Social mobility implies that an individual or group moves from one stratum of society to another.
Mobility is mentioned as the characteristic or condition of what is movable : that it can move, either by itself or by receiving an external impulse. The adjective social , meanwhile, refers to that linked to society (a set of individuals who share a culture, interact with each other within a community and live under common guidelines and rules).
The idea of social mobility , in this way, refers to the movement of a person, a family group or a sector within the framework of a certain socioeconomic structure . The “movement” in question generally refers to an improvement in living conditions : subjects, thanks to various factors, manage to move up the stratum or advance in level.
Concept of social mobility
To understand what social mobility is, we must first take into account various notions that are used in the field of sociology . It should be considered that society , for analytical purposes, is usually divided into strata or classes .
This stratification , which appeals to various variables to establish the categories, contributes to the development of economic and social studies. Social classes are generally defined based on income, assets, and access to public services, among other issues.
Those with higher incomes, greater amounts of assets, etc., are part of the upper class . Then, descending the social pyramid , we find the middle class and finally the lower class . Recognizing the existence of social classes implies admitting that there is inequality .
Returning to the idea of social mobility, it assumes that it is possible to move from one class to another. Typically, when talking about social mobility, mention is made of social advancement (from the lower class to the middle class, or from the middle class to the upper class).
Education is a key factor in enabling social mobility.
The importance of education
It is often stated that education is the essential factor of social mobility. It is understood that education equalizes the opportunities that each person has to improve their social status: in theory, someone who trains and acquires knowledge can, thanks to that training, access well-paid jobs.
On the contrary, those who do not manage to enter the educational system or complete their studies are likely to only be able to get precarious and poorly paid jobs . Upward social mobility, in that case, is very difficult.
In any case, it cannot fail to be mentioned that society is a very complex structure. Having a good education is not enough to have a good job; Even with a job that provides a high salary , social mobility may not be achieved.
Social mobility and meritocracy
The system that allows personal and professional growth according to individual merits is called meritocracy . According to this theory , if a person makes an effort, they can rise socially.
However, the effort of those who are part of the lower class is not usually rewarded since sometimes it is not even enough to satisfy basic needs. On the other hand, those who are born into an upper-class family are likely to maintain or multiply wealth without any merit , simply because of the facilities that the capitalist system provides to accumulate more money from the initial money.