Social mobility is one of the pivotal concepts of social stratification. Social mobility reflects the ability for a representative of a particular community to change their socio-economic status.
The main aspects of social mobility processes are direction and channel. Social mobility is characterized by multichannel, but education and professional self-determination are considered the main channels-ways of changing status in modern society.
The directions distinguish horizontal and vertical social mobility. Horizontal social mobility occurs within one social stratum (class in modern society), for example, when a representative of the working class or a top manager change jobs within their competence, which does not lead to a significant increase or decrease in their social status and income.
Vertical social mobility, on the contrary, characterizes a noticeable change in the social and economic status of an individual, and, in turn, can be upward and downward. Rising social mobility proceeds according to the principle of increasing status, for example, when a young person born into a family of workers receives a good education in a scholarship program, and, thanks to brilliant ability and high academic performance, gets a prestigious position. This event automatically moves him to the middle class.
Highly qualified middle-class professionals can also raise their status to the upper class by generating capital from part of the income and acquiring assets that provide a profit, regardless of whether the owner has a profession that brings a regular income. Thus, upward social mobility occurs at all levels of industrial class societies.
Downward social mobility proceeds according to a similar scenario, only in the direction of lowering the social and economic status of a person due to unfavorable life circumstances, both internal and external. For example, during military conflicts, the standard of living and, accordingly, the socio-economic status of the population in the territories where military operations are taking place are significantly reduced.
Internal, personal causes of downward social mobility are physical and mental illnesses, a low general level of an individual's culture, insufficient motivation to improve his status, and others.
According to statistics, the social mobility of the population in modern class societies is limited. This means that only a small part of the population manages to significantly improve their socio-economic status during their life. In other words, the famous expression "from rags to riches" is true for a very small percentage of society. In the overwhelming mass of people, in their lives, they do not go far from the status prescribed by birth, moving either only within their social stratum due to horizontal mobility, or to a vertically adjacent social class.
As an analytical tool, social mobility demonstrates the level of implementation of the principle of equal opportunities in a particular society. Modern research shows that the ideal distribution of opportunities is unattainable, as well as the ideal distribution of any goods.
