In what ways does upward social mobility affect people’s identities and sense of self? ‘A fair society is an open society. A society in which everyone is free to flourish and rise. Where birth is never destiny.’ - Nick Clegg INTRODUCTION Social mobility is an issue of paramount importance, both publicly and academically. Publicly, it has been a political discourse in which every government aims to achieve upward social mobility. For example, in 2011, the Coalition Government in Britain stated that fairness is a fundamental value of the government who treats creations of an open, socially mobile society as its guiding purpose for British people (Cabinet Office 2011, p.3). Academically, social mobility has been a centre of academic focuses for decades. For instance, since the end of the Second World War, social mobility has become a major area of sociological inquiry due to its research scale, international academic collaboration, and sophisticated investigation techniques (Goldthorpe 1980, p.1). Mobility studies, which are concerned with ‘the description and analysis of the trajectories of social position that individuals and families follow’ (Breen 2004, p.1), are therefore a significant subject deserving our continuous scrutiny. Goldthorpe claims that upward social mobility is generally not a socially stressful experience for the mobile (1980, p.248). But to what extent this statement is true? Inspired by this question, this paper aims to study relationships between upward social mobility and personal identities. Essentially, this essay argues upward mobility affects people’s identities and sense of self in which both social and cultural identities are influenced positively and negatively in contemporary western societies. In order to draw a broad pattern, this paper adopts a comparative approach with cases from various social segments in different countries to address the question. In what follows, this essay is divided into several sections. Firstly (1), a literature review will be present. Secondly (2) discussions on impacts of upward mobility on social identity will appear followed by (3) investigations into cultural identity. Finally (4), a conclusion will summarise the entire article. LITERATURE REVIEW This section deals with definitional issues, recent development of mobility theories and mobility itself across countries. By providing these materials, it is easier for us to locate the position of this paper within a broad landscape of mobility. Definitional Issues Social Mobility and Upward Social Mobility To begin with, social mobility refers to a movement or change between fixed class categories of individuals (Bottero 2005, p.206). There are different measurements of these movements and changes. Firstly, mobility can be measured by income, either in absolute or relative terms. This approach which is the most common in America envisions social classes defined in arbitrary terms like income deciles and views differences between individuals as incremental. This approach is typified by Duncan (Loury et al. 2005, p.1-2). Secondly, an economic approach to mobility analyses labour market. This measurement conceives the market as strictly segmented into real occupational classes and mobility is therefore a shift from a lower-status profession to a higher one and vice versa. It is hence the power and prestige of occupations that determine class positions of individuals (Ibid, p.2). This approach is exemplified by Goldthorpe, who characterised a class schema containing 7 classes from higher-grade professionals and self-employed of Class I at the top all the way down to manual wage-workers and agricultural workers of Class VII (1980, p.39-41). Thirdly, recognition and social citizenship are crucial for mobility. This approach treats mobility in terms of whether individuals are affirmed by others as being equal in community. This method acknowledges it is possible for gaps between labour market positions and social qualities to exist. For example, in Uganda, while the Indian minorities successfully attain economic successes, they are continuously viewed as outsiders in society. They accordingly had a low social status (Loury et al. 2005, p.2). The final approach is the political school. Mobility in this regard is the process by which groups like ethnic and racial minorities who are persistently repressed obtain sufficient internal coherence to legitimately challenge existing social institutions with loss of power and therefore to attain a share in power (Ibid, p.2-3). Given different approaches, mobility in this paper will be treated following the first three approaches which have a wide applicability in sociology. Mobility is hence defined as movements or changes in one’s social status measured by incomes, occupations and social inclusion. Based on above definitions, upward social mobility and the upwardly social mobile then represent current class positions of individuals, measured by incomes, occupations or social inclusion, have improved compared with such of their families in their childhood. For illustration, if a boy is born in a working-class family and he is able to work as a bank manager now, then his move in social status will be treated as upward mobility. Social and Cultural Identity In general, identity is figured as an element that can be owned and articulated as a property of the person (Skeggs 2004, p.59). Social identity refers to a process in which human beings identity themselves to and are in turn identified by various relationships, roles and memberships of organisations, and groups and communities (Parekh 2008, p.15). As Savage observes, ‘class’ continues to shape people’s social identity (2000, p.102) as hierarchy is an important element (Bottero 2004, p.993). As Bourdieu puts, habitus are characterised by the different classes and class fractions (1984, p.6). Habitus referring to a ‘system of lasting, transposable dispositions which, integrating past experiences, functions as a matrix of perceptions, appreciations and actions’ (Bourdieu 1977, p.95) in turn constitute social identity. Consequently, this paper specifically adopts a class-based notion of social identity. In other words, impacts of upward mobility on class identities, subjective senses of ‘relational social distance within a hierarchy’ (Bottero 2004, p.990), of the upwardly mobile will be concentrated. Cultural identity represents ‘a focus on how cultural processes are embedded within specific kinds of socio-economic practices’ and how inequality is reproduced through cultural practices (Devine & Savage 2000, cited in Ibid, p.986). As class cultures can be viewed as modes of differentiation, specific cultural practices can be propitious to reproduction of hierarchy (Ibid, p.989). According to Bourdieu, such practises can be divided into high and low cultures. It is the taste classifies that classify the classifier and social subjects thus distinguish themselves by these distinctions (1984, p.6) as people of different classes would have different tastes. Subsequently the paper accepts notion of cultural identities, various modes of consumption of classical and popular cultures, of the mobile as the central focus. Mobility Studies Theories and Mobility in a Comparative Perspective To start with, broadly speaking, mobility studies can be divided into two types: studies of intergenerational or intragenerational mobility. The former concertrates on current class positions of individuals compared with those in which they originate such as the class position of their families while the latter studies changes in circumstances during individuals’ own lives (Breen 2004, p.3). With a focus on individuals who have experienced upward mobility, this paper can thus be categorised within the broad study of intragenerational mobility. During the past decades, sociologists have developed various perspectives on patterns of social fluidity across countries. Firstly, a stream of sociologists conceives there is an unchangeable nature of social mobility. The ‘Lipset-Zetterberg’ (LZ) theory illustrates the overall mobility patterns tend to remain unchanged in western industrialised societies (Lipset & Zetterberg 1959, cited in Ibid, p.4). Similarly, the ‘Featherman Jones Hauser’ (FJH) hypothesis, with modification from Erikson and Goldthorpe, suggests little variation between countries in social fluidity patterns and hence no systematic change over time (Ibid, p.7). On the other hand, another sociological school perceives the changeability of mobility. Modernisation theory or liberal theory of industrialism (e.g. Ganzeboom et al. 1989) reckons economic development leads to higher rates of absolute mobility (Ibid, p.5). A trend towards greater openness in social fluidity emerges that convergences between countries in mobility can be apparent. Different countries’ class or occupational structures should be increasingly similar implying a convergence in mobility rates (Ibid, p.7). Likewise, some sociologists view nations are increasingly following different trajectories in mobility with some showing fluidity but others do not, creating divergences across countries. The divergences can be attributed to different economic policies across countries. For example, the English-speaking countries adopt laissez-faire policies while others do not. This results in variation in mobility outcomes (Ibid, p.7). In practice, a recent convergence of absolute mobility emerges across Europe. In a large study, Breen and Luijkx propose a gradual similarity in absolute mobility for class structures and intergenerational flows of men between classes in Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Britain, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Hungary, Israel and Holland occurred that there had been a continued decline of framing occupations in these countries and increase at top of class structures in service classes since 1970s. Most of this pattern widely occurred in 1970s and 1980s while cross-country differences in class structures arose in 1990s (2004, p.49-50). This thus fits into suggestions of modernisation theory or liberal theory of industrialism that as economies advance, absolute mobility will be enlarged. Nevertheless, relative positions in labour income hierarchy persist over generations in all countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) despite national variations. This indicates earning levels of sons correlate heavily with those of their fathers. This phenomenon is particularly strong in Britain, Italy, America and France, where more than 40% of the wage advantage are passed on from fathers to their sons, and comparatively low in the Nordic countries, Australia and Canada, where the figures decrease to less than 20% (OECD 2010, p.184-5). The findings seemingly match the proposition that different economic policies lead to divergent mobility patterns. For instance, according to Esping-Andersen, Britain and America are liberal welfare regimes while the Nordic countries are social democratic welfare regimes (1999, p.74 & 78) and therefore dissimilar outcomes in mobility appear. In this regard, relative mobility still remains low in advanced economies. As a result, it is concluded even though absolute mobility has maximised in advanced countries, relative mobility still remains persistently low in general. Upward social mobility is thus highly difficult for individuals and rare in western countries. Situating within this structure, this paper is located to investigate agents who have upwardly moved in order to understand impacts of mobility on their identities. UPWARD MOBILITY AND SOCIAIL IDENEITY Generally speaking, upward mobility can affect social identities of individuals through bicultural or dual identity and status anxiety. Bicultural or Dual Identity Firstly, upward mobility leads to formations of a bicultural or dual identity of individuals. This refers to those who have experienced upward mobility are able to smoothly accommodate both born and achieved identities. It is because of the uniqueness of upward mobility, the mobile can have the opportunities which provide them with occupations of both social positions to formulate a bicultural or dual identity. A bicultural or dual identity with mixtures of habitus of both lower-class and middle- or upper-class can then appear among the mobile. Friedman suggests the mutability of habitus heavily dependent on mobility trajectory of individuals can be the driving forces for bicultural or dual identities. That means formations of bicultural or dual identities rely on the range, speed and direction of upward mobility and combinations of class, gender and ethnicity of persons. While habitus travelling at slow speeds, covering short distances and moving towards the economic quadrant of social space are more likely to enact smooth improvisations (2015, p.16). For instance, in Britain, Miles et al. showcases because of the gentle speed in upward mobility, 50-year old men who have moved upwardly think of their successful mobility experiences as modestly ordinary. They all can thus incorporate both working-class and middle-or-upper-class identities together (2011, p.422-426). Bicultural or dual identities are especially obvious amongst ethnic monitories. Minorities often have their own distinctive habitus occupying in lower positions of society. A class identity that is lower-classed and ethnically special then emerges. After members of the minorities have experienced upward mobility, they are able to integrate into the dominant society with a newly achieved class identity and a mainstream habitus combining their original ones. A bicultural or dual identity hence emerges. For example, in America, Simmons displays African American middle-class women holding various positions in academia who have moved upwardly are successfully to equip themselves with a bicultural identity after being confronted with conflicting experiences and worldviews (2009, p.103). In order to be successful, the upwardly mobile African Americans must learn the rules of belonging to another group which is the Whiles (Scott 2002, cited in Ibid, p.14) while retaining the original identity. In that sense, these women are seen as belonging to two groups with a bicultural identity, one is their origin which is the African American community and the other one is the dominant culture. They therefore have values of both groups like collectivism and self-sacrifice of African American communities as well as independence and self-reliance of Western cultures (Ibid, p.14). Similar phenomenon occurs in Germany too. In a study conducted by Schneider and Lang, most of the Turkish-German second generation they studied who are from working-class backgrounds successfully gained degrees and achieved responsible positions in professional fields, thus acquiring middle- or even upper-class statuses (2014, p.93). A habitus transformation is found among the upwardly mobile. A formation of a dual identity which stresses on ‘hybridity, fuzziness and multiplicities in practices of (self)labelling and representations of belonging’ (Çağlar 1997; Schneider 2001, 2010; Wimmer 2013; cited in Ibid, p.92) is obvious. Most of the upwardly mobile Turkish-Germans thus combine the familial habitus of aspiring educational and professional success, a strong reference to ‘Turkishness’ and ‘Germanness’, and ‘juggling’ of the two spheres of both Turkishness and Germanness (Ibid, p.100). A habitus diversification in social practices, languages and modes of behavior occurs to bridge different habitus for the mobile (Ibid, p.103). In fact, the mobile spend great efforts on reconciliation between identities of origin and that of destination for cultivations of bicultural or dual identities. In the case of African Americans, they adopt different management strategies including isolating the African American and the dominant societies, code-switching for behaviour, forgiveness for family members, negotiating relationships for people around, social support for multiple identities, self-nurturing of identities, remembering motivations for academic pursuits, spirituality and avoidance of family relationships (Simmons 2009, p.83-99). As a result, these mobile individuals develop a bicultural identity (Ibid, p.100). In the case of Turkish-Germans, ‘social climbers’ tackle adaptations and transformations when crossing social boundaries (Schneider & Lang 2014, p. 103). The mobile have to acquire and internalise a new habitus that allows them to act and behave properly in a new social context (Ibid, p.100) and use code-switching between homes and workplaces (Ibid, p.101). By these tactics, a dual identity can be fostered amongst the mobile. Loury et al. also showcases even when some of ethnic minorities who have climbed upwardly along the social ladder have moved out of areas with a high concentration of their races, they still return to those places for social capitals and identity-maintenance purposes (2005, p.12).This assists in retentions of original identities after attaining achieved status for the mobile. Briefly, when reconciliation between the past and present can be conducted, bicultural or dual identities can be positively developed amongst the upwardly mobile. Status Anxiety Status anxiety is the negative impact brought by upward mobility on the mobile. Socio-psychologically speaking, this refers to unresolvable conflicts between identities of origin and that of destination among the upwardly mobile, which generates ‘a continuing crisis of identity’ (Luckmann & Berger 1964, p. 335). Individual identity is a configuration of self-conceptions originating in social processes and is a social construct as much as an individual creation. Hence since the self is shaped by a mirror-effect, the consistency and stability of the self depends heavily on the internal fit of various reflected images. Degrees of status consistency and status certainty are thus vital factors in shaping of identity (Ibid). As the mobile cannot accommodate both born and achieved identities, ‘sophistication’ of identities becomes rather tentative that could produce psychological breakdowns (Ibid, p.342). The mobile then fall into status anxieties and fail to establish healthy and solid identities. Empirically speaking, this phenomenon is highly prevalent for the upwardly mobile. Firstly, Pierre Bourdieu was a perfect demonstration of upward mobility. The French sociologist was highly influential in academic globally. As the son of an uneducated postman in a tiny peasant village in rural France, Bourdieu achieved greatly notwithstanding his working-class background (Friedman 2015, p.1). Nonetheless combinations of academic achievement and low social origin had in fact cost Bourdieu a sense of self ‘torn by contradiction and internal division’ (Bourdieu 2000, cited in Ibid, p. 2). In Britain, Friedman suggests most of the upwardly mobile that have climbed a long range experience status anxieties. Facing upwards in social space they have routinely battled feelings of insecurity and inferiority while facing downwards they have been invariably met with a sense of guilt, estrangement and abandonment (Ibid, p.16). Therefore this is the psychological imprint of upward mobility for those (Ibid, p.17). The conflicts can be found among the upwardly mobile females. In Britain, female academics who have moved upwardly from working-class backgrounds deeply understand how status anxieties hugely affect them. Reay expresses her difficulty of reconciling socialisation into academic culture with a subjectivity that still draws on working-class identity (1997, p.19). Skeggs appreciates her working-class identity and admits her uncomfortable tensions between her past and present class positions as a successful scholar (1997, p.137). Hey similarly addresses the shifting identifications with/against her working-class past have been orchestrated through repeated encounters with her current identity as a middle-class sociologist (1997, p.150). In France, a study of three generations of women from rural regions reveals women can merely be successful for spatial movement and upward mobility when they do not conflict with their duties of family (Reed-Danahay 2002, p.103). As part of the habitus formed in childhood, cultural values emphasising on family become internalised and implicit for these women. When these women search for upward and spatial mobility to cities like Paris, they then must stick to these values so as to avoid status anxieties. Even migrants are involved in status anxieties. In Spain which is a popular migration destination for Britons, a reproduction of class among British lifestyle migrants appears. Old habitus originated in Britain reinscribes positions and informs denigration and positioning of others (Oliver & O’Reilly 2010, p.62) while new habitus formulating in Spain is affecting these migrants. Therefore, conflicts between past and present identities contribute to status anxieties among the British migrants in Spain. Students from working-class backgrounds likewise experience such conflicts as they move up along the social ladder. For these students in Britain, entering university is likely to entail a change in lifestyle and social network that not only disrupt identity (Haslam et al, in press; Jetten et al. 2002; Sani 2008; cited in Jetten et al. 2008, p.876), but also hamper opportunities to maintain connections to social backgrounds of individuals (Ibid). Therefore inconsistencies between past and present social backgrounds do not simply disappear when one embarks on an individual upward mobility strategy like attending university (Ibid, p.877). Likewise, most of the British working-class students with outstanding academic capabilities studying in elite universities develop a new identity as members of elites while retaining linkages to family and home background (Reay et al. 2009, p. 1116). However the mobile have to struggle between habitus and fields (Ibid, p. 1115) which are the prices for upward mobility. Among British secondary students, situations are similar. Working-class students who are high achieving are influenced multiply by divergent fields of schools and their backgrounds (Lahire 2003, 2008; cited in Ingram 2011, p.300). Like others, status anxieties are salient that these students researched in Belfast often have potential emotional difficulties involving in processes of forging an identity that is compatible with successful pupils and their backgrounds (Ibid). In fact, attempts to combine original working-class identities with academic successes in schools are highly strenuous that this process frequently generates heavy psychic costs (Reay 2002, p.222). As Reay explains, class intensifies and expands process of this pathologisation that such actions may only produce failures (Ibid, p.231). When identities of origin and destination are in conflict, some of the upwardly mobile like ethnic minorities tend to abandon partial elements of the past in order to signal class positions. In Britain, confronted by status anxieties, the black middle classes who are the upwardly mobile strategically adopt changes to their resources that are attached to the blackness like accent, language and comportment so as to gain acceptance from the while-dominant middle class (Rollock et al. 2011, p.1089). With all these cases from different persons in various countries, status anxieties are believed to be negatively affecting the mobile. UPWARD MOBILITY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY Cultural identities of the mobile are heavily influenced by mobility experiences too through cultural omnivorousness as well as cultural separation and homelessness. Cultural Omnivorousness Cultural omnivorousness is a sociological concept describing individuals who are able to consume both highbrow and lowbrow cultures. According to Peterson, the cultural omnivore/univore thesis refers to two pyramids, one right side up and the other upside down. In the first one, the elite taste culture constitutes the cultural capital of society. In the second one, numerous distinct taste cultures formulate the status pyramid. Combining the two pyramids into one, the omnivore at the top commands status by displaying a wide range of tastes while the univore at the bottom can only showcase just one particular taste (1992, p.254). In other words, cultural omnivorousness means there is often considerable overlap in sorts of activities that social groups engage in. The omnivorous tend to originate from higher, more educated social classes as these groups have capitals to participate more often not only in high art forms, but also in most kinds of leisure activities (Bottero 2005, p.157). Becoming omnivores are beneficial for social relationships since the omnivorousness provides the mobile with necessary cultural capitals that can be transformed into social capitals. Their tastes for highbrow culture facilitate boding connections in high-status networks while tastes for lowbrow culture acts as a ‘bridging tool’ for weak-tie social connections (Friedman 2014, p.356). Affected by upward mobility, the mobile are likely to be cultural omnivores. This development is widely observed in western societies. In France, research suggests a new cultural norm in musical tastes that is in line with the omnivore/univore thesis emerges and upward mobility contributes to this (Coulangeon & Lemel 2007, p.108). Individuals tend to broadly consume pops, international pops, techno, world music, raps, rocks, jazz, classical music such as opera (Ibid, p.97). As an increasing proportion of upper class members come from working-class backgrounds, the cultural behaviour of these new elites are becoming growingly similar to that of ‘inheritors’ (Bourdieu & Passerson 1979, cited in Ibid, p.106-7). Therefore the new elites collectively reflect the diversity in their cultural habits and tastes, which often mix cultural influences of various arenas with which their socialisation occurred in different fields (Lahire 2003, cited in Ibid, p.107). Similarly, forms of individual mobility like upward mobility often translate into heterogeneous cultural practices and preferences as the upwardly mobile who have occupied different positions within social, cultural and professional hierarchies have interacted with various agents in society and thus have learnt different cultural tastes from those (Lahire 2008, p.174) Similar pattern appears in Holland too. Van Eijck showcases the omnivorous can commute between both legitimate culture such as reading literature, visiting museums and attending performing arts, and popular culture like reading romantic fiction, attending football games and watching commercial television (1999, p.309). The well-educated upwardly mobile who are the new middle classes participate in both high and low cultures, though unevenly, successfully transforming themselves into ‘cultural omnivores’. Thus ‘educational mobility will cause the group of the higher educated to develop a more heterogeneous consumption pattern’ (Ibid, p.326). As De Jager proposes, cultural interests are cultivated by a double socialisation process, one through parents and another one through education. The mobile with higher schooling levels than their parents are not properly socialised for the status they have attained at first and hence have to put extra efforts on secondary socialisation which is to familiarise themselves with cultural tastes of social strata they intend to join (1967, cited in Van Eijck & Knulst 2005, p.522). Likewise in America, cultural omnivorousness of the mobile is observed. Social mobility partially generates a large-scale mingling of tastes that were initially linked to certain classes or regions, leading to replacement of a highbrow cultural repertoire by an omnivorous taste pattern among upper-middle classes (Peterson & Kern 1996, cited in Ibid). As Peterson and Kern note, social class mobility like upward mobility in part contributes to the diversity of cultural tastes held by individuals, resulting in occurrence of cultural omnivorousness which replaced snobbishness among Americans of highbrow status decades ago as in 1992 highbrows averagely liked significantly more kinds of non-elite music such as rocks and country music of all genres than in 1982 (1996, p.904-5). In sum, as the mobile move upwardly along the hierarchy, their cultural exposures accumulated through primary and secondary socialisations assist them in becoming cultural omnivores. Cultural Separation and Homelessness Cultural separation is another dimension of cultural identities for the upwardly mobile. Cultural separation refers to a detachment of individuals from their cultural origins. The mobile have to abandon their cultural origins as they move up long the ladder in order to gain acceptance and recognition from the dominant society. Admittedly, this has adverse effects on kinship ties, intimate relationships and the coherency of the self (Friedman 2014, p.354) when deserting cultural origins as the mobile may lose communicational tools for their families and acquaintances. The British case expresses cultural separation surrounding the upwardly mobile. Jackson and Marsden investigate problems facing working-class grammar-school boys in Huddersfield, where costs of educational achievement are cultural separations from origins of individuals (1963, cited in Ibid, p.358). This implies these students need to relinquish parts of habitus formulated through primary socialisation like cultural consumptions as they moved upwardly along the pyramid. In a cross-culture comparison, Hopper also argues mobility is more possible to be ‘pathogenic’ in Britain than America because greater ‘status rigidity’ ensures it is harder for the mobile to acquire a legitimate position in social space (1981, cited in Ibid). That said the mobile are forced to abandon certain elements like cultural habitats within habitus so as to be recognised to secure a position in the social hierarchy. Cultural homelessness appears determining cultural identities of the upwardly mobile too. As a newly emerged sociological concept, cultural homelessness represents dislocations of cultural omnivores from a recognisable cultural habitat, permanently caught with one foot in two different tastes and cultures (Friedman 2012, p.484). The mobile develop this kind of cultural identity as they occupy a ‘liminal’ space in social space which is characterised by an uncertain relationship with those above and below them (Savage 2005, cited in Ibid, p.484-5). Shifting between and consuming both high and low cultural habitats, the mobile fail to articulate a sense of belonging to either one. They are thus acutely aware of the cultural hierarchy and their precarious positions within the hierarchy (Ibid, p.485). In this regard, the mobile construct a habitus clivé, which implies a habitus ‘torn by contradiction and internal division’ (Bourdieu 2004, cited in Ibid). Recent research confirms the claim that upward mobility breeds cultural homelessness. On comedy tastes of the upwardly mobile British middle classes, Friedman suggests his upwardly mobile respondents seem to have less consonant tastes than high cultural capital or low cultural capital respondents, displaying omnivorous preferences spanning the cultural hierarchy. The diverse comedy tastes actually reflect trajectories of one’s cultural capital resources. Nonetheless, in times, traversing the taste hierarchy has more negative than positive social implications since the mobile lack ‘natural’ confidence to communicate new, more legitimate taste as embodied cultural capitals and their upwardly mobile trajectories likewise mean they are acutely aware the lowbrow taste formed in youth are socially unacceptable and aesthetically inferior (Ibid, p 485). They thus become culturally homeless, knowing nowhere to belong to and hence losing roots in cultural identities. In short, the upwardly mobile who are cultural omnivores may experience cultural homelessness, which badly affects their cultural identities. CONCLUSION With empirical evidences from countries as varied as Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Holland and America, and social segments as varied as males, females, ethnic minorities, students and migrants, the broad pattern in contemporary western societies is drawn that upward mobility impacts massively on personal identities. From illustrations of the mobile in this paper, the past is concluded to heavily affect the present. As this paper has argued, upward social mobility can produce both positive and negative effects for social and cultural identities of individuals. No matter how far the mobile have moved upwardly, no matter what occupations they are in and no matter how much they are earning currently, social and cultural roots still influence the present of mobile. Dragged into two different identities of the past and present, they have to tackle conflicts between the two. If they succeed, they are entitled to the positive social and cultural identities; if they fail, they are only able to suffer from the negatives ones. For social identities, bicultural or dual identities appear if reconciliation between identities of origins and destinations can be resolved while status anxieties emerge if these two cannot be incorporated smoothly. For cultural identities, cultural omnivorousness becomes visualised when the mobile can comfortably consume both high and low cultures while cultural separation and homelessness occur if the mobile need to depart from their cultural pasts for the former and if the omnivorous are unable to manage confrontations between both high and low cultural habitats properly for the latter. This paper has thus rebutted Goldthorpe’s claim set earlier that upward social mobility is not a stressful experience for the mobile (1980, p.248). In fact, given the scarcity of upward mobility in modern societies, any successful stories of the mobile are celebrated, leading the mass society to perceive upward mobility as a simple, linear and enjoyable trajectory for all individuals. But as this paper has displayed, upward mobility is not a straight-forward experience for the mobile. It often involves painful emotional and psychological burdens. Even with positive gains, the mobile have to spend numerous efforts on managements of various conflicting identities in order to avoid a split of self. In the future, it is our continuous responsibility as sociologists to debunk the upward mobility for the public as demonstrated by this paper. (Word Count: 4,995) REFERENCES Bottero, W., 2004, Class identities and the identity of class. Sociology, 38(5) pp.985-1003. Bottero, W., 2005. Stratification: Social division and inequality, Routledge: Abingdon, UK. Bourdieu, P., 1977. Outline of a theory of practice, Trans. Nice, R. 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