’s study found that in the period after the second world war there had been considerable upward social mobility, tough much less downward social mobility
• in fact over two-thirds of the service class had started off in either the working class or the service class
• one possible explanation for this was the introduction of free secondary education after 1944 and the expansion of opportunities in higher education
• however, Goldthorpe suggested that this was bit as important as many people believed
• instead he argued that changes in the occupational structure were more significant
• in the mid-20th century there was a reduction in the size of the working class because there were fewer manual jobs and an increase in the size of the intermediate and service classes due to the growth of the service sector
• for example, professionals and administrators in fields such as education, welfare, health ad financial services
• this meant that even if every son of service class parents had obtained a job in the service class some sons of intermediate an working class parents would have needed to be recruited to fill the growing number of service class occupations

Question 11

what doe Goldthropes research say about absolute social mobility?s

Answer 11

• Goldthrope’s research points to an increase in absolute social mobility
• in other words an increase in the number of man who ended up in different class positions to their fathers mainly because there was more room at the top of society
• however when we compare relative mobility rates, based on the chances of different social classes achieving upward mobility, little changed during the period studied by the OMS

Question 12

what are the evaluation points of the OMS?

Answer 12

\+supported by BES
\+supported by Marshall (1988)
-criticised by Saunders (1990)
-criticised by Saunders (1996)
-criticised by stanworth (1984)
-criticised by Abbott (1990)
-Marxists

Question 13

how is the fact that OMS is supported by BSE a strength?

Answer 13

• Goldthrope’s findings were largely confirmed by later studies
• he carried out a follow up study using 1933 British election survey data which confirmed the continuing expansion of the service class, creating more opportunities for absolute mobility
• however, relative mobility remained about the same

Question 14

how is the fact that OMS is supported by Marshall (1988) a strength?

Answer 14

-another study by Marshall for the Essex university mobility study also found evidence of inequality in relative mobility rates with someone starting off in the service class having seven times as much chance of ending up in the service class as someone from a working class background

Question 15

how is the fact that Saunders (1990) criticises the OMS a weakness?

Answer 15

• Saunders argues that we should focus on absolute rather than relative mobility rates
• he argues that the increasing number of working class children who do well in education and go on to service class jobs should be celebrated
• in common with the new right thinkers, Saunders argued that Goldthropes arguments have a left wing bias, presenting Britain as a class ridden closed society, rather than highlighting the opportunities presented by capitalism for everyone to achieve

Question 16

how is the fact that Saunders (1996) criticises the OMS a weakness?

Answer 16

• Sauder’s also argues that Goldthorpe makes the mistake of assuming that innate ability in the form of intelligence is evenly distributed throughout the social classes
• Saunders argued that children of the service class are likely to inherit higher levels of intelligence and so have a better chance of achieving service class jobs because of their ability rather than because they have more opportunities
• this has been hotly distributed by many other sociologists who would question the idea that intelligence is innate or inborn
• Saunder’s arguments also ignore a range of research pointing to ways in which working class children are disadvantaged not by lack of intelligence but by their home backgrounds and unequal opportunities within the education system

Question 17

how is the fact that feminist Stanworth et al (1984) criticises the OMS a weakness?

Answer 17

• Feminists such as Stanworth have criticised studies like the OMS for focusing exclusively on men
• Goldthorpe claimed that there was no need for research on female mobility as in most households men were the main wage earners and most women took their class position from their husband or father
• for feminists this ignores the importance of women as wage earners

Question 18

how is the fact that Marxists criticise the OMS a weakness?

Answer 18

• Goldthrope’s study focused on mobility into the service class
• around 25% of the workforce when he did his research
• if we focus on the very top positions in UK society
• for example the richest 5% of the population it seems likely that the UK appears much more closed
• Marxists for example would point to the fact that many of the super rich have achieved their positions through inherited wealth
• similarly many of the top jobs in UK society are still filled by people who were privately educated an opportunity usually only available to children of well off parents

Question 19

what did the NCDS study by Savage (1997) find?

Answer 19

• Savage used data from the National Child Development Study, a longitudinal survey of people born in 1958
• the study was based on the class that people had reached in 1991
• unlike the OMS, it included data on the social mobility of women

Question 20

what did Roberts (2001) find when he adapted Savages study?

Answer 20

• Roberts adapted data from both the OMS and the NCDS studies to analyse changes in social mobility:
• the Woking class continued to contract and the intermediate and service classes to expand
• -this provided opportunities for upward mobility from the working class
• the chances of escaping the working class did not however increase greatly
• 55% of men originating in the working class stayed in that class
• the chances of working class men rising to the service class did increase significantly from 16 to 26%
• the NCDS study service class sons were more than twice as likely to end up with service class jobs compared to those from the working class
• in both studies the service class were reunited from fairly diverse origins, including as many of 40% from working class backgrounds
• however around three quarters of the working class in both studies came from working class backgrounds
• this was explainable because there has been more upward than downward mobility
• women have different patterns of mobility from men , with more working class women likely to move up into the intermediate class and more service class women moving down to the intermediate class compared to men
• this reflects the fact that the kind of jobs done by women, such as office work, are concentrated in the intermediate class

Question 21

what is government policy and the social mobility and child poverty commission?

Answer 21

• the government recognised the issue of barriers to social mobility in the UK by setting up the social mobility in the UK by setting up the social mobility and child poverty commission in 2010
• one example of its success has been the so called London effect, where attempts to improve education for the poorest children in London, particularly focusing on Primary schools, have meant that in London as a whole poorer children now perform better than average children in the rest of the country
• however, the commission criticised the government in 2013 for failing to do more to tackle issues such as child poverty that hold back the most disadvantaged children

Question 22

what did Wilkinson et al (2009) say about Britain as an unequal society?

Answer 22

• Wilkinson demonstrated that countries with the lowest levels of social mobility
• most wealthy European countries have a much lower degree of income inequality
• if Wilkinson are correct, the UK is only likely to become a more open society if the government can reverse the widening social inequalities of recent years

Question 23

how is the fact that Abbott (1990) criticises ONS a weakness?

Answer 23

• Abbott also argues that women’s experiences of mobility are likely to be different from men’s
• for example because of the disadvantaged faced by women in the workplace,, they are less likely to achieve either intergenerational or intragenerational mobility

Question 24

what are the percentage of people in top jobs that attended fee paying schools?

Answer 24

• senior judges: 71%
• senior armed forces: 62%
• permanent secretaries: 55%
• senior diplomats: 53%
• chairmen/chair women of public bodies: 45%
• Sunday times rich list: 44%
• newspaper columnists: 43%
• BBC executives: 26%
• house of lords: 50%
• cabinet: 36%
• shadow cabinet: 22%
• MPs: 33%
• rugby union teams: 35%
• England cricket team: 33%
• UK population: 7%