Social Mobility Flashcards
(10 cards)
Why are we so interested in social mobility?
- it represents the major way in which economic inequalities are legitimised in modern societies- influences the formation of social class subculures
What is the difference between inter generational mobility and intra generational mobility?
Inter- movement between generations
Intra- movement of an individual within their working life
What does Saunders argue about social mobility?
- most sociologists describe themselves as ‘hard left’ this has therefore created a bias and produced left wing orthodoxy sad-thesis: most children born into modest backgrounds have the odds stacked against them, believes 4 biases:
- myth that social mobility is limited and is getting worse
- differences of ability in individuals do not exist or are irrelevant in explaining different rates of success
- absolute mobility is more important because it impacts how people see themselves, status/ attitudes and how they judge what is fair
What are the evaluation points of Saunders?
- sociologists argue life chances are shaped by the class they are born into . E.g education, children from top 5th were 2x likely to get their A levels
-Saunders claims this is misleading- MC are intelligent and will have intelligent kids - sociologists agree that relative mobility is most important in assessing the degree of meritocracy
what is the glass floor?
McKnight- even when measured intelligence is held constant, MC still tend to be more successful- found children from more advantaged backgrounds who were assessed to have low ability at age 5 were still 5% more likely to have high earners
- MC successful in creating ‘glass floor’ that presents their children from downward mobility
What is the class ceiling?
- argues that ‘class ceiling’ limits any prospects for successful people from WC backgrounds to enjoy the same earning as those from upper or MC backgrounds
- Ashley et al- based interviews with staff from 13 elite law, accountancy and financial services firms, found 70% jobs were given to graduates from selective/ fee paying schools, even though only 4% and 7% of children are educated in such establishments
Which solution does Saunders come up with to increase social mobility?
- addresses the idea that government can increase social mobility by ‘forcing more income redistribution’ is a myth
- however, evidence does not support Saunders- higher income inequality is associated with a tighter link between the earning of parents and children
How can changes to occupations lead to some member of the WC achieving upward social mobility?
Evidence- growth of globalisation to manual jobs either disappear/ move offshore
- leading to rise of the service sector, Goldthorpe OSM showed service sector needed/ require more workers which allow WC upward mobility
-despite this GBCS suggests there is still great polarisation between rich and poor/ proletarianization of MC jobs means that class hasn’t actually changed but the conditions experienced
- occupations can increase income and Chang lifestyle to allow for WC to appear socially mobile
What caused the changes of class structure/ occupations?
- growth in the tertiary sector colony concerned with provision of services such as sales, administration, transport, etc
- decline in semi-skilled and unskilled manual jobs as technology takes over tasks
- developments led to changes in the social structure with unskilled manual and lower middle class groups getting larger
- an underclass of long term unemployed emerged who are excluded by their poverty
What is the embourgeoisement of the Woking class?
- 1960s+ more technologically advancements bought in manufacturing industries like production of cars
- improved pay and living standards even exceeding those in MC
- these affluent manual work could now afford to buy their homes
