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Would perfect mobility be perfect?
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Swift, Adam (2004) Would perfect mobility be perfect? European Sociological Review, Volume 20 (Number 1). pp. 1-11. doi:10.1093/esr/20.1.1 ISSN 0266-7215.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/esr/20.1.1
Abstract
This paper explores the key normative issues raised by empirical research into social mobility and meritocracy. Typically, sociologists working in this area are motivated by a concern with matters of social justice and equality of opportunity, but that concern tends to be rather vague and diffuse, which makes it difficult to assess the normative relevance of their findings. Surveying, in an accessible manner, five issues familiar to political philosophers that clarify the significance of sociologists' results, this paper explains why a regime of ‘perfect mobility’ is not an appropriate benchmark for evaluating the extent to which a society offers its members social justice or equality of opportunity. Some of the mechanisms that produce an association between the social position of parents and children are unobjectionable and would exist even in an altogether just society. Sociologists do not endorse perfect mobility. But neither are they clear about the variety, and normative significance, of the various mechanisms that tend to generate inequalities in mobility chances.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | European Sociological Review | ||||
Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||
ISSN: | 0266-7215 | ||||
Official Date: | 2004 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 20 | ||||
Number: | Number 1 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 1-11 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1093/esr/20.1.1 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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