Social Mobility Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Social Mobility - Essay Example In America, people do not have fixed opinions about social inequalities. Most of them think that inequality is unavoidable even though it is undesirable. Social mobility is the movement of lower class from the lower layers to the upper layer. It is a widely discussed term and many theories were formulated in the past to increase the mobility of people from the lower layer to the upper layer. Individuals or group of individuals have specific status or roles in our society. Society often looks or treats people differently based on their intelligence, wealth, profession, community, race, culture etc. Based on the above privileges, enjoyed by an individual or group of individuals, society places people at different classes like; upper class, middle class and lower class. People with higher income and higher social status may often be referred as upper class whereas people with medium income and medium social status are termed as middle class. Poor people and those with low social status often come in the lower class category. When the class system decides based on the financial status, it is possible for individuals to move from lower class to medium or upper class; however when the class system is decided based on culture or race, it is impossible for a person from lower class to move to the upper levels or vice versa. ... When a person changes his profession without any changes in his income, his status changes within the class and it can be referred as horizontal mobility. In other words, changes in class occur in vertical mobility whereas changes in status occur in horizontal mobility. According to Brooks (2011) â€Å"You can pump money into poor areas, but without cultures that foster self-control, you won’t get social mobility† (Brooks, p.320). In other words, money alone may not be helpful in stimulating social mobility. The attitude of the people plays a vital role in stimulating social mobility. Even if a person from the lower class attains enough wealth, the upper class may not accept him as a member of privileged class or upper class in some cultures where caste system prevails. In order to learn more about different dimensions and causes of social mobility, I decided to research this topic further. I have conducted interviews with two families to collect primary data. I have in terviewed my mom for collecting my own family data and another neighboring family friend and this paper is developed based on these interviews. Apart from these primary data, I collected secondary data from internet and academic journals. Both primary and secondary data were analyzed thoroughly to make conclusions about the causes of social mobility. Interview with my mom My mom has a four year MBA degree and she was in middle class during her childhood. At present my mom and my family belong to upper class. In other words, education helped my mom to get better profession and higher status in society. It should also be noted that in US, even lower middle class people ascribe more importance to their education which is a good sign. Education plays a vital role in implementing social changes and it