ABSTRACT
Social mobility, put simply, is experienced by individuals who occupy a higher or lower ranking—usually in financial and/or occupational terms—than their parents did at a similar age. This chapter explores trends in the prevalence and type of social mobility since the middle-to-late 20th century: how social mobility levels affect the social, political, and economic functioning of the country as well as individuals’ well-being; the mismatch between political and public understandings of and attitudes to social mobility; and the difference between policies favoured by policymakers and those that would make most impact. Economic measures of mobility—movements in the position of individuals or households up or down the league table of incomes—also show reduced mobility in recent years. Constrained mobility also adversely affects the performance and effectiveness of our economy and institutions.
