The concept of social mobility means the movement of individuals (sometimes groups) between different positions in the hierarchy of social stratification, associated with a change in their status.
According to the definition of P. Sorokin, "social mobility is understood as any transition of an individual ... from one social position to another."
There are two main types of social mobility - intergenerational and intragenerational, as well as two main types - vertical and horizontal. They, in turn, fall into subspecies and subtypes that are closely related to each other.
Intergenerational mobility implies that children reach the highest social position or fall to a lower position than their parents. Example: A worker's son becomes a professor.
Intragenerational mobility takes place where the same individual changes social positions several times throughout his life. Otherwise, it is called a social career. Example: a turner becomes an engineer, and then a shop manager, a factory director, a minister.
Vertical mobility implies moving from one stratum (estate, class, caste) to another.
Depending on the direction of movement, there is upward mobility (social uplift) and downward mobility (social descent, downward movement).
Promotion is an example of upward mobility, demolition is downward mobility.
Horizontal mobility implies the transition of an individual from one social group to another, located at the same level.
An example is the movement of one work collective to another, from one citizenship to another, from one family (parental) to another (one's own, newly formed), from one profession to another. Such movements occur without a noticeable change in social position in the vertical direction.
Geographical mobility is a variation of horizontal mobility. It does not imply a change in status or group, but a movement from one place to another while maintaining the same status.
An example is international and interregional tourism, moving from the city to the village and back.
If a change of status is added to a change of place, then! geographical mobility turns into migration.
If a villager comes to the city to visit relatives, then this is geographic mobility. If he moved to the city for permanent residence and found a job here, then this is migration. He changed his profession.
You can classify social mobility according to; other criteria. So, for example, they distinguish:
individual mobility, when movements down, up or horizontally occur in one person independently of others;
group mobility, when movements occur collectively, for example, after a social revolution, the old class cedes dominant positions to the new class.
Sociologists refer to the factors of individual mobility, i.e., the reasons that allow one person to achieve greater success than another: the social status of the family; level of education; nationality; floor; physical and mental abilities, external data; getting educated; location; profitable marriage.
Mobile individuals begin socialization in one class and end in another. They are literally torn between dissimilar cultures and lifestyles. They do not know how to behave, dress, talk in terms of the standards of another class. Often adaptation to new conditions remains very superficial.
Group mobility occurs when the social significance of an entire class, estate, or caste rises or falls.
For example, the invasion of the Grunns, Lombards, Goths violated the social stratification of the Roman Empire: one after another, the old aristocratic families disappeared, and new ones came to replace them. Barbarians founded new dynasties and new nobility emerged.
As P. Sorokin showed on a huge historical material, the following factors served as the causes of group mobility: social revolutions; foreign interventions, invasions; interstate wars; civil wars; military coups; change of political regimes; replacing the old constitution with a new one; peasant uprisings; internecine war of aristocratic families; creation of an empire.
Group mobility takes place where there is a change in the very system of stratification.
The general concept of social mobility is associated with a change in the status of an individual or a certain social group, after which he changes his current position and place in the social structure, he has other roles, and characteristics in stratification change. The social system is complex in its multi-level nature. Stratification describes the rank structure, patterns and features of existence in development, hence the division of this movement into types of social mobility.
Status
A person who once received this or that status does not remain its bearer until the end of his life. A child, for example, grows up, taking on a different set of statuses associated with growing up. So society is constantly in motion, developing, changing the social structure, losing some people and gaining others, but certain social roles are still played, since status positions remain filled. Any transition of an individual or object, created or modified by human activity, to another position, to which the channels of social mobility have led, falls under this definition.
The basic elements of the social structure - individuals - are also in constant motion. To describe the movement of an individual in a social structure, such a concept as "social mobility of society" is used. This theory appeared in sociological science in 1927, its author was Pitirim Sorokin, who described the factors of social mobility. The process under consideration causes a constant redistribution within the boundaries of the social structure of individual individuals in accordance with the existing principles of social differentiation.
social system
In a single social system, there are many subsystems that have a clearly fixed or traditionally fixed set of requirements for all individuals seeking to acquire a particular status. The one who meets all these requirements to the greatest extent always succeeds. Examples of social mobility can be found literally at every turn. Thus, the university is a powerful social subsystem.
Students studying there must master the curriculum, and during the session there will be a test of how effectively mastering was. Naturally, those individuals who do not satisfy the examiners in terms of the minimum level of knowledge will not be able to continue their education. On the other hand, those who have mastered the material better than the rest receive additional channels of social mobility, that is, the chances to effectively use education - in graduate school, in science, in employment. And this rule applies always and everywhere: the fulfillment of a social role changes the situation in society for the better.
Types of social mobility. The current state of affairs
Modern sociology subdivides the types and types of social mobility, designed to most fully describe the entire gamut of social movements. First of all, it is necessary to say about two types - vertical and horizontal mobility. If the transition from one social position to another has taken place, but the level has not changed, this is horizontal social mobility. This may be a change of confession or place of residence. Examples of horizontal social mobility are the most numerous.
If, however, with the transition to another social position, the level of social stratification changes, that is, the social status becomes better or worse, then this movement belongs to the second type. Vertical social mobility, in turn, is divided into two subtypes: upward and downward. The stratification ladder of a social system, like any other ladder, implies movement both up and down.
Examples of vertical social mobility: upwards - status improvement (another military rank, receiving a diploma, etc.), downwards - deterioration (loss of a job, expulsion from a university, etc.), that is, something that implies an increase or decrease opportunities for further movement and social growth.
Individual and group
In addition, vertical social mobility can be group and individual. The latter occurs when an individual member of society changes his social position, when the old status niche (stratum) is abandoned and a new state is found. The level of education, social origin, mental and physical abilities, place of residence, external data, specific actions play a role here - a profitable marriage, for example, a criminal offense or a manifestation of heroism.
Group mobility most often occurs when the stratification system of this society changes, when the social significance of even the largest social groups is subject to change. Such types of social mobility are sanctioned by the state or are the result of targeted policies. Here we can distinguish organized mobility (and the consent of people does not matter - recruitment into construction teams or volunteers, the economic crisis, the reduction of rights and freedoms in certain sectors of society, the resettlement of peoples or ethnic groups, etc.)
Structure
Structural mobility is also of great importance in defining the concept. The social system undergoes structural changes, which is not so rare. Industrialization, for example, which usually requires cheap labor, which restructures the entire social structure in order to recruit this labor force.
Horizontal and vertical social activity can occur in a group order simultaneously with a change in the political regime or state system, economic collapse or takeoff, with any social revolution, with foreign occupation, invasion, with any military conflicts - both civil and interstate.
Within a generation
The science of sociology distinguishes between intragenerational and intergenerational social mobility. This is best seen with examples. Intra-generational, that is, intra-generational social mobility implies shifts in the status distribution in a certain age group, in a generation, it tracks the general dynamics of the distribution of this group within the social system.
For example, monitoring is being carried out regarding the possibilities of obtaining higher education, free medical care and many other pressing social processes. By recognizing the most general features of the social movement in a given generation, it is already possible to assess the social development of an individual from this age group with a degree of objectivity. The entire life-long path of a person in social development can be called a social career.
Intergenerational mobility
An analysis is made of changes in social status in groups of different generations, which makes it possible to see the patterns of long-term processes in society, to establish the characteristic factors of social mobility in the implementation of a social career, considering various social groups and communities.
For example, which segments of the population are subject to more upward social mobility, and which to downward, can be found out through extensive monitoring, which will answer such questions and thus reveal ways to stimulate specific social groups. Many other factors are determined in the same way: the characteristics of a given social environment, whether or not there is a desire for social growth, etc.
Game by the rules
In a stable social structure, the movement of individuals occurs according to plans and rules. In an unstable one, when the social system is shattered, it is unorganized, spontaneous, chaotic. In any case, in order to change the status, the individual must enlist the support of the social environment.
If an applicant wants to enter Moscow State University, MGIMO or MEPhI, in order to acquire student status, in addition to the desire, he must have a whole range of certain personal qualities and meet the requirements for all students of these educational institutions. That is, the applicant must confirm his compliance, for example, with entrance examinations or financial independence. If it matches, it will get the desired status.
Social institutions
Modern society is a complex and highly institutionalized structure. Most social movements are associated with certain social institutions, many statuses outside the framework of specific institutions do not matter at all. For example, apart from education, the statuses of a teacher and a student do not exist, and outside the institute of health care there are no statuses of a patient and a doctor. This means that it is social institutions that create the social space where the largest part of the status changes take place. These spaces (channels of social mobility) are structures, ways, mechanisms used for status movement.
The main driving force is state authorities, political parties, economic structures, public organizations, the church, the army, professional and labor unions and organizations, family and clan ties, and the education system. In turn, for a given period of time, the social structure is significantly influenced by organized crime, which has its own mobile system that also influences official institutions through, for example, corruption.
Aggregate of Influence
Channels of social mobility - an integral system that complements, limits, stabilizes all components of the social structure, in which the institutional and legal procedures for the movement of each individual represent elementary social selection, where not only a long and close acquaintance with certain rules and traditions takes place, but also confirmation by the individual their loyalty, obtaining the approval of the dominant persons.
Here one can still talk a lot about the formal necessity of conformity and subjectivity of the assessment of all the efforts of the individual on the part of those on whom the social transfer of the individual's status directly depends.
People are in constant motion, and society is in development. The totality of social movements of people in society, i.e. changes in their status, is called social mobility. This topic has interested humanity for a long time. The unexpected rise of a person or his sudden fall is a favorite plot of folk tales: a cunning beggar suddenly becomes rich, a poor prince becomes a king, and the industrious Cinderella marries a prince, thereby increasing her status and prestige.
However, human history is made up not so much of individual destinies as of the movement of large social groups. The landed aristocracy is being replaced by the financial bourgeoisie, low-skilled professions are being squeezed out of modern production by representatives of the so-called "white collars" - engineers, programmers, operators of robotic complexes. Wars and revolutions reshaped the social structure of society, raising some to the top of the pyramid and lowering others. Similar changes took place in Russian society after the October Revolution of 1917. They are still taking place today, when the business elite is replacing the party elite.
Between ascent and descent there is a certain asymmetry: everyone wants to go up and no one wants to go down the social ladder. Usually, ascent - the phenomenon is voluntary, descent - forced.
Studies show that those with higher status prefer high positions for themselves and their children, but those with lower status want the same for themselves and their children. And so it turns out in human society: everyone is striving upward and no one is downward.
In this chapter, we will look at essence, causes, typology, mechanisms, channels And factors affecting social mobility.
Exist two main types social mobility - intergenerational and intragenerational, and two main types - vertical and horizontal. They, in turn, break down into subspecies And subtypes, which are closely related to each other.
Intergenerational mobility assumes that children achieve a higher social position or fall to a lower level than their parents. Example: A miner's son becomes an engineer.
Intragenerational mobility takes place where the same individual, beyond comparison with the father, changes social positions several times throughout his life. Otherwise it is called social career. Example: a turner becomes an engineer, and then a shop manager, plant director, minister of the engineering industry.
The first type of mobility refers to long-term, and the second - to short-term processes. In the first case, sociologists are more interested in interclass mobility, and in the second - the movement from the sphere of physical labor to the sphere of mental labor.
Vertical mobility implies a movement from one stratum (estate, class, caste) to another. Depending on the direction of movement, there are upward mobility (social rise, upward movement) and downward mobility (social descent, downward movement). Promotion is an example of upward mobility, dismissal, demolition is an example of downward mobility.
Horizontal mobility implies the transition of an individual from one social group to another, located at the same level. An example is the movement from an Orthodox to a Catholic religious group, from one citizenship to another, from one family (parental) to another (one's own, newly formed), from one profession to another. Such movements occur without a noticeable change in social position in the vertical direction.
A form of horizontal mobility is geographical mobility . It does not imply a change in status or group, but a movement from one place to another while maintaining the same status. An example is international and interregional tourism, moving from a city to a village and back, moving from one enterprise to another.
If a change of status is added to a change of place, then geographic mobility becomes migration. If a villager comes to the city to visit relatives, then this is geographic mobility. If he moved to the city for permanent residence and found a job here, then this is migration. He changed his profession.
Vertical and horizontal mobility are influenced by gender, age, birth rate, death rate, population density. In general, young people and men are more mobile than older people and women. Overpopulated countries are more likely to experience the effects of emigration than immigration. Where the birth rate is high, the population is younger and therefore more mobile, and vice versa.
Professional mobility is typical for the young, economic mobility for adults, and political mobility for the elderly. The birth rate is unevenly distributed across classes. The lower classes tend to have more children, while the higher classes tend to have fewer. There is a pattern: the higher a person climbs the social ladder, the fewer children he has. Even if every son of a rich man follows in the footsteps of his father, voids are still formed on the upper steps of the social pyramid, which are filled by people from the lower classes. In no class do people plan for the exact number of children needed to replace parents. The number of vacancies and the number of applicants for the occupation of certain social positions in different classes is different.
Professionals (doctors, lawyers, etc.) and skilled employees do not have enough children to fill their jobs in the next generation. In contrast, farmers and agricultural workers, in the US, have 50% more children than they need for self-replacement. It is not difficult to calculate in which direction social mobility should proceed in modern society.
High and low birth rates in different classes have the same effect on vertical mobility as population density in different countries has on horizontal mobility. Strata, like countries, can be overpopulated or underpopulated.
It is possible to propose a classification of social mobility according to other criteria. So, for example, they distinguish:
· individual mobility, when moving down, up or horizontally occurs in each person independently of others, and
· group mobility, when movements take place collectively, for example, after a social revolution, the old class cedes its dominant positions to the new class.
Individual mobility and group mobility are connected in a certain way with the assigned and achieved status. Individual mobility corresponds more to the status achieved, and group mobility to the assigned status.
Individual mobility occurs where and when the social significance of an entire class, estate, caste, rank, or category rises or falls. The October Revolution led to the rise of the Bolsheviks, who previously did not have a recognized high position. Brahmins became the highest caste as a result of a long and stubborn struggle, and earlier they were on an equal footing with the kshatriyas. In ancient Greece, after the adoption of the constitution, most people were freed from slavery and climbed the social ladder, and many of their former masters went down.
The transition from a hereditary aristocracy to a plutocracy (an aristocracy based on the principles of wealth) had the same consequences. In 212 AD e. almost the entire population of the Roman Empire received the status of Roman citizens. Thanks to this, huge masses of people who were previously considered to be deprived of their rights have raised their social status. The invasion of the barbarians (Huns, Lobards, Goths) disrupted the social stratification of the Roman Empire: one by one, the old aristocratic families disappeared, and they were replaced by new ones. Foreigners founded new dynasties and new nobility.
Mobile individuals begin socialization in one class and end in another. They are literally torn between dissimilar cultures and lifestyles. They do not know how to behave, dress, talk in terms of the standards of another class. Often adaptation to new conditions remains very superficial. A typical example is Moliere's tradesman in the nobility.
These are the main types, types and forms (there are no significant differences between these terms) of social mobility. In addition to them, organized mobility is sometimes singled out, when the movement of a person or entire groups up, down or horizontally is controlled by the state a) with the consent of the people themselves, b) without their consent. Voluntary organized mobility should include the so-called socialist organization set, public appeals for Komsomol construction projects, etc. Involuntary organized mobility includes repatriation (resettlement) of small peoples and dispossession during the years of Stalinism.
It is necessary to distinguish from organized mobility structural mobility. It is caused by changes in the structure of the national economy and occurs against the will and consciousness of individual individuals. For example, the disappearance or reduction of industries or professions leads to the displacement of large masses of people. In the 1950s and 1970s, small villages were reduced and enlarged in the USSR.
social mobility is the process by which a person changes his social status.
The term "social mobility" was introduced by P. Sorokin. He called social mobility the transition of an individual from one social position to another. There are two main types of social mobility - intergenerational and intragenerational, and two main types - vertical and horizontal.
Intergenerational mobility implies that children achieve a higher social position or fall to a lower rung than their parents: the son of a miner becomes an engineer.
Intragenerational mobility means that the same individual, beyond comparison with his parents, changes social positions several times throughout his life: a turner becomes an engineer, and then a shop manager, a factory director, and a minister of the machine-building industry.
Vertical mobility implies moving from one stratum (estate, class, caste) to another, i.e. movement leading to an increase or decrease in social status.
Depending on the direction of movement, vertical mobility can be upward (social rise, upward movement) and downward (social descent, downward movement). As a rule, ascent is a voluntary phenomenon, and descent is forced.
Horizontal mobility implies the movement of an individual from one social group to another without raising or lowering social status: moving from an Orthodox to a Catholic religious group, from one citizenship to another, from one family (parental) to another (one's own, newly formed), from one profession to another.
A variation of horizontal mobility is geographic mobility, which does not imply a change in status or group, but a movement from one place to another while maintaining the same status.
There are individual mobility - movements down, up or horizontally occur for each person independently of others, and group mobility - movements occur collectively.
There are also organized mobility and structural mobility. Organized mobility is when the movement of a person or entire groups up, down or horizontally is controlled by the state: a) with the consent of the people themselves, b) without their consent.
Structural mobility is caused by changes in the structure of society and occurs against the will of individual individuals.
Types (types, forms) of mobility can be main and non-main.
The main views characterize all or most societies in any historical era.
Non-principal types of mobility are inherent in some types of society and are not inherent in others.
Vertical social mobility is measured using two main indicators: mobility distance and mobility volume.
Mobility distance is the number of steps that individuals managed to climb or had to descend. The normal distance is considered to be moving one or two steps up or down. Most social transitions happen this way. Abnormal distance - an unexpected rise to the top of the social ladder or fall to its bottom.
The volume of mobility is understood as the number of individuals who have moved up the social ladder in a vertical direction over a certain period of time. The volume calculated by the number of displaced individuals is called absolute, and the ratio of this number over the entire population is called relative volume and is indicated as a percentage. The total volume, or the scale of mobility, determines the number of movements across all strata together, and the differentiated volume determines the number of movements across individual strata, layers, and classes.
Group mobility is observed where and when the social significance of an entire class, class, or caste rises or falls.
The most common causes of group mobility are the following factors:
social revolutions,
Foreign interventions, invasions,
Civil wars,
military coups,
Change of political regimes,
Replacing the old constitution with a new one,
peasant uprisings,
internecine struggle of aristocratic families,
Creation of an empire.
Group mobility takes place where there is a change in the very system of stratification.
Social mobility is most influenced not by the profession and education of parents, but by their own achievements in learning. The higher the education, the more chances to move up the social ladder. Most people start their working careers on the same social level as their parents, and only a very few manage to make significant progress.
The average citizen moves up or down one rung in a lifetime, rarely anyone manages to step several steps at once.
Factors of upward individual mobility, that is, the reasons that allow one person to achieve greater success than another:
The social status of the family
The level of education received,
Nationality,
Physical and mental abilities, external data,
received upbringing,
Location,
Profitable marriage.
In all industrialized countries, it is more difficult for a woman to advance than a man. Often women increase their social status through an advantageous marriage. Therefore, getting a job, they choose such professions where they are most likely to find a “suitable man”.
In an industrial society, mobility is determined by the structure of the national economy. Vertical and horizontal mobility are influenced by gender, age, birth rate, death rate, population density.
The young and men are more mobile than the elderly and women. Professional mobility is characteristic of young people, economic mobility for adults, and political mobility for the elderly.
The higher a person climbs the social ladder, the fewer children he has.
Strata, like countries, can be overpopulated or underpopulated.
Channels of vertical mobility.
There are no impassable borders between the strata. Between them there are various "holes", "elevators", "membranes" through which individuals move up and down.
Social institutions are used as channels of social mobility.
The army functions as a channel especially effectively in wartime. Large losses among the command staff lead to the filling of vacancies from the lower ranks. Soldiers advance through talent and bravery. Having risen in rank, they use the received power as a channel for further advancement and accumulation of wealth.
The Church as a channel of social mobility has moved a large number of people from the bottom to the top of society. In addition to upward mobility, the church was also a channel for downward mobility. Thousands of heretics, pagans, enemies of the church were brought to justice, ruined and destroyed.
The institution of education, no matter what concrete form it takes, has served in all ages as a powerful channel of social mobility.
Family and marriage become channels of vertical mobility in the event that representatives of different social strata join the union. In antiquity, according to Roman law, a free woman who married a slave became a slave herself and lost the status of a free citizen.
The erection of social barriers and partitions, the restriction of access to another group or the closure of the group in itself is called a social clause (group isolation).
In a young rapidly developing society, vertical mobility is very intensive. Those from the lower classes, through fortunate circumstances, hard work, or resourcefulness, move quickly to the top, where many vacancies are prepared for them. The seats are filling up, the upward movement is slowing down. The new rich class is fenced off from society by many social barriers. Getting into it is now incredibly difficult. The social group is closed.
In the process of social mobility in society, special strata of people inevitably form, who lose important social statuses and roles and for some time do not acquire adequate statuses and roles.
Scientists call such social strata marginals.
Marginals are understood as individuals, their groups and communities, formed at the boundaries of social strata and structures, within the framework of the processes of transition from one type of sociality to another or within one type of sociality with its serious deformations.
Among the marginalized may be
ethnic marginals formed by migrations to a foreign environment or grown as a result of mixed marriages;
biomarginals, whose health ceases to be the concern of society;
social marginals, for example, groups in the process of incomplete social displacement;
age margins that form when ties between generations are broken;
political outcasts who are not satisfied with the legal opportunities and legitimate rules of the socio-political struggle;
economic marginals of the traditional (unemployed) and new types - the so-called "new unemployed";
religious outcasts - standing outside confessions or not daring to make a choice between them;
criminal outcasts, as well as those whose status in the social structure is not defined.
"Lumpens" are called all declassed sections of the population (tramps, beggars, criminal elements, and others).
Lumpen is a person who does not have any property and lives by odd jobs.
Since upward mobility is present to varying degrees in any society, there are certain paths, or channels, through which individuals are able to most effectively move up or down the social ladder. They are called channels of social mobility or social elevator.
The most important channels of social mobility, according to P. Sorokin, are: the army, church, school, political, economic and professional organizations.
Factors of social mobility at the micro level are directly the social environment of the individual, as well as his total life resource, and at the macro level- the state of the economy, the level of scientific and technological development, the nature of the political regime, the prevailing system of stratification, the nature of natural conditions, etc.
Social mobility is measured using indicators: scope of mobility- the number of individuals or social strata that have moved up the social ladder in a vertical direction in a certain period of time, and mobility distance - the number of steps that an individual or group managed to climb or descend.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
People are in constant motion, and society is in development. The totality of social movements of people in society, i.e. changes in their status is called social mobility. This topic has interested humanity for a long time. The unexpected rise of a person or his sudden fall is a favorite plot of folk tales: a cunning beggar suddenly becomes rich, a poor prince becomes a king, and the industrious Cinderella marries a prince, thereby increasing her status and prestige.
However, the history of mankind is made up not so much of individual destinies as of the movement of large social groups. The landed aristocracy is being replaced by the financial bourgeoisie, low-skilled professions are being squeezed out of modern production by representatives of the so-called white-collar workers - engineers, programmers, operators of robotic complexes. Wars and revolutions reshaped the social structure of society, raising some to the top of the pyramid and lowering others. Similar changes took place in Russian society after the October Revolution of 1917. They are still taking place today, when the business elite is replacing the party elite.
Between ascent and descent there is a certain asymmetry, everyone wants to go up and no one wants to go down the social ladder. Usually, ascent - phenomenon voluntary A descent is compulsory.
Research shows that those with higher status prefer high positions for themselves and their children, but those with lower status want the same for themselves and their children. And so it turns out in human society: everyone is striving upward and no one is downward.
In this chapter, we will look at essence, causes, typology, mechanisms, channels of social mobility, and factors affecting her.
mobility classification.
Exist two main types social mobility - intergenerational And intragenerational And two main types - vertical and horizontal. They, in turn, break down into subspecies And subtypes „which are closely related to each other.
Intergenerational mobility assumes that children achieve a higher social position or fall to a lower level than their parents. Example: A miner's son becomes an engineer.
Intragenerational mobility takes place where the same individual, beyond comparison with the father, changes social positions several times throughout his life. Otherwise it is called social career. Example: a turner becomes an engineer, and then a shop manager, plant director, minister of the engineering industry.
The first type of mobility refers to long-term and second - to short-term processes. In the first case, sociologists are more interested in interclass mobility, and in the second - the movement from the sphere of physical labor to the sphere of mental labor.
Vertical mobility implies a movement from one stratum (estate, class, caste) to another.
Depending on the direction of movement, there are upward mobility(social rise, upward movement) and downward mobility(social descent, downward movement).
Promotion is an example of upward mobility, dismissal, demolition is an example of downward mobility.
Horizontal mobility implies the transition of an individual from one social group to another, located at the same level.
An example is the movement from an Orthodox to a Catholic religious group, from one citizenship to another, from one family (parental) to another (one's own, newly formed), from one profession to another. Such movements occur without a noticeable change in social position in the vertical direction.
A form of horizontal mobility is geographical mobility. It does not imply a change in status or group, but a movement from one place to another while maintaining the same status.
An example is international and interregional tourism, moving from a city to a village and back, moving from one enterprise to another.
If a change of status is added to a change of place, then geographic mobility becomes migration.
If a villager comes to the city to visit relatives, then this is geographic mobility. If he moved to the city for permanent residence and found a job here, then this is migration. He changed his profession.
It is possible to classify social mobility according to other criteria. So, for example, they distinguish:
individual mobility, when moving down, up or horizontally occurs in each person independently of others, and
group mobility, when displacement occurs collectively, for example, after a social revolution, the old class cedes its dominant positions to the new class.
Individual mobility and group mobility are connected in a certain way with the assigned and achieved status. Do you think individual mobility is more in line with assigned or achieved status? (Try to figure this out on your own first, and then read the chapter to the end.)
These are the main types, types and forms (there are no significant differences between these terms) of social mobility. In addition to them, sometimes allocate organized mobility, when the movement of a person or entire groups up, down or horizontally is controlled by the state A) with the consent of the people themselves, b) without their consent. to voluntary organized mobility should be attributed to the so-called socialist organization set, public appeals for Komsomol construction projects, etc. TO involuntary organized mobility can be attributed repatriation(resettlement) of small peoples and dispossession during the years of Stalinism.
It is necessary to distinguish from organized mobility structural mobility. It is caused by changes in the structure of the national economy and occurs against the will and consciousness of individual individuals. For example, the disappearance or reduction of industries or professions leads to To movement of large masses of people. In the 50s - 70s in USSR small villages were reduced and enlarged.
The main and non-main types (types, forms) of mobility differ as follows.
Main types characterize all or most societies in any historical epoch. Of course, the intensity or volume of mobility is not the same everywhere.
Non-main species Mobility is inherent in some types of society and not in others. (Look for specific examples to support this thesis.)
The main and non-main types (types, forms) of mobility exist in three main areas of society - economic, political, professional. Mobility practically does not occur (with rare exceptions) in the demographic sphere and is quite limited in the religious sphere. Indeed, it is impossible to migrate from a man to a woman, and the transition from childhood to adolescence does not apply to mobility. Voluntary and forced change of religion in human history occurred repeatedly. Suffice it to recall the baptism of Rus', the conversion of the Indians to the Christian faith after the discovery of America by Columbus. However, such events do not occur regularly. They are of interest to historians rather than sociologists.
Let us now turn to specific types and types of mobility.
GROUP MOBILITY
It occurs there and then, where and when the social significance of an entire class, estate, caste, rank, or category rises or falls. The October Revolution led to the rise of the Bolsheviks, who previously did not have a recognized high position. Brahmins became the highest caste as a result of a long and stubborn struggle, and earlier they were on an equal footing with the kshatriyas. In ancient Greece, after the adoption of the constitution, most people were freed from slavery and climbed the social ladder, and many of their former masters went down.
The transition of power from a hereditary aristocracy to a plutocracy (an aristocracy based on the principles of wealth) had the same consequences. In 212 AD almost the entire population of the Roman Empire received the status of Roman citizenship. Thanks to this, huge masses of people who were previously considered to be deprived of their rights have increased their social status. The invasion of the barbarians (Huns and Goths) disrupted the social stratification of the Roman Empire: one by one, the old aristocratic families disappeared, and they were replaced by new ones. Foreigners founded new dynasties and new nobility.
As P. Sorokin showed on a huge historical material, the following factors served as the reasons for group mobility:
social revolutions;
Foreign interventions, invasions;
Interstate wars;
Civil wars;
military coups;
Change of political regimes;
Replacing the old constitution with a new one;
Peasant uprisings;
Internecine struggle of aristocratic families;
Creation of an empire.
Group mobility takes place where there is a change in the very system of stratification.
3.4. Individual mobility:
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Social mobility in the US and the former Soviet Union has both similarities and differences. The similarity is explained by the fact that both countries are industrialized powers, and the differences are explained by the peculiarity of the political regime of government. Thus, studies by American and Soviet sociologists, covering approximately the same period (70s), but carried out independently of each other, gave the same figures: up to 40% of employees in both the USA and Russia come from workers ; in both the US and Russia, more than two-thirds of the population is involved in social mobility.
Another regularity is also confirmed: social mobility in both countries is most influenced not by the profession and education of the father, but by the son's own achievements in education. The higher the education, the more chances to move up the social ladder.
In both the US and Russia, another curious fact has been discovered: a well-educated son of a worker has just as much chance of promotion as a poorly educated person from the middle classes, in particular employees. Although the second can help parents.
The peculiarity of the United States lies in the large flow of immigrants. Unskilled workers - immigrants arriving in the country from all parts of the world, occupy the lower rungs of the social ladder, displacing or hastening the advancement of Native Americans. Rural migration has the same effect, not only in the US, but also in Russia.
In both countries, upward mobility has so far averaged 20% more than downward mobility. But both types of vertical mobility were inferior to horizontal mobility in their own way. This means the following: in two countries, the level of mobility is high (up to 70-80% of the population), but 70% is horizontal mobility - movement within the boundaries of the same class and even layer (stratum).
Even in the USA, where, according to legend, every sweeper can become a millionaire, the conclusion made by P. Sorokin back in 1927 remains valid: most people start their working careers at the same social level as their parents, and only a very few manage to make significant progress. In other words, the average citizen moves one rung up or down in his life, rarely anyone manages to step several steps at once.
So, 10% of Americans, 7% of Japanese and Dutch, 9% of British, 2% of French, Germans and Danes, 1% of Italians rise from workers to the upper - middle class. To the factors of individual mobility, i.e. reasons that allow one person to achieve greater success than another, sociologists in both countries include:
the social status of the family;
level of education;
nationality;
physical and mental abilities, external data;
receiving education;
location;
profitable marriage.
Mobile individuals begin socialization in one class and end in another. They are literally torn between dissimilar cultures and lifestyles. They do not know how to behave, dress, talk in terms of the standards of another class. Often adaptation to new conditions remains very superficial. A typical example is Moliere's tradesman in the nobility. (Think of other literary characters who would illustrate the superficial assimilation of manners when moving from one class, layer to another.)
In all industrialized countries, it is more difficult for women to move up than for men. Often they increase their social status only through a profitable marriage. Therefore, getting a job, women of this orientation choose those professions where it is most likely to find a "suitable man." What do you think these professions or places of work are? Give examples from life or literature when marriage acted as a "social lift" for women of humble origin.
During the Soviet period, our society was the most mobile society in the world along with America. A free education available to all strata offered everyone the same opportunities for advancement that existed only in the United States. Nowhere in the world did the elite of society literally form from all strata of society in a short time. At the end of this period, mobility slowed down, but increased again in the 1990s.
The most dynamic Soviet society was not only in terms of education and social mobility, but also in terms of industrial development. For many years, the USSR held the first place in terms of the pace of industrial progress. All these are signs of a modern industrial society that have made the USSR, as Western sociologists have written, one of the world's leading countries in terms of social mobility.
Structural mobility
Industrialization opens new vacancies in vertical mobility. The development of industry three centuries ago required the transformation of the peasantry into a proletariat. In the late stage of industrialization, the working class became the largest part of the employed population. The main factor of vertical mobility was the education system.
Industrialization is associated not only with interclass but also with intraclass changes. At the stage of conveyor or mass production at the beginning of the 20th century, unskilled and unskilled workers remained the predominant group. Mechanization and then automation required an expansion of the ranks of skilled and highly skilled workers. In the 1950s, 40% of workers in developed countries were poorly or unskilled. In 1966, 20% of such people remained.
As unskilled labor was reduced, the need for employees, managers, and businessmen grew. The sphere of industrial and agricultural labor narrowed, while the sphere of service and management expanded.
In an industrial society, the structure of the national economy determines mobility. In other words, professional
mobility in the USA, England, Russia or Japan does not depend on the individual characteristics of people, but on the structural features of the economy, the relationship of industries and the shifts taking place here. The number of people employed in agriculture in the United States decreased from 1900 to 1980 by 10 times. The small farmers became the respectable petty bourgeois class, and the agricultural laborers were added to the ranks of the working class. The stratum of professionals and managers doubled over that period. The number of trade workers and clerks increased 4 times.
Such transformations are characteristic of modern societies: from farm to factory in the early stages of industrialization and from factory to office in the later stages. Today in developed countries, over 50% of the workforce is engaged in knowledge work, compared with 10-15% at the beginning of the century.
During this century, vacancies in industrialized countries declined in the working professions and expanded in the field of management. But managerial vacancies were filled not by representatives of the workers, but by the middle class. However, the number of management jobs has grown faster than the number of middle class children able to fill them. The vacuum formed in the 1950s was partly filled by working youth. This was made possible by the availability of higher education for ordinary Americans.
In the developed capitalist countries, industrialization was completed earlier than in the former socialist countries. (USSR, GDR, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc.). The lag could not but affect the nature of social mobility: in the capitalist countries, the share of leaders and intelligentsia - who come from workers and peasants - is one-third, and in the former socialist countries - three-quarters. In countries such as England, which have long passed the stage of industrialization, the proportion of workers of peasant origin is very low, there are more so-called hereditary workers. On the contrary, in Eastern European countries this share is very high and sometimes reaches 50%.
It is due to structural mobility that the two opposite poles of the professional pyramid turned out to be the least mobile. In the former socialist countries, the most closed were two layers - the layer of top managers and the layer of auxiliary workers located at the bottom of the pyramid - layers that fill the most prestigious and the most not prestigious areas of activity. (Try to answer the question "why?")
