--------------------Aditya Mongra @ Professors Classes-------------------Sources and causes of social mobility

I.

Structural factors:
1. Expansion of industrial economy
- change in the occupational structure
- agrarian industrial post-industrial
(farming) (manufacturing) (service sector)
- with industrialization and mechanization manual jobs
decline unskilled jobs taken over by machines technical and
high skill jobs require specialized skills and knowledge
- manual labourers and farmers unskilled and less educated
witnessed downward mobility
- For example, in USA in 1900 agricultural workers
constituted 40% of labour force . But, in 2000, agricultural
workers constitute only 4% of the total labour force.
- in the age of globalization international competition even
well educated managers, technicians and other professionals
witnessed downward mobility because of outsourcing of jobs
(BPOs)
- but at the same time, industrialization and the growth of
service sector has led to the diversification of the occupational
structure leading to the creation of numerous high status jobs

2. Government sponsored mass education programmes

- such as National Literacy Mission, etc. opening up various
industrial training institutes (ITIs) for specialized knowledge
and vocational skills
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--------------------Aditya Mongra @ Professors Classes-------------------3. Lower birth rate in higher classes

- as economy expands, more higher positions are created
- but, due to low birth rate, self-recruitment in higher classes is
not sufficient enough
- as a result, people from lower classes get an opportunity to
occupy higher positions so created.

II.

Individual factors (high education, talent, achievement motivation, hard

work, etc.)
Some personal characteristics are achieved, such as education, talent,
motivation and hard work. Others are ascribed, such as family background,
race and gender. As has been suggested, both achieved and ascribed qualities
have a hand in determining the degree of mobility an individual or group
attain in a given society. But the popular belief in equal opportunity would
lead us to expect career success to be attained through achievement more
than ascription. Is achievement then, really the more powerful determining
force in upward mobility?
According to most sociological studies, achievement may appear on
the surface to be the predominant factor, but it is actually subject to the
influence of ascription. It is well known that the more education people
have, the more successful they are in their careers. But the amount of
education people have is related to their family background. Thus, compared
with children from blue-collar families, children from white-collar families
can be expected to get more education and then have a better chance for
career mobility. [Case studies: Jencks et al. (1994), Erickson and Jonsson
(1996)]

III.

Social factors
1. Government policy of redistribution and social justice
- for example, land reforms, reservation policy, etc.
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--------------------Aditya Mongra @ Professors Classes-------------------- has facilitated upward mobility of socially and economically
weaker sections of society in India, such as scheduled castes,
scheduled tribes, other backward classes, etc.
2. Collective mobilization
- in wake of the democratization of societies
- dalit movement, backward class movement (eg. Yadavs of
UP and Bihar), peasant movements, etc.