In this ethnographic study of the rural idyll, Broadlands explores rurality and the pace of rural life. In sharp contrast to the urban analytical emphasis upon speed, it gives careful thought to stasis, as rural places offer everyday opportunities for very different social situations and behavioural interactions. Based on new and extensive RCUK-funded primary research, Sam Hillyard generates an original, rigorous and thoughtful understanding of everyday rural life in the 21st century. Taking the principles of dramaturgy and rural studies scholarship, Broadlands provides a toolkit to make sense of rural change. It uses ethnography to enhance interactionist dramaturgy via cross-references with new theoretical orientations that emphasise the temporal dynamics of space in a 'knowing capitalism'. Where early dramaturgy stressed formal organisations in shaping roles and identity, Broadlands expands these concepts to include informal and transient organisations and associations. Ultimately, the book advances a new model for grasping the complexity of the rural. For researchers and students ofrural and urban sociology, this is an engaging text that reframes our understanding of rurality.

India remains a country mired in poverty, with two-thirds of its 1.2 billion people living on little more than a few dollars day. Just as telling, the country's informal working population numbers nearly 500 million, or approximately 80 percent of the entire labor force. Despite these figures and the related structural disadvantages that imperil the lives of so many, the Indian elite hold fast to the idea that the poor need only work harder and show some discipline and they, too, can become rich. The results of this ambitious ten-year ethnography at exclusive golf clubs in Bangalore shatter such self-serving illusions. In Narrow Fairways, Patrick Inglis combines participant observation, interviews, and archival research to show how social mobility among the poor lower-caste golf caddies who carry the golf sets of wealthy upper-caste members at these clubs is ultimately constrained and narrowed. The book highlights how elites secure and extend class and caste privileges, while also delivering a necessary rebuke to India's present development strategy, which pays far too little attention to promoting quality health care, education, and other basic social services that would deliver real opportunities to the poor.

The world of welfare has changed radically. As the poor trade welfare checks for low-wage jobs, their low earnings qualify them for a hefty check come tax time a combination of the earned income tax credit and other refunds. For many working parents this one check is like hitting the lottery, offering several months' wages as well as the hope of investing in a better future. Drawing on interviews with 115 families, the authors look at how parents plan to use this annual cash windfall to build up savings, go back to school, and send their kids to college. However, these dreams of upward mobility are often dashed by the difficulty of trying to get by on meager wages. In accessible and engaging prose, It's Not Like I'm Poor examines the costs and benefits of the new work-based safety net, suggesting ways to augment its strengths so that more of the working poor can realize the promise of a middle-class life.

Powerful Schools seeks to release the creative vision within all educators, and show how schools can lead the way in establishing structures and practices that will support young people to become productive members of a global society. If educators are liberated to recognise that the vast potential of schools need not be constrained by expectations about qualifications, curriculum, the length of the school day, or physical buildings, then their imagination soars, as does their capacity for invention. Powerful Schools is a blueprint, showing how each and every school can grow abundantly rich in opportunities for individuals to develop the skills to become more socially and globally mobile, actively supported by numerous people and organisations who are consciously working to engage them in making the most of these opportunities.

This book explores higher education, social class and social mobility from the point of view of those most intimately involved: the undergraduate students. It is based on a project which followed a cohort of young undergraduate students at Bristol's two universities in the UK through from their first year of study for the following three years, when most of them were about to enter the labour market or further study. The students were paired by university, by subject of study and by class background, so that the fortunes of middle-class and working-class students could be compared. Narrative data gathered over three years are located in the context of a hierarchical and stratified higher education system, in order to consider the potential of higher education as a vehicle of social mobility.

Mindful meditation is now embraced in virtually all corners of society today, from K-12 schools to Fortune 100 companies, and its virtues extolled by national and international media almost daily. It is thought to benefit our health and overall well-being, to counter stress, to help children pay attention, and to foster creativity, productivity and emotional intelligence. Yet in the 1960s and 1970s meditation was viewed as a marginal, counter-cultural practice, or a religious ritual for Asian immigrants. How did mindfulness become mainstream? In The Mindful Elite, Jamie Kucinskas reveals who is behind the mindfulness movement, and the engine they built to propel mindfulness into public consciousness. Drawing on over a hundred first-hand accounts with top scientists, religious leaders, educators, business people and investors, Kucinskas shows how this highly accomplished, affluent group in America transformed meditation into an appealing set of contemplative practices. Rather than relying on confrontation and protest to make their mark and improve society, the contemplatives sought a cultural revolution by building elite networks and advocating the benefits of meditation across professions. Yet, spreading the Dharma far and wide came with unintended consequences and this idealistic myopia came to reinforce some of the problems it originally aspired to solve. A critical look at this Buddhist-inspired movement, The Mindful Elite explores how elite movements can spread and draws larger lessons for other social, cultural, and religious movements across institutions and organizations.

Segregation by Design draws on more than 100 years of quantitative and qualitative data from thousands of American cities to explore how local governments generate race and class segregation. Starting in the early twentieth century, cities have used their power of land use control to determine the location and availability of housing, amenities (such as parks), and negative land uses (such as garbage dumps). The result has been segregation - first within cities and more recently between them. Documenting changing patterns of segregation and their political mechanisms, Trounstine argues that city governments have pursued these policies to enhance the wealth and resources of white property owners at the expense of people of color and the poor. Contrary to leading theories of urban politics, local democracy has not functioned to represent all residents. The result is unequal access to fundamental local services - from schools, to safe neighborhoods, to clean water.

This book offers policy makers, teachers and teacher trainers a framework for understanding inclusive education in the developing world. With a major focus on South Africa, it argues that planning for inclusive education must rupture old theories, assumptions, models and tools - including a recognition of how the history of special education has psychologized failure - with the mainstream taking ownership of the transformation to a fairer system. The author contends that for inclusive education to take hold, policy makers need to contextualize the curriculum to the needs of the developing country, and to place the vulnerable and working class demographic at the heart of the planning process - recognizing that the performative culture of developed countries will marginalize and alienate this majority group. Providing practical guidelines on developing full-service schools that can cater for learners who experience a range of barriers to learning, Inclusive Education in South Africa and the Developing World will be of great value to all those with an interest in education, inclusion and social justice both within South Africa and beyond.

In the United States, homeownership is synonymous with economic security and middle-class status. It has played this role in American life for almost a century, and as a result, homeownership's centrality to Americans' economic lives has come to seem natural and inevitable. But this state of affairs did not develop spontaneously or inexorably. On the contrary, it was the product of federal government policies, established during the 1930s and developed over the course of the twentieth century. At the Boundaries of Homeownership traces how the government's role in this became submerged from public view and how several groups who were locked out of homeownership came to recognize and reveal the role of the government. Through organizing and activism, these boundary groups transformed laws and private practices governing determinations of credit-worthiness. This book describes the important policy consequences of their achievements and the implications for how we understand American statebuilding.

'An exploration of why so many Americans are struggling financially . . . A down-to-earth overview of the causes and effects of poverty and possible remedies.' - Kirkus Reviews Water. Food. Housing. The most basic and crucial needs for survival, yet 40 percent of people in the United States don't have the resources to get them. With key policy changes, we could eradicate poverty in this country within our lifetime - but we need to get started now. Nearly 40 million people in the United States live below the poverty line - about $26,200 for a family of four. Low-income families and individuals are everywhere, from cities to rural communities. While poverty is commonly seen as a personal failure, or a deficiency of character or knowledge, it's actually the result of bad policy. Public policy has purposefully erected barriers that deny access to basic needs, creating a society where people can easily become trapped - not because we lack the resources to lift them out, but because we are actively choosing not to. Poverty is close to inevitable for low-wage workers and their children, and a large percentage of these people, despite qualifying for it, do not receive government aid. From Joanne Samuel Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox, Broke in America offers an eye-opening and galvanizing look at life in poverty in this country: how circumstances and public policy conspire to keep people poor, and the concrete steps we can take to end poverty for good. In clear, accessible prose, Goldblum and Shaddox detail the ways the current system is broken and how it's failing so many of us. They also highlight outdated and ineffective policies that are causing or contributing to this unnecessary problem. Every chapter features action items readers can use to combat poverty - both nationwide and in our local communities, including the most effective public policies you can support and how to work hand-in-hand with representatives to affect change. So far, our attempted solutions have fallen short because they try to 'fix' poor people rather than address the underlying problems. Fortunately, it's much easier to fix policy than people. Essential and timely, Broke in America offers a crucial road map for securing a brighter future.

In recent years, the news media has directed a significant amount of attention to the effect of globalization on the second most populous nation in the world: India. With the emergence of new economic opportunities and the influx of foreign popular culture and commodities, India has experienced an enormous sea of change in the last few decades. In Decolonizing Psychology: Globalization, Social Justice, and Indian Youth Identities, author Sunil Bhatia focuses on the psychological tensions that these changes have brought upon Indian youth today. Drawing on dozens of interviews, Bhatia offers readers a compelling glimpse and analysis of how these youth populations are engaging with the emerging presence of globalization in their day-to-day lives. As Bhatia explains, young Indians use the term 'world class selves' as a way to identify and describe the ways in which globalization has strengthened their standing in the world. By frequenting urban cafes and bars, watching American television and cinema, traveling abroad, and regularly consuming foreign commodities, Indian youth absorb the westernized culture and view themselves as peers to their western counterparts. At the same time, however, these young Indians proudly hold onto their homeland's traditions governing family and religious values. With remarkable clarity and nuance, Bhatia sheds an important light on the universalizing power and the colonizing dimensions of Euro-American psychology. By integrating insights from postcolonial, narrative, and cultural psychologies to explore how Euro-American scientific psychology became the standard approach, Bhatia reminds readers of whose stories are not being told, what knowledge is not being considered, and whose lives are not included in the central understanding of psychology today.

Although Canada is known internationally as a leader among industrialized countries for inclusive practices towards immigrants and refugees, the twenty-first century has witnessed a rise in the number of refugees and temporary migrant workers who are often denied citizenship and may also experience detention and deportation. Containing Diversity examines to what extent Canada's long-standing support for immigration, multiculturalism, and citizenship has shifted in favour of discourses, policies, and practices that "contain" diversity. This book reflects on how diversity is being "contained" through practices designed to insulate the Canadian settler-colonial state. In assessing the Canadian government's policies towards refugees and asylum seekers, economic migrants, family-class migrants, temporary foreign workers, and multiculturalism, the authors show the various contradictory practices in effect. Containing Diversity reflects on policy changes, analysed alongside the resurgence of right-wing political ideology and the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, Containing Diversity highlights the need for a re-imagining of new forms of solidarity that centre migrant and Indigenous justice.

"Catherine Cusset's book caught a lot of me. I recognised myself" DAVID HOCKNEY "A perfect short expose of Hockney's life as seen through the eyes of an admiring novelist" Kirkus Reviews "Hers is an affirming vision of a restless talent propelled by optimism and chance" New York Times With clear, vivid prose, this meticulously researched novel draws an intimate, moving portrait of the most famous living English painter. Born in Bradford in 1937, David Hockney had to fight to become an artist. After leaving home for the Royal College of Art in London his career flourished, but he continued to struggle with a sense of not belonging, because of his homosexuality, which had yet to be decriminalised, and because of his inclination for a figurative style of art, which was not sufficiently "contemporary" to be valued. Trips to New York and California - where he would live for many years and paint his iconic swimming pools - introduced him to new scenes and new loves, beginning a journey that would take him through the fraught years of the AIDS epidemic. A compelling hybrid of novel and biography, David Hockney: A Life offers an insightful overview of a painter whose art is as accessible as it is compelling, and whose passion to create has never been deterred by heartbreak or illness or loss. Translated from the French by Teresa Lavender Fagan

Struggles for Justice in Canada and Mexico examines Canadian and Mexican communities engaged in collective action to address problems related to the context of aggressive capitalism, which favours economic freedom of the powerful over the needs of people and the planet. The book's several case examples portray income-generating projects; action to promote health, adequate housing, and a safe environment (including resistance to mining); women's resource and advocacy programs; as well as grassroots support organizations and independent organizers.The author gathered stories in six states in the south of Mexico and two provinces in Canada between 2004 and 2010, with follow-up to 2012. Thematically, they centre on oppression and struggles for rights experienced by the poor, women, and Indigenous peoples. The author's case-study method bolsters her narratives by including interviews, observation, and some participant-observation, with analysis that draws on social movement theory from sociology and community organizing theory from social work as well as knowledge from social psychology, liberation theology, popular education, and political science. The book presents the common themes and illustrates the central theories for practitioners in the many fields that promote social justice: social work, social development, health, human rights, environmental protection, and faith-based justice movements, among others. The conclusion presents a framework for conceptualizing social justice practice as a congruent paradigm composed of values, theory, objectives, and practice methods.

Social movements are not only a potential challenge to societies, they also challenge social theory. This volume looks at social movements and social movement research through the lens of different social theories. What can social movement studies learn from these theories? And: What can these theories learn from the analysis of social movements? From this double vantage point, the book discusses the theories of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Niklas Luhmann, Jeffrey Alexander, and Judith Butler, as well as rational choice theory, relational sociology, and organizational neo-institutionalism.

This volume brings together new research that bridges the domains of stakeholder theory, non-market strategy and social movement theory. Although these three research domains have developed via relatively distinct academic communities, they speak to a common set of phenomena at the intersection of business, markets, civil society, and the state. This collection sets an agenda for a more holistic theory of business and society - a theory that takes seriously the various kinds of stakeholders that make up society and have claims over business, that incorporates the goals and objectives of businesses to survive and thrive, and that places an important role on the process of mobilization and contentious interaction between actors whose goals inherently conflict. Using a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, contributors focus on a phenomenon at the intersection of business, civil society, and government. Examining markets shaped by heavy stakeholder involvement and contention, chapters explore topics such as markets for electric vehicles, medical marijuana, municipal drinking water, and cigarettes along with controversial business practice, including employment practices for LGBT workers and racial/ethnic minorities, and working conditions in global supply chains.

For decades, the idea that more education will lead to greater individual and national prosperity has been a cornerstone of developed economies. Indeed, it is almost universally believed that college diplomas give Americans and Europeans a competitive advantage in the global knowledge wars. Challenging this conventional wisdom, The Global Auction forces us to reconsider our deeply held and mistaken views about how the global economy really works and how to thrive in it. Drawing on cutting-edge research based on a major international study, the authors show that the competition for good, middle-class jobs is now a worldwide competition-an auction for cut-priced brainpower-fueled by an explosion of higher education across the world. They highlight a fundamental power shift in favor of corporate bosses and emerging economies such as China and India, a change that is driving the new global high-skill, low-wage workforce. Fighting for a dwindling supply of good jobs will compel the middle classes to devote more time, money, and effort to set themselves apart in a bare-knuckle competition that will leave many disappointed. The authors urge a new conversation about the kind of society we want to live in and about the kind of global economy that can benefit workers, but without condemning millions in emerging economies to a life of poverty. The Global Auction is a radical rethinking of the ideas that stand at the heart of the American Dream. It offers a timely expose of the realities of the global struggle for middle class jobs, a competition that threatens the livelihoods of millions of American and European workers and their families. "A brilliant new book." - Andrew Reinbach, The Huffington Post "This is a very important book. Their critique of the present state of global capitalism is both timely and convincing." - Roger Brown, Times Higher Education "[A]truly outstanding volume."-Lois Weis, University of Buffalo, British Journal of Sociology of Education. "The Global Auction is a must-read for parents, college students, and policymakers. We press the message to our children: 'Study. Get degrees. Get a good job. And you will live the good life.' But such claims are strikingly at odds with the realities of income stagnation and poor job prospects. The authors explain how this dramatic breakdown between rhetoric and reality happened and how we might reconstruct an alternative future in which education becomes meaningful and fulfilling in its own right." -Henry M. Levin, Columbia University "This is a challenging and very timely book. The gauntlet is thrown down to economists wedded to human capital theory and to sociologists who see education as the great engine of social mobility." -John Goldthorpe, University of Oxford "The Global Auction deals with one of the most pressing issues of our times: how the significant expansion in the labor supply available to multinational corporations is leading to dramatic shifts in the location of employment around the world. It draws on years of in-depth research, offering valuable insights for both academics and business leaders."-David Finegold, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey "Brown, Lauder, and Ashton's book is brilliantly argued and provides a wakeup call to global citizens everywhere. There is no substitute for the regulation of global capitalism in the interests of the many rather than the few, and this book slams the door on the last set of excuses for maintaining the current system-that somehow the educated will escape the race to the bottom."-Kevin Leicht, University of Iowa

If "badneighborhoods are truly bad for children and families, especially the minority poor, can moving to better neighborhoods lead them to better lives? Might these families escape poverty altogether, beyond having a better quality of life to help them cope with being poor? Federal policymakers and planners thought so, on both counts, and in 1994, they launched Moving to Opportunity. The $80 million social experiment enrolled nearly 5,000 very low-income, mostly black and Hispanic families, many of them on welfare, who were living in public housing in the inner-city neighborhoods of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Yet five years after they had entered the program, many of the families in the favored experimentalgroup had returned to high poverty neighborhoods. Young women showed big drops in risky behavior and big improvements in mental health, on average, while young male movers did not. The males even showed signs of increased delinquency if they had lived, at least for a time, in the low poverty areas. Parents likewise showed major drops in anxiety and depression-two of the crippling symptoms of being chronically poor in high-risk ghettos-but not in employment or income. And many movers appeared to be maintaining the same limited social circles-mostly disadvantaged relatives and close friends-despite living in more advantaged neighborhoods. The authors of this important and engaging new book wanted to know why. Moving to Opportunity tackles the great, unresolved question of how to overcome persistent ghetto poverty. It mines a unique demonstration program with a human voice, not just statistics and charts, rooted in the lives of those who "signed upfor MTO. It shines a light on the hopes, surprises, achievements and limitations of a major social experiment-and does so at a time of tremendous economic, social, and political change in our nation. As the authors make clear, for all its ambition, MTO is a uniquely American experiment, and this book brings home its lessons for policymakers and advocates, scholars, students, journalists, and all who share a deep concern for opportunity and inequality in our country.

Part of the New Approaches to Sociology series, Social Inequalities is a relevant and valuable exploration of how we see the world, through a decolonised lens. Aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students of sociology, this textbook offers a critical re-reading of traditional approaches to understanding social inequalities and responds to the call from university administrations, academics and students to decolonise the curriculum and challenge its lack of diversity. It presents an intersectional approach to understanding diversity and social inequalities and, in so doing, allows for alternative knowledge sources and voices to be heard. From looking at social groups such as race, age, sexuality and class alongside a nuanced evaluation of traditional sociological theories such as Marxism, functionalism and feminism - this book is an expert guide to the debates central to understanding the challenges individuals face in society. Including personal stories and case studies, students will be exposed to an authentic and real-world view of how individuals have encountered discrimination. Social Inequalities is an essential resource for anyone working and studying across sociology, and anyone interested in challenging established ways of looking at the world. Professor Anya Ahmed, Dr Deirdre Duffy and Dr Lorna Chesterton work in the faculty of health and education at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

American educators have hailed the public high school as the ultimate guarantor of equal opportunity in a modern educational system. Avenues to Adulthood assesses how the high school played this role. Professor Ueda's book discusses the reasons for the modernisation of the high school at the turn of the twentieth century, the kinds of opportunities the high school offered and the way in which it became a focus of civic life that reshaped the American sense of community and generation. To the extent that a small share of poor immigrant children gained access to the high school and received its advantages, that institution counteracted the disadvantages of inherited social status. Academics, interscholastic sports and journalism turned the high school into a focal point of civic pride. Ultimately by supplying educational advantages that affected adult career patterns, the high school was a powerful force in reshuffling the social elites of the early twentieth-century city.

How do we reflect upon ourselves and our concerns in relation to society, and vice versa? Human reflexivity works through 'internal conversations' using language, but also emotions, sensations and images. Most people acknowledge this 'inner-dialogue' and can report upon it. However, little research has been conducted on 'internal conversations' and how they mediate between our ultimate concerns and the social contexts we confront. In this book, Margaret Archer argues that reflexivity is progressively replacing routine action in late modernity, shaping how ordinary people make their way through the world. Using interviewees' life and work histories, she shows how 'internal conversations' guide the occupations people seek, keep or quit; their stances towards structural constraints and enablements; and their resulting patterns of social mobility.

An accessible overview of the power of women in the economy and the obstacles they face Women are joining the workforce in increasing numbers, making inroads as entrepreneurs and leaders, acquiring more education, marrying later, and having fewer children - all trends consistent with spending a far greater fraction of their adult lives in the labor force. And yet, even as women break the glass ceiling and challenge gender and sexual norms, they are told they need to "lean in" and powerful movements like #TimesUP and #MeToo are still necessary to expose and overcome endemic discrimination, exploitation, harassment, and worse. Women in the Workforce: What Everyone Needs to Know (R) provides an essential and accessible introduction to the significance of women in the economy and the obstacles they face in claiming equal status. Economists Laura M. Argys and Susan L. Averett tackle timely topics like the wage gap, "women's work," and gendered workplace interactions in an easy-to-read question and answer format. The book focuses on the choices people make and how these are framed by institutional impediments that create inequalities in the options available to men and women. Argys and Averett highlight how the experience of being a woman in the labor market varies, sometimes dramatically, by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. They also explore how living in cities, towns, and rural areas influence choices and outcomes. Covering a range of topics, from breastfeeding and work, earnings penalties for women who have taken time away from work, and childcare while women work, to the gender pay gap and the distinctive challenges women face as they age and transition to retirement, this book answers the essential questions surrounding women in the workforce.

This edited collection illuminates the benefits, drawbacks, challenges, opportunities of the push to widen access to success and social mobility through university and other post-secondary education experiences in the UK and internationally. It examines a range of particular case studies, and addresses issues including the role of part-time study, the experiences of BAME students, increasing access within rural communities, issues faced by those with mental health problems, and the role of employers. There has been some progress in some countries; increased access and enhanced success for some targeted populations, but not for others; and improvements in some regions of particular countries, but not for others. Efforts to improve access to success and social mobility, to strengthen the identification and nurturing of talent in every community and every corner of our societies, is, like the 'curate's egg', only good in parts. This collection demonstrates that educational inequalities, unfairness and injustices still remain.

The lives of wealthy people have long held an allure to many, but the lives of wealthy Russians pose a particular fascination. Having achieved their riches over the course of a single generation, the top 0.1 percent of Russian society have become known for ostentatious lifestyles and tastes. Nevertheless, as Elisabeth Schimpfoessl shows in this book, their stories reveal a bourgeois existence that is distinct in its circumstances and self-definition, and far more complex than the caricatures suggest. Rich Russians takes a deep and unprecedented look at this group: their personal stories, trajectories, ideas about life and how they see their role and position both on top of Russian society as well as globally. These people grew up and lived through a historically unique period of economic turmoil and social change following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But when taken in a wider historical context, their lives follow a familiar path, from new money to respectable money; parvenus becoming part of Society. Based on interviews with millionaires, billionaires, their spouses and children, Rich Russians concludes that, as a class, they have acquired all sorts of cultural and social resources which help consolidate their personal power. They have developed distinguished and refined tastes, rediscovered their family history, and begun actively engaging in philanthropy. Most importantly, they have worked out a narrative to justify why they deserve their elitist position in society - because of who they are and their superior qualities - and why they should be treated as equals by the West. This is a group whose social, cultural and political influence is likely to outlast any regime change. As the first book to examine the transformation of Russia's former "robber barons" into a new social class, Rich Russians provides insight into how this nation's newly wealthy tick.

Social mobility is the hope of economic development and the mantra of a good society. There are disagreements about what constitutes social mobility, but there is broad agreement that people should have roughly equal chances of success regardless of their economic status at birth. Concerns about rising inequality have engendered a renewed interest in social mobility-especially in the developing world. However, efforts to construct the databases and meet the standards required for conventional analyses of social mobility are at a preliminary stage and need to be complemented by innovative, conceptual, and methodological advances. If forms of mobility have slowed in the West, then we might be entering an age of rigid stratification with defined boundaries between the always-haves and the never-haves-which does not augur well for social stability. Social mobility research is ongoing, with substantive findings in different disciplines-typically with researchers in isolation from each other. A key contribution of this book is the pulling together of the emerging streams of knowledge. Generating policy-relevant knowledge is a principal concern. Three basic questions frame the study of diverse aspects of social mobility in the book. How to assess the extent of social mobility in a given development context when the datasets by conventional measurement techniques are unavailable? How to identify drivers and inhibitors of social mobility in particular developing country contexts? How to acquire the knowledge required to design interventions to raise social mobility, either by increasing upward mobility or by lowering downward mobility?