Social Ladders

The movement of people up and down the ladder of success is what characterizes their status in society. A wealthier person is more likely to have a more prominent position in society because he has moved to a top position on the social scale and that his mobility on that scale is positive. A downward movement of his status will indicate a loss of influence on his peers and can be regarded as a negative social mobility.

 This mobility is what has caused stratification on society just as the caste system in India has determined what people are able to be more influential in their society and which are too be ignored and neglected.

If the person who changes his job has the same importance as he did before he was promoted than the mobility of that person is horizontal. The person may be earning more money in the new job which creates an apparent change of status but if the person has the same responsibilities or is still answerable to the same administrative bureaucracy as before than he has not gone moved up on the sociological scale.

 That person may acquire material wealth and become more influential over people who are responsible to him and that would allow him to achieve a higher mobility. That mobility may happen to a group of people who acquire wealth in exchange for court services as was characterized in pre-Christian times, among the priesthood.

If on the other hand he has moved from being a laborer to a lawyer because he has been able to study and save his earnings, this would mean a sharp change in his status and a vertical movement up the social ladder. Vertical mobility then characterized by a stark change in the person’s social rank.