How Mobile Is India?

Uneven Odds ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 121-170
Author(s):  
Divya Vaid
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Upward Mobility ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Relative Mobility ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
The World ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Social Fluidity

Social mobility includes absoulte mobility, that is, raw numbers of people who move up, down, or remain stable; and relative mobility, that is, mobility controlling for structural change. This chapter draws out the importance of both types of mobility. Further, the intriguing pattern for women’s mobility, where women display more stability than men intergenerationally, contrary to research in most of the world, is deconstructed. While we observe an enduring trend, preceding ‘liberalization’, of the expansion of the higher salariat, and a retrenchment in agriculture leading to some amount of net upward mobility in absolute terms, we also observe low levels of social fluidity which provide an indicator of the unequal opportunity structures in Indian society.

scholarly journals Education and intergenerational social mobility in the US and four European countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Breen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Upward Mobility ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Educational Expansion ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
The Us ◽  
Social Fluidity ◽  
Second World

Abstract I draw on the findings of a recently completed comparative research project to address the question: how did intergenerational social mobility change over cohorts of men and women born in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, and what role, if any, did education play in this? The countries studied are the US, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Notwithstanding the differences between them, by and large they present the same picture. Rates of upward mobility increased among cohorts born in the second quarter of the century and then declined among those born later. Among earlier born cohorts, social fluidity increased (that is, the association between the class a person was born into and the class he or she came to occupy as an adult declined) and then remained unchanged for those born after mid-century. The association between class origins and educational attainment followed much the same trend as social fluidity. This suggests that growing equalization in education may have contributed to the increase in social fluidity. In our analyses we find that this is so, but educational expansion also led to greater fluidity in some countries. There is also a strong link between upward mobility and social fluidity. Upward mobility was mostly driven by the expansion of higher-level white-collar jobs, especially in the 30 years after the end of the Second World War. This facilitated social fluidity because people from working class and farming origins could move into the service or salariat classes without reducing the rate at which children born into those classes could remain there. Educational expansion, educational equalization, and rapid structural change in the economies of the US and Europe all contributed to greater social fluidity among people born in the second quarter of the twentieth century. For people born after mid-century, rates of downward mobility have increased: however, despite the lack of further educational equalization and less pronounced structural change, social fluidity has remained unchanged.

scholarly journals Social Mobility from a Comparative Perspective Between Europe and Latin America

2020 ◽  
pp. 203-234
Author(s):  
Sandra Fachelli ◽  
Ildefonso Marqués-Perales ◽  
Marcelo Boado ◽  
Patricio Solís
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Data Processing ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Upward Mobility ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Relative Mobility ◽  
The Family ◽  
Social Fluidity ◽  
Invariance Theory ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis chapter presents a review of the analysis of social mobility in the international sphere (Europe and Latin America), with a particular focus on the partner countries of the INCASI network. To date, few studies have linked nations whose economic and social aspects are so dissimilar.As is usual in the specialized literature, the relationship between social origin and class destination is addressed. This is done by noting the comparisons made across the geographical areas. We review the analyses that have been made of the evolution of social fluidity as well as the distance between social classes within each country and the comparisons made between them.We compare the main theories that have inspired the study of social mobility to date: modernization theory, which predicts an increase in relative mobility rates, and invariance theory, which postulates the constancy of social fluidity. Special attention is devoted to the role played by the family, the state and the market in late industrialized countries.We study the difficulties for social change, i.e. upward mobility from one class to another, as well as the likelihood of reproduction in comparative terms. To do so, we link these mechanisms with the AMOSIT model. The advances in methodology, techniques, theory and data processing are highlighted.

Is Hong Kong no Longer a Land of Opportunities after the 1997 Handover?

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 516-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Lee Wong ◽  
Anita Koo
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Upward Mobility ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
Relative Mobility ◽  
Class Background ◽  
1997 Handover ◽  
Social Fluidity

A belief that Hong Kong is a land of opportunities for the talented and the hardworking makes many speculate that an increasing involvement of younger generations in politics in recent years results from their blocked social mobility. What remains unclear is whether new generations are indeed deprived of mobility opportunities in nowadays Hong Kong. We seek to address this issue empirically by analysing two datasets collected in 1989 and 2007. Situating our discussion against the context of the study of social mobility, we discuss our analysis from two perspectives of social mobility: absolute mobility (mobility due to structural changes) and relative mobility (mobility due to changes in social fluidity). Against a changing class structure over the set period, structural opportunities for upward mobility are actually available to the younger generations; but, seemingly, whether they could grasp such opportunities to get ahead has become more strongly dependent on their class background.

Social Mobility in the Twentieth Century in Europe and the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 251-296
Author(s):  
Richard Breen ◽  
Walter Müller
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Expansion ◽  
Strong Indication ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
The Us ◽  
European Economies ◽  
Social Fluidity

Summarizing the findings of the country chapters, this chapter addresses the question: How did intergenerational social mobility change over cohorts born in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century? What role, if any, did education play in this? As education expanded, its association to class origins weakened, especially among earlier-born cohorts—a strong indication that growing education equalization may have been important in increasing social fluidity. There is also a strong link between upward mobility and social fluidity, the former mostly driven by the expansion of higher-level white-collar jobs. Educational expansion, equalization, and rapid structural change in the US and European economies all contributed to greater social fluidity among people born before the middle of the century. For people born later, rates of downward mobility have increased: however, despite the lack of further educational equalization and less-pronounced structural change, social fluidity has remained unchanged.

Major social transformations and social mobility: the case of the transition to and from communism in Eastern Europe

1999 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henryk Domański
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Occupational Mobility ◽  
Relative Mobility ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Log Linear ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
Social Fluidity

This analysis compares the effects on social mobility of the political transformations in Eastern Europe which took place in the 1950s and the 1990s. The author examines absolute and relative mobility rates in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Slovakia based on data from national random samples taken in 1993 and 1994. Log-linear models are applied to mobility tables for four periods, 1948-52, 1952-63, 1983-88 and 1988-93, to determine change in the strength of association between occupational categories. Searching for the effect of the transition to communism the author compares occupational mobility between 1948 and 1952 with occupational mobility between 1952 and 1963. In order to assess the effect of the transition from communism, mobility between 1983 and 1988 is compared to mobility between 1988 and 1993. It was definitely the transition to communism in the late 1940s that released the more intensive flows between basic segments of the social structure compared to what occurred during the exit from communism in the 1990s. Using both the diagonals and the constant social fluidity models, the author finds no evidence of increasing openness in post-communist countries. Contrariwise, in the 1948-63 period some significant change occurred in relative mobility chances. The conclusion is that the “first transformation” gave rise to a turn in social fluidity on the “genotypical” level.

scholarly journals Better times to come? Intergenerational class mobility of labour market entrants in Germany and the UK since the 1950s

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nhat An Trinh ◽  
Erzsebet Bukodi
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Upward Mobility ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Relative Mobility ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
Class Mobility ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Social Fluidity

This study examines over-time trends in intergenerational class mobility based on cohorts of labour market entrants in Germany and the UK since the 1950s. We calculate absolute and relative mobility rates, separately for men and women, using the German Socio-Economic Panel (1984-2016), the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009-2016), and the UK Labour Force Survey (2014-2017). Regarding absolute mobility, we find marked country differences in upward and downward rates. In Germany, downward mobility decreased, while upward mobility rose. In the UK, downward mobility increased, while upward mobility declined. We provide evidence that these differences can be linked to contrasting changes in the distribution of origin and destination classes. Regarding relative mobility, striking country similarities appear. For both countries, we observe increases in social fluidity for respondents entering the labour market during the 1950s and 1960s that cease to continue for cohorts thereafter. Comparisons between adjacent cohorts do not provide evidence that social fluidity follows cyclical developments of the economy or shorter-term volatilities in the labour market.

scholarly journals Obstacles to Social Mobility in India—And the Way Forward

2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (807) ◽  
pp. 123-129
Author(s):  
Anirudh Krishna
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Upward Mobility ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
Real Possibility ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

“For many … significant upward mobility remains a doubtful prospect, while substantial downward mobility is a real possibility.” Eighth in a series on social mobility around the world.

Cognitive Structure of Social Mobility: Moral Sentiments and Hidden Injuries of Class

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Lee Wong
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Upward Mobility ◽  
Cognitive Structure ◽  
Class Identity ◽  
Class Inequality ◽  
Moral Sentiments ◽  
New Class ◽  
Class Society ◽  
Post War ◽  
Social Fluidity

Drawing on the mobility accounts of eighty-nine respondents who perceived themselves as socially mobile in post-war Hong Kong, I devise a typology of four biographies – normal, choice, special, and emotional biographies – to examine the cognitive structure of their accounts in order to make sense of moral sentiments of class. Three tentative conclusions are drawn. First, class feelings could be seen as better class markers than self-reported class identity. Second, upward mobility does not simply complicate class feelings but could lead to a distorted class sentiment that justifies rather than challenges class inequality; yet four biographies show a variety of its operation. Third, upward mobility does not necessarily treat previous class injuries; instead, it could bring new class injuries. In sum, social fluidity of a class society does not make class inequality less arbitrary or more just nor does it necessarily render class feelings and moral sentiments of class as irrelevant.

Inequality in South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 174-192
Author(s):  
Murray Leibbrandt ◽  
Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Spatial Inequality ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Limited Effectiveness ◽  
The World ◽  
Policy Challenge ◽  
Low Levels

Post-apartheid South Africa inherited one of the most unequal societies in the world in 1994 and inequality has featured prominently as a key socio-economic and policy challenge over the post-apartheid period. Yet, despite policy interventions aimed at reducing inequality, these high levels of inequality remain in place. Such persistence demands a better understanding of the mechanisms that reproduce and create inequalities. We start by consolidating the extensive research on South Africa’s income inequality and the emerging literature on wealth inequality. We go on to explore the interactions between these economic inequalities, spatial inequality and two key categorical inequalities, gender and race. These inequalities work collectively to stifle opportunity and agency in contemporary South Africa. We show this through the lens of recent work on social mobility that highlights very low levels of social mobility and the precariousness of upward mobility. We conclude by reviewing policies to overcome inequality against this prevailing reality. Some of these policies have addressed important drivers of inequality, but in isolation. This chapter has shown that such an approach will have limited effectiveness. A coherent, integrated approach is required. Derivatively, there is an urgent need for further interdisciplinary research on how to break these inequality traps.

Moving Up without Losing Your Way

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Morton
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
College Students ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Upward Mobility ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
College Experience ◽  
Career Opportunities ◽  
Community Finding

Upward mobility through the path of higher education has been an article of faith for generations of working-class, low-income, and immigrant college students. While we know this path usually entails financial sacrifices and hard work, very little attention has been paid to the deep personal compromises such students have to make as they enter worlds vastly different from their own. Measuring the true cost of higher education for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, this book looks at the ethical dilemmas of upward mobility—the broken ties with family and friends, the severed connections with former communities, and the loss of identity—faced by students as they strive to earn a successful place in society. The book reframes the college experience, factoring in not just educational and career opportunities but also essential relationships with family, friends, and community. Finding that student strivers tend to give up the latter for the former, negating their sense of self, the book seeks to reverse this course. It urges educators to empower students with a new narrative of upward mobility—one that honestly situates ethical costs in historical, social, and economic contexts and that allows students to make informed decisions for themselves. The book paves a hopeful road so that students might achieve social mobility while retaining their best selves.

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