Society is developing rapidly these days. This leads to the emergence of new positions, a significant increase in the number of social movements, their speed and frequency.
What is social mobility?
The first to study such a concept as social mobility was Sorokin Pitirim. Today, many researchers continue the work he started, since its relevance is very high.
Social mobility is expressed in the fact that the position of a person in the hierarchy of groups, in relation to the means of production, in the division of labor and in general in the system of production relations is significantly transformed. This change is associated with the loss or acquisition of property, the transition to a new position, education, mastery of a profession, marriage, etc.
People are in constant motion, and society is constantly evolving. This means the variability of its structure. The totality of all social movements, that is, changes in the social status of an individual or groups, is included in the concept of social mobility.
Examples in history
For a long time this topic has been relevant and aroused interest. For example, the unexpected fall of a person or his rise is a favorite plot of many folk tales: a wise and cunning beggar becomes a rich man; the industrious Cinderella finds a rich prince and marries him, thereby increasing her prestige and status; the poor prince suddenly becomes king.
However, the movement of history is determined mainly not by individuals, not by their social mobility. Social groups - that's what is more important to her. The landed aristocracy, for example, was replaced at a certain stage by the financial bourgeoisie; people with low-skilled professions are being squeezed out of modern production by "white-collar workers" - programmers, engineers, operators. Revolutions and wars reshaped the social structure, raising some to the top of the pyramid and lowering others. Such changes in Russian society took place, for example, in 1917, after the October Revolution.
Let's look at the various bases on which social mobility can be divided and the corresponding types.
1. Social mobility intergenerational and intragenerational
Any movement of a person between social groups or strata means his mobility down or up within the social structure. Note that this may concern both one generation and two or three. The change in the position of children in comparison with the positions of their parents is evidence of their mobility. On the contrary, social stability takes place whenwhen a certain position of generations is maintained.
Social mobility can be intergenerational (intergenerational) and intragenerational (intragenerational). In addition, there are 2 main types - horizontal and vertical. In turn, they fall into subtypes and subtypes, closely related to each other.
Intergenerational social mobility means an increase or, on the contrary, a decrease in the status in society of representatives of subsequent generations in relation to the status of the current one. That is, children reach a higher or lower position in society than their parents. For example, if a miner's son becomes an engineer, one can speak of intergenerational upward mobility. And descending is observed if the son of a professor works as a plumber.
Intragenerational mobility is a situation in which the same person, beyond comparison with his parents, changes his position in society several times throughout his life. This process is otherwise referred to as a social career. A turner, for example, can become an engineer, then a shop manager, then he can be promoted to a plant manager, after which he can take the position of minister of the engineering industry.
2. Vertical and horizontal
Vertical mobility is the movement of an individual from one stratum (or caste, class, estate) to another.
Allocate, depending on which direction this movement has, upward mobility (upward movement, social rise) and downward mobility (movementdown, social descent). For example, a promotion is an example of an upward movement, while a demolition or dismissal is an example of a downward one.
The concept of horizontal social mobility means that an individual moves from one social group to another, which is at the same level. Examples include moving from a Catholic to an Orthodox religious group, changing citizenship, moving from a family of origin to one's own, from one profession to another.
Geographic mobility
Geographic social mobility is a kind of horizontal. It does not mean a change in group or status, but a move to another place while maintaining the same social status. An example is inter-regional and international tourism, moving to the village from the city and back. Geographic social mobility in modern society is also a transition from one company to another while maintaining the status (for example, an accountant).
Migration
We have not yet considered all the concepts related to the topic of interest to us. The theory of social mobility also highlights migration. We speak of it when a change of status is added to a change of place. For example, if a villager comes to the city to visit his relatives, then there is geographic mobility. However, if he moved here for permanent residence, started working in the city, then this is already migration.
Factors affecting horizontal andvertical mobility
Note that the nature of the horizontal and vertical social mobility of people is affected by age, gender, mortality and birth rates, population density. Men, and also young people in general, are more mobile than the elderly and women. In overpopulated states, emigration is higher than immigration. Places with a high birth rate have a younger population and are therefore more mobile. Young people tend to be more professionally mobile, older people are more politically mobile, and adults are more economically mobile.
The birth rate is distributed unevenly across classes. As a rule, the lower classes have more children, while the upper classes have fewer. The higher a person climbs the social ladder, the fewer children are born to him. Even in the event that each son of a rich man takes the place of his father, in the social pyramid, on its upper steps, voids still form. They are filled by people from lower classes.
3. Social mobility group and individual
There are also group and individual mobility. Individual - is the movement of a particular individual up, down or horizontally on the social ladder, regardless of other people. Group mobility - movement up, down or horizontally along the social ladder of a certain group of people. For example, the old class after the revolution is forced to give way to the new dominant position.
Group and individual mobility are linked in a certain way to achieved and attributed statuses. Atthis individual corresponds to a greater extent to the achieved status, and to the group - attributed.
Organized and structured
These are the basic concepts of the topic of interest to us. Considering the types of social mobility, sometimes organized mobility is also singled out, when the movement of an individual or groups down, up or horizontally is controlled by the state, both with the consent of the people, and without it. Organized voluntary mobility includes socialist organizational recruitment, calls for construction projects, etc. To involuntary - dispossession and resettlement of small peoples during the period of Stalinism.
Structural mobility, caused by changes in the very structure of the economy, should be distinguished from organized mobility. It occurs outside the consciousness and will of individual people. For example, the social mobility of a society is great when professions or industries disappear. In this case, large masses of people move, not just individuals.
Let's consider for clarity the conditions for raising a person's status in two subspaces - professional and political. Any ascent of a civil servant up the career ladder is reflected as a change in rank in the state hierarchy. You can also increase political weight by increasing the rank in the party hierarchy. If the official is one of the activists or functionals of the party that became ruling after the parliamentary elections, then he is much more likely to take a leadership position in the municipal or state government. And definitelythe professional status of an individual will increase after receiving a diploma of higher education.
Mobility intensity
The theory of social mobility introduces such a concept as the intensity of mobility. This is the number of individuals who change their social positions in a horizontal or vertical direction over a certain period of time. The number of such individuals in a social community is the absolute intensity of mobility, while their share in the total number of this community is relative. For example, if we count the number of people under 30 who are divorced, then there is an absolute intensity of mobility (horizontal) in this age category. However, if we consider the ratio of the number of divorced people under the age of 30 to the number of all individuals, this will already be relative mobility in the horizontal direction.
