In this accessible and engaging text, Geoff Payne presents up-to-date sociological research evidence to demonstrate how our politicians have failed to grasp the ways in which mobility works. The new social mobility considers a wider range of dimensions of mobility and life chances, notably the workings of the labour market, to assess more accurately the causes and consequences of mobility as social and political processes. This important book will challenge well-established opinions of politicians, pressure groups, the press, academics and the public, as well as being sufficiently comprehensive to be suitable for teaching and of interest to a broad academic audience.