Social Mobility


Individuals are recognized in society through the statuses they occupy and the roles they enact.
The society as well as individuals is dynamic. Men are normally engaged in endless endeavor to enhance their statuses in society, move from lower position to higher position, secure superior job from an inferior one. For various reasons people of the higher status and position may be forced to come down to a lower status and position. Thus people in society continue to move up and down the status scale. This movement is called social mobility.

The study of social mobility is an important aspect of social stratification.Infact it is an inseparable aspect of social stratification system because the nature, form, range and degree of social mobility depends on the very nature of stratification system. Stratification system refers to the process of placing individuals in different layers or strata.

According to Wallace and Wallace social mobility is the movement of a person or persons from one social status to another.W.P Scott has defined sociology as the movement of an individual or group from one social class or social stratum to another.

Types of Social Mobility


Territorial Mobility:

It is the change of residence from one place to another. In rural area of Pakistan this mobility found because the people of a community dislike leaving their ancestral place of living. In urban areas the people sell one house and purchase on other, one and get another on rent; leave one city and migrate to another.
In Karachi 70 to 80 thousand people enter the city annually from other parts of the country. In 1959 the migrants constituted 82% 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.
Some people migrate to cities due to modern facilities of education, health, recreation and transportation. Some for Jobs and some migrate for other reasons.



Horizontal And Vertical Social Mobility

A distinction is made between horizontal and vertical social mobility. The former refers to change of occupational position or role of an individual or a group without involving any change in its position in the social hierarchy, the latter refers essentially to changes in the position of an individual or a group along the social hierarchy. When a rural laborer comes to the city and becomes an industrial worker or a manager takes a position in another company there are no significant changes in their position in the hierarchy. Those are the examples of horizontal mobility. Horizontal mobility is a change in position without the change in statue. It indicates a change in position within the range of the same status.

It is a movement from one status to its equalivalent.But if an industrial worker becomes a businessman or lawyer he has radically changed his position in the stratification system. This is an example of vertical mobility. Vertical mobility refers to a movement of an individual or people or groups from one status to another. It involves change within the lifetime of an individual to a higher or lower status than the person had to begin with.

Forms Of Vertical Social Mobility

The vertical mobility can take place in two ways - individuals and groups may improve their position in the hierarchy by moving upwards or their position might worsen and they may fall down the hierarchy
When individuals get into seats of political position; acquire money and exert influence over others because of their new status they are said to have achieved individual mobility.

Like individuals even groups also attain high social mobility. When a dalit from a village becomes an important official it is a case of upward mobility. On the other hand an aristocrat or a member of an upper class may be dispossessed of his wealth and he is forced to enter a manual occupation. This is an example of downward mobility.

Inter-Generational Social Mobility

Time factor is an important element in social mobility. On the basis of the time factor involved in social mobility there is another type of inter-generational mobility. It is a change in status from that which a child began within the parents, household to that of the child upon reaching adulthood. It refers to a change in the status of family members from one generation to the next.

For example a farmer's son becoming an officer. It is important because the amount of this mobility in a society tells us to what extent inequalities are passed on from one generation to the next. If there is very little inter-generational mobility .inequality is clearly deeply built into the society for people' life chances are being determined at the moment of birth. When there is a mobility people are clearly able to achieve new statuses through their own efforts, regardless of the circumstances of their birth.

Intra-Generational Mobility

Mobility taking place in personal terms within the lifespan of the same person is called intra-generational mobility. It refers to the advancement in one's social level during the course of one's lifetime. It may also be understood as a change in social status which occurs within a person's adult career. For example a person working as a supervisor in a factory becoming its assistant manager after getting promotion.

Structural mobility

Structural mobility is a kind of vertical mobility. Structural mobility refers to mobility which is brought about by changes in stratification hierarchy itself. It is a vertical movement of a specific group, class or occupation relative to others in the stratification system. It is a type of forced mobility for it takes place because of the structural changes and not because of individual attempts. For example historical circumstances or labor market changes may lead to the rise of decline of an occupational group within the social hierarchy. An influx of immigrants may also alter class alignments -especially if the new arrivals are disproportionately highly skilled or unskilled.

Causes of Social Mobility:

(1) Dissatisfaction from previous condition: The people stick to the same condition does not fulfil the purpose of new social ways of living. They leave it and attend to the new condition of life.

(2) Adoption of new conditions: The people leaving the vious conditions adopt the new ones which are functional according to the new ways of living. This adoption of new way of living is called.

(3) Industrial and Technological Development: The development of technology and industry brings about a have in the socio economic structure of society. The modes of living of the people are changed which bringabout change in attitudes, ideas, habits, customs and sentiment of the people. It means total socio-cultural life is changed. He we get social mobility.

(4) Education: The progress of education is imperative in n industrially advanced society. The development of technology industry and education are simultaneous processes being correlated. Advancement in education makes a society mobile.

(5) Urbanization: The development of urban population and modern attitude is called urbanization It is also attached with the development of education, technology and industry. These factors are interrelated together. The population of Faisalabad showed the highest increment (927%) in 1961-72 census. This factor of urbanization is being guessed due to high rate of expansion in technology industry and education in this city.

(6) Means of communication and Transportation: The means of communication and transportation play great role in bringing about social change. The people get traditional attitudes changed and accept modern ways of living by these sources of information.


Systems of Social Mobility


Open And Closed Systems Of Mobility

A closed system of mobility is that where norms do not encourage mobility.

hierarchy. It justifies the inequality in the distribution of means of production status symbols and power positions and discourages any attempt to change them. Any attempt to bring about changes in such a system or to promote mobility is permanently suppressed.

In such a system individuals are assigned their place in the social structure on the basis of ascriptive criteria like age, birth, sex.Considerations of functional suitability or ideological notions of equality of opportunity are irrelevant in deciding the positions of individuals to different statuses. However no system in reality is perfectly close. Even in the most rigid systems of stratification limited degree of mobility exists. Traditional caste system in India is an example of closed system.

In the open system the norms prescribed encourage mobility. There are independent principles of ranking like status, class and power. In and open system individuals are assigned to different positions in the social structure on the basis of their merit or achievement.

Open systems mobility is generally characterized with occupational diversity, a flexible hierarchy, differentiated social structure and rapidity of change. In such systems the hold of ascription based corporate groups like caste, kinship or extended family etc declines. The dominant values in such a system emphasize on equality and freedom of the individual and on change and innovation.