Social mobility
Social mobility is the change in the social position of a person or group. It may seem obvious that a person cannot change their race or ethnicity, and while sex change operations do exist, transsexuals are discriminated against more than either men or women. However, even with these groups it is possible that the social position of the entire group can change. For example, before 1865 it was legal to own black people as slaves in some US states. While black people still suffer discrimination, and are certainly a disadvantaged group in the US, it would be hard to argue that the abolition of slavery did not improve the social position of black people at least a little.
Intragenerational mobility and
This is how an individual's social position changes during their lifetime (intra- means "inside" or "within"). For example, if you get a promotion or change to a job that has a higher social status, your social position increases. Alternately losing your job can result in downwards social mobility. In general people will earn more money as they progress through their career, but this is not always going to be the case.
Intergenerational mobility
This is a change in social position from one generation to the next (inter- meaning "between", think "international"). This is defined by your social position now, compared to that of your parents when they were your age. In general, we might expect that intergenerational mobility will usually be positive, that is, people will generally be in a better situation than their parents, due to advances in medicine and technology. However, both in the UK and the US, millennials (people born after 1981) are in a worse situation than their parents were at the same age. This is thought to be due to the financial crisis which started in late 2007.
Absolute and relative mobility
Mobility can also be described in absolute and relative terms. If your wage has increased by 5%, then you are doing better in absolute terms. However, if the average national wage has increased by 10% during the same time period, you are actually worse off, relative to the rest of society. A similar situation can happen intergenerationally due to inflation. Inflation is when the value of a country's currency decreases in value. In general, most countries experience some level of inflation the majority of the time. Ask your parents or your grandparents, and they will tell you they could buy more with 1000 yen when they were young than you can now. Until 1953, people still used 1 rin coins, worth 1/1000th of 1 yen (i.e. 1000 rin = 1 yen). This means that your 1500 yen today can be worth less than 1000 yen in the past. Therefore, when people compare wages and prices between different times in history, they will talk about wages adjusted for inflation.
Social status
Money is not the only way of judging social position. Some jobs carry more status (i.e. we respect people who do those jobs) than others, even if the pay is the same. For example, religious leaders often command a large amount of respect, and therefore influence (i.e. people listen to what they say) despite having a job that is not known for paying a lot of money. This said, some religious leaders have a huge amount of money, despite telling people that money is not important! Another good example of a job where the level of respect outweighs the money earned is teaching. When I first learned Japanese, I read that 先生 was used for "people who earn a lot of money, and teachers"!
Social mobility is the change in the social position of a person or group. It may seem obvious that a person cannot change their race or ethnicity, and while sex change operations do exist, transsexuals are discriminated against more than either men or women. However, even with these groups it is possible that the social position of the entire group can change. For example, before 1865 it was legal to own black people as slaves in some US states. While black people still suffer discrimination, and are certainly a disadvantaged group in the US, it would be hard to argue that the abolition of slavery did not improve the social position of black people at least a little.
Intragenerational mobility and
This is how an individual's social position changes during their lifetime (intra- means "inside" or "within"). For example, if you get a promotion or change to a job that has a higher social status, your social position increases. Alternately losing your job can result in downwards social mobility. In general people will earn more money as they progress through their career, but this is not always going to be the case.
Intergenerational mobility
This is a change in social position from one generation to the next (inter- meaning "between", think "international"). This is defined by your social position now, compared to that of your parents when they were your age. In general, we might expect that intergenerational mobility will usually be positive, that is, people will generally be in a better situation than their parents, due to advances in medicine and technology. However, both in the UK and the US, millennials (people born after 1981) are in a worse situation than their parents were at the same age. This is thought to be due to the financial crisis which started in late 2007.
Absolute and relative mobility
Mobility can also be described in absolute and relative terms. If your wage has increased by 5%, then you are doing better in absolute terms. However, if the average national wage has increased by 10% during the same time period, you are actually worse off, relative to the rest of society. A similar situation can happen intergenerationally due to inflation. Inflation is when the value of a country's currency decreases in value. In general, most countries experience some level of inflation the majority of the time. Ask your parents or your grandparents, and they will tell you they could buy more with 1000 yen when they were young than you can now. Until 1953, people still used 1 rin coins, worth 1/1000th of 1 yen (i.e. 1000 rin = 1 yen). This means that your 1500 yen today can be worth less than 1000 yen in the past. Therefore, when people compare wages and prices between different times in history, they will talk about wages adjusted for inflation.
Social status
Money is not the only way of judging social position. Some jobs carry more status (i.e. we respect people who do those jobs) than others, even if the pay is the same. For example, religious leaders often command a large amount of respect, and therefore influence (i.e. people listen to what they say) despite having a job that is not known for paying a lot of money. This said, some religious leaders have a huge amount of money, despite telling people that money is not important! Another good example of a job where the level of respect outweighs the money earned is teaching. When I first learned Japanese, I read that 先生 was used for "people who earn a lot of money, and teachers"!
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