social mobility theorists

heckmann & mosso — social mobility

“[social mobility] may be vertical or horizontal, and markers such as class and education are utilised to predict and discuss a person’s mobility or group of persons in society”

aldridge — social mobility definition

“the movement or opportunities for movement between different social groups, and the advantages disadvantages that go with this in terms of: income, security of employment, opportunities for advancement, etc”

goldthorpe — relative mobility

“despite the rise in the number of middle class occupations, the chances of an individual from a working class background moving to the service class, for example, were extremely minimal”.

heath and payne — intergenerational mobility

in the late 1900s, about 40%M and 36%W in the UK experienced upward mobility (in comparison to their fathers) and 13%M and 27%F respectively experienced downward mobility.

giddens

“low rates of social mobility breed higher rates of class solidarity among people. this can change existing class structures if downwardly mobile populations resent their misfortune and demand more opportunities: higher pay, better conditions, etc.”

aldridge

“mobility can tell us a lot about equality of opportunity because a lack of upward mobility ‘implies inequality of opportunity’”.

payne — eval. of goldthorpe

british society and its class structure is not as fixed and impenetrable as goldthorpe presents it to be.

saunders — eval of goldthorpe

society has not changed significantly. asserts that goldthorpe dismissed the importance of high absolute mobility by only emphasising relative rates of mobility.

heath & britten — gender & social mobility

research that showed women’s qualifications having more of a substantial impact on their careers than their husband’s social class positions.

stanworth — gender & social mobility

contrary to popular belief at the time, women can, and do have different careers and therefore class positions than their husbands.

platt — ethnicity & social mobility

some minorities are more upwardly mobile than others, e.g., afro-caribbean, indian, and chinese groups. however, migrants were more likely to achieve this than non-migrants, and was more so the case for men than women.