The significance of the social classes concept
Andersen & Taylor (2007) define class mobility as the movement between different classes. This type of mobility can either be downward or upward in nature. Social classes are cultural or economical arrangements of groups within a society. Class becomes a very crucial object that political scientists, sociologists, economists, social historians, and anthropologists use for their various analysis purposes. Within social sciences, the social class is usually talked over by considering social stratification. In the Western world, stratification particularly includes upper class, middle class, and lower class and each of the three classes can be further classified into occupational classes (Edgell, 1993). In a number of societies, particularly in the United States, the concept of class mobility is a very significant social idea, with her citizens considering that every individual has got a chance to climb up the social class ladder.
An individual’s social class can be determined by a number of factors for instance, occupation, education, wealth or access to money, and race. These are very crucial factors that place people within different social classes within any given society particularly the societies in the Western world. The factor such as race can bring about a help or a hindrance for class mobility depending on an individual’s race and the society in consideration, as well as culture, manners, and the family history. In some societies for example, an individual who has a lot of liquid money might be regarded as being in upper class, while in other societies, this individual might not be considered to belong to the upper class owing to other factors such as the individual’s occupation and family history. An example in this case is a pawnbroker who has done very well, but might not belong to the upper class in spite of having a lot of money like a famous banker, while the children of the pawnbroker might possibly join the upper class as they may develop most prestigious occupations (Andersen & Taylor, 2007).
As seen, most of the Western nations are generally divided into lower, middle, and upper class. Each of these classes has its own characteristic features which differentiates it from the other classes. The lower class is characteristic of laborers who earn low income as they acquired limited education, and this makes the individuals in the class to acquire only few opportunities for economic or educational progress. At times, a member of the lower class may have a lot of money just like the member in the topmost class, but still will be classified under lower class because the family background or the occupation that he or she is engaged in. The members within the middle class are seen to be economically stable having attained more educational opportunities. As well in the middle class, the individuals have got increased social opportunities due to the idea that their class status is elevated. The upper class forms the stratum the social structure with lowest population of individuals. This class constitutes individuals with well established social positions including increased prestige as well as better economic security (Saunders, 1990).
In most of the societies within the Western world, the goal of individuals within the lower and middle classes is the upward class mobility as they believe that higher social classes are more socially and economically secure. Achieving the class mobility can be done through various ways for instance; an individual who is attempting to attain class mobility can aggressively pursue social and educational opportunities while another individual can center on laying the groundwork so that the future generations of his or her family will find themselves in the highest social class stratum. An example in this case, is an individual in the lower or middle class, who works very hard to acquire college fees to ensure that his or her children have chances which would no be attained (Ferrante, 2007).
Within some societies, individuals experience downward class mobility as well. Downward class mobility becomes a great fear among many people who usually feel that their social ranks are unstable. Experiencing a radical change in fortunes may become an indication for a family which belongs to a higher class to fall down within the class stratification, usually when the changes persevere over many subsequent generations. Those individuals who experience downward class mobility are usually exposed to a good deal of prejudice from individuals within the former social stratum as well as the individuals within the social class in which they end up. With different generations in the world, social class mobility can either occur within or across the generation. The type of social class mobility that occurs within a generation is referred to as intra-generational mobility while the social class mobility that occurs across generations is called inter-generational mobility (Saunders, 1990).
Intra-generational mobility can be defined as the changes regarding social status within a single lifetime. This type of mobility occurs within a given generation. Intergenerational mobility can be defined as the changes regarding social status that happen from the parents’ generation to the generation of their children. Thus the intergenerational mobility occurs across a number of generations. The definitions are very crucial during the analysis concerning the manner in which social status change from a given time period to another, as well as whether the social status of parents can determine an individual’s own social status. In most case, sociologists usually center on the intergenerational mobility since this is the easiest in depicting changes across generations when compared to the intra-generational mobility. The sociologists use this information to determine if inequality within a given culture changes with time (Jr, 2009).
Intergenerational mobility is merit based as well as non-merit based. In this case, it is the ability and hard work which influences social mobility. Parents’ race, wealth, luck, and gender can also affect the intergenerational mobility. Intergenerational mobility focuses on how parents can influence their children’s social mobility. Quality education is very important since the children can obtain highest marks and therefore gain prestige. Parents can as well make significant connections with those people who belong to higher social classes so that their social network will become wider. These parents who form their children’s social capital tend to increase the social mobility of the children. Recent researchers have collected relevant data concerning the families’ economic mobility across generations. The researchers have considered the probability of attaining a given income distribution in relation to where the parents were socially positioned. According to the researchers, 42 percent of the children whose parents were in the lowest quintile end up in the bottom quintile; 23 percent of the children ended up in the second quintile; 19 percent of the children ended up in the middle quintile; 11 percent of them end up in the fourth quintile; and 6 percent ended up in the topmost quintile (Goldthorpe, 2006).
The social upward mobility becomes difficulty due to some given barriers. Education is a very important factor which can enhance or hinder upward mobility depending on how an individual has attained in it. Those individuals who achieve lowly in their academics do not usually continue with higher education such that they find themselves no where in the competitive world education wise during the time of searching for the prestigious white collar jobs. The lowly educated individuals engage themselves in the lowly paying jobs which are a characteristic of low class. Without taking a step in advancing the educational status, these individuals continue being in the lowest social class. Poverty is another factor which hinders social upward mobility, in that, the children inmost poor families do not develop enough in terms of psychological and behavioral development. Families also affect their children’s social mobility, in that; some families do not adopt strategies to support the children for instance, access to social, cultural, and financial capital as well as social networks of contact to access prestigious opportunities (Andersen & Taylor, 2006).
Factors like higher attainment in education enable individuals to move from lower social classes to the topmost class, since they can secure well paying jobs. Parents in well-off families who might be in the middle class, encourages their children to get into the topmost class as they ensure their children get sufficient psychological and behavioral development. Parents in some families adopt some strategies to support their children, for example access to social, cultural, and financial capital. The parents also have good social networks of contact which they use to access the most valued opportunities (Andersen & Taylor, 2006).
