Absolute and Relative Mobility

[buttons]

umm yeah this is in reference to sociology and social class
what's the difference between absolute and relative mobility? (that's not actually the question i just don't know what is what omg) or does anyone have a definiton?
this is what i have:

"•Absolute Mobility is the total amount of movement in the system - i.e. changes in work since 1945 (Decline in blue collar, rise in white collar)
•Relative mobility, is an individual’s chances of movement into a higher social class from their starting position (i.e. Working class attempting to move up to middle class)- most important to sociologists"

that's what i have from notes but it doesn't make sense to me. +rep for help

[Catzsy]

This is a pretty good link which seems to explain it better:
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/economicsunbound/archives/2005/05/absolute_versus.html

[buttons]

This is a pretty good link which seems to explain it better:
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/economicsunbound/archives/2005/05/absolute_versus.html
i did have a look at that but that talks about absolute mobility being more important than relative mobility, whereas my tutor tells me that relative mobility is most important to sociologists so focus on that... plus that definitions... i still don't understand it. i don't understand how it fits in to my essay. my essay question is " To what extent does social class influence an individual’s chances of social mobility in the UK today?" . idk how relative and absolute mobility comes in to it. argh.
thanks anyway :)

[Catzsy]

Well I guess that absolute mobility is easier to achive than social mobility as it comes with the rise in standard of living generally. An example of this would be more people own houses now than say they did 40 years ago. Relative mobility is harder to achieve being someone from a poor family that breaks the class barrier by doing very well despite the circumstances they were originally in. It can work the other way around too that individuals from a higher class can move to a lower class because of circumstances in their life. I would imagine sociologists focus on this as it is individuals rather than people being better off because of the rise in the standard of living and in that way it is more unique.

This looks quite a good paper on it although it is a bit long.
http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/SocialMobilityJUNE2010.pdf

[Inseriousity.]

Going from your definitions, I believe that absolute mobility refers to changes in the system whereas relative mobility focuses more on the individual or a group of people (eg working class) and how much they progress 'through the ranks' (working class to middle class etc). The latter would be more interesting for sociologists because if they can find out the best way people can move through the ranks, they could possibly report on that (become mega rich from their research) and help other people do the same.