Definition of Relative Social Mobility

The degree of disparity in the probability of individuals from various social class backgrounds advancing into a given social class is known as relative social mobility. It refers to the likelihood that persons from diverse social origins will rise to different social positions. This mobility studies the percentage of one socioeconomic class that shifts up or down with the percentage of another group that moves.

Sociological Explanation

Any social mobility dependent on external variables, such as an individual’s opportunities and effort, the degree of economic development experienced in a particular labor market, or income disparity in society, is referred to as relative social mobility. None of these elements inherently guarantees social mobility either upward below. The likelihood that children will leave their parents’ position in the social hierarchy is known as relative mobility.

Absolute social mobility, or the total documented movement of persons across classes, may be distinguished from relative social mobility, which assesses the likelihood of an individual moving upward or downward compared to an individual from a different social class.

It is a way to compare a person’s upward or downward social mobility to that of other people from their inherited social class. The likelihood that persons from various social origins will rise to different social positions is what relative social mobility means. It measures how a person’s socioeconomic background affects their life outcomes.

Relative social mobility is concerned with the rates at which those from lower social class positions can move up compared to the rates at which those from higher class positions can avoid falling down, rather than the overall rates of progression between social class stances. It is the likelihood that a representative of one social class will move up or down concerning a representative of a different class.

There is some evidence, according to research, that reduced income inequality is connected with relative social mobility levels that are greater.

Relative social mobility is determined by and constrained by factors such as educational achievement, childhood poverty, mindsets, aspirations, and socially and economically imposed constraints.

Example

In the United Kingdom, a middle-class kid born in the Liverpool area would be considered to have relative social mobility if they are expected to complete college and earn up to 100,000 pounds.

Relative income mobility is the degree to which their parent’s income influences a person’s income. Relative educational mobility refers to how parents influence a person’s academic accomplishments.