What are the factors that affect social mobility?

First, the influence of institutional factors on individual socio-economic and social status acquisition.

The household registration system is the most obvious and longest-lasting macro factor that affects people's social mobility. It not only causes differences in national welfare treatment, but also greatly limits the development opportunities of social members. As far as occupational mobility is concerned, non-agricultural registered permanent residence holders have more opportunities to get better jobs and be promoted to higher social classes than those born in rural areas since birth; However, the fate of social members born in rural areas is limited by the state system in rural agriculture. As far as educational resources are concerned, there are great differences between urban and rural populations in terms of opportunities and educational conditions for receiving compulsory education and higher education. The household registration system is also passed down from generation to generation. Once the household registration status of parents is determined, it basically stipulates the fate of their children. According to our research data, after the reform and opening up, corresponding to the abolition and weakening of other restrictive systems, the household registration system has become a relic of the only planned era, which has a more prominent impact on people's professional status.

Family class background is also the main macro factor affecting social mobility in a long historical period. Class differentiation is the inevitable outcome of China Revolution. China Revolution broke the social hierarchy in the old world and created the political order in the new society. But after the class was eliminated economically, it was still labeled as "enemy" and "me" politically. Class composition is also about blood. The class status of parents before I949 largely determines the class background and social development opportunities of their children. Our research shows that before 1957, the state adopted a relatively tolerant and peaceful socialist transformation model for national industrial and commercial capitalists and rich peasants, and these upper classes in the old society could maintain their comparative advantages in professional status and educational opportunities. From 1957 to 1978, when the Cultural Revolution ended, the status of workers and peasants as masters was gradually strengthened. Workers, peasants, revolutionary cadres and their children with good family backgrounds often have more opportunities for upward mobility in terms of job promotion and unit transfer, while landlords, bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie who have lost the means of production become the targets of supervision, control and dictatorship. With the reform and opening up, the social status difference brought by this symbolic class composition no longer exists.

Second, the influence of social organizations on individual social mobility and social status acquisition.

The unit system produced after the socialist transformation from 65438 to 0956 was a unique institutional arrangement in China in the planned era. The nature of unit ownership determines people's welfare from work organization, and the administrative level of the unit also affects people's welfare level. Our research shows that, firstly, for the process of social mobility of social members, entering a good unit is equivalent to obtaining a good social and professional status; Secondly, a good unit also provides more possibilities for individuals to further enhance their status; Finally, the unit resources have a certain "intergenerational inheritance", and parents who work in units owned by the whole people try their best to arrange or transfer their children to units owned by the whole people-this is the unit "replacement system" before the reform and opening up. Therefore, parents benefit from a good unit department, which means that the next generation can get a good unit status in a certain sense. The influence of unit system on people's social status has its historical track. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China (I949——I956), due to the unclear influence of the hukou system on people's social status, the role of the unit became extremely prominent. During the Cultural Revolution, the importance of the unit almost reached the extreme: after I978, with the introduction of market mechanism, the resource exclusivity of the unit was broken and its influence began to decline. After I992, the quality of the unit has gradually become a common influencing factor, and even the other way around-people who originally belonged to good units are more likely to flow to the lower classes of society, such as laid-off workers in state-owned enterprises and institutions.

Family is the most basic social unit in human social life, and it also undertakes the function of providing social status resources for the next generation. The study of social mobility is most concerned with the influence of father's resources, such as occupation, education, power and unit, on children's social status. Our research found that, first of all, the education level of children shows the influence of fathers in different periods: the higher the father's professional status and education level, the more likely he is to motivate and arrange children to receive more and better education. Even in the era of "the more knowledge, the more reactionary", this trend has been maintained with difficulty. Family background is to pass on one's strengths or weaknesses to the next generation through this legal inheritance channel. Secondly, the family's use of unit resources can affect their children's occupation and unit status. Mainly reflected in: fathers in good units are more likely to arrange jobs for their children. Third, the family's power resources and power relations will also be passed on to children. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the children of cadres have had more opportunities to be cadres. This trend was obvious from I949 to 1965, especially during the Cultural Revolution. Children of cadres are four times more likely to be cadres than ordinary people. After the reform and opening up, this phenomenon has decreased, but the intergenerational influence still exists significantly. Fourthly, in the era of planned system, the father's occupation had little influence on children's social status, but it took an obvious turn in I078- 199 1. With the development of marketization, the occupation capacity of social resources gradually exceeds the old institutional arrangements such as household registration, birth and unit. Therefore, "father's professional status" helps children get a good professional status and upgrade to a good professional status. After 1992, the role of father's professional status has been strengthened in the process of further deepening marketization.