What is social mobility?
Social mobility means moving from one social layer (class or status group) to another. A layer is a group of people with similar jobs, income and respect.
- Intergenerational mobility: we compare a child's position with the parent's position. Example: a farmer's son becomes a pilot.
- Intragenerational mobility (career mobility): a change inside one person's life. Example: a clerk becomes a bank manager.
- Vertical mobility goes up or down. Horizontal mobility is a move to another job at the same level, for example from nurse to teacher.
- Geographic mobility (moving town or country) often comes with social mobility, but it is not the same thing.
Open societies, where position depends on what you achieve, have more mobility. Closed societies, where birth decides, have less.
Upward, downward and reproduction
When we compare parent and child, there are three results:
- Upward mobility: the child reaches a higher layer.
- Downward mobility (demotion): the child ends in a lower layer.
- Reproduction (immobility): the child stays in the same layer. Sociologists call this social reproduction because society copies its layers into the next generation.
Some people feel downgraded even with the same job title, because a degree that once led to a top job now leads to a middle one. This is called the paradox of diplomas: more people have degrees, so each degree is worth less in the job market.
Mobility tables and their limits
A mobility table is a grid. Rows = the parent's layer (origin). Columns = the child's layer today (destination). Each cell counts people.
- The diagonal shows people who stayed in the same layer.
- Destiny table (outflow): read along a row. "Of 100 children of workers, how many became managers?"
- Recruitment table (inflow): read down a column. "Of 100 managers today, how many had worker parents?"
Limits:
- Only a few large groups are used, so small moves inside a group are hidden.
- Older surveys often compared only fathers and sons, leaving women out.
- Jobs change meaning over time: a clerk in 1960 and a clerk today are not the same position.
- It shows how many people moved, not why they moved.
Structural mobility and social fluidity
Observed mobility (total) is everything we see in a table. It has two parts:
- Structural mobility: movement forced by changes in the job structure. When farming shrinks and offices grow, many children of farmers must do other jobs. It would happen even if chances were not fairer.
- Social fluidity (net or relative mobility): how strongly origin and destination are linked once structure is set aside. Sociologists compare the odds of a manager's child and a worker's child reaching the top. If the odds are close, the society is fluid and fairer.
Studies in many countries show that total mobility rose in the 20th century, mostly because of structural change, while fluidity improved only slowly.
Explaining social mobility
Many factors help decide who moves:
- Education: degrees open doors. But if many people get the same degree, it loses value.
- Economic capital: money for tuition, books, a quiet room and time to study.
- Cultural capital (Pierre Bourdieu): language, reading habits and knowledge of how school works. Schools tend to reward the culture of educated families.
- Social capital: family contacts that help with advice, internships and jobs.
- Family size and structure, and aspirations: what a family thinks is possible.
- Rational choice (Raymond Boudon): families weigh costs and risks of long study. A poorer family may stop earlier even with the same marks.
- The economy and policy: new sectors, free schooling, scholarships and reserved seats can widen chances. In India, reservations in education and jobs aim to raise mobility for historically excluded groups.
Mobility is shaped by structures (economy, schools, laws) and by individual effort, never by one alone.
Try it
Make a three-generation mobility table for your family or a neighbour (with permission). Write the main job of a grandparent, a parent and yourself (or your planned job). Put each in a layer: working, middle or upper. Mark each step as up, down or same. Then ask: did the job exist 50 years ago? If not, part of the move was structural.
In the 3D free play, set office jobs to 4 and fairness to 0, then fairness to 4. See which slider empties the grey diagonal more.
Key formulas and definitions
- Social mobility = movement between social layers
- Intergenerational = parent vs child; intragenerational = within one life
- Vertical (up/down) vs horizontal (same level)
- Observed mobility = structural mobility + net mobility (fluidity)
- Destiny table = read rows (outflow); recruitment table = read columns (inflow)
- Diagonal of a mobility table = reproduction (immobility)
- Capitals: economic, cultural, social (Bourdieu)
Worked examples
1. A carpenter's daughter becomes a lawyer. Classify the mobility.
Compare child with parent: intergenerational. Lawyer is a higher layer than carpenter: upward. Answer: upward intergenerational mobility.
2. A software engineer leaves her job to work as a school teacher at a similar income and status. What type is this?
Same level, different job: horizontal mobility. It is also intragenerational, because it happens within her own career.
3. In a table, 100 children of workers: 55 workers, 35 middle, 10 upper. What share was reproduced, and what share moved up?
Reproduction = those who stayed in the worker layer = 55 out of 100 = 55%. Moved up = 35 + 10 = 45%. Nobody could move down from the lowest layer in this 3-layer table.
4. Out of 200 managers today, 30 had worker parents. Which table is this, and what does it say?
It reads down a column (managers today), so it is a recruitment (inflow) table. 30 ÷ 200 = 15% of managers come from worker families, so the top is mostly recruited from higher layers.
5. Between 1960 and 2020, farm jobs fell from 60% to 20% of all jobs. Why does this create mobility even if school chances did not change?
The job structure itself changed. Children of farmers could not all become farmers because those jobs disappeared, so many moved into factory and office jobs. This is structural mobility, not proof of fairer chances.
Common mistakes
- Mixing up rows and columns: rows give destiny (where children go), columns give recruitment (where people came from).
- Thinking high total mobility means society is fair. Much of it may be structural; check fluidity.
- Calling every move upward mobility. A move to a same-level job is horizontal.
- Saying only effort matters. Family capital, schools and the economy also decide who moves.