2.2 Class inequalities in social mobility Flashcards
what is social mobility?
movement of individuals up and down the social scale
what is intergenerational mobility?
mobility between generations
what is intragenerational mobility?
movement between classes of an individual during their working life
what is absolute mobility?
measures whether living standards in a society have increased often measured by what percentage of people have higher incomes than their parents.
what is relative mobility?
how likely children are to move from their parents’ place in the social hierarchy
what is a closed society? give an example:
little social mobility
e.g. Caste system in India
a high degree of social mobility suggests society is what?
meritocratic
people can rise out of a social class
research about social mobility tells about the nature of what?
class structure
(issues) social mobility studies usually have to use what?
occupational scale
(issues) why is it difficult to compare studies measuring mobility?
researchers have used different occupational scales
(issues) what do most older studies e.g. Goldthorpe’s into social mobility focus upon?
social mobility of men
(issues) there are few studies into the social mobility of who?
women
(issues) why is it hard to study the mobility of the very rich and very poor?
very wealthiest not included in occupational scale they often achieve wealth by inheritance very poor (underclass) excluded
which study did Goldthorpe conduct?
the Oxford mobility study 1972
largest study of social mobility in the UK
what did Goldthorpe devise?
own occupational scale to compare occupational classes of fathers and sons
Goldthorpe found an increase in upward mobility after WW2, why?
introduction of free secondary education more middle class jobs e.g. education, NHS, financial services
Goldthorpe found what had not changed?
relative mobility - chances of social classes achieving upward mobility had not changed
what is the 1:2:4 rule Goldthorpe talked about?
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
(criticisms of Goldthorpe) what does saunder’s argue we should focus on?
absolute not relative mobility
celebrating the no. of w/c boys achieving service sector jobs
(criticisms of Goldthorpe) Saunder’s argues boys of the service class are likely to inherit higher levels of what?
intelligence
(criticisms of Goldthorpe) if boys in the service class are inheriting higher intelligence what are they more likely to have?
better chance of achieving service class jobs
(criticisms of Goldthorpe) why do Feminists criticise Goldthorpe?
focuses on mobility of men
(criticisms of Goldthorpe) Feminists - what does the OMS ignore?
importance of women as wage earners
discrimination in the workplace which may affect mobility of women
(criticisms of Goldthorpe) Goldthorpe focused on mobility in which class?
the service class (25% of workforce)
(criticisms of Goldthorpe) if we focus on the richest 5% what do they appear?
much more closed
(criticisms of Goldthorpe) Marxists point to the importance of what?
inheritance and advantages gained from education in top public schools
what is the NCDS study?
national child development study
what did the NCDS study use and do?
longitudinal survey of people born in 1958 to analyse changes to mobility in the 20th century see what class they reached in 1991
NCDS study - what was found to be happening to the working class?
contracting
NCDS study - what was found to be happening to the service and intermediate classes?
expanding
NCDS - the service class came from what sort of origins?
diverse origins with 40% from w/c backgrounds
NCDS - what proportion of the w/c came from w/c backgrounds?
3/4
Wilkinson and Pickett - countries with highest levels of income inequality have lowest levels of what?
social mobility
Wilkinson and Pickett - is Britain becoming more or less unequal?
more
Wilkinson and Pickett - what is found in most European societies?
low income inequality
high social mobility
Wilkinson and Pickett - the UK is only likely to have higher social mobility if what happens?
the government tackles income and wealth inequalities
NCDS - what percentage of men born in the w/c remained w/c?
55%
NCDS - women of the service class were more likely to have what type of mobility?
downward
Savage- who did Savage track?
people in their 30s during the 90s
vs. people in their 30s during the 2000s to compare social mobility
Savage - the chances of moving a long way up the social strata increased by how much?
20%
Savage - the chances of moving from the bottom to the middle increased by how much?
31%
Savage - the chances of moving from the bottom to the very top increased from 3% to what?
6%
Savage- those starting at the top were more likely to do what?
remain there
Savage - those starting at the bottom were more likely to do what?
remain there
Gov policy and social mobility and child poverty commission criticise the government for what?
failing to tackle child poverty
what is the London effect?
attempt to improve education for the poorest kids in London, now they perform better than average
