{"id":625,"date":"2024-02-07T18:46:03","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T18:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.sanford.duke.edu\/krishna\/?page_id=625"},"modified":"2024-02-22T16:03:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T21:03:26","slug":"ladders-of-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.sanford.duke.edu\/krishna\/ladders-of-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Ladders of Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.sanford.duke.edu\/krishna\/ladders-of-opportunity\/papers\/\">Papers<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s3\">How<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> does someone achieve social mobility? <\/span><span class=\"s2\">Income<\/span><span class=\"s2\">s<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> increase and social status improves, but what is the process that leads to these outcomes?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s2\">While it may be possible for some few to <\/span><span class=\"s2\">make <\/span><span class=\"s2\">advance<\/span><span class=\"s2\">s<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> in life through the happenstance of coming into an inheritance, making a favourable marriage<\/span><span class=\"s2\">,<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> or winning the lottery, for the majority, advancement is a slow slog that occurs over a lifetime and involves climbing a <\/span><span class=\"s2\">particular <\/span><span class=\"s2\">ladder of<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> opportunity<\/span><span class=\"s2\">. \u00a0Typically, people choose a career and <\/span><span class=\"s2\">then <\/span><span class=\"s2\">advance up the rungs of the related ladder. The ladder of opportunity required to be a successful college professor involves getting a PhD <\/span><span class=\"s2\">at<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> the first rung, followed by the position of assistant professor, and then, after gaining tenure, usually seven years later, ascending, successively, to associate professor, full professor<\/span><span class=\"s2\">,<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> and distinguished professor. Other professions have different rungs in their ladders, for instance, those of doctors or lawyers<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> or athletes or musicians<\/span><span class=\"s2\">. Each rung provides opportunities that enable individuals to climb higher up the ladder. <\/span><span class=\"s2\">In diverse <\/span><span class=\"s2\">walk<\/span><span class=\"s2\">s<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> of life\u2014start-up entrepreneurs, record-setting athletes, world-class musicians, award-winning novelists, etc.\u2014social mobility advances are made by climbing a career ladder<\/span><span class=\"s2\">. <\/span><span class=\"s2\">Larger incomes are earned after climbing to successive<\/span><span class=\"s2\">ly higher<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> rung<\/span><span class=\"s2\">s<\/span><span class=\"s2\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s2\">There is usually no other way to achieve social mobility in a modern society<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> \u2013 <\/span><span class=\"s2\">except<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> by climbing the rungs of an available ladder<\/span><span class=\"s2\">. <\/span><span class=\"s2\">The number of ladders matters as also the kind of ladders. <\/span><span class=\"s2\">Some <\/span><span class=\"s2\">ladders <\/span><span class=\"s2\">are narrow <\/span><span class=\"s2\">or <\/span><span class=\"s2\">accessible only to privileged insiders. <\/span><span class=\"s2\">Others dangle from the top and have missing rungs at lower levels. <\/span><span class=\"s2\">Examining the prospects for social mobility in a society requires tracing the shape and understanding the internal dynamics of the available ladders of opportunity.<\/span> <span class=\"s2\">Sometimes, only a few ladders are enough for achieving high levels of social mobility, if these ladders are effectively open to all comers. Ideally, since individuals have talents of different kinds, multiple career ladders need to be <\/span><span class=\"s2\">provided<\/span><span class=\"s2\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"s4\"><span class=\"s2\">As part of this project, I investigated flows of excellence in different countries \u2013 world-class sprinters in Jamaica, champion long-distance runners in Kenya, classical musicians in Venezuela, tech entrepreneurs in Estonia, schoolteachers in Finland, writers in Nigeria, female golf players in South Korea (and hackers in North Korea) \u2013 asking why a particular flow of excellence arose in a certain country. I provide a detailed answer in a paper I wrote for the United Nations and reserve the fullest treatment for a book manuscript in the making<\/span><span class=\"s2\">. T<\/span><span class=\"s2\">he short answer is this: the country <\/span><span class=\"s2\">concerned mounted a nationwide effort <\/span><span class=\"s2\">and built<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> a world-class ladder of opportunity<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> that reaches unbroken from the grassroots to the highest levels<\/span><span class=\"s2\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Papers How does someone achieve social mobility? Incomes increase and social status improves, but what is the process that leads to these outcomes? While it may be possible for some few to make advances in life through the happenstance of coming into an inheritance, making a favourable marriage, or winning the lottery, for the majority, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-625","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ladders of Opportunity - Anirudh Krishna<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.sanford.duke.edu\/krishna\/ladders-of-opportunity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ladders of Opportunity - Anirudh Krishna\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Papers How does someone achieve social mobility? Incomes increase and social status improves, but what is the process that leads to these outcomes? 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