Final answer:
Social mobility is the capacity to move up or down within a society's hierarchical layers of social class, influenced by changes in economic status. It can be structural, intergenerational, or intragenerational, and in an open system, it often operates on the principles of meritocracy.
Step-by-step explanation:
Social Mobility Definition
Social mobility refers to the ability to change positions within a social stratification system. When individuals improve or diminish their economic status in a way that affects their social class, they experience social mobility. This movement could be either upward or downward, with upward mobility characterized by a person moving from a lower to a higher socioeconomic class, and downward mobility happening when someone moves from a higher to a lower socioeconomic position.
Forms of Social Mobility
Structural mobility occurs due to broad societal changes that elevate or demote entire groups in the social hierarchy, often linked to economic shifts or industrialization. Intergenerational mobility refers to changes in social status between different generations within the same family, while intragenerational mobility deals with the changes that may happen within an individual's lifetime.
Markets of Achieved Mobility
An open system in social stratification allows for mobility based on achievement, where personal effort—or merit—plays a key role in determining one's social standing, often termed a meritocracy.