Derek Gordon Sociologist

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Derek Gordon Dr. Derek Gordon was a renowned Sociologist, responsible, along with many other contemporary minds, for developing Sociology in the Caribbean through his many legendary works. He was a student (between the years of 1964 and 1967) and, later, a Lecturer at the University of the West Indies in the department of Sociology and is responsible for literary works such as Class, Status and Mobility in Jamaica and ‘Methodological Issues in the Analysis of the National Mobility Survey’. The Derek Gordon conference, which annually occurs at the University of the West Indies, is named in the honour of this late veteran sociologist, who in 1973, returned there to lecture, having completed his doctoral studies at the University of Chicago. His area of focus when it came to research included the labour force, social stratification and mobility, poverty and urbanisation. Gordon is also best remembered for his study of class, status and social mobility in Jamaica. He made numerous valid points on the possibility of social mobility as he analyzed the social mobility of the male and female labour force throughout the generations and its impact on the transformation of the class structure of the contemporary Jamaican society. Social mobility is explained as the ability of an individual to change his social status, commonly to a status lower or higher than his original standing. In the period following the abolition of slavery, there were scarce opportunities for social mobility for the black Jamaicans. When opportunities did arise for the peasants, it was to advance to the lowest ranking of the middle class. These positions included school teachers, clerks and ministers of religion. As the education in Jamaica increased to include high schools and colleges, the narrow possibility for upward mobility, widened. Therefore, education became the primary means for social

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