Social inequalities: Social mobility

Question 1

What is social mobility ?

Answer 1

Movement of individuals up or down the social scale

Question 2

What are the two ways to measure social mobility ?

Answer 2

Intergenerational: Father = dustbin man, son works as a doctor (upward mobility from Working class to middle class)

Intragenerational: Doris was a receptionist and ends up managing the company over her career span

Question 3

What does it mean if society is open ?

Answer 3

Linked to meritocracy, there are fewer obstacles for talent to rise out of their social class

Question 4

What does it mean if society is closed ?

Answer 4

There is little to no social mobility
E.g. the caste system in India

Question 5

What are the problems in researching social mobility (A03) ?

Answer 5

• Classifying occupations
• Studying mobility of women
• Studying mobility of the very rich and very poor
• Studying current patterns of social mobility

Question 6

Why is classifying occupation a problem when researching social mobility ?

Answer 6

Sociologists don’t agree on classification by occupation

Question 7

Why is studying the mobility of women an evaluation when researching social mobility ?

Answer 7

Only recent research of women’s social mobility
Men only used to be studied as they were the heads of the family

Question 8

Why is studying the mobility of the very rich and very poor an evaluation when researching social mobility ?

Answer 8

• The wealthiest are not identified (earn the most through inheritance)
• The poorest groups often have no occupation so they can’t even be classed as the ‘working’ class

Question 9

What was the oxford mobility study ?

Answer 9

• Studied by Goldthorpe
• Happened in 1972
• One of the largest social mobility surveys in the UK
• Sample was 10,000 men
• Used the Hope-Goldthorpe scale to compare occupational class of sons and fathers
• Calculated the odds of men of two different generations ending up in the service class

Question 10

What were the findings of the oxford social mobility study ?

Answer 10

• the 2nd generation who had grown up since WW2’s chances had increased as absolute social mobility had increased
• He expressed this in the 1:2:4 rule of relative hope
• Meant that whatever chance a working class boy had of reaching the service class, the intermediate class boy had twice the likelihood and the service class boy had 4x the likelihood
• Found that 2/3 of the service class had come from the working class/ intermediate class

Question 11

What are some reasons suggested for the findings of Goldthorpe’s study ?

Answer 11

• could be due to free secondary education in 1944
• Goldthorpe believed it was because of a decrease of working class jobs and an increase of intermediate and service class jobs

Question 12

Why was the British election survey a supporting study of the Oxford mobility study ?

Answer 12

• Goldthorpe followed up his own study
• Confirmed the continuing expansion of the service class
• This created the room for absolute social mobility but relative mobility stayed the same

Question 13

What is absolute social mobility ?

Answer 13

How much living standards have been risen

Question 14

What is relative social mobility ?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What was Marshall’s study supporting the oxford mobility study ?

Answer 15

Found evidence of inequality in relative mobility rates
Someone starting the service class is 7x more likely to end up in the same class

Question 16

What were the 3 ways in which Saunders limited the Oxford mobility study ?

Answer 16

• We should focus on absolute not relative mobility (we should celebrate working class children achieving mobility)
• Left wing bias (presents society as class-ridden and closed)
• Assumes the innate ability of intelligence is evenly spread across all classes. Saunders says that service class children are more likely to be intelligent

Question 17

Why do feminists criticise the Oxford mobility study ?

Answer 17

Stanworth and Abbott
- Criticized the study for only focusing on men
- They ignored the ability fro women to be wage earners

Question 18

Why do marxists criticise the oxford mobility study ?

Answer 18

If we actually focused on the top 5% and not the top 25% then our society would be seen a lot more closed

Question 19

What does NCDS stand for ?

Answer 19

National child development study

Question 20

Who studies the NCDS ?

Answer 20

Savage and egerton

Question 21

What was the NCDS study ?

Answer 21

• longitudinal study
• people in 1958
• followed up until 1991
• They divided results into fathers and sons and fathers and dauhters

Question 22

What were the findings of the NCDS ?

Answer 22

• They found upward mobility for 40% of sons from intermediate non-manual workers to the service class
• 26% sons of manual workers moved to the service class
• Daughters are more likely to move into the intermediate class

Question 23

What was Ken Roberts study ?

Answer 23

• Adapted data from the OMS + NCDS to analyse changes in social mobility
• He found the WC was getting smaller and the other two were getting bigger
• Provided upward mobility for the WC
• 55% of men stayed WC
• Women have different patterns of mobility to men - more working class women move to the intermediate class

Question 24

What is the social mobility and child poverty commission ?

Answer 24

• government created a scheme to overcome social mobility barriers
• ‘London effect’ - this improved education for the poorest children
• The commission criticised the government for failing to tackle child poverty

Question 25

What did Wilkinson and Pickett say ?

Answer 25

Countries with the highest levels of income also have the lowest social mobility