Social Mobility
www.educationforum.co.uk
What is Social Mobility
Social mobility is defined as movement from one
class/status position to another
 There are 2 types:
Intra- generational – movement within one generation
e.g. a person moves from one social class to another
in the course of their life time
Inter generational – movement between generations e.g.
a person’s father was a Liverpool docker and he is a
teacher

Types of Status
Sociologists talk of two types of status
Ascribed status is something you can’t change. It is
inherited by virtue of class, gender, ethnic group.
Achieved Status is earned by your individual effort.
In a meritocracy status is supposed to be achieved.
Meritocratic societies should show high degrees of
social mobility

Problems of measuring social mobility


1. Using occupation can be a problem e.g.
with the RG classification social class is
determined by male head of household – often
still used despite being out of date because of
the need to compare studies over time
2. Mobility studies focus on those in work and
therefore ignore the very rich and the very
poor
Social Mobility Studies
There are 3 main social mobility studies you
need to know about
1. The Oxford (Nuffield) Mobility Study
(OMS) 1972
2. The Scottish Mobility Study (SMS) 1987
3. The Essex University Mobility Study 1988
The Oxford (Nuffield) Mobility Study (OMS) 1972
Used the Hope Goldthorpe scale to measure
social class
Led by Goldthorpe found high rates of absolute
mobility. (the total numbers going upwards).
Relative mobility chances remained unchanged –
those born higher up the social scale had
better chances of achieving higher class
positions
Why Had Absolute Mobility
Increased?
1.
2.
3.
Economic change – change in occupational
structure – growth of service sector with better pay
and better life chances throughout the 60’s and 70’s
whilst traditional working class jobs had declined
Greater professional opportunities with the
expansion of state education, health and welfare
Free secondary education since the Butler Act 1944
and made more working class people more socially
mobile
The Scottish Mobility Study
SMS concluded that opportunities for social
mobility were influenced by age and region
Social mobility more likely to occur in SE
England amongst young people. The North
and Scotland did not enjoy this.
SMS detected the suggested we were moving
towards a middle class SE of opportunity with
the underclass being located in the north and
Scotland
The Essex University Mobility Study


EUMS by Marshall largely confirmed the
trends identified by the OMS – absolute
mobility improving, relative mobility
unchanging
Marshall also pointed out that absolute
mobility was slowing down and that the UK
was still a long way away from being truly
meritocratic
Theories of Social Mobility

1.
2.
3.
There are three broad theories you need to
know about
Intelligence Theory (New Right)
Neo-Marxist theory
Rational Action Theory
Functionalism and the New Right
Peter Saunders claims the UK is a
meritocratic society with lots of opportunities
for social mobility. He says that the inequality
that we see is the result of differences in effort
and intelligence
“Class destinations reflect individual merit much
more than class background”

Neo Marxist Theory



Social Mobility is a myth – class society is
reproduced and we stay in either the
bourgeoisie or the proletariat
Growth of service sector work isn’t upward
mobility – service jobs just as exploitative and
repetitive as factory work
Education reform has disproportionately
benefitted the middle class
Rational Action Theory


Goldthorpe argues that people are ‘rational
actors’ who calculate the relative costs and
benefits of social mobility. Rates of absolute
and relative mobility can be explained by this
E.g. a working class family may see the
achievement of a service sector job for their
children as success whereas a middle class
family will view it as a failure