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Social Mobility
Introduction Of Social Mobility
‘’Social Mobility is a movement of an individual or group of people from one
condition to another.’’

 Social Mobility is adoption of a change which may be social progress.

 Social Mobility is rejection of previous social condition’s and adjusting into the
new change of life.

 Social Mobility mean move from lower position to higher position.

 Social mobility is change in occupation or residential place and in status
upward or downward.
Definitions of Researchers
According to Fairchild:

‘’Social mobility is a movement from one condition to another.’’

According to Brede Meyer and Stephenson:

‘’Social mobility is moving of an individual or group of people from one status to

another.’’

According to Horton and Hunt:

‘’ Social mobility may be defined as the act of moving from one social class to
another.’’
Examples
 If a doctor goes from practicing medicine to teaching in a medical school, the
occupation's changed but their prestige and social standing likely remain the
same.

 An Engineer working in a factory may resign job and join another factory as an
engineer and may work in more or less the same capacity or join an
engineering collage and start working as a professor
Individual and Group mobility.
Mobility can take place at the individual as well as group level. It may take place at the
level of individuals, groups, societies.

Individual Mobility:

 When individual get into seats of political position. They are said to have achieved
individual mobility.

Group Mobility:

 Like individual even groups also attain high social Mobility. The Jews as a community
in America and Parses as a group in India. Have been able to attain a relatively high
position in their respective societies
 34

Types of Social
Mobility
Territorial Mobility.

 “It is the change of residence from one place to another”

 In Rural Areas people less encourage this type of mobility because they are not willing to
leave their ancestral place of living.

 While in Urban areas this type of mobility is common people used to sell their houses and
shifted to some other place.

 They also Migrate from one city to another

 They enable individual or groups to raise their children in less competitive environment or
where opportunities are more
 Example of Territorial Mobility

 Like people from less developed cities or areas shift towards developed cities where
opportunities are more and they can easily find jobs or start their own setup.

 People from Dera Ghazi khan, Layyah, Kott Addu migrate towards Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad
to earn and make their social status better.

 Some people also move for more advanced health facilities or educational facilities and
recreational activities.
Vertical Mobility

“It is defined as any upward or downward change in the absolute or relate rank

of any individual or group”.

Examples:

 Promotion in job

 Change in income

 Marrying a woman of high status

Upward mobility
“ The capacity or facility for rising to a higher social or economic position ”

 It is fast in urban areas as compared to ghettos or slum areas.

 In urban areas innovations are more or developmental rate is high.

 In rural areas less innovation is present and developmental rate is also low.
Downward Mobility

‘’ The movement of an individual, social group, or class to a lower status.‘’

The individuals or groups who fail to maintain their social, political and economic status
experiences this type of mobility

Example:

 Wasting of inherited property

 Gambling

 Business man invested huge money in business

and face loss due to some reasons.
 35
Horizontal mobility

“An alteration of profession with no significant movement up or down in the

system of social status’’

 A manager of store shifts to another store on the same rank, pay and prestige.
 It is a change in profession with no change in income and status.
 Horizontal mobility is least found in rural areas of Pakistan, because people infrequently change
their professions.

 The rate of change in horizontal mobility is high, because all the members in a family almost
belong to different professions.
Examples of Horizontal Mobility

1. A person working on medical store opens general store.

2. A clerk from educational department at the same pay and facility.

3. A factory worker who finds a new job as a construction worker.

 Inter-generational mobility

Inter-generational mobility was introduced by Cohen:

“Inter-generational mobility refers to social mobility that takes place

between generations.’’
Social mobility occurring from one generation to the next.

It is a difference between the social position between parents and children.

A child attains higher or lower social status than his or her parents.

Such social change causes the generation to adopt a new way of living and thinking.
Examples of Inter-Generational
Mobility
1. A son of factory worker becomes the lawyer.

2. Plumber's son become the Nazim of their community.

3. Bus conductor's son becomes the chief minister.

4. A taxi driver's son become a doctor.

 Intra-generational mobility
“ It refers to change or changes in the social status of an individual or group of

individuals with in the same generation.’’

It can be horizontal or vertical mobility.

The ability of a specific individual to move up or down the ladder within his or her lifetime.

It can also refers to a change in position between siblings.

One sibling may achieve a higher position in society than their brother
 Examples of Intra-Generational
Mobility

 Among four brothers , one became RTO (Regional Tax Officer) and
other brothers remain in low status comparing with him.

 The wealth and prestige experienced by one person may be quite

different from that of his or her siblings.
 36
Causes Of Social Mobility
1. Supply of Vacant Status

2. Interchange of Ranks

3. Structural Factors

4. Motivational Factors
Supply of Vacant Status

 With the social mobility people tries to fill the vacant social status in the society. Almost

every person skilled or unskilled tries to find out governmental, managerial, or official

work so that they can move ahead in their life. More and more people from lower status

of the society get upwards to fill the increasing need and requirements of society which

promotes social mobility.

Interchange of Ranks

 The interchangeability of ranks is another cause of social mobility. The more

society provides the opportunity for the lower ranks to compete with those of the

higher ranks, the more will be the social mobility. If the people of the society are

able to develop vocational or professional abilities in them then vocational or

professional social mobility will take place. The following are the reasons for

interchangeability of ranks.
 Structural Factors

 It plays an important part in influencing social mobility. Positions of higher social status
can not be acquired only by the wish of the people. For this the individual has to work
hard towards attaining this goal. As for example person belonging to middle group
employed in government services strive to provide costly education to their children to
promote and make them eligible for higher status jobs. Merely wishing to provide higher
status job will not work unless there won’t be hard work in that area. Ascending and
descending mobility becomes a common phenomenon and experience due to those
structural factors.
Motivational Factors

 Motivation and ambition plays a vital role for upward social mobility
through interchangeability of ranks. Every individual tries to push
themselves upward from their existing social status. This ambition for
higher and higher status and prestige promote greater social mobility.
Social mobility in Pakistan 38

Society
Pakistani society is experiencing social mobility due to following conditions:

 In 1947, on creation of Pakistan, one crore, and seventy lac refugees migrated to Pakistan

from India. They went on moving in search of a suitable place for adjustment.

 The industrial expansion in urban areas is promoting standard of living of the people. This

creates social mobility.

 In urban areas, the education is expanding and the urban population is exploding. These

conditions are responsible for social mobility in urban areas.

 The urban people never stick to one thing or one pattern. They adopt
fashions and novel ways in their social life. That is why they are not
satisfied with their previous social conditions.

 The impact of radio, television, cinema, theatre, drama, circus matches,

exhibitions, newspapers, journals and other printed matter bring about a
huge change in attitude, ideas, habits and other ways of social life. This
leads to social mobility.

 The facilities of roads, rail and air service and the availability of telephone
accelerate the rate of social mobility in urban areas specially
 In Karachi, 70 to 80 thousand people enter the city annually from other parts of
the country. In 1959, the migrants constituted82% of the total population. Within
the last 30 years, the population growth rate in Karachi has been 7% annually.
(Figures taken from the 10th Annual Conference 1977 of Pakistan Sociological
Association Journal on

 Urbanization in Pakistan). According to an estimate, 4% of the population is

shifting from rural to urban areas of Pakistan. The rural people in Pakistan
infrequently change their professions. It means horizontal mobility is least
found there. In urban areas, all the members in a family almost belong to
different professions. It is due to high rate of change in horizontal mobility
 39

Positive and Negative

Effects of Social
Mobility
 Positive effects
Financial Potential
When you have social mobility, you give
everyone the chance to aspire toward
prosperity. This usually involves proper
education, hard work and the utilization of
individual aptitude on a larger scale. Someone
who is born poor is not destined to be stuck in
that social class his entire life. He has the
opportunity to move up and create even greater
opportunities for his own children to further
advance in social class.
Social Classes.
Social mobility can create new social classes. Instead of

just rich and poor, you now have middle class, which can

further be dissected into upper- and lower-middle classes.

However, as more and more people fall into this middle-

class distinction, it can lead to a more or less classless

society, where most of the people within the society fall

into one class.

Educational Drive

The goal of upward social mobility has made education a

prime factor in society. A postsecondary education has

become the main goal after graduation from a secondary

institution, instead of getting a long-term job after high

school. Those who choose not to pursue a postsecondary

education are often offered lower-paying jobs, making

higher education more attractive. Hence it has a positive

effect on educational drive.

 Negative Effects

Job Opportunities
Social mobility can have a negative effect on job

opportunities in two ways. First, social mobility makes

competition for the best jobs fiercer, whether it is because

individuals want to move up in social class or because they

fear a downward move in social class. Second, more people

shun lower-paying jobs, because they want a chance to

attain upward mobility.

 Societal Anomie
When more people in society experience upward social mobility, it

can lead to societal anomie where the standards of conduct or

values of a society begin to disappear and new standard and values

have not yet developed. People in an anomic society may feel

emotional distress and lack a sense of purpose. This can lead to

harmful events like suicide or homicide.

 40

Role of education
on social mobility
 Role of Education on Social Mobility

 One of the main reasons education is valued so highly in modern societies is the
role it plays in relation to social mobility and reproduction. This role has long
been debated between those who emphasize its contribution to social mobility and
those who focus on its contribution to social reproduction. In order to understand
this debate, it is useful to review the key concepts and theoretical perspectives
before considering the empirical evidence and then offering a resolution.
 Mechanism

 Education is often seen as a strong driver of social mobility. Social mobility may
be reduced in more unequal countries because educational scores on average
lower in less equal countries and education improves incomes more for those at
the bottom of the income spectrum than for those further up.
Research
Empirical Research on the role of education in the
process of social mobility or reproduction has produced
conflicting evidence. The argument of mobility through
education as suggested by functional theories
 Depends on the validity of two general conditions: 
 Educational attainment must be used as a criterion
of eventual class or status position.
 The level of educational attainment of individuals
must not be influenced by the level of their family's
class or status.
 One of the most consistent findings of the research on educational and status
attainment is that the socioeconomic status of the family influences the
whole educational process, including many, if not all, individual student
achievements and abilities that lead to socioeconomic status attainment.
Thus, once the assumption that achievement implies social status or class
mobility is abandoned, there is no contradiction between the findings of
status attainment research that indicate an achievement-oriented educational
selection system and the findings of critical research that schools reproduce
social status or class inequalities.
 Education has a manifold impact on society, from raising the quality of life, to
creating conditions conducive to the development of talented individuals capable
of changing society. The importance of education in society lies in the fact that it
creates opportunities for acquiring knowledge and skills that are literally changing
the world.

 Lack of education is the main reason why many families, and even entire
communities live in poverty for generations. Without knowledge, they lack the
basic tools needed to change their life for the better. Education helps young
people to understand their position and recognize the opportunities available to
them
 41

Importance of
Social Mobility
 Importance of Social Mobility
Importance of Social Mobility

 1 Increase in Social Prestige

 2. Development of latent talent
 3. Modernization of Agriculture and Industrialization
 4. Social Change
 5. Economic Development
 6. End of caste-based discrimination.

Social mobility is an important factor in the creation of a

vibrant society. It is also an important factor in the creation
of a healthy economy

Social mobility can be improved, but it will take bipartisan

support for deep structural changes to our economy and
society.
 Social Stratification and Social
Mobility
Social Mobility Social Stratification

1. Social Mobility is the movement of 1. Social Stratification is the way people are ranked and
Individuals through a system of social ordered in the society.
Stratification.
2. Universal i.e., it exists in all societies
2. Social Mobility is not possible in every
system of social Stratification. 3. There are two basic types of social Stratification
systems, open system and close system.
3. There are two basic types of social
mobility as Horizontal and Vertical social
mobility.
Consequences of Social Mobility

 May cause family problems.

 Moving, travelling.

 May result in financial burdens

 May also create false expectations.

 May lead to disappointments.

 Stress and psychological conditions.

 Higher incidences of suicide, depression, psychosis.

 Conclusion

 The wish for a higher status and income than one’s parents had is the global dream. The process
where people achieve or fail to achieve this is called Social Mobility.

 It is natural desire of every human to lead a convenient and well-situated life. A one has to attain
better adjustment with its geographical and social environment to realize its this desire.

 To fulfil his needs and desires he / she changes the locality and some time changes the
profession, this process of change in profession or geographical environment is called Social
Mobility.

 E.g. in our society most of the people living in Rural areas change their locality and profession to
bring change in their Social Status.