Social mobil

Change of social status of a person or group within the social structure. “Horizontal” mobility is manifested in the transiting of persons from one sphere to another while maintaining the same social level (for example, a worker’s transfer from one factory to another; the move from one city to another). “Vertical” mobility is linked to a promotion or demotion in social status, with leaving one social category and entering another, due to an increase in qualifications, acquisition of a new profession, or retraining, political changes, economic crisis, etc. The process of s.m. develops continually and injects dynamism into the entirety of social development; it is a consequence of such development. In personal terms, this can mean success, promotion, or frustration and failure; in social terms it can be expressed in impoverishment or elevation of social status. Migration and immigration, that is, the geographical displacement of the population from one territory to another, can be accompanied by s.m. in the vertical sense as well, but these processes, though they may overlap, are not identical.