2.2 Class inequalities in social mobility

Question 1

what is social mobility?

Answer 1

movement of individuals up and down the social scale

Question 2

what is intergenerational mobility?

Answer 2

mobility between generations

Question 3

what is intragenerational mobility?

Answer 3

movement between classes of an individual during their working life

Question 4

what is absolute mobility?

Answer 4

measures whether living standards in a society have increased often measured by what percentage of people have higher incomes than their parents.

Question 5

what is relative mobility?

Answer 5

how likely children are to move from their parents’ place in the social hierarchy

Question 6

what is a closed society? give an example:

Answer 6

little social mobility

e.g. Caste system in India

Question 7

a high degree of social mobility suggests society is what?

Answer 7

meritocratic

people can rise out of a social class

Question 8

research about social mobility tells about the nature of what?

Answer 8

class structure

Question 9

(issues) social mobility studies usually have to use what?

Answer 9

occupational scale

Question 10

(issues) why is it difficult to compare studies measuring mobility?

Answer 10

researchers have used different occupational scales

Question 11

(issues) what do most older studies e.g. Goldthorpe’s into social mobility focus upon?

Answer 11

social mobility of men

Question 12

(issues) there are few studies into the social mobility of who?

Answer 12

women

Question 13

(issues) why is it hard to study the mobility of the very rich and very poor?

Answer 13

very wealthiest not included in occupational scale they often achieve wealth by inheritance
very poor (underclass) excluded

Question 14

which study did Goldthorpe conduct?

Answer 14

the Oxford mobility study 1972

largest study of social mobility in the UK

Question 15

what did Goldthorpe devise?

Answer 15

own occupational scale to compare occupational classes of fathers and sons

Question 16

Goldthorpe found an increase in upward mobility after WW2, why?

Answer 16

introduction of free secondary education
more middle class jobs e.g. education, NHS, financial services

Question 17

Goldthorpe found what had not changed?

Answer 17

relative mobility - chances of social classes achieving upward mobility had not changed

Question 18

what is the 1:2:4 rule Goldthorpe talked about?

Answer 18

whatever chance a w/c boy had of reaching the service class, a boy in the intermediate class had 2x the chance and a boy in service class had 4x the chance

Question 19

(criticisms of Goldthorpe) what does saunder’s argue we should focus on?

Answer 19

absolute not relative mobility

celebrating the no. of w/c boys achieving service sector jobs

Question 20

(criticisms of Goldthorpe) Saunder’s argues boys of the service class are likely to inherit higher levels of what?

Answer 20

intelligence

Question 21

(criticisms of Goldthorpe) if boys in the service class are inheriting higher intelligence what are they more likely to have?

Answer 21

better chance of achieving service class jobs

Question 22

(criticisms of Goldthorpe) why do Feminists criticise Goldthorpe?

Answer 22

focuses on mobility of men

Question 23

(criticisms of Goldthorpe) Feminists - what does the OMS ignore?

Answer 23

importance of women as wage earners

discrimination in the workplace which may affect mobility of women

Question 24

(criticisms of Goldthorpe) Goldthorpe focused on mobility in which class?

Answer 24

the service class (25% of workforce)

Question 25

(criticisms of Goldthorpe) if we focus on the richest 5% what do they appear?

Answer 25

much more closed

Question 26

(criticisms of Goldthorpe) Marxists point to the importance of what?

Answer 26

inheritance and advantages gained from education in top public schools

Question 27

what is the NCDS study?

Answer 27

national child development study

Question 28

what did the NCDS study use and do?

Answer 28

``` longitudinal survey of people born in 1958 to analyse changes to mobility in the 20th century see what class they reached in 1991 ```

Question 29

NCDS study - what was found to be happening to the working class?

Answer 29

contracting

Question 30

NCDS study - what was found to be happening to the service and intermediate classes?

Answer 30

expanding

Question 31

NCDS - the service class came from what sort of origins?

Answer 31

diverse origins with 40% from w/c backgrounds

Question 32

NCDS - what proportion of the w/c came from w/c backgrounds?

Answer 32

3/4

Question 33

Wilkinson and Pickett - countries with highest levels of income inequality have lowest levels of what?

Answer 33

social mobility

Question 34

Wilkinson and Pickett - is Britain becoming more or less unequal?

Answer 34

more

Question 35

Wilkinson and Pickett - what is found in most European societies?

Answer 35

low income inequality | high social mobility

Question 36

Wilkinson and Pickett - the UK is only likely to have higher social mobility if what happens?

Answer 36

the government tackles income and wealth inequalities

Question 37

NCDS - what percentage of men born in the w/c remained w/c?

Answer 37

55%

Question 38

NCDS - women of the service class were more likely to have what type of mobility?

Answer 38

downward

Question 39

Savage- who did Savage track?

Answer 39

people in their 30s during the 90s | vs. people in their 30s during the 2000s to compare social mobility

Question 40

Savage - the chances of moving a long way up the social strata increased by how much?

Answer 40

20%

Question 41

Savage - the chances of moving from the bottom to the middle increased by how much?

Answer 41

31%

Question 42

Savage - the chances of moving from the bottom to the very top increased from 3% to what?

Answer 42

6%

Question 43

Savage- those starting at the top were more likely to do what?

Answer 43

remain there

Question 44

Savage - those starting at the bottom were more likely to do what?

Answer 44

remain there

Question 45

Gov policy and social mobility and child poverty commission criticise the government for what?

Answer 45

failing to tackle child poverty

Question 46

what is the London effect?

Answer 46

attempt to improve education for the poorest kids in London, now they perform better than average