Open Library - an open library of educational information. Types of mobility

The concept of social mobility means the movement of individuals (sometimes groups) between different positions in the hierarchy of social stratification, associated with a change in their status.

According to P. Sorokin’s definition, “social mobility is understood as any transition of an individual... from one social position to another.” There are two main types of social mobility - intergenerational and intragenerational, as well as two main types - vertical and horizontal. They, in turn, fall into subspecies and subtypes, which are closely related to each other.

Intergenerational mobility suggests that children reach the highest social position or fall to a lower position than their parents. Example: a worker's son becomes a professor.

Intragenerational mobility occurs where the same individual changes social positions several times throughout his life. Otherwise it is called a social career. Example: a turner becomes an engineer, and then a workshop manager, a plant director, and a minister.

Vertical mobility implies movement from one stratum (estate, class, caste) to another.

Depending on the direction of movement, there is upward mobility (social ascent) and downward mobility (social descent, downward movement).

Promotion is an example of upward mobility, while demotion is an example of downward mobility.

Horizontal mobility implies the transition of an individual from one social group to another located at the same level.

An example is the movement of one labor collective to another, from one citizenship to another, from one family (parental) to another (one’s own, newly formed), from one profession to another. Such movements occur without a noticeable change in social position in the vertical direction.

44.Social mobility in open and closed societies.

In a traditional society, the number of high-status positions remained approximately constant, so there was moderate downward mobility of offspring from high-status families. Feudal society is characterized by a very small number of vacancies for high positions for those who had low status.

Industrial society has expanded the range of mobility. It is characterized by a much larger number of different statuses. The first decisive factor in social mobility is the level of economic development. During periods of economic depression, the number of high-status positions decreases and low-status positions expand, so downward mobility dominates. It intensifies during periods when people lose their jobs and at the same time new layers enter the labor market. On the contrary, during periods of active economic development, many new high-status positions appear. Increased demand for workers to keep them busy is the main reason for upward mobility.

In an industrial society, which sociologists classify as an open society, individual merits and achieved status are valued above all. In such a society, the level of social mobility is quite high.

Sociologists also note the following pattern: the wider the opportunities for upward mobility, the stronger people believe in the availability of channels of vertical mobility for them, and the more they believe in this, the more they strive to advance, i.e. the higher the level of social mobility in society. And, conversely, in a class society, people do not believe in the possibility of changing their status without wealth, pedigree or the patronage of the monarch.

Portability, transportability, transportability, mobility, maneuverability; liquidity, nonstationarity. Ant. immobility, stability, stability Dictionary of Russian synonyms. mobility see maneuverability Dictionary ... Synonym dictionary

mobility- and, f. mobile adj. 1. economical The average percentage of mobility of all Länder during the year is approximately 3%. Cadet Congresses 3 (1) 27. 2. Mobility; ability to quickly navigate. I... don't have many of the things needed for this position... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

A measure of the ability of a production factor to move between spheres of use. In English: Mobility See also: Factors of production Financial Dictionary Finam... Financial Dictionary

- (from Latin mobilis mobile) mobility, ability to move quickly, act... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

MOBILE, oh, oh; flax, flax. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

English mobility; German Mobilitat. Mobility, the ability to quickly change state, position. Antinazi. Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2009 ... Encyclopedia of Sociology

mobility- Efficiency of transportation of passengers or cargo. Can be expressed by parameters such as speed, capacity and efficiency of movement. [Department of Linguistic Services of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee. Glossary of terms] EN mobility Refers… … Technical Translator's Guide

Software portability- A measure of the ease with which software can be modified for use in an environment other than the one in which it was originally implemented Source... Dictionary-reference book of terms of normative and technical documentation

mobility- The state or ability to be mobile, applies to people who readily change their place of residence or work in search of better earnings, or to a specific person and his household when changing social and property... ... Dictionary of Geography

Mobility- (from Latin mobilis mobile), mobility, ability to move quickly, act. ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• Mobility and stability in the Russian labor market. Monograph, Gimpelson Vladimir Efimovich, Vishnevskaya Nina Timofeevna, Kapelyushnikov Rostislav Isaakovich, Voskoboynikov Ilya Borisovich. The book continues the series of monographs by the Center for Labor Studies of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, dedicated to the Russian labor market (“Non-standard employment in the Russian economy” (2005), “Wages in…
• Mobility and stability in the Russian labor market, Gimpelson V.E.. The book continues the series of monographs by the Center for Labor Research of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, dedicated to the Russian labor market (“Non-standard employment in the Russian economy” (2005),” Wages in…

Thanks to social mobility, members of society can change their status within society. This phenomenon has many features and characteristics. The nature of social mobility varies depending on the characteristics of a particular country.

Concept of social mobility

What is social mobility? This is a person changing his place in the structure of society. An individual can move from one social group to another. This type of mobility is called vertical mobility. At the same time, a person can change his position within the same social stratum. This is a different type of mobility – horizontal. Displacement takes many forms—a rise or fall in prestige, a change in income, or advancement up the career ladder. Such events have a serious impact on a person’s behavior, as well as his relationships with other people, attitudes and interests.

The types of mobility described above took modern forms after the emergence of industrial society. The ability to change your position in society is an important sign of progress. The opposite case is represented by conservative and class societies where castes exist. A person, as a rule, is assigned to such a group from birth to death. The best known is the Indian caste system. With reservations, similar orders existed in medieval feudal Europe, where there was a great social gap between the poor and the rich.

History of the phenomenon

The emergence of vertical mobility became possible after the start of industrialization. About three hundred years ago, the industrial development of European countries accelerated significantly, which led to the growth of the proletarian class. At the same time, states around the world (with varying degrees of success) began to introduce a system of accessible education. It is precisely this that has become and still is the main channel of vertical social mobility.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of the population of any country were workers without qualifications (or with the rudiments of general education). At the same time, mechanization and automation of production took place. The new type of economy required more and more highly qualified personnel. It is this need that explains the increase in the number of educational institutions, and therefore opportunities for social growth.

Mobility and economics

One of the features of an industrial society is that mobility in it is determined by the structure of the economy. In other words, opportunities for climbing the social ladder depend not only on a person’s personal qualities (his professionalism, energy, etc.), but also on how different sectors of the country’s economy are interconnected.

Mobility is not possible everywhere. It is an attribute of a society that has given its citizens equal opportunities. And although there are no absolutely equal conditions in any country, many modern states continue to move towards this ideal.

Individual and group mobility

In each country, the types and types of mobility are presented differently. Society can selectively raise some individuals up the social ladder and lower others. This is a natural process. For example, talented and professional people must replace more mediocre ones and receive their high status. The lift can be individual or group. These types of mobility differ in the number of individuals changing their status.

In the individual case, a person can increase his prestige in society thanks to his talents and hard work (for example, becoming a famous musician or receiving a prestigious education). Group mobility is associated with much more complex processes that cover a significant part of society. A striking example of such a phenomenon could be changes in the prestige of the engineering profession or a decline in the popularity of the party, which will certainly affect the position of the members of this organization.

Infiltration

In order to achieve a change in his position in society, an individual needs to make certain efforts. Vertical mobility becomes possible only if a person is able to overcome all the barriers that lie between different social strata. As a rule, climbing the social ladder occurs due to the individual's ambitions and need for his own success. Any type of mobility is necessarily associated with a person’s energy and his desire to change his status.

Infiltration, which exists in every society, weeds out people who have not made enough efforts to change their social stratum. The German scientist Kurt Lewin even developed his own formula, which can be used to determine the probability of a particular person’s rise in the social hierarchy. In the theory of this psychologist and sociologist, the most important variable is the energy of the individual. Vertical mobility also depends on the social conditions in which a person lives. If he meets all the requirements of society, then he will be able to pass infiltration.

The inevitability of mobility

There are at least two reasons for the existence of the phenomenon of social mobility. Firstly, any society invariably changes in the process of its historical development. New features may appear gradually, or they may appear instantly, as happens in the case of revolutions. One way or another, in any society new statuses undermine and replace old ones. This process is accompanied by changes in the distribution of labor, benefits and responsibilities.

Secondly, even in the most inert and stagnant societies, no force can control the natural distribution of abilities and talents. This principle continues to apply even if the elite or power has monopolized and limited the availability of education. Therefore, there is always the possibility that the upper layer will at least periodically be replenished by worthy people “from below.”

Mobility by generation

Researchers identify another characteristic by which social mobility is determined. Generation can serve as this measure. What explains this pattern? The history of the development of very different societies shows that the position of people of different generations (for example, children and parents) not only can differ, but, as a rule, is different. Data from Russia supports this theory. On average, with each new generation, residents of the former USSR and the Russian Federation gradually rose and are climbing up the social ladder. This pattern also occurs in many other modern countries.

Thus, while listing the types of mobility, we must not forget about intergenerational mobility, an example of which is described above. In order to determine progress on this scale, it is enough to compare the position of two people at a certain point in their career development at approximately the same age. The measure in this case is rank in the profession. If, for example, the father at the age of 40 was the head of a workshop, and the son at this age became the director of the plant, then this is intergenerational growth.

Factors

Sluggish and gradual mobility can have many factors. An important example in this series is the resettlement of people from agricultural areas to cities. International migration has played a serious role in the history of all mankind, especially since the 19th century, when it covered the whole world.

It was in this century that huge masses of the peasant population of Europe moved to the United States. You can also give an example of the colonial expansion of some empires of the Old World. The seizure of new territories and the subjugation of entire peoples was fertile ground for the rise of some people and the sliding down the social ladder of others.

Consequences

If horizontal mobility for the most part affects only a specific individual or group of people, then vertical mobility entails much larger consequences that are difficult to measure. There are two opposing points of view on this matter.

The first says that any examples of upward mobility destroy the class structure of society and make it more homogeneous. This theory has both supporters and opponents. On the other hand, there is a point of view according to which a high level of social mobility only strengthens the system of social strata. This happens for the simple reason that people who find themselves at a higher level of position become interested in preserving class differences and contradictions.

Speed

According to sociological science, the main types of social mobility have an indicator of their own speed. With its help, experts give a quantitative assessment of this phenomenon in each specific case. Speed ​​is the distance that an individual travels in a certain period of time. It is measured in professional, political or economic strata.

For example, one university graduate managed to become the head of a department at his enterprise in four years of his career. At the same time, his classmate, who graduated from the university with him, became an engineer by the end of the same period. In this case, the speed of social mobility of the first graduate is higher than that of his friend. This indicator can be influenced by a variety of factors - personal aspiration, a person’s qualities, as well as his environment and circumstances related to working in the company. A high rate of social mobility may also be inherent in processes opposite to those described above, if we are talking about a person who has lost his job.

Intensity

Considering 2 types of mobility (horizontal and vertical), we can determine the number of individuals changing their position in society. In different countries this indicator gives different figures. The greater the number of these people, the higher the intensity of social mobility. Like speed, this indicator demonstrates the nature of internal transformations in society.

If we are talking about the actual number of individuals, then the absolute intensity is determined. In addition, it can also be relative. This is the name of intensity, determined by the proportion of individuals who have changed their position from the total number of members of society. Modern science gives different estimates of the importance of this indicator. The combination of intensity and speed of social mobility determines the overall mobility index. With its help, scientists can easily compare the state of different societies.

The future of mobility

Today, in Western and economically developed societies, horizontal mobility is gaining significant proportions. This is due to the fact that in such countries (for example, Western Europe and the USA) society is becoming increasingly classless. The differences between layers are blurred. This is facilitated by a developed system of accessible education. In rich countries, anyone can study, regardless of their background. The only important criterion is his interest, talent and ability to acquire new knowledge.

There is another reason why the former social mobility is no longer relevant in modern post-industrial society. Moving up becomes increasingly conditional if you take income and financial well-being as the determining factor. Today, a stable and wealthy society can introduce social benefits (as is done in the Scandinavian countries). They smooth out contradictions between people at different levels of the social ladder. This is how the boundaries between traditional classes are erased.

Scientific definition

Social mobility- a change by an individual or group in the place occupied in the social structure (social position), movement from one social stratum (class, group) to another (vertical mobility) or within the same social stratum (horizontal mobility). Sharply limited in a caste and estate society, social mobility increases significantly in an industrial society.

Horizontal mobility

Horizontal mobility- the transition of an individual from one social group to another, located at the same level (example: moving from an Orthodox to a Catholic religious group, from one citizenship to another). There is a distinction between individual mobility - the movement of one person independently of others, and group mobility - movement occurs collectively. In addition, geographic mobility is distinguished - moving from one place to another while maintaining the same status (example: international and interregional tourism, moving from city to village and back). As a type of geographic mobility, the concept of migration is distinguished - moving from one place to another with a change in status (example: a person moved to a city for permanent residence and changed profession). And it is similar to castes.

Vertical mobility

Vertical mobility- moving a person up or down the career ladder.

• Upward mobility- social rise, upward movement (For example: promotion).
• Downward mobility- social descent, downward movement (For example: demotion).

Social elevator

Social elevator- a concept similar to vertical mobility, but more often used in the modern context of discussing the theory of elites as one of the means of rotation of the ruling elite.

Generational mobility

Intergenerational mobility is a comparative change in social status among different generations (example: a worker's son becomes president).

Intragenerational mobility (social career) - a change in status within one generation (example: a turner becomes an engineer, then a shop manager, then a plant director). Vertical and horizontal mobility are influenced by gender, age, birth rate, death rate, and population density. In general, men and the young are more mobile than women and the elderly. Overpopulated countries more often experience the consequences of emigration (relocation from one country to another due to economic, political, personal circumstances) than immigration (moving to a region for permanent or temporary residence of citizens from another region). Where the birth rate is high, the population is younger and therefore more mobile, and vice versa.

Literature

• Social mobility- article from the Newest Philosophical Dictionary
• Sorokin R. A. Social and cultural mobility. - N. Y. - L., 1927.
• Glass D.V. Social mobility in Britain. - L., 1967.

Wikimedia Foundation.

• 2010.
• Pletink, Joseph

Amsterdam (album)

Social mobility See what “Social mobility” is in other dictionaries: - (social mobility) Movement from one class (class) or, more often, from a group with a certain status to another class, to another group. Social mobility, both between generations and within the professional activities of individuals, is...

Political science. Dictionary. SOCIAL MOBILITY - change by an individual or group of social position, place occupied in the social structure. S. m. is connected both with the action of the laws of societies. development, class struggle, causing the growth of some classes and groups and the decrease... ...

Political science. Dictionary. Philosophical Encyclopedia - SOCIAL mobility, a change by an individual or group in the place occupied in the social structure, movement from one social stratum (class, group) to another (vertical mobility) or within the same social stratum... ...

Political science. Dictionary. Modern encyclopedia Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Social mobility- a change by an individual or group in the place occupied in the social structure, movement from one social stratum (class, group) to another (vertical mobility) or within the same social stratum (horizontal mobility).... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Political science. Dictionary.- a concept by which social movements of people are designated in the direction of social positions characterized by a higher (social ascent) or lower (social degradation) level of income, prestige and degree... ... The latest philosophical dictionary

Political science. Dictionary.- see SOCIAL MOBILITY. Antinazi. Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2009 ... Encyclopedia of Sociology

Political science. Dictionary.- SOCIAL MOBILITY, a term used (along with the concepts of social movement and social mobility) in sociology, demography and economics. sciences to designate the transitions of individuals from one class, social group and strata to another,... ... Demographic Encyclopedic Dictionary

Political science. Dictionary.- (vertical mobility) See: mobility of labor. Business. Dictionary. M.: INFRA M, Ves Mir Publishing House. Graham Betts, Barry Brindley, S. Williams and others. General editor: Ph.D. Osadchaya I.M.. 1998 ... Dictionary of business terms

Social mobility- a personal quality acquired in the process of educational activities and expressed in the ability to quickly master new realities in various spheres of life, find adequate ways to resolve unforeseen problems and implement... ... Official terminology

Books

• Sports and social mobility. Crossing Borders, Spaaii Ramon. Great athletes, Olympic champions, famous football players, hockey players or racing drivers are known all over the world. There is no doubt that the sport that became their profession made them famous and rich. A…

Migration mobility of the population has a positive and negative impact on society: on the economy, politics, and spiritual life. The Mongol invasion had a huge impact on the fate of Russia. In particular, we borrowed an autocratic political structure from the Horde. As a result of the war of 1812-1814, the Russian nobility became infected with the ideas of the French Revolution, which resulted in a military mutiny in December 1825. Soviet soldiers who liberated Europe from Nazism discovered that people lived better lives not under socialism.

The mechanisms of social mobility are different in different countries.

IN Soviet (socialist) society did not have economic classes in the precise meaning of the word. Under conditions of state ownership of the means of production, the main sign of economic class is absent - the attitude towards property. In Soviet society, there were the following social classes, depending on their location in the power hierarchy:

• nomenklatura (ruling);
• bureaucracy (executive);
• proletariat (workers) - workers, employees, collective farmers, including actual slaves in the Gulag.

In 1989, T. Zaslavskaya and R. Ryvki identified the following Soviet societies:

• imperious, differing in character (party, state, economic) authorities;
• related to spheres and sectors of the national economy (military, public utilities, etc.);
• economic managers differing in the rank of power (heads of associations, enterprises, divisions);
• intelligentsia, differing in their profile (engineering, creative, etc.);
• declassed.

The mechanism of social mobility in Soviet (political) society was of a state-distributive nature and included the following methods. Firstly, the nomenklatura mechanism: a significant part of the leading employees were appointed by the party committees of the appropriate level and were subordinate to them. Thus, workers at the district level were appointed and subordinate to the district committee of the Communist Party. Secondly, repressions against “enemies of the people” (enemies of Soviet society) and entire nations, which resulted in rapid displacement of people. Stalin perfectly understood the role of repression as a mechanism of social mobility for the “removal from circulation” of “spent personnel.” Thirdly, the “construction sites of communism”, where masses of people moved: virgin lands, BAM and others. During the years of Brezhnev's “stagnation,” social mobility slowed down as a result of the focus on stabilizing personnel and mitigating repression (started under Khrushchev). Social mobility remained high in the scientific and educational sphere, where new opportunities arose as a result of the STR (“scientific and technological revolution”).

Western (capitalist and social democratic) societies have the following socio-professional structure at the industrial stage of development:

• the highest class of professional managers (managers);
• mid-level technical specialists;
• commercial grade;
• petty bourgeoisie;
• technicians and workers with managerial functions;
• skilled workers;
• unskilled workers;
• unemployed.

Social mobility in Western societies is characterized by significant speed and intensity in the economic, professional and political spheres. The main mechanism of social mobility is competition in all spheres of society, aimed at results - efficiency. In the economic sphere, there are rapid and intense movements vertically and horizontally, due to the ruin and unemployment of some and the success and high earnings of others. In the political sphere, the mechanism of social mobility is elections, which result in the movement of persons and political parties. Territorial mobility is associated with the movement of masses of the population in search of work. Due to the high standard of living in Western countries, many people from other countries are eager to move there to live and work. As a result, especially in the United States, a country of migrants, entire ethnic areas are emerging.

In post-Soviet Russia The following strata can be distinguished depending on power, wealth, education, and the nature of work:

• ruling group (politicians and financiers);
• “new Russians” (new Russian bourgeoisie);
• petty bourgeoisie (“shuttle traders”, farmers, entrepreneurs);
• production workers;
• intellectual workers;
• peasants, etc.

Thus, we have approached the western one.

Post-Soviet Russia is distinguished by a significant aggregate mobility index, mainly downward and horizontal. The above applies to the army, school, property, family, church, etc. Many people have become impoverished, as a result of which there is a danger of a social explosion. Large groups of people from CIS countries, where the standard of living is lower than in Russia, move to work and live with us. This creates many interethnic and social problems.

Globalization, as a distinctive feature of the modern world, is characterized by a very significant migration of people from undeveloped countries to developed ones. Millions of people are fleeing countries with mass unemployment to find unskilled jobs and a higher standard of living. In many countries of the world, including Russia, construction workers in large numbers are migrants.

“Modern immigration,” writes Christopher Coker, “is a phenomenon that threatens to split Western society rather than unite it, as it did in the 1930s.”<...>Both the United States and Europe are already multiethnic and multiracial societies. The beginning of the 21st century will show whether they accept cultural diversity as the basis of their identity.” Concerns in this regard are caused by neo-Nazi parties, which were able to attract about 10 percent of the vote in France, Austria and other countries. This remark also applies to Russia.

The essence of social mobility

Social mobility as a factor in the dynamization of stratification processes

The status-layer hierarchy of different societies and different eras has some common characteristics. Thus, in any society, people with mental labor generally occupy more privileged positions than people with manual labor; highly qualified workers acquire higher status positions than unskilled workers. In every society there are also layers of poor and rich. Moreover, the higher a social class is located in the social hierarchy, the more barriers there are for those who would like to penetrate it from the outside. In the historical practice of many countries, it was not uncommon to have low-permeability social groups, whose entire way of life and activities seemed to be closed in on themselves, being fenced off by social barriers from the lower strata. Nevertheless, processes of social mobility have always developed in society, providing a person with the opportunity to change his status position for the better.

P. Sorokin defines social mobility like any transition of an individual or social object (value), i.e. everything that is created or modified by human activity, from one social position to another.

It should be added to the above definition that in some cases a person makes this transition without excessive effort (changes place of residence or work), in others the transition occurs due to natural reasons arising from a person’s life cycles (a transition is made from one age group to another). But in the overwhelming majority of life situations, a person has to make a lot of conscious efforts to change his social status, especially if we are talking about the desire to improve it. However, there are a number of human qualities that are determined biologically, which makes it impossible to change social position (race, gender).

Processes of social mobility are formed from the purposeful activity of people to achieve life goals, and are also supported both by social self-organization (traditional prohibitions and incentives, family relationships, amateur forms of life, morals), and systemic-institutional structures - legal regulators, the educational system, various ways of stimulating labor activity on the part of the state, church, professional and corporate environment, etc. Taken together, these factors and prerequisites that support the processes of social mobility provide many opportunities for different groups to vary their actions to achieve the required status position. At the same time, society is objectively interested in ensuring that, on the one hand, there is no acute confrontation of group interests, specific lines of behavior of people, and on the other hand, there is an active exchange of social energy and spiritual resources, especially in those situations where the need for such activation is repeated increases.

In any society, there is a certain balance in the processes of social mobility, balancing the contradictory tendencies within them. Thus, various forms of social assistance are aimed at representatives of lower groups that can alleviate their disadvantage. In turn, representatives of prestigious strata (powerful, professional, gender, etc.) strive to distinguish themselves as social entities and preserve the signs of their high status. In various ways, many social obstacles are erected to prevent people from lower strata from entering the privileged ranks. One should also take into account the effect of objective restrictions characteristic of the integral functioning of an economic or social organism: society at a certain stage of development needs a certain proportion of people of specific professions, large owners, senior government officials, etc. It is impossible to arbitrarily exceed a certain volume of these occupations and status positions , no matter how people try to improve the mechanisms of social mobility.

But at the same time, in the flow of social interactions there are always opposite tendencies leading to the weakening of the existing situation or to its renewal. The specific mechanism of this loosening can be understood from the example of the problematization of the living conditions of individual groups, from the desire of people to achieve more in life than their parents. The transformation of mass value orientations, as well as the life problems that arise for many people in the process of social activity, confront them with the need to look for opportunities to change their social status. Therefore, many of them strive to overcome obstacles and make the transition to a more prestigious group.

Historical practice shows that there were no societies with absolutely impenetrable partitions between social classes and layers, nor with a complete absence of such partitions. Different societies differ only in the degree, forms, and mechanisms of permeability of social barriers. One of the most stable stratification structures in the form of caste division can be found in India. However, in ancient times, and even more so today, channels and mechanisms (sometimes barely noticeable) are preserved, making the transition from one layer to another possible.

The position of some researchers has not been confirmed, which boils down to the fact that social progress and democratization of society in our time inevitably lead to the elimination of obstacles to the transition of people to more privileged groups. Sociologists have repeatedly proven using massive material that democratic changes in a particular society do not mean an absolute reduction, but only the replacement of one type of social interference with others. Nowadays, using the example of open societies, Western researchers come to this conclusion. Thus, the American researcher L. Duberman states that in the last 100 years “in terms of greater openness or closedness, the American class structure has remained relatively unchanged.” Similar conclusions were obtained by researcher B. Schaefer from Germany, French sociologist D. Marceau, and the British J. Goldthor and F. Beaven.

The statements of researchers about social stability and even a certain immobility of social proportions in developed Western countries should be understood in the sense that the hierarchical structure that has been developing in them for centuries cannot be transformed quickly and, most importantly, in a unilateral direction. Under the influence of social factors, both unfavorable (wars, revolutions) and favorable (modernization, economic growth), this structure experiences fluctuations in one direction or the other. Thus, it is modified, but on the whole keeping the range of hierarchy and the length of social distances between layers unchanged. We can say that at different stages of development of a particular society, in different historical situations, the processes of social mobility can differ markedly from each other, but their variability occurs around certain limits and principles, which are determined, on the one hand, by historical tradition, on the other - by social needs in a certain period of time. If we compare the processes of social mobility in different countries, and especially in societies of different types of development and unequal civilizational affiliations, then we can see their noticeable difference from each other.

Types of social mobility

Nowadays, as before, the initial stage of social mobility is similar for all people: at birth, a child receives the social status of his parents, the so-called ascriptive, or prescribed status. Parents, relatives and people close to the family pass on to the child those norms of behavior, ideas about what is proper and prestigious that prevail in their environment. However, during the active period of life, a person is often not satisfied with his position in his stratum, achieving more. In this case, researchers say that the person changes his previous status and acquires a new one. achieved status. Thus, he became involved in the processes upward mobility.

Let us highlight cases when representatives of social groups have a prescribed status that cannot be changed at will alone (division of people by gender, race, age). For representatives of such groups, social mobility is often difficult due to social discrimination embedded in a given society. In this situation, group members can seek to change public stereotypes in relation to themselves and through initiative actions, demand expansion of the channels of their social mobility.

At the same time, in modern society, many people experience upward professional mobility through choosing a particular profession, achieving a high level of qualifications and professional education, changing professions and leaving for a highly paid field of work or a more prestigious job, through moving to a new place of work in another city or in another country. Often people change their status outside the professional sphere - in this case, upward mobility can be realized through changing their marital status, the support of relatives and friends.

Sociologists also highlight downward social mobility. We are talking about the loss of many advantages of the previous status and the transition of a person to a social group of a lower level. People usually encounter this type of mobility due to unfavorable or unavoidable circumstances, for example, during an economic crisis, upon reaching retirement age, as well as due to illness or disability. The situation of downward mobility is regarded by society as undesirable for a person, therefore, within the family and state institutions, many ways are being developed to smooth out its severity and reduce its scale - family support, the social insurance and pension system, social charity and trusteeship.

In addition to the identified two types of social mobility, which are vertical(directed up or down), science considers a number of other varieties of it. Let's point out horizontal mobility associated with a person’s change of place of work, place of residence, position, but without a change in status rank. In this case, an important form of social mobility is also carried out, which allows one to solve, for example, some personal problems, expands the social opportunities of people with an eye to the future, and enriches their professional experience.

The types of social mobility discussed above can exist both in the form of chaotic individual movements, and in the form of directed collective-group transformations. In other words, in some conditions individual mobility takes place, often acquiring a random or chaotic character, while in others it is realized as similar collective movements. During the period of radical transformations, entire strata and social groups change their social status, demonstrating the so-called structural mobility, which is prepared and occurs under the influence of many factors, spontaneously, through the transformation of the entire society. Thus, European revolutions were accompanied by the departure of the old aristocracy from the social scene, which opened up ample opportunities for the bourgeoisie, as well as the intellectual elite, to show their activity. In the conditions of evolutionary development in the 1960-1980s. In the USSR, a number of professional strata experienced a gradual status transformation. Some of them lost their positions (teachers, engineers, scientists), others gained them (workers in the banking and service sectors, lawyers), which was clearly reflected in the dynamics of the professional orientations of young people of these decades. A decrease in status positions in some groups and an increase in others were indicators of structural mobility, testifying to hidden shifts in the social structure, which sooner or later should have manifested themselves in the transformation of the entire social organism.

Closely related to individual and collective-group movements are two more types of social mobility: mobility based on voluntary movements of people within groups and between groups, as well as mobility that is objectively inevitable, if necessary forced, caused by structural changes in various spheres of social practice - in economics, political practice, demography.

Finally, we should stop at intrageneration(intragenerational) and intergenerational(intergenerational) mobility, which indicate a change in social status both within certain age cohorts and from parents to children. Changes of this kind are determined by traditions, the historical situation that determines this or that serious shift in a given society, and the geopolitical position of the country. Thus, other things being equal, intergenerational mobility in modern English society is slower than in the United States, which is explained by the unequal role of traditions in preserving the younger generation’s belonging to their class or layer. At the same time, the uniqueness of the processes of social mobility in the United States has always been determined by the large-scale flow of immigrants from the Old World and other regions of the world. In Japan, intergenerational status positions have been transforming more rapidly over the past 50 years than in the second half of the 19th century, which is associated with the active inclusion of the country in modern world dynamics.

Social mobility in unequal conditions of social development

Mobility in evolutionary conditions of development

Above, attention was drawn to the balance and correspondence of various processes of social mobility to each other in the conditions of evolutionary development. In such a situation remains low scale of social mobility - it is determined through the percentage of people who changed the status they inherited from their parents. At this time, adult children for the most part do not go beyond the social status of their parents. But even in the case of leaving the status belonging to their parents, some workers remain throughout their lives in the social position from which they began independent labor activity, while others move one or two steps higher. Under these conditions, it is rare that someone will be able to immediately move up several levels of their career and well-being in a short period of time.

Currently, the processes of social mobility in modern Western society are experiencing a special state. The very social structure of a developed society is based on the strength of the middle class, remaining generally relatively stable. However, the middle class itself, integrating 60-75% of the population, has probably reached the limits of its size. Social vertical mobility in Western European countries over the past 30 years has been characterized by the following features. There was an equalization of the chances of vertical mobility for representatives of different groups. Children of workers, thanks to social assistance from the state, could even in some ways outstrip the children of employees. Women's mobility increased. Intellectual activity became widespread, which contributed to the decline in the status of intellectuals themselves. The revolution in education allowed a significant number of citizens to receive training in secondary vocational and higher schools, but quality education became increasingly rare and inaccessible everywhere. As a result, in the last decade of the 20th century. over 50% of people aged 30-60 years had a higher education than their parents. But at the same time, their social status was lower or the same as that of their parents. The described situation in developed Western countries indicates a kind of stoppage of the social elevator, the destruction of important steps in the mechanism of vertical mobility.

The migration of guest workers from different countries of the world, whose share among the population of some countries is 7-13%, also poses a significant danger to the functioning of the mechanisms of social mobility and stratification in the West. At the first stages of this migration (in the 70-80s of the 20th century), it was assumed that foreign labor would smooth out the imbalances in the social structure of Western European countries, replenishing the layers of manual workers with low qualifications and gradually integrating into European culture. However, this did not happen. Even in the second and third generations, people from Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa do not want (and in many ways cannot) turn into average citizens of Western countries due to their racial and anthropological qualities and cultural and religious orientations. In many large cities of the West there are now neighborhoods inhabited by representatives of non-European ethnic groups, among whom there is a much higher level of unemployment, people without certain occupations, and with a low level of education. In such neighborhoods, rules of behavior and moral requirements reign that are in many ways different from the culture of the dominant majority. Marginalized groups often emerge here, consisting of aggressive young people who can take out their unmotivated violence on residents of neighborhoods with an indigenous population. All this, of course, aggravates the costs of the mechanisms of social mobility and stratification in developed Western countries.

Mobility in the context of industrialization

In the last 100-200 years, many societies have entered a period of more intensive development associated with the renewal of the economy and social practices. In this case, the processes of social mobility also began to change, accelerating, in turn, modernization changes. At this time, there was an intensive destruction of the previous characteristics of social mobility, replacing them with new qualities. Let us first consider the transformation of the processes of social mobility, in which the tendencies of their constructive renewal come to the fore.

Update functions are particularly noticeable during certain periods. industrialization, through which all Western countries passed in modern times. In the last hundred-plus years, many non-European countries have experienced the stage of industrialization, modernizing their economy, social relations, and traditional culture. In Russia, industrialization processes, which began in the last third of the 19th century, developed most intensively from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s. and ended generally by the 1970s. Let us characterize the most important trends in social mobility characteristic of processes of this kind.

In the course of industrialization, mainly forced mass migration of people from rural areas to cities occurs. Commodity and industrial production is emerging both in cities and villages, which then rapidly expands its scale, stimulating the introduction of new labor technologies. All this, in turn, leads to the emergence of new professions and specialties, differentiates the qualifications of workers, which is accompanied by an increase in the educational level of the population, an increase in people's awareness, and an expansion of their ideological horizon. The ways of socializing children and youth are changing. Serious transformations are taking place in family relationships, everyday life, methods of recreation and recovery. In short, the entire way of life of the population is radically changing. Generations of children, and especially grandchildren, live in completely different conditions than their fathers and grandfathers. Thus, the scale of mobility in these conditions increases noticeably - over the course of 50-100 years there has been a constant increase in the proportion of the population that does not repeat the status of its parents, reaching at peak points of the intensity of social movements their volume equal to 60-75%.

Of course, over these years there may be production declines, political crises, and social clashes. But if the state policy of industrialization is thought out and implemented successfully, then the development of society remains stable, and at the same time, diverse ways for people to climb the social ladder appear. Millions of people are drawn into these processes, which, as a rule, cover the active period of life (it is equal to 25-30 years) of several generations. These shifts play a generally constructive role in renewing social development, although at certain stages of industrialization serious humanitarian costs inevitably make themselves felt. Among the latter, we will point out such phenomena as the massive weakening of previous ties that consolidated the population, including those on which economic, family and household relations were based, the imbalance of collective interactions between representatives of new and former professional strata, as well as the increase in the scale of marginality .

Special mention should be made of the increase during the period of industrialization of the phenomenon social marginality. Marginality can be understood in a narrow and broad sense. In a narrow sense, it is associated with the incomplete, partial, intermediate nature of the social roles of any group or individual. But in this case, the emphasis is on the interpretation of marginality as a broad social phenomenon into which thousands and sometimes millions of people are drawn. (See Chapter 9.) Processes of industrial transformation lead to a dramatic restructuring of society, which integrates—partly voluntarily, partly forcedly—huge masses of people into social mobility. For some, the new status turns out to be descending, while others acquire it in the process of moving up the status ladder.

But everywhere this movement generates structural marginality, which is associated with the massive loss of entire layers of their previous status, the severance of habitual connections, changes in the social environment, which one way or another turns people into marginalized- persons who, in their new situation, are deprived of stable value guidelines, social roots, and understanding of what is happening, even if they have improved their status. If a balanced social policy is pursued and a certain balance between traditional and new layers continues to be maintained in the processes of stratification, then the scale of marginalization is not capable of seriously destabilizing society. In this case, the new stratification order is consolidated faster than the old one disintegrates.

It should be emphasized that social mobility during the industrialization period, while having common features of development in different countries, still does not acquire a universal character. In each society, these processes are determined by the specific situation that develops in a particular period of development and are closely intertwined with elements of tradition. All this makes it possible to neutralize the rapidity of the transition of huge masses of people from one social layer to another and the severity of integration into modern economic dynamics.

Let us refer to the experience of Japan. In large Japanese firms, permanent employees are subject to a lifetime employment system and the principle of seniority for promotion. Lifetime employment means that the employee is hired by the company for the entire working period of his life. In turn, the company’s management guarantees his employment during a crisis, when he fires that part of the staff that is not covered by this system. Thus, the employee has confidence in the future and a fairly stable financial position, including assistance from the company to solve his family problems (for example, purchasing housing, educating children). The principle of seniority for promotion is due to the fact that the company has strict principles for increasing the status of an employee depending on work experience (i.e., age), under which it is often impossible even to move from one category of employees to another. Within the company there are also limits to career growth, its own scale of salary increases, severance pay, duration of paid leave, etc. These mobility mechanisms operate only in large Japanese companies. Other countries may have different systems for selecting and retaining good workers, aimed at mitigating social costs in the face of dramatic social transformations.

Mobility in crisis conditions of social development

Now let us consider the state of social mobility processes in conditions social destruction, social crises. The systematic destruction of the mechanisms of layer formation and social mobility, which is systematically occurring in different countries, was of great interest in his time to P. Sorokin, who experienced a similar situation during the period of the Russian Revolution and the Civil War. Under these conditions, massive downward mobility of many layers occurs and a flat stratification profile—almost without upper layers—is formed. Sorokin believed that such a massive “disorder” of the mechanisms of stratification and mobility occurs spontaneously on a societal scale, as a response of the social system to the hypertrophied nature of these processes at the previous stage.

Similar situations of general destruction also occur during periods of economic depression, as a result of the failure and failure of modernization reforms, as well as in conditions of war, revolution, prolonged political and national clashes, which indicate the loss of society’s mobilization-aaptive abilities to adequately respond to internal and external danger. These situations give rise to social instability, which, as a rule, is accompanied by an unfavorable transformation of the employment structure, an increase in the proportion of unemployed, mass impoverishment of the bulk of the population, and an increase in diseases and mortality rates. This often results in an increase in internal migration of people and the appearance of refugees and internally displaced persons. All this, in turn, destroys people’s previous value and semantic orientations and is accompanied by the spread of social anomie.

In such conditions, social mobility and stratification processes are extremely unstable and largely depend on a set of transient factors. Thus, random people or even representatives of criminal structures can achieve high positions. The scale of structural marginalization in this situation can be many times greater than that which arises in the context of industrialization. Stabilization of new stratification mechanisms and, in particular, mechanisms of social mobility is possible no earlier than a certain social stability is achieved and new foundations are clarified on which the mechanisms of social reproduction will develop.