mphasis on achievement.
             It can then be described to an extent as a Meritocracy-where a position in hierarchy is based on individual merit. Society therefore needs social mobility within its structure to achieve meritocracy.
             However stratification and class can both have impact on an individual's chance of achieving social mobility needed to further their position.
             Sociologists have distinguished between absolute mobility, which is the total amount of movement in class structure and the net changes in the size of each class and relative mobility which refers to the chance of an individual from each class going up or down by a certain distance.
             Both types need to be observed and measured by comparing class status over each consecutive generation ( inter-generational mobility).
             So far in mobility studies the area of downward mobility is least studied although the outcome of the few have concluded that inter-generational mobility is a common and increasing factor.
             The three factors that affect mobility are the number of positions to be filled, the methods of access and entry to these positions and the number of future offspring to fill these positions.
             Social mobility therefore is a concern to sociologists, as it is important in that the individual's chance of upward mobility may help to legitimise the existing social structure to himself or herself, thereby reducing the potential for class conflict, also the more mobile a society is the more open and fairer to all classes, as mobility affects the way classes are formed.
             This chance of furthering in mobility is however often subject to gender or individuals educational or further educational chances.
             Although reformers have seen the use of education for reducing inequalities, Critics such as Mark Holmes (1992) and Sheila Riddell (1992) claim that it tends to reaffirm existing inequalities rather than change them. Modern comprehensive schools pr...