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Social Mobility

SOC100

April 25, 2011

Social Mobility

There exists, embedded in the American social order, a circular system of economic mobility that depends on both familial background and higher education as means to economic success (Schaefer, 2006). On the one hand, adult higher education is highly correlated with upward economic mobility; however, adult higher education is largely predicated on familial background. So, Schaefer’s (2006) conclusion is that the, “…impact of formal schooling…is even greater than that of family background [but] family background influences the likelihood that one will receive higher education” (p. 221). The circular system has worked against my chances of economic mobility I have seen in my own life. So in order to seek higher education and economic mobility I am forced to go into debt because my family does not have the means to pay for a higher education. In this paper we will review the underlying sociological mechanisms that have supported the circular system and how those mechanisms apply to my social, educational, and economic mobility to my life.

Sociological Mechanisms

Throughout human history, society has organized itself through many different methods of stratification, including: slavery, castes, estates, and social classes (Schaefer, 2006). In different ways these systems are depended on ascribed status, a social position or an achieved status by and individual effort. In a severe form of ascribed status, lifelong slavery, people are born into slavery and can never escape its hold no matter the situation. However, on the other end of the scale is social class, which allows social mobility through economic growth. The major factor that is limiting social mobility in the social class system is economic means; achieved status is on equal support with ascribed status. Intergenerational, vertical mobility is possible in the system of Western cultures, than it is in the caste system of India or the estates...