In what ways does upward social mobility affect people’s

identities and sense of self?

‘A fair society is an open society.

A society in which everyone is free to flourish and rise.

Where birth is never destiny.’ - Nick Clegg

INTRODUCTION

Social mobility is an issue of paramount importance, both

publicly and academically. Publicly, it has been a

political discourse in which every government aims to

achieve upward social mobility. For example, in 2011, the

Coalition Government in Britain stated that fairness is a

fundamental value of the government who treats creations

of an open, socially mobile society as its guiding

purpose for British people (Cabinet Office 2011, p.3).

Academically, social mobility has been a centre of

academic focuses for decades. For instance, since the end

of the Second World War, social mobility has become a

major area of sociological inquiry due to its research

scale, international academic collaboration, and

sophisticated investigation techniques (Goldthorpe 1980,

p.1). Mobility studies, which are concerned with ‘the

description and analysis of the trajectories of social

position that individuals and families follow’ (Breen

2004, p.1), are therefore a significant subject deserving

our continuous scrutiny.

Goldthorpe claims that upward social mobility is

generally not a socially stressful experience for the

mobile (1980, p.248). But to what extent this statement

is true? Inspired by this question, this paper aims to

study relationships between upward social mobility and

personal identities. Essentially, this essay argues

upward mobility affects people’s identities and sense of

self in which both social and cultural identities are

influenced positively and negatively in contemporary

western societies. In order to draw a broad pattern, this

paper adopts a comparative approach with cases from

various social segments in different countries to address

the question.

In what follows, this essay is divided into several

sections. Firstly (1), a literature review will be

present. Secondly (2) discussions on impacts of upward

mobility on social identity will appear followed by (3)

investigations into cultural identity. Finally (4), a

conclusion will summarise the entire article.

LITERATURE REVIEW

This section deals with definitional issues, recent

development of mobility theories and mobility itself

across countries. By providing these materials, it is

easier for us to locate the position of this paper within

a broad landscape of mobility.

Definitional Issues

Social Mobility and Upward Social Mobility

To begin with, social mobility refers to a movement or change

between fixed class categories of individuals (Bottero

2005, p.206). There are different measurements of these

movements and changes. Firstly, mobility can be measured

by income, either in absolute or relative terms. This

approach which is the most common in America envisions

social classes defined in arbitrary terms like income

deciles and views differences between individuals as

incremental. This approach is typified by Duncan (Loury

et al. 2005, p.1-2).

Secondly, an economic approach to mobility analyses

labour market. This measurement conceives the market as

strictly segmented into real occupational classes and

mobility is therefore a shift from a lower-status

profession to a higher one and vice versa. It is hence

the power and prestige of occupations that determine

class positions of individuals (Ibid, p.2). This approach

is exemplified by Goldthorpe, who characterised a class

schema containing 7 classes from higher-grade

professionals and self-employed of Class I at the top all

the way down to manual wage-workers and agricultural

workers of Class VII (1980, p.39-41).

Thirdly, recognition and social citizenship are crucial

for mobility. This approach treats mobility in terms of

whether individuals are affirmed by others as being equal

in community. This method acknowledges it is possible for

gaps between labour market positions and social qualities

to exist. For example, in Uganda, while the Indian

minorities successfully attain economic successes, they

are continuously viewed as outsiders in society. They

accordingly had a low social status (Loury et al. 2005,

p.2).

The final approach is the political school. Mobility in

this regard is the process by which groups like ethnic

and racial minorities who are persistently repressed

obtain sufficient internal coherence to legitimately

challenge existing social institutions with loss of power

and therefore to attain a share in power (Ibid, p.2-3).

Given different approaches, mobility in this paper will

be treated following the first three approaches which

have a wide applicability in sociology. Mobility is hence

defined as movements or changes in one’s social status

measured by incomes, occupations and social inclusion.

Based on above definitions, upward social mobility and the

upwardly social mobile then represent current class positions

of individuals, measured by incomes, occupations or

social inclusion, have improved compared with such of

their families in their childhood. For illustration, if a

boy is born in a working-class family and he is able to

work as a bank manager now, then his move in social

status will be treated as upward mobility.

Social and Cultural Identity

In general, identity is figured as an element that can be

owned and articulated as a property of the person (Skeggs

2004, p.59).

Social identity refers to a process in which human beings

identity themselves to and are in turn identified by

various relationships, roles and memberships of

organisations, and groups and communities (Parekh 2008,

p.15). As Savage observes, ‘class’ continues to shape

people’s social identity (2000, p.102) as hierarchy is an

important element (Bottero 2004, p.993). As Bourdieu

puts, habitus are characterised by the different classes

and class fractions (1984, p.6). Habitus referring to a

‘system of lasting, transposable dispositions which,

integrating past experiences, functions as a matrix of

perceptions, appreciations and actions’ (Bourdieu 1977,

p.95) in turn constitute social identity. Consequently,

this paper specifically adopts a class-based notion of

social identity. In other words, impacts of upward

mobility on class identities, subjective senses of

‘relational social distance within a hierarchy’ (Bottero

2004, p.990), of the upwardly mobile will be

concentrated.

Cultural identity represents ‘a focus on how cultural processes

are embedded within specific kinds of socio-economic

practices’ and how inequality is reproduced through

cultural practices (Devine & Savage 2000, cited in Ibid,

p.986). As class cultures can be viewed as modes of

differentiation, specific cultural practices can be

propitious to reproduction of hierarchy (Ibid, p.989).

According to Bourdieu, such practises can be divided into

high and low cultures. It is the taste classifies that

classify the classifier and social subjects thus

distinguish themselves by these distinctions (1984, p.6)

as people of different classes would have different

tastes. Subsequently the paper accepts notion of cultural

identities, various modes of consumption of classical and

popular cultures, of the mobile as the central focus.

Mobility Studies Theories and Mobility in a Comparative Perspective

To start with, broadly speaking, mobility studies can be

divided into two types: studies of intergenerational or

intragenerational mobility. The former concertrates on

current class positions of individuals compared with

those in which they originate such as the class position

of their families while the latter studies changes in

circumstances during individuals’ own lives (Breen 2004,

p.3). With a focus on individuals who have experienced

upward mobility, this paper can thus be categorised

within the broad study of intragenerational mobility.

During the past decades, sociologists have developed

various perspectives on patterns of social fluidity

across countries. Firstly, a stream of sociologists

conceives there is an unchangeable nature of social

mobility. The ‘Lipset-Zetterberg’ (LZ) theory illustrates

the overall mobility patterns tend to remain unchanged in

western industrialised societies (Lipset & Zetterberg

1959, cited in Ibid, p.4). Similarly, the ‘Featherman

Jones Hauser’ (FJH) hypothesis, with modification from

Erikson and Goldthorpe, suggests little variation between

countries in social fluidity patterns and hence no

systematic change over time (Ibid, p.7).

On the other hand, another sociological school perceives

the changeability of mobility. Modernisation theory or

liberal theory of industrialism (e.g. Ganzeboom et al.

1989) reckons economic development leads to higher rates

of absolute mobility (Ibid, p.5). A trend towards greater

openness in social fluidity emerges that convergences

between countries in mobility can be apparent. Different

countries’ class or occupational structures should be

increasingly similar implying a convergence in mobility

rates (Ibid, p.7).

Likewise, some sociologists view nations are increasingly

following different trajectories in mobility with some

showing fluidity but others do not, creating divergences

across countries. The divergences can be attributed to

different economic policies across countries. For

example, the English-speaking countries adopt laissez-faire

policies while others do not. This results in variation

in mobility outcomes (Ibid, p.7).

In practice, a recent convergence of absolute mobility

emerges across Europe. In a large study, Breen and Luijkx

propose a gradual similarity in absolute mobility for

class structures and intergenerational flows of men

between classes in Germany, France, Italy, Ireland,

Britain, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Hungary, Israel and

Holland occurred that there had been a continued decline

of framing occupations in these countries and increase at

top of class structures in service classes since 1970s.

Most of this pattern widely occurred in 1970s and 1980s

while cross-country differences in class structures arose

in 1990s (2004, p.49-50). This thus fits into suggestions

of modernisation theory or liberal theory of

industrialism that as economies advance, absolute

mobility will be enlarged.

Nevertheless, relative positions in labour income

hierarchy persist over generations in all countries in

the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

Development (OECD) despite national variations. This

indicates earning levels of sons correlate heavily with

those of their fathers. This phenomenon is particularly

strong in Britain, Italy, America and France, where more

than 40% of the wage advantage are passed on from fathers

to their sons, and comparatively low in the Nordic

countries, Australia and Canada, where the figures

decrease to less than 20% (OECD 2010, p.184-5). The

findings seemingly match the proposition that different

economic policies lead to divergent mobility patterns.

For instance, according to Esping-Andersen, Britain and

America are liberal welfare regimes while the Nordic

countries are social democratic welfare regimes (1999,

p.74 & 78) and therefore dissimilar outcomes in mobility

appear. In this regard, relative mobility still remains

low in advanced economies.

As a result, it is concluded even though absolute

mobility has maximised in advanced countries, relative

mobility still remains persistently low in general.

Upward social mobility is thus highly difficult for

individuals and rare in western countries. Situating

within this structure, this paper is located to

investigate agents who have upwardly moved in order to

understand impacts of mobility on their identities.

UPWARD MOBILITY AND SOCIAIL IDENEITY

Generally speaking, upward mobility can affect social

identities of individuals through bicultural or dual

identity and status anxiety.

Bicultural or Dual Identity

Firstly, upward mobility leads to formations of a

bicultural or dual identity of individuals. This refers

to those who have experienced upward mobility are able to

smoothly accommodate both born and achieved identities.

It is because of the uniqueness of upward mobility, the

mobile can have the opportunities which provide them with

occupations of both social positions to formulate a

bicultural or dual identity. A bicultural or dual

identity with mixtures of habitus of both lower-class and

middle- or upper-class can then appear among the mobile.

Friedman suggests the mutability of habitus heavily

dependent on mobility trajectory of individuals can be

the driving forces for bicultural or dual identities.

That means formations of bicultural or dual identities

rely on the range, speed and direction of upward mobility

and combinations of class, gender and ethnicity of

persons. While habitus travelling at slow speeds,

covering short distances and moving towards the economic

quadrant of social space are more likely to enact smooth

improvisations (2015, p.16). For instance, in Britain,

Miles et al. showcases because of the gentle speed in

upward mobility, 50-year old men who have moved upwardly

think of their successful mobility experiences as

modestly ordinary. They all can thus incorporate both

working-class and middle-or-upper-class identities

together (2011, p.422-426).

Bicultural or dual identities are especially obvious

amongst ethnic monitories. Minorities often have their

own distinctive habitus occupying in lower positions of

society. A class identity that is lower-classed and

ethnically special then emerges. After members of the

minorities have experienced upward mobility, they are

able to integrate into the dominant society with a newly

achieved class identity and a mainstream habitus

combining their original ones. A bicultural or dual

identity hence emerges. For example, in America, Simmons

displays African American middle-class women holding

various positions in academia who have moved upwardly are

successfully to equip themselves with a bicultural

identity after being confronted with conflicting

experiences and worldviews (2009, p.103). In order to be

successful, the upwardly mobile African Americans must

learn the rules of belonging to another group which is

the Whiles (Scott 2002, cited in Ibid, p.14) while

retaining the original identity. In that sense, these

women are seen as belonging to two groups with a

bicultural identity, one is their origin which is the

African American community and the other one is the

dominant culture. They therefore have values of both

groups like collectivism and self-sacrifice of African

American communities as well as independence and self-

reliance of Western cultures (Ibid, p.14).

Similar phenomenon occurs in Germany too. In a study

conducted by Schneider and Lang, most of the Turkish-

German second generation they studied who are from

working-class backgrounds successfully gained degrees and

achieved responsible positions in professional fields,

thus acquiring middle- or even upper-class statuses

(2014, p.93). A habitus transformation is found among the

upwardly mobile. A formation of a dual identity which

stresses on ‘hybridity, fuzziness and multiplicities in

practices of (self)labelling and representations of

belonging’ (Çağlar 1997; Schneider 2001, 2010; Wimmer

2013; cited in Ibid, p.92) is obvious. Most of the

upwardly mobile Turkish-Germans thus combine the familial

habitus of aspiring educational and professional success,

a strong reference to ‘Turkishness’ and ‘Germanness’, and

‘juggling’ of the two spheres of both Turkishness and

Germanness (Ibid, p.100). A habitus diversification in

social practices, languages and modes of behavior occurs

to bridge different habitus for the mobile (Ibid, p.103).

In fact, the mobile spend great efforts on reconciliation

between identities of origin and that of destination for

cultivations of bicultural or dual identities. In the

case of African Americans, they adopt different

management strategies including isolating the African

American and the dominant societies, code-switching for

behaviour, forgiveness for family members, negotiating

relationships for people around, social support for

multiple identities, self-nurturing of identities,

remembering motivations for academic pursuits,

spirituality and avoidance of family relationships

(Simmons 2009, p.83-99). As a result, these mobile

individuals develop a bicultural identity (Ibid, p.100).

In the case of Turkish-Germans, ‘social climbers’ tackle

adaptations and transformations when crossing social

boundaries (Schneider & Lang 2014, p. 103). The mobile

have to acquire and internalise a new habitus that allows

them to act and behave properly in a new social context

(Ibid, p.100) and use code-switching between homes and

workplaces (Ibid, p.101). By these tactics, a dual

identity can be fostered amongst the mobile.

Loury et al. also showcases even when some of ethnic

minorities who have climbed upwardly along the social

ladder have moved out of areas with a high concentration

of their races, they still return to those places for

social capitals and identity-maintenance purposes (2005,

p.12).This assists in retentions of original identities

after attaining achieved status for the mobile.

Briefly, when reconciliation between the past and present

can be conducted, bicultural or dual identities can be

positively developed amongst the upwardly mobile.

Status Anxiety

Status anxiety is the negative impact brought by upward

mobility on the mobile. Socio-psychologically speaking,

this refers to unresolvable conflicts between identities

of origin and that of destination among the upwardly

mobile, which generates ‘a continuing crisis of identity’

(Luckmann & Berger 1964, p. 335). Individual identity is

a configuration of self-conceptions originating in social

processes and is a social construct as much as an

individual creation. Hence since the self is shaped by a

mirror-effect, the consistency and stability of the self

depends heavily on the internal fit of various reflected

images. Degrees of status consistency and status

certainty are thus vital factors in shaping of identity

(Ibid). As the mobile cannot accommodate both born and

achieved identities, ‘sophistication’ of identities

becomes rather tentative that could produce psychological

breakdowns (Ibid, p.342). The mobile then fall into

status anxieties and fail to establish healthy and solid

identities.

Empirically speaking, this phenomenon is highly prevalent

for the upwardly mobile. Firstly, Pierre Bourdieu was a

perfect demonstration of upward mobility. The French

sociologist was highly influential in academic globally.

As the son of an uneducated postman in a tiny peasant

village in rural France, Bourdieu achieved greatly

notwithstanding his working-class background (Friedman

2015, p.1). Nonetheless combinations of academic

achievement and low social origin had in fact cost

Bourdieu a sense of self ‘torn by contradiction and

internal division’ (Bourdieu 2000, cited in Ibid, p. 2).

In Britain, Friedman suggests most of the upwardly mobile

that have climbed a long range experience status

anxieties. Facing upwards in social space they have

routinely battled feelings of insecurity and inferiority

while facing downwards they have been invariably met with

a sense of guilt, estrangement and abandonment (Ibid,

p.16). Therefore this is the psychological imprint of

upward mobility for those (Ibid, p.17).

The conflicts can be found among the upwardly mobile

females. In Britain, female academics who have moved

upwardly from working-class backgrounds deeply understand

how status anxieties hugely affect them. Reay expresses

her difficulty of reconciling socialisation into academic

culture with a subjectivity that still draws on working-

class identity (1997, p.19). Skeggs appreciates her

working-class identity and admits her uncomfortable

tensions between her past and present class positions as

a successful scholar (1997, p.137). Hey similarly

addresses the shifting identifications with/against her

working-class past have been orchestrated through

repeated encounters with her current identity as a

middle-class sociologist (1997, p.150). In France, a

study of three generations of women from rural regions

reveals women can merely be successful for spatial

movement and upward mobility when they do not conflict

with their duties of family (Reed-Danahay 2002, p.103).

As part of the habitus formed in childhood, cultural

values emphasising on family become internalised and

implicit for these women. When these women search for

upward and spatial mobility to cities like Paris, they

then must stick to these values so as to avoid status

anxieties.

Even migrants are involved in status anxieties. In Spain

which is a popular migration destination for Britons, a

reproduction of class among British lifestyle migrants

appears. Old habitus originated in Britain reinscribes

positions and informs denigration and positioning of

others (Oliver & O’Reilly 2010, p.62) while new habitus

formulating in Spain is affecting these migrants.

Therefore, conflicts between past and present identities

contribute to status anxieties among the British migrants

in Spain.

Students from working-class backgrounds likewise

experience such conflicts as they move up along the

social ladder. For these students in Britain, entering

university is likely to entail a change in lifestyle and

social network that not only disrupt identity (Haslam et

al, in press; Jetten et al. 2002; Sani 2008; cited in

Jetten et al. 2008, p.876), but also hamper opportunities

to maintain connections to social backgrounds of

individuals (Ibid). Therefore inconsistencies between

past and present social backgrounds do not simply

disappear when one embarks on an individual upward

mobility strategy like attending university (Ibid,

p.877). Likewise, most of the British working-class

students with outstanding academic capabilities studying

in elite universities develop a new identity as members

of elites while retaining linkages to family and home

background (Reay et al. 2009, p. 1116). However the

mobile have to struggle between habitus and fields (Ibid,

p. 1115) which are the prices for upward mobility.

Among British secondary students, situations are similar.

Working-class students who are high achieving are

influenced multiply by divergent fields of schools and

their backgrounds (Lahire 2003, 2008; cited in Ingram

2011, p.300). Like others, status anxieties are salient

that these students researched in Belfast often have

potential emotional difficulties involving in processes

of forging an identity that is compatible with successful

pupils and their backgrounds (Ibid). In fact, attempts to

combine original working-class identities with academic

successes in schools are highly strenuous that this

process frequently generates heavy psychic costs (Reay

2002, p.222). As Reay explains, class intensifies and

expands process of this pathologisation that such actions

may only produce failures (Ibid, p.231).

When identities of origin and destination are in

conflict, some of the upwardly mobile like ethnic

minorities tend to abandon partial elements of the past

in order to signal class positions. In Britain,

confronted by status anxieties, the black middle classes

who are the upwardly mobile strategically adopt changes

to their resources that are attached to the blackness

like accent, language and comportment so as to gain

acceptance from the while-dominant middle class (Rollock

et al. 2011, p.1089).

With all these cases from different persons in various

countries, status anxieties are believed to be negatively

affecting the mobile.

UPWARD MOBILITY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY

Cultural identities of the mobile are heavily influenced

by mobility experiences too through cultural

omnivorousness as well as cultural separation and

homelessness.

Cultural Omnivorousness

Cultural omnivorousness is a sociological concept

describing individuals who are able to consume both

highbrow and lowbrow cultures. According to Peterson, the

cultural omnivore/univore thesis refers to two pyramids,

one right side up and the other upside down. In the first

one, the elite taste culture constitutes the cultural

capital of society. In the second one, numerous distinct

taste cultures formulate the status pyramid. Combining

the two pyramids into one, the omnivore at the top

commands status by displaying a wide range of tastes

while the univore at the bottom can only showcase just

one particular taste (1992, p.254). In other words,

cultural omnivorousness means there is often considerable

overlap in sorts of activities that social groups engage

in. The omnivorous tend to originate from higher, more

educated social classes as these groups have capitals to

participate more often not only in high art forms, but

also in most kinds of leisure activities (Bottero 2005,

p.157). Becoming omnivores are beneficial for social

relationships since the omnivorousness provides the

mobile with necessary cultural capitals that can be

transformed into social capitals. Their tastes for

highbrow culture facilitate boding connections in high-

status networks while tastes for lowbrow culture acts as

a ‘bridging tool’ for weak-tie social connections

(Friedman 2014, p.356).

Affected by upward mobility, the mobile are likely to be

cultural omnivores. This development is widely observed

in western societies. In France, research suggests a new

cultural norm in musical tastes that is in line with the

omnivore/univore thesis emerges and upward mobility

contributes to this (Coulangeon & Lemel 2007, p.108).

Individuals tend to broadly consume pops, international

pops, techno, world music, raps, rocks, jazz, classical

music such as opera (Ibid, p.97). As an increasing

proportion of upper class members come from working-class

backgrounds, the cultural behaviour of these new elites

are becoming growingly similar to that of ‘inheritors’

(Bourdieu & Passerson 1979, cited in Ibid, p.106-7).

Therefore the new elites collectively reflect the

diversity in their cultural habits and tastes, which

often mix cultural influences of various arenas with

which their socialisation occurred in different fields

(Lahire 2003, cited in Ibid, p.107). Similarly, forms of

individual mobility like upward mobility often translate

into heterogeneous cultural practices and preferences as

the upwardly mobile who have occupied different positions

within social, cultural and professional hierarchies have

interacted with various agents in society and thus have

learnt different cultural tastes from those (Lahire 2008,

p.174)

Similar pattern appears in Holland too. Van Eijck

showcases the omnivorous can commute between both

legitimate culture such as reading literature, visiting

museums and attending performing arts, and popular

culture like reading romantic fiction, attending football

games and watching commercial television (1999, p.309).

The well-educated upwardly mobile who are the new middle

classes participate in both high and low cultures, though

unevenly, successfully transforming themselves into

‘cultural omnivores’. Thus ‘educational mobility will

cause the group of the higher educated to develop a more

heterogeneous consumption pattern’ (Ibid, p.326). As De

Jager proposes, cultural interests are cultivated by a

double socialisation process, one through parents and

another one through education. The mobile with higher

schooling levels than their parents are not properly

socialised for the status they have attained at first and

hence have to put extra efforts on secondary

socialisation which is to familiarise themselves with

cultural tastes of social strata they intend to join

(1967, cited in Van Eijck & Knulst 2005, p.522).

Likewise in America, cultural omnivorousness of the

mobile is observed. Social mobility partially generates a

large-scale mingling of tastes that were initially linked

to certain classes or regions, leading to replacement of

a highbrow cultural repertoire by an omnivorous taste

pattern among upper-middle classes (Peterson & Kern 1996,

cited in Ibid). As Peterson and Kern note, social class

mobility like upward mobility in part contributes to the

diversity of cultural tastes held by individuals,

resulting in occurrence of cultural omnivorousness which

replaced snobbishness among Americans of highbrow status

decades ago as in 1992 highbrows averagely liked

significantly more kinds of non-elite music such as rocks

and country music of all genres than in 1982 (1996,

p.904-5).

In sum, as the mobile move upwardly along the hierarchy,

their cultural exposures accumulated through primary and

secondary socialisations assist them in becoming cultural

omnivores.

Cultural Separation and Homelessness

Cultural separation is another dimension of cultural

identities for the upwardly mobile. Cultural separation

refers to a detachment of individuals from their cultural

origins. The mobile have to abandon their cultural

origins as they move up long the ladder in order to gain

acceptance and recognition from the dominant society.

Admittedly, this has adverse effects on kinship ties,

intimate relationships and the coherency of the self

(Friedman 2014, p.354) when deserting cultural origins as

the mobile may lose communicational tools for their

families and acquaintances.

The British case expresses cultural separation

surrounding the upwardly mobile. Jackson and Marsden

investigate problems facing working-class grammar-school

boys in Huddersfield, where costs of educational

achievement are cultural separations from origins of

individuals (1963, cited in Ibid, p.358). This implies

these students need to relinquish parts of habitus

formulated through primary socialisation like cultural

consumptions as they moved upwardly along the pyramid. In

a cross-culture comparison, Hopper also argues mobility

is more possible to be ‘pathogenic’ in Britain than

America because greater ‘status rigidity’ ensures it is

harder for the mobile to acquire a legitimate position in

social space (1981, cited in Ibid). That said the mobile

are forced to abandon certain elements like cultural

habitats within habitus so as to be recognised to secure

a position in the social hierarchy.

Cultural homelessness appears determining cultural

identities of the upwardly mobile too. As a newly emerged

sociological concept, cultural homelessness represents

dislocations of cultural omnivores from a recognisable

cultural habitat, permanently caught with one foot in two

different tastes and cultures (Friedman 2012, p.484). The

mobile develop this kind of cultural identity as they

occupy a ‘liminal’ space in social space which is

characterised by an uncertain relationship with those

above and below them (Savage 2005, cited in Ibid, p.484-

5). Shifting between and consuming both high and low

cultural habitats, the mobile fail to articulate a sense

of belonging to either one. They are thus acutely aware

of the cultural hierarchy and their precarious positions

within the hierarchy (Ibid, p.485). In this regard, the

mobile construct a habitus clivé, which implies a habitus

‘torn by contradiction and internal division’ (Bourdieu

2004, cited in Ibid).

Recent research confirms the claim that upward mobility

breeds cultural homelessness. On comedy tastes of the

upwardly mobile British middle classes, Friedman suggests

his upwardly mobile respondents seem to have less

consonant tastes than high cultural capital or low

cultural capital respondents, displaying omnivorous

preferences spanning the cultural hierarchy. The diverse

comedy tastes actually reflect trajectories of one’s

cultural capital resources. Nonetheless, in times,

traversing the taste hierarchy has more negative than

positive social implications since the mobile lack

‘natural’ confidence to communicate new, more legitimate

taste as embodied cultural capitals and their upwardly

mobile trajectories likewise mean they are acutely aware

the lowbrow taste formed in youth are socially

unacceptable and aesthetically inferior (Ibid, p 485).

They thus become culturally homeless, knowing nowhere to

belong to and hence losing roots in cultural identities.

In short, the upwardly mobile who are cultural omnivores

may experience cultural homelessness, which badly affects

their cultural identities.

CONCLUSION

With empirical evidences from countries as varied as

Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Holland and America, and

social segments as varied as males, females, ethnic

minorities, students and migrants, the broad pattern in

contemporary western societies is drawn that upward

mobility impacts massively on personal identities.

From illustrations of the mobile in this paper, the past

is concluded to heavily affect the present. As this paper

has argued, upward social mobility can produce both

positive and negative effects for social and cultural

identities of individuals. No matter how far the mobile

have moved upwardly, no matter what occupations they are

in and no matter how much they are earning currently,

social and cultural roots still influence the present of

mobile. Dragged into two different identities of the past

and present, they have to tackle conflicts between the

two. If they succeed, they are entitled to the positive

social and cultural identities; if they fail, they are

only able to suffer from the negatives ones. For social

identities, bicultural or dual identities appear if

reconciliation between identities of origins and

destinations can be resolved while status anxieties

emerge if these two cannot be incorporated smoothly. For

cultural identities, cultural omnivorousness becomes

visualised when the mobile can comfortably consume both

high and low cultures while cultural separation and

homelessness occur if the mobile need to depart from

their cultural pasts for the former and if the omnivorous

are unable to manage confrontations between both high and

low cultural habitats properly for the latter.

This paper has thus rebutted Goldthorpe’s claim set

earlier that upward social mobility is not a stressful

experience for the mobile (1980, p.248). In fact, given

the scarcity of upward mobility in modern societies, any

successful stories of the mobile are celebrated, leading

the mass society to perceive upward mobility as a simple,

linear and enjoyable trajectory for all individuals. But

as this paper has displayed, upward mobility is not a

straight-forward experience for the mobile. It often

involves painful emotional and psychological burdens.

Even with positive gains, the mobile have to spend

numerous efforts on managements of various conflicting

identities in order to avoid a split of self.

In the future, it is our continuous responsibility as

sociologists to debunk the upward mobility for the public

as demonstrated by this paper.

(Word Count: 4,995)

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