Intergenerational Mobility

Examples of Intergenerational Mobility in the following topics:

• Social Mobility

  • Social mobility typically refers to vertical mobility, movement of individuals or groups up or down from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marriage.
  • In some cases, social mobility is intergenerational, as when children attain a higher or lower status than their parents held.
  • A high level of intergenerational mobility is often considered praiseworthy and can be seen as a sign of equality of opportunity in a society.
  • This graph shows the results of a study on how much intergenerational social mobility there is in a sample of developed countries.
  • Countries with higher intergenerational income elasticity have lower social mobility -- in countries on the left of the graph, children are likely to attain the same social status as their parents.

• Social Mobility

  • In some cases, social mobility is intergenerational, as when children attain a higher or lower status than their parents held.
  • A high level of intergenerational mobility is often considered praiseworthy, and can be seen as a sign of equality of opportunity in a society.
  • Recent data shows that of nine developed countries, the United States and United Kingdom have the lowest intergenerational vertical social mobility, with about half of the advantages of having a parent with a high income passed on to the next generation.
  • This graph shows the results of a study on how much intergenerational social mobility there is in a sample of developed countries.
  • Countries with higher intergenerational income elasticity have lower social mobility -- in countries on the left of the graph, children are likely to attain the same social status as their parents.

• Types of Social Mobility

  • Vertical social mobility refers to moving up or down the so-called social ladder.
  • When a child who is born to parents with college degrees attains a graduate degree, this is an example of intergenerational mobility — the child achieves higher status than their parents.
  • The British middle class thus experienced absolute upward mobility.
  • Social mobility can be intergenerational, such as when children attain a higher or lower status than their parents held.
  • A high level of intergenerational mobility is often considered praiseworthy, and can be seen as a sign of equality of opportunity in a society.

• Assimilation

  • Factors that enhance such vulnerability include racial discrimination, location, and changes in the economy that have made it harder for intergenerational mobility.

• Intergenerational Conflict

  • Intergenerational conflict refers to the conflict between older and younger generations as they compete for jobs and resources.
  • Intergenerational conflict plays a key role in the conflict perspective of aging.

• Social Mobility in the U.S.

  • Strong social and economic mobility is considered part of American Dream, though there is relatively low social mobility in the U.S.
  • Researchers have found that in fact, there is relatively low social mobility in the United States.
  • The limit to women's and minorities' upward mobility is called the glass ceiling.
  • In the United States, white males have greater social mobility than women and racial/ethnic minorities, whose mobility is limited by the glass ceiling.
  • Explain how the "glass ceiling" and other factors lower social mobility in the United States

• Resource Mobilization Approach

  • The resource-mobilization approach is a theory that seeks to explain the emergence of social movements.
  • Resource-Mobilization Theory emphasizes the importance of resources in social movement development and success.
  • The theory argues that social movements develop when individuals with grievances are able to mobilize sufficient resources to take action.
  • Resource mobilization theory also divides social movements according to their position among other social movements.
  • Resource-Mobilization Theory emphasizes the importance of resources in social movement development and success.

• Open vs. Closed Stratification Systems

  • Though the extent to which individuals have social mobility in the United States is debated, new members of the elite are evidence that there is some mobility between classes.
  • The difference between these types of class systems are their structural mobility.
  • An open system describes a society with mobility between different social classes.
  • Social mobility is much more frequent in countries that use achievement as the basis for status.
  • These categories were discrete, and there was little interaction or mobility between them.

• Sources of Social Change

  • Deprivation theory and resource-mobilization have been discussed in detail in this chapter's section entitled "Social Movements. "
  • Mobilization: this is the actual organizing and active component of the movement; people do what needs to be done in order to further their cause.
  • Mobilization occurs when people work together in order to enact social change, such as meeting with government officials in order to change a law or policy.
  • Culture theory builds upon both the theories of political process (the existence of political opportunities is crucial for movement development) and resource-mobilization (the mobilization of sufficient resources is central to movement formation and success), but it also extends them in two ways.
  • Both resource-mobilization theory and political process theory incorporate the concept of injustice into their approaches.

• The Role of Age

  • On the other hand, AARP pursues its mission by mobilizing its immense resource base to lobby for policy change.
  • Politicians such as Obama focus on issues that are relevant to certain age groups in order to mobilize support.