Written by Rosa Panades (PhD)
Dr. Panades is a multifaceted sociologist with experience working in a variety of fields, from familiy relations, to teenage pregnancy, housing, women in science or social innvovation. She has worked in international, european and local projects, both in the UK and in Spain. She has an inquisitive and analytical mind and a passion for knowledge, cultural and social issues.
Rosa holds a PhD in Sociology on the topic of young fatherhood from the University of Greenwich, London.
| June 17, 2024
Reviewed by Chris Drew (PhD)
This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. Reviewers ensure all content reflects expert academic consensus and is backed up with reference to academic studies. Dr. Drew has published over 20 academic articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU.
Social Mobility is a concept from the social sciences that explains the ability of individuals or groups to change their position within their society’s class structure during their lifetime. It’s also a central feature of the American dream, where it was mythologized that social mobility was available to all.
Examples of social mobility include marrying into a wealthy family, moving from a shop floor job to a white-collar management job, and taking a university degree to unlock doors to a high-status profession.
This ability to move up or down what is commonly known as the social ladder will depend on a variety of factors outlined in this article.
Contents showSocial mobility refers both to upwards and downward mobility: one can go up or down the social ladder. This movement entails changes in income, wealth, education, or occupation, amongst others.
One of the first proponents of social mobility was the Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, who described the concept as:
“…any transition of an individual or social object or value – anything that has been created or modified by human activity – from one social position to another” (Sorokin 1959/2001: 133).
There are multiple types of social mobility, including upward, downward, horizontal, and intergenerational. The types will be explored after the examples section below.
Absolute social mobility, or structural mobility, refers to the absolute number of people in a social group that move up or down the social strata.
For this reason, absolute mobility looks at structural changes in society.
An example of absolute mobility would be a village whose economy was solely based on agriculture undergoes a process of industrialization and as a result a large number of the population moves upwards.
Vertical mobility implies a change in the situation of an individual or a group in the social strata, either up or down.
When the change is up, there are two types: ascending mobility, or social climbing. When the change is down it can be descending social mobility or social sinking.
An example of ascending mobility would be when a person is promoted from a managerial position to CEO.
Descending mobility would be, for instance, when someone decides to take a career break and goes from being a lawyer to working as a shopkeeper.
Horizontal mobility refers to a movement from one place, job, or life situation to another that isn’t accompanied by either upward or downward mobility.
Usually, when social mobility is discussed, it is made with reference to the change of a person, or group, either up or down the social ladder.
However, there is a type of social mobility, which is maybe less known, which refers to the movement of people across positions where they keep more or less the same status and there is no change in vertical position.
For example, a doctor that does from practicing medicine to teaching at a university shows a situation in which someone is experiencing horizontal mobility.
This type of social mobility refers to the change of social status, either up or down the ladder, that occurs from one generation to the next.
If someone acquires a higher social status than his or her parents it is called upward intergenerational mobility.
If, on the contrary, someone attains a lower social status it is called downward intergenerational mobility.
An example of upward intergenerational mobility would be a person whose mother and father owned a little market stall becoming a doctor.
If the opposite happened, a doctor’s son or daughter ends up as a factory worker, this is downward social mobility.
Intragenerational mobility happens during a person’s lifetime, and, unlike intergenerational mobility, the change in status happens in relation to one’s social position, not in comparison to one’s parents.
Like in intergenerational mobility, intragenerational mobility can be upwards or downwards.
So, in intragenerational mobility, a person may start working as a shop floor assistant then be promoted to store manager.
Through the years, this person may acquire further education and end up managing several stores from a central office. This upward mobility affects the individual, not the whole family.
Exchange mobility, which is also known as circular mobility, refers to the simultaneous move of people to upper and lower-status jobs or occupational roles.
As a result of exchange mobility, the ratio between different classes in society remains the same. This is because both upper and lower-status jobs gain new members at the same time, which keeps the balance (Markandya, 1982; Schluter & Van de gaer, 2011).
An example of exchange mobility is when a coal mine closes and is replaced by a solar farm. A bunch of coal miners will lose their jobs and may experience downward social mobility; while a group of electricians can suddenly find great jobs at the solar farm. For each person who loses a middle-class job, someone else gains a middle-class job.
Common barriers to social mobility include:
For social mobility to take place in a society, the social system in place has to promote equality of opportunities amongst its citizens, through appropriate social policies.
Generally, societies have put in place taxation policies that allow for social services such as:
However, there are alternative theories about how to achieve social mobility.
For example, libertarians and economic conservatives often argue that governments’ attempts to improve social mobility can actually hinder it, meaning removal of government intervention can help to improve chances for poor citizens.
In societies with rigid class systems, like for example the caste system in India, social mobility is often not possible.
Social mobility is a concept used in sociology to show the mobility of individuals or groups in the social hierarchy. It shows that, unless we speak of a society with rigid class systems, like the caste system in India, people are not always destined to stay in the position they were born into.
Social mobility refers to both upwards and downward mobility, so one’s position in the social strata can improve, but also it can worsen. Whichever way one goes, whether up or down, social mobility entails changes in income, wealth, education or occupation, amongst others.
Aldridge, S. (2001) Social Mobility. A discussion paper. Performance and Innovation Unit. London University.
Brown, P. (2013). Education, opportunity and the prospects for social mobility. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 34(5-6), 678-700.
Doob, C. B. (2019). Social inequality and social stratification in US society. London: Routledge.
Joslyn, C. (1927). Sorokin on Social Mobility. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 42(1), 130–139. doi:10.2307/1885368
Keister, L. A & Southgate, D.E (2012) Social Mobility in Inequality: A Contemporary Approach to Race, Class, and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Lipset, S. M., & Bendix, R. (2018). Social mobility in industrial society. London: Routledge.
