Mobility and Politics in Industrial Society

Abstract

With societies in the early stages of commercial and industrial development the relationship between mobility and politics has been seen traditionally in terms of the emergence of entirely new social strata and of the values associated with mobility. One is, therefore, speaking primarily in terms of large aggregates of change. In more industrial societies the fact of mobility is part of the increased differentiation of structures, and the relationship between forms of mobility and politics is often seen much more in the context of political attitudes. It is important, however, that mobility should be examinedas a contributory factor in ongoing political processes as well. This chapter tries to do both, and for the purpose three types of mobility are examined as examples of distinct kinds of change. These cases represent the debate on the ‘new’ working class in Europe; various forms of downward mobility and the relationship of mobility to race, and finally the emergence of new political élites. In the first case the interest is normally on the relationship between technological and consumer factors and the political styles of the working class; in the second the problem is of the incongruity between occupational and status mobility, while in the last the issue ranges from the establishment of a ruling political class to political mobility, the movement of individuals up or down political structures. In all cases they represent shifts in political attitudes and have implications for the entire structure of politics.