Ethnography and Social Mobility

The ethnographic approach has much to contribute to our understanding of social mobility. This chapter provides a discussion on ethnography as a method and approach to writing and description, and reviews some ways in which themes related to social mobility and inequality in the developing world have been explored ethnographically. It discusses the themes that these studies cover in terms of two frames: the social construction of mobility and the fields within which mobility plays out. Social mobility is explored in relation to themes such as the family, labour, class, caste, race, gender, migration, and inequality. These are considered in relation to the value of ethnography in underscoring everyday lived experiences of individuals and collectives.