Social mobility. Types of social mobility

The society is developing rapidly nowadays. This leads to the emergence of new positions, a significant increase in the number of social movements, their speed and frequency.

What is social mobility?

The first to study such a concept as social mobility, Sorokin Pitirim. Today many researchers continue the work begun by him, since the urgency of it is very great.

Social mobility is expressed in the fact that the position of one or another person in the hierarchy of groups, in relation to his means of production, in the division of labor and in the system of production relations as a whole, is significantly transformed. This change is connected with the loss or acquisition of property, the transition to a new position, the acquisition of education, the mastery of the profession, the conclusion of marriage,

People are in continuous motion, and society is constantly evolving. This indicates the variability of its structure. The totality of all social movements, that is, changes in the social status of inidivide or groups, is included in the concept of social mobility.

Examples in History

Since ancient times, this topic has been relevant and evoked interest. For example, an unexpected fall of a person or his elevation is a favorite plot of many folk tales: a wise and cunning beggar becomes a rich man; Hard-working Cinderella finds a rich prince and marries him, thereby increasing her prestige and status; The poor prince suddenly becomes a king.

However, the movement of history is mainly determined not by individuals, nor by their social mobility. Social groups - that's more important for her. The landed aristocracy, for example, was replaced at a certain stage by the financial bourgeoisie, from modern production, people with low-skilled occupations are being squeezed out by "white collars" - programmers, engineers, operators. Revolutions and wars have redrawn the social structure, lifting to the top of the pyramid some and dropping others. Such changes in Russian society occurred, for example, in 1917, after the October Revolution.

Consider the various grounds on which social mobility can be divided, and its corresponding types.

1. Social mobility intergenerational and intrasocial

Any movement of a person between social groups or strata means his mobility down or up inside the social structure. Note that this can concern both one generation and two or three. The change in the position of children in comparison with the positions of their parents is evidence of their mobility. On the contrary, social stability occurs when a certain position of generations is preserved.

Social mobility can be intergenerational (intergenerational) and intragenerational (intragenerational). In addition, there are 2 of its main types - horizontal and vertical. In turn, they break up into subtypes and subspecies, closely related to each other.

Social mobility intergenerational means an increase or, on the contrary, a decrease in the status in society of representatives of future generations in relation to the status of the present. That is, children reach a higher or lower position in society than their parents. For example, if the son of a miner becomes an engineer, you can talk about intergenerational ascending mobility. And the descending one is observed if the professor's son works as a plumber.

Mobility introsocial is a situation in which one and the same person, outside of comparison with his parents, changes his positions in society several times throughout his life. This process is otherwise called a social career. A turner, for example, can become an engineer, then a shop manager, then he can be promoted to the factory director, after which he can become a minister of the machine-building industry.

2. Vertical and horizontal

Vertical mobility is the movement of an individual from one stratum (or caste, class, class) to another.

Allocate, depending on what direction this movement has, upward mobility (upward movement, social uplift) and downward (downward movement, social descent). For example, promotion in office is an example of an ascending one, and demotion or dismissal is a downward one.

The concept of social mobility horizontal means that the individual passes from any social group to another, which is at the same level. As an example, you can move from a Catholic to an Orthodox religious group, change citizenship, move from a parent family to one's own, from one profession to another.

Geographic mobility

Geographic social mobility is a kind of horizontal. It does not mean changing the group or status, but moving to another place while maintaining the former social status. For example, interregional and international tourism, moving to a village from the city and back. Geographical social mobility in modern society is also a transition from one company to another with preservation of status (for example, an accountant).

Migration

We have not yet considered all the concepts related to the topic of interest to us. The theory of social mobility also identifies migration. We speak about it when the status change is added to the place change. For example, if a villager came to the city to visit his relatives, then there is geographical mobility. However, if he moved here to permanent residence, started working in the city, then this is migration.

Factors affecting horizontal and vertical mobility

It should be noted that age, gender, mortality and fertility rate, population density influence the character that horizontal and vertical social mobility of people has. Men, as well as young people in general, are more mobile than the elderly and women. In overpopulated states, emigration is higher than immigration. In places with a high birth rate, a younger population and, therefore, more mobile. For young people, professional mobility is more characteristic, for the elderly it is political, for adults it is economic.

The level of fertility is distributed among classes unequally. As a rule, in the lower classes of children more, and in higher classes - less. The higher a person climbs up the social ladder, the less children are born to him. Even in the event that each son of a rich man takes the place of his father, in the social pyramid, on its upper levels, all the same, voids are formed. They are filled by natives from the lower classes.

3. Social mobility, group and individual

There are also group and individual mobility. Individual - is the movement of a particular individual up, down or horizontally along the social ladder, regardless of other people. Mobility group - moving up, down or horizontally along the social ladder of a certain group of people. For example, the old class after the revolution is forced to yield to the new dominant positions.

Group and individual mobility are related in a certain way to the statuses attained and attributed. At the same time, the individual corresponds more to the status achieved, and the group status corresponds to the one attained.

Organized and structural

These are the basic concepts of the topic that interests us. Considering the types of social mobility, sometimes also allocate organized mobility, when the movement of an individual or groups down, up or horizontally controlled by the state, with the consent of people, and without it. Organized voluntary mobility can include socialist orgnabor, calls for construction projects, etc. To the involuntary is the dekulakization and resettlement of small peoples in the period of Stalinism.

From organized mobility it is necessary to distinguish structural, caused by changes in the very structure of the economy. It occurs in addition to the consciousness and will of individuals. For example, social mobility of a society is great when professions or industries disappear. In this case, large masses of people move, and not just individual individuals.

Let's consider for clarity the conditions for raising the status of a person in two subspaces - professional and political. Any ascent of the state official on the career ladder is reflected as a change in rank in the state hierarchy. Increase the political weight can also increase the rank in the party hierarchy. If an official belongs to the number of activists or functionaries of the party that has become the ruling party after the parliamentary elections, then he has much more chances to take a leading position in the system of municipal or state administration. And, of course, the professional status of an individual will increase after receiving a diploma of higher education.

Intensity of mobility

The theory of social mobility introduces such a thing as the intensity of mobility. This is the number of individuals who change their social positions in a horizontal or vertical direction over a certain period of time. The number of such individuals in the social community is the absolute intensity of mobility, while their share in the total number of this community is relative. For example, if we count the number of people under the age of 30 who are divorced, then there is an absolute intensity of mobility (horizontal) in this age category. However, if we consider the ratio of the number of individuals divorced by the age of 30 to the number of all individuals, this will be relative mobility in the horizontal direction.