Social mobility in the United Kingdom

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Social mobility in the United Kingdom refers to the ability or inability of citizens of the UK to move from one socio-economic class to another.

Contents

History

The NRS developed the NRS social grade in order to decide which type of advertising would attract different types of readers. This has been added to by the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification.

Research

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission has commissioned studies on social mobility in the UK, [1] as has the Sutton Trust. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Office for National Statistics is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social mobility</span> Mobility to move social classes

Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society. This movement occurs between layers or tiers in an open system of social stratification. Open stratification systems are those in which at least some value is given to achieved status characteristics in a society. The movement can be in a downward or upward direction. Markers for social mobility such as education and class, are used to predict, discuss and learn more about an individual or a group's mobility in society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erasmus Programme</span> European Commission programme for education, training, youth, and sport

The Erasmus Programme is a European Union (EU) student exchange programme established in 1987. Erasmus+, or Erasmus Plus, is the new programme combining all the EU's current schemes for education, training, youth and sport, the most recent programme covering the years 2021-27.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teenage Cancer Trust</span> UK cancer care and support charity

Teenage Cancer Trust is a cancer care and support charity in the UK that exists to improve the cancer experience of young people aged 13–24. Founded in 1990, the charity's key service is providing specialist teenage units in NHS hospitals. It also trains and funds staff who are teenage cancer specialists. The units are dedicated areas for teenage and young adult patients, who are involved in their concept and creation. Medical facilities on the units are equipped with computers, TVs and game consoles.

The NRS social grades are a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. They were originally developed by the National Readership Survey (NRS) to classify readers, but have since been used by many other organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research. They were developed in the late 1950s and refined in following years and achieved widespread usage in 20th century Britain. Their definition is maintained by the Market Research Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Institute of Economic and Social Research</span> Independent economic research institute in Britain

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), established in 1938, is Britain's oldest independent economic research institute. The institute is a London-based independent UK registered charity that carries out academic research of relevance to business and policy makers, both nationally and internationally.

The social structure of the United Kingdom has historically been highly influenced by the concept of social class, which continues to affect British society today. British society, like its European neighbours and most societies in world history, was traditionally divided hierarchically within a system that involved the hereditary transmission of occupation, social status and political influence. Since the advent of industrialisation, this system has been in a constant state of revision, and new factors other than birth are now a greater part of creating identity in Britain.

The National Statistics Socio-economic Classification is the official socio-economic classification in the United Kingdom. It is an adaptation of the Goldthorpe schema which was first known as the Nuffield Class Schema developed in the 1970s. It was developed using the Standard Occupational Classification 1990 (SOC90) and rebased on the Standard Occupational Classification 2000 (SOC2000) before its first major use on the 2001 UK census. The NS-SEC replaced two previous social classifications: Socio-economic Groups (SEG) and Social Class based on Occupation. The NS-SEC was rebased on the Standard Occupational Classification 2010 prior to the 2011 UK census and it will be further rebased on the new Standard Occupational Classification 2020 for use on the 2021 UK census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Trust</span> Educational charity in the UK

The Sutton Trust is an educational charity in the United Kingdom which aims to improve social mobility and address educational disadvantage. The charity was set up by educational philanthropist, Sir Peter Lampl in 1997.

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is a social security benefit in the United Kingdom paid to eligible claimants who have personal care and/or mobility needs as a result of a mental or physical disability. It is tax-free, non-means-tested and non-contributory. The benefit was established by the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992, integrating the former benefits Mobility Allowance and Attendance Allowance and introducing two additional lower rates of benefit. Prior to 2013 it could be claimed by UK residents aged under sixty five years. However, the benefit was phased-out for the majority of claimants between 2013 and 2015 and replaced by a new Personal Independence Payment. DLA can still be claimed by children under sixteen and can still be received by existing claimants who were aged sixty five or over on 8 April 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child Poverty Act 2010</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Child Poverty Act 2010 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom "to set targets relating to the eradication of child poverty, and to make other provision about child poverty". More specifically, the act has been summarised as comprising "a new set of legal duties for the [UK] government of the day to take action to meet four income targets for ending child poverty by 2020 and to minimise 'socio-economic disadvantage' for children." The four income targets all related to median UK household income, and were as follows:

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Socioeconomic mobility in the United States refers to the upward or downward movement of Americans from one social class or economic level to another, through job changes, inheritance, marriage, connections, tax changes, innovation, illegal activities, hard work, lobbying, luck, health changes or other factors.

Socio-economic mobility in Canada refers to the movement of Canadians from one social class or economic level to another, The data shows an increase in intergenerational social mobility, however it is argued that such trends have remained stable since the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education Endowment Foundation</span> British charitable organization

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is a charity established in 2011 to improve the educational attainment of the poorest pupils in English schools. It aims to support teachers and senior leaders by providing evidence-based resources designed to improve practice and boost learning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Standing (economist)</span> British economist (born 1948)

Guy Standing is a British labour economist. He is a professor of development studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a co-founder of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). Standing has written widely in the areas of labour economics, labour market policy, unemployment, labour market flexibility, structural adjustment policies and social protection. He created the term precariat to describe an emerging class of workers who are harmed by low wages and poor job security as a consequence of globalisation. Since the 2011 publication of his book The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, his work has focused on the precariat, unconditional basic income, deliberative democracy, and the commons.

The Social Mobility Commission (SMC), formerly the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (2012–16) and originally the Child Poverty Commission (2010–12), is an advisory non-departmental public body of the Department for Education (DfE) in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Hay, 16th Earl of Kinnoull</span> Scottish hereditary peer

Charles William Harley Hay, 16th Earl of Kinnoull, styled Viscount Dupplin until 2013, is a Scottish hereditary peer and Crossbench member of the House of Lords, who serves as Convenor of the Crossbench Peers.

Lee Elliot Major is Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter, Britain's first professor in the field. His work is dedicated to improving the prospects of disadvantaged young people.

Relational mobility is a sociological variable that represents how much freedom individuals have to choose which persons to have relationships with, including friendships, working relationships, and romantic partnerships in a given society. Societies with low relational mobility have less flexible interpersonal networks. People form relationships based on circumstance rather than active choice. In these societies, relationships are more stable and guaranteed, while there are fewer opportunities to leave unsatisfying relationships and find new ones. Group memberships tend to be fixed, and individuals have less freedom to select or change these relationships even if they wished to.

References