Mobility Mechanisms

Abstract

The relative and absolute rates of mobility are significant in their own regard, however, it leaves open the question of the ‘processual effects’ of industrialization, or in other words what are the drivers of this mobility. This chapter studies the impact of education on social mobility. The major question posed here is whether education acts as a mediator of mobility or not. Or, are the social origin or inherited characteristics (caste and class) the primary determining factor where the chances of social mobility are concerned? Finally, whether the impact of education varies by community. We find that education mediates the origin-destination relation, with those with higher levels of education able to secure more chances of upward mobility. The critical role of caste and gender is underlined.

Understanding aspirations among Muslim youth in India through Sequential mixed-methods design

“…While these studies provide detailed narratives of youth aspirations in neo-liberal India, what they miss are large scale generalizable results that can point towards trends in youth aspirations for Muslims in India. Exceptions to this is the CSDS Youth Survey, CSDS, 2017) and Vaid’s (2018) work on social mobility among different birth cohorts in India, but both do not focus on Muslims. My thesis addresses this gap.…”

“…The research highlighted above is conducted using qualitative methods. Exceptions are Vaid (2018) and the CSDS Youth Survey (2017) but the focus of both are not Muslims. I address this gap by focusing on Muslim youth and both men and women (as well as all other gender identities, if any).…”

Chasing Elite Higher Education: Shadow Education and Middle-Class Strategies of Credentialism Around the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Exam

“…Barring three families, most families have migrated to Delhi from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Orissa to attain their economic base through migration and build their cultural capital through education. Families are classified into three occupational categories—high professionals, low professionals and non-manual clerical class based on the Weberian class schema of occupational based stratification (Vaid, 2018, p. 125). Therefore, in this study, the representation of class is located in the market.…”

Election Survey Questions and Possibilities

“…One brief example from work that I have conducted using the NES relates to questions around the concept of ‘social class’. Not only does the list of assets change over time (while a likely reason is the changing socio-economic scenario, there is some inconsistency in this), questions on parental characteristics used by some as an indicator of class (Vaid, 2018) are included in some surveys and not in others. This inconsistency thus precludes operationalizing a concept consistently across surveys.…”

“…5.For an example of research conducted using only ‘background data’ see Kumar, Heath, and Heath (2002) and Vaid (2018) on intergenerational social mobility in India.…”