Lezhnina Y.P. Intergenerational Mobility of Middle Income Groups and the Role of Family in This Process. In: The Middle Income Group in China and Russia. Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path. ...

Abstract

A significant part of the social structure analysis is the study of social mobility nature. The beginning of the transformational period which Russia entered more than a quarter of a century ago was associated with the emergence of new instruments and channels of social mobility. Under these circumstances the intergenerational dynamics of social status was conditioned by the situation of Russian citizens’ parents to a lesser extent. Strengthening the meritocratic principles of social and economic life organization in the society and gradual normalization of the institutional environment by the mid-2000s led to the fact that in the context of generations upward social mobility exceeded the downward one, although the preservation of the parents’ social status remained the dominating trend of social dynamics. Thus, in 2006, when referring to their own situation, just under half of Russians (42%) noted that their status corresponded to the parents’ one, while one third (35%) evaluated it as a higher one compared to their parents’ situation in the same age, and only 23% evaluated it as a lower one.