SOSC 103D Social Inequality in HK

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SOSC 103DSocial Inequality in HK

• Lecture 9 Mobility Studies

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The rise of Middle class

• Did all Hong Kong people become new middle-class?
• Who had moved up the social ladder, and who had
  not?
• Are there bundles of opportunities for people to
  climb up from the working-class to the
  middle-class?

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Social Mobility

• Usually refer to the vertical movement up and
• down the social structure of individuals
• Intergeneration Mobility
• Compare ones social position with his/ her
  parents
• Intra-generation Mobility
• Compare the social position of his/ her first job
  and the second, third or last job before
  retirement

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Social Mobility

• It also related to the change of economic,
• occupational and social structure in a society
• Total mobility Structural mobility Net
  mobility
• Structural mobility
• Caused by changes in occupational structure
• Circulation Mobility (Net Mobility)
• Real exchange movements within the occupational
  structure

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Intergenerational Mobility Matrix
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Summary of the findings

• Intergenerationally stable the son stay in the
  same class as his father (N176)
• Downward mobility the son has lower social
  class when compare with his father (N256)
• Upward mobility the son has higher social class
  when compare with his father (N320)
• Total mobility rate 576/7520.766

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Distribution of fathers and sons classes
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Findings

• Structural mobility 20.42.723.1
• Because the shrink of certain sectors, the son
  could not follow his fathers footsteps.
• They are forced to move away from their fathers
  social class.
• Net mobility Total mobility structural
  mobility
• 76.6 - 23.1 53.6

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Social Mobility in Hong Kong

• Important expansion of professional, managerial
  and administrative posts (class I and II)
• The New (upper) middle class
• They are from different class background
  (heterogeneous/ not homogeneous)
• A slight shrinkage of unskilled manual workers
  positions (class VII)
• A vast shrinkage of the small shop-owners (and
  self-employed artisans)

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Inequality in Social Mobility

• Mobility Chance
• This is a question about the equality of
  opportunity
• Given the available opportunities, do people from
  different backgrounds have an equal chance of
  improving their social position?

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Outflow statistics

• Where have people (the sons) gone?

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Findings from outflow statistics

• Upper and upper-middle class
• Self-recruitment (45.2)
• The fathers are able to ensure their sons to stay
  in the advantaged social positions.
• The children of these managers and professionals
  are very likely to remain in the social position
  as their fathers
• Working class
• Retention (49.6)
• The fathers are unable to push their sons to
  leave the disadvantaged social positions.
• The children of manual labour (skilled to
  unskilled labour) are very unlikely to leave the
  working class.

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Inflow statistics

• Where are these people (the sons) from?

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Findings from inflow statistics

• Upper and upper-middle class
• Heterogeneous
• Most of those who are now in advantaged positions
  are newcomers.
• People who are in high social positions actually
  come from different class origins.
• Working class
• Homogeneous
• About half of those who are now in disadvantaged
  positions are actually born in disadvantaged
  families.
• Great majority of them have fathers from either
  working class or lower-middle class.

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Social Mobility in Hong Kong

• Alongside the openness, there is also
  some rigidity

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• Readings
• Wong, T Lui, T.L. (1992) Reinstating Class a
  Structural and Development Study of Hong Kong
  Society. Occasional Paper no.10.