Inequality, Mobility, and Social Change in Contemporary Societies

Abstract

Rising economic inequality and declining social mobility have become defining features of contemporary societies, reshaping how sociologists, economists, and policymakers interpret social change. The study synthesizes theoretical and empirical scholarship on inequality and mobility, tracing the field from classical stratification research to contemporary cross-national and administrative-data studies. It examines how inequality is measured, how intergenerational mobility varies across national contexts, the role of social and cultural capital in reproducing advantage, and how structural forces such as welfare regimes, globalization, and labor-market restructuring condition life chances. The study concludes that inequality and mobility are mutually constitutive processes embedded in institutional design, and that addressing declining mobility requires attention to both the distributive and the relational dimensions of social life. It highlights the need for institutional and policy responses that address both unequal resource distribution and the social mechanisms that reproduce advantage across generations.