Page 238 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Unit 11: Social Mobility

Thus, according to Sorokin, the principal forms of social mobility are : horizontal and vertical. Notes
Vertical mobility exists in the form of ascending and descending currents. Both have individual
infiltration and collective ascent or descent of the whole group within the system of other groups.
Based on the degree of circulation, we can distinguish between immobile and mobile types of
society. But there is no absolutely closed society. Vertical mobility is not easy and there are
generally obstacles in its way. Based on time and space, intensiveness and generality of vertical
mobility, there is no perpetual trend toward increase or decrease. Generally, the democratic societies
are often more mobile than the autocratic ones.
Vertical mobility functions to some degree in any society. There must be the membranes” (thin
layers) between the “strata”, “holes”, “staircases”, “elevators” or “channels”, which permit
individuals to move up and down, from stratum to stratum.
The most important channels of social circulation are :
1. Army
2. Church
3. School
4. Family
5. Political, economic and professional organizations
These channels have always been the most common and convenient elevators which have carried
up and down the streams of people travelling in the vertical plane. For example, the army plays
a great role in the period of war and social disturbances, and a moderate one in the period, of
peace. The church had a great importance in the Middle Ages. Today, at times, Islam, Christianity
and Hinduism influence social positions and mobility of the people in Indian society. Similarly,
today, wealth accumulation and participation in politics are considered as important factors in
going up in socio-economic and political hierarchies.

The persons, who occupy superior and lucrative positions, try to create barriers to
the upward mobility of the lowly placed members of the society.

Horizontal Mobility
Sorokin provides territorial circulation of individuals, circulation of things and values, intra-
occupational circulation of individuals, inter-family circulation, shifting of citizenships among
individuals, interreligious circulation, and inter-political party circulation as principal examples
of horizontal mobility in western societies. Horizontal mobility implies a very high degree of
dynamism. The main point in horizontal mobility is that it does not affect the system of social
stratification as such. People can move up or down within the broad normative framework of the
social stratification. This is possible due to education, occupation, migration, new opportunities
and desire for betterment of lifestyles. Horizontal mobility is said to be intra-systemic : it is a
change in the system, and not of the system. It is a positional change in relation to a given individual.
Such a mobility is characterized by upwardly movement in social positions. Logically, there are
also downwardly mobile people, When people are unable to keep pace with changing situations,
they slide down in social estimation, and also get less benefits compared to their former “equals”.
Some people move up in many ways in their own lifetime, whereas some take more than a
generation or two in moving upwardly. These two patterns are called intra generational mobility
and intergenerational mobility, respectively.
Besides, vertical and horizontal mobility, downward mobility is also found though in much less
proportion in comparison with the normal patterns of vertical and horizontal mobility. In western

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