Social mobility

**Social mobility** is when people (like individuals, families, or households) move between different levels or layers, called social strata, in a society. It means a person's social status changes compared to their starting place in that society. This movement happens in "open" societies. An open society is one where people can change their position, at least partly, based on what they achieve (like getting an education), not just on what they were born into. A person can move _upward_ to a higher level or _downward_ to a lower one. Things like education and class are used as "markers" to study, predict, and learn more about a person's or group's mobility in society.

## Typology

Mobility is most often measured using numbers (quantitatively). This usually means looking at changes in economic mobility, like changes in a person's income or wealth. A person's job (occupation) is another way to measure mobility. Studying jobs can involve both numbers and quality-based analysis. Other studies just focus on social class. Mobility can happen within one person's lifetime (this is called _intragenerational_). It can also happen between parents and their children (called _intergenerational_). It is less common for one person to move a long way, like in a "rags to riches" story. This is a type of upward intragenerational mobility. It is more common for children or grandchildren to have a better economic life than their parents or grandparents. This is called intergenerational upward mobility. In the US, this idea is a basic part of the "American Dream". However, the US actually has less of this mobility than most other OECD countries. Mobility can also be "absolute" or "relative". Absolute mobility measures a person’s progress in areas such as education, health, housing, income, and job opportunities, comparing it to a starting point—usually the previous generation. Because of new technology and economic growth, most people's incomes and living conditions get better over time. In this "absolute" way, most people in the world, on average, are living better today than in the past. This means they have experienced absolute mobility. Relative mobility looks at a person’s movement compared to other people around them (their "cohort"). In more advanced economies and OECD countries, there is usually more room for absolute mobility than for relative mobility. For example, a person from a middle-class family might stay middle-class compared to others their age (no relative mobility). But, they will still have a better standard of living because the whole society got richer over time (absolute mobility). There is also an idea of "stickiness". This is when a person stops moving up or down compared to others. This happens most often at the very top and very bottom of the social ladder. At the bottom, parents cannot give their children the resources or opportunity to improve their lives. As a result, they stay on the same level as their parents. At the top, parents with high socioeconomic status (SES) have the resources and opportunities to make sure their children also stay at the same top level. In East Asian countries, this is shown by the idea of familial karma.