In modern industrial societies there is a hierarchical arrangement of status in which advantages in wealth, power ands esteem increase as the hierarchy is ascended.  Unlike the situation in caste, estate and earlier class systems, movement from one status to another status can be achieved by means, which are in the control of the person. Mobility means movement, and social mobility refers to the movement from one social position to another.  The social position may be with reference to economic, occupation, income and so on. Thus, when social mobility is taking place, there is a shifting that takes place within social space.  Social space is different from geographical space.  While shifting in social space refers to change from one social position to another; shifting in geographical space refers to movement from one geographical area to another – this is also known as Lateral Mobility.   The social position, which a person occupies, is always in relation to the social position of other individuals and groups.

Social mobility, in short, is an upward or downward movement of people from one social stratum to anther within a stratification system. And what is social stratification – it is the ranking of individuals or groups according to certain criteria like wealth, prestige, power, occupation, income and so on.  The eminent sociologist Pitirim Sorokin[1] has offered a comprehensive definition of social mobility, he writes, “By social mobility is understood any transition of an individual or social object or value-anything that has been created or modified by human activity-from one social position to another.” While defining the concept of social mobility, Lipset and Bendix[2] state,” ...social mobility refers to the forces by which the individuals move from one position to another in society, positions, which by general consent have been given specific hierarchical value.” The consensus that emergences from these definitions is that movement from one social position to another by an individual or a group constitutes the basis of social mobility in any society.

An additional and important insight can be gained from the definition by Lipset and Bendix. They clearly state that any positional movement is to be recognised by the ‘general consent’ of the society, in which movement is taking place. Putting it otherwise, one of the important pre-conditions in the process of social mobility is that the change in social space or position or occupation needs to be institutionalised. This means that if the people of the society concerned accept and value the accomplishments of individuals or groups, only then is it worthy of being called social mobility.

Since every society has its own way of evaluating social positions, social mobility, to a large extent, is society specific. For example, while accumulation of wealth is a significant landmark of social mobility in American society, it is not taken that seriously in traditional Indian society, where the ascriptive caste status is considered very important.

The veteran sociologist Max Weber suggests that power, wealth and prestige are the three important parameters of social stratification. Eventually, the amount of accumulated wealth, power, leisure and the kind of life-style etc. are the probable indicators of social mobility for an individual or a group. But Sorokin, in his early writings, has slightly modified Weber’s ideas by emphasizing the role of occupation in social stratification. Thus, for Sorokin, political and occupational dimensions are important in determining the process of social mobility. In fact, occupational mobility has a very decisive role to play in determining the overall status of the people in many open societies of the world, although this has only a minor role in more close and tradition-bound societies.

Closed and Open Societies

One of the most significant aspects of social mobility is the shift in the whole society from its traditional frame of reference to a modern one.  It is very difficult to say when a society moves from tradition to modernity.  By definition an open society is characterised by freedom and opportunities for social change.  It refers to a situation in which an individual/ group can change her/his status.  There are no legal or traditional restrictions on upward or downward mobility.  Also, rising to a higher social position is positively valued. Such mobility amongst members of a society is found both within their lifetime and between different generations of people.  In an ideal type of open class system, persons would be placed in the class hierarchy primarily on the basis of their achievements.

But when we try to comprehend an open society, we find several limitations.  There are no completely open societies.  Some elements to closed systems of social stratification persists even in the relatively modernized societies.  Social class is based primarily on the family-status rather than on personal abilities.  Achievements are determined by social environment, of which families and their members are an inseparable organ.  Also, there is a limit to openness in societies.  Even in American society, which was considered open, there were barriers to mobility.  Thus, it is a Black not given equal opportunities with a White for education and employment.  It is still easier for a son of a wealthy White American to become the President of US, than the son of a poor or middle class Black in the US.

Societies characterised by caste, race, ethnicity and statehood are relatively closed systems of social stratification. There is relatively less social mobility in a caste society.  Tradition facilities higher status for some and functions as an obstacle in upward social mobility for others.   However, caste has adapted itself to various new institutions such as elections, trade and commerce, migration, social transactions etc.  It has been realised that India is changing fast despite caste system. Inspite of industrial development, castes persist. It is a force, which keeps people culturally together.  Therefore, castes, communities and racial groups become a source of primordial ties.

Therefore, In between these two theoretically extreme types, there are many intermediary types of stratification. In actual societies however, we do not find completely open or completely closed systems of social stratification.  The degree of vertical mobility varies from society to society.  For example, in comparison-to-traditional Indian society American society was more open.

Types of social mobility

Social mobility may be operative in two different directions viz, horizontal direction and vertical direction. Sorokin puts this way: “By horizontal social mobility or shifting is meant the transition of an individual or social object from one social group to another situated on the same level. For example, movement from one occupation to another equivalent rank and status, from one family to another, from one citizenship to another, etc.

By vertical social mobility is meant the relations involved in a transition of an individual (or a social object) from one social stratum to another.”

Again, he divides vertical social mobility into two types: (i) ascending or social climbing or upward social mobility, and (ii) descending or social sinking or downward social mobility. For example, when a Nawab who loses all his land and wealth has to take up a middle-class job, there is descending mobility.

Ascending and descending mobility are themselves of two types – individual ascent or group ascent and individual descent and group descent.  That is, the unit that is ascending or descending, may be either the individual or the entire group. 

Taking into consideration the time dimension, social mobility may be again of two types: (i) inter-generational mobility, and (ii) intra-generational mobility or career mobility. While inter-generational mobility refers to changes in the social positions of the individuals between two or more generations, intra-generational mobility or career mobility refers to the changes in the social positions of the individuals within the same generation.

It is traditionally measured by comparing the social position of father and sons.  If a son has a higher position, than his father had, the son is, upwardly mobile.  If the son’s position is lower, he is downwardly mobile.

In intragenerational mobility, the comparison is with oneself, it is a movement within a generation. That is, one might start one’s occupational career as a shoe-shiner; go back to school and college to get a university education and then move on to become a teacher in a high school.

Sources and causes of Social Mobility

So far, we have seen that every society is characterised by some degree of vertical mobility.  This being, so which are the means or the channels or sources, which permit individuals and groups to move upwards or downwards? This function is performed by a number of institutions in society.  Some of the most important ones are religious, educational, political, and economic institutions, professional organisations and family. 

Religious Institutions

The vertical movement promoted by religious institutions can be seen in a number of religions.Church is an important channel of social mobility.  This was seen, for example, during the period after the legalization of Christian religion in Europe, when the church became a ladder for upward mobility and the majority of its followers in the beginnings were from the lower strata. Thus, slaves and serfs became Church officials.  The greatest Pope, Gregory VII was the son of a carpenter.  Similarly, in India, we find Christian institutions providing an important channel of social mobility to the lower casters and the untouchables.  Similarly, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism absorbed people from all strata of society, especially the lower ones. Besides acting as agents of upward social mobility, religious institutions can also bring about downward social mobility.

Educational Institutions

It has been often pointed out that educational attainment has been the most important factor in achieving upward mobility. Sorokin distinguishes two ways in which educational institutions do so.  The first is when educational institutions permit the movement of individual’s right from the bottom to positions at the top.  This would be found in societies where education is open to all groups in society and everybody is provided an opportunity to educate themselves and prove their merit. 

The second is when educational institutions permit mobility, but only among the upper strata of society.  Groups ranked below are excluded from its advantages.  Thus, here the opportunity for education is not available to all members of society.  Traditional India, when the cast system was most severe is an example, of this. Only the upper castes, especially the Brahmins could educate themselves in the scriptures, texts etc.  The Shudras were prohibited from doing so.  Another example is provided by the South African case where exploitation of Negroes by Whites is predominant.  Here, the race factor is used to account for the inferiority of the Negroes and they are not allowed equal educational opportunities with the Whites.

There is still a third way whereby educational institutions permit mobility through sponsored mobility that is through reservations of seats for an economically and socially deprived people. 

Thus, while it cannot be doubted that education is concerned and acts as an instrument of upward mobility, access to good educational institution and to education itself is governed by many non-educational factors like family background, place of residence weather etc.

Political Institutions 

Various types of political institutions such as government, political parties, etc. present an important channel for social mobility.  Thus, by entering into government service, a person can move up as a consequence of periodical promotion to higher offices.  In feudal Europe, in exceptional cases even serfs were rewarded with pieces of land by the lords and eventually they themselves became lords.  With the period in Indian history when the Slave Dynasty ruled and produced great rulers like Quatab-ud-din Aibak and Illutmish.

In democratic countries, political party is an important channel of social mobility.  Only by becoming a member of a political party does a person come into the view of the electorate and depending on her/his effectiveness and qualities is elected into higher political offices.

Economic Institutions

Economic activity ranging from land owning to commerce, mining, fishing, automobile manufacture or oil production has always been an important channel of vertical mobility.  The most important criterion that influences mobility here is the possession and accumulation of wealth. Thus, even among the smallest tribes, wealth is one of the most important criterions of leadership.  The aristocratic classes in the periods of history dominated due to there wealth.  Even in the Indian caste system especially after the coming of the British a number of low castes such as toddy-tappers and oilman castes were able to improve their social status by improving their economic status, that is, by entering into white collar jobs provided by the British government.

Professional organisations such as literary, academic legal, scientific and art organisations also act as important channels of mobility.  On proving their professional capabilities in various fields such as law, architecture, music and dance, academics, science, and so on.  People of humble birth have achieved high positions in society.  For example, the famous mathematician Ramanujam was born in a poor Brahmin family.  M.S. Subba Lakshmi the famous Carnatic music exponent was the daughter of a Devadasi.

Marriage and Family Institutions

Marriage is a very effective mechanism of upward or downward social mobility.  When a marriage takes place between two individuals having different social statuses, it results either in the upward social mobility of the spouse with lower social status (hypergamy) or the downward social mobility of the spouse with higher social status .

Thus, according to Roman law, a free woman who married a slave became a slave and so did her children.  In the traditional caste system, a woman of a higher caste who married a man of a lower caste lost her high caste status.  In some part of India, however, the opposite was permitted.  A woman of low caste could marry a man of high caste on which she assumed the status of his caste.  This is known as hypergamy.  For example, Kulin Brahmans of Bengal were sought after as husbands of Srotriya girls who were of lower caste.  This reveals the patriarchal nature of marriage and family institutions.

The various measures of mobility in accordance with the channels of mobility would be – religious status, economic status, political status, occupational status, educational status, status of marriage and family, and so on.  These have to be measured both in the intergenerational and intragenerational contexts.  These can exist in various combinations.  Thus, a person may experience both inter and intragenerational mobility or neither. 

Factors Influencing Social Mobility

There are several factors, which influence vertical mobility. They can be broadly classified into structural factors and individual factors.

Structural Factors

For instance, structural changes like increased technology, growth of large corporations, increased standard of living, growth of urban areas and the maintenance of a split labour market have influenced mobility. Increased technology, for instance, has eliminated some jobs involving manual labour and increased the number of white collar, clerical and service jobs.  While some sociologist claim moving from a blue-collar job to a white-collar job involves a change in status (lower to higher status).  Some argue that there are no real advantages in moving from a blue collar to a white-collar job so long as the income received remains more or less the same.

The growth of urban areas in which the cost of living is higher than the rural areas has led to higher wages for city dwellers.  The presence of a split labour market (i.e. one in which some jobs provide upward mobility and others do not) has also influenced vertical mobility a high technology or a management job lead to upward mobility –while a low-technology job or secretariat jobs generally do not offer much of upward mobility.

Individual Factors

Researchers have included the following factors in individual characteristics of upward mobility, namely, family background, grades/marks in school, college and other educational institutions and personality. Majority of the studies, for instance, point out that family background is the most important factor that can more or less accurately predict the future earnings of people. People from families with high incomes or status are more likely to make more money than those from families with low incomes.

There are two views regarding social mobility.  One view is that the best way to increase upward mobility is to increase the opportunities available to children from poor families.  This would involve providing better pre-school education, public school education and college education.  The other view is that social class is an ascribed status and that the poor cannot enter the upper class through increased education.  Opportunity and equality for the poor can be brought about only through drastic changes in the stratification system especially in the redistribution of wealth. 

Social Stratification and Social Mobility

Social mobility is closed related to social stratification.  There are different strata in any society, which may change over a period of time.  The landowners may become owners of factories and business establishment.  It is in the very nature of a society to bring about vertical mobility in its system of social stratification.  There is a constant change in standards of evaluation of positions of different occupations and professions. When the very basis of status evaluation changes, the system of social stratification is witnessing vertical upheaval.

Slavery in ancient society was not of a uniform nature.  Slaves belonged to different economic levels.  Thus, in Imperial Rome, a slave’s authority and economic position depended upon what category of slave he belonged to (emperor’s or State slave’ municipal or private slave) his occupational category, the wealth of his master, and on his own ability as manager of a peculium.  The peculium was an institution where a sum of money or some property was given to a slave.  The profits were divided between master and slave according to the decision of the master.  Some slave became very rich in this manner and even invested their wealth in the same or other business.  Thus, slaves in lesser positions could aspire for such higher slave-status.  Rich slaves could own slaves of their own. Mobility was possible either through  manumission or through rebellion

In the Estate System  status was ascribed or transmitted from parents to children. However, ascribed status could be changed in the estate system.  Thus, social mobility was possible, and stability was always temporary in this system.  The possible ways of mobility in the estate system included:

An act of grace: This was a legal act, which gave persons the authority to change the status of another person.  For example, the monarch could bestow a certain amount of land on a serf for his good services.  This would enable him to rise to the ranks of nobility.

Manumission: This was a very common procedure in estate system, whereby a slave was granted freedom by his master. 

Mobility in the Upper Ranks: The estate system saw greater mobility in the upper ranks under Monarchical rules, than under the rule of the Republican Aristocracy. This is because the Emperor adds to his status and stability of the monarchy by granting promotions.  The King thus gained loyal supporters.  This could lead to the formation of a whole new aristocracy as opposed to the old, decaying one.  Thus, in the European estate systems, the degree of mobility in the upper ranks was quite high and due to two factors:

Marriage: Marriage was a channel of social mobility but only for women.  That is, women from the lower strata moved up by marrying into upper ranks.  For example, the Byzantine Emperor Romans married the daughter of an innkeeper who became the mother-in-law of German emperor Otto II; the grand daughter of the poet Chaucer married the Duke of Suffolk etc. 

There are innumerable theoretical and empirical contributions in the area of social stratification and social mobility. To give some example, Merton’s contribution in the area of reference group theory and social mobility.  Lipset and Zetterberg s article on the theory of social mobility; C.W. Mills are noteworthy.  In the area of empirical research, in every country across the world, there are various sociological studies on social mobility.  In India, we have studies done in the area of social mobility of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, urban and rural middle classes.  One of the pioneering research work, on social mobility, in India is M.N. Srinivas’ research on Coorgs of Mysore.  He found the concept of ‘Sanskritization’ useful in his analysis of the social and religious life of the Coorgs of South India.  Some of the well-known mobility studies of particular countries include Blan and Duncan’s study of “The American Occupational Structure”, Goldthorpe’s “Social Mobility and Class Structure in Modern Britain” and Porter’s “The Vertical Mosaic” (in Canada).

Social Mobility And Social Change

Vertical social mobility can exert huge impact on social life.  Stratification is marked by a hierarchical arrangement of various strata. Vertical mobility disturbs this ordering. How? Through education and training some people acquire competence for rare positions, and others who lack education and training become commoners.  This is how a vertical order emerges in a given society.

Social change comes up very fast because in modern societies, the tendency is to reward everyone according to his/her talent.  Mobility makes the social structure quite elastic. With the process of modernization, alienation of people from cherished goals and ranks is minimized.  When people start moving out of their class groups or caste groups, they also do away with the traditional frame of placement by discarding the values, which have retained them in lower positions. 

In modern societies, forces generating social change work very fast.  The more modern a society, is the faster is the peace of social change.  In India, we can say that the society is not changing very fast.  Despite the constitutional provisions of reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, social mobility is far from satisfactory.  As we have stated earlier, such a situation causes unrest.  Therefore, to modernize a society, it is necessary to bring about rapid social change.  Caste system is a relatively closed system.  A person cannot change his/her caste.  Since, diversification occurs generally in proportion to growth of industries and use of technology, the faster the development, of industries and technology, the greater is the occupational diversification and modernization.  People participating in non-traditional occupations are quick to change their way of life and thinking pattern.  The speed of social change, therefore, depends on industrial and technological development.

However, development in itself may not generate the required modernization. Education, training and leadership are important sources of the modernization process.