2. SOCIAL MOBILITY
It is the movement of individuals, families, households,
or other categories of people within or between strata
in a society
3. According to Mills, social mobility is the ability of individuals or
groups to move upward or downward in status based on
wealth, occupation, education, or some other social variable
4. Categories of social mobility
Horizontal mobility
Vertical Mobility
lnter-generation Mobility
Intra-generation mobility
5. Horizontal mobility
Horizontal mobility: Social mobility is any change in social position. “it can
be vertical and horizontal in nature. Any change in the physical position of
a person or a group is horizontal mobility
If a bank manager is transferred from one branch to another, It is
horizontal mobility as the social status of the person is not changing.
6. Vertical Mobility
Vertical Mobility: Vertical mobility indicates the movement of an individual
from one social stratum to another level. The movement can be in a
downward or upward direction.
By effort, a clerk becoming a university professor is an indicator of upward
mobility.
A businessman faces a financial crisis and is forced to stop his business
and find a job in a company as a clerk is a downward mobility.
8. Intra-generation mobility
Intra-generation mobility: This indicates social mobility in the
lifespan of a single generation or individual. A person begins his
career as a pharmacist then turns to a doctor and later as
medical director of a hospital is intra-generation mobility.
9. Role of Education in social mobility
1. In many ways education plays a catalyst for mobility
2. It boosts the confidence to make upward mobility
3. It brings the courage to take up new challenging jobs