1,720,985 research outputs found
Social status and cultural consumption
No full textThe full-text of this book is not available in ORA, but you may be able to access the ebook version via the publisher copy link on this record page. Citation: Chan, T. W. (ed.) (2010) Social status and cultural consumption. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Social stratification and cultural participation in Hungary: A post-communist pattern of consumption?
No full textReading for pleasure in Britain: trends, patterns, and associations
Get PDFThis thesis investigates reading for pleasure in Britain from a variety of perspectives, in the context of popular concerns surrounding levels of readership, particularly among young people, and consists of four substantive chapters. The first chapter reports how book sales and library circulation have changed, and what predicts readership in the Taking Part survey. I show that claims surrounding changes in reading in Britain may be overstated, although the number of issues from British libraries has fallen, and that while the predictors of readership are largely as expected, there are some important results surrounding social status, and ethnic differences in children. The second chapter investigates changes in young people’s reading behaviour, using the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. I show that changes in young people’s reading cannot be explained through a displacement effects account, and that socioeconomic differences in readership do not increase as panel members get older. In the third chapter, I investigate whether the relationship between reading for pleasure and educational attainment can be explained through cultural capital, and extend this with occupational attainment, using the 1970 British Cohort Study. I show a relationship between reading for pleasure and occupational attainment net of education, and I show that this relationship seems to have a cultural dimension beyond a cognitive effect account. In the fourth chapter, I show that the relationship between leisure in adoles- cence and educational and occupational attainment is not driven purely by highbrow activities, as on a certain understanding of Bourdieu: in particular, I show a relationship between occupational attainment and middlebrow activities
Family size and educational consequences in the UK
Get PDFThis thesis investigates in what ways the family matters for educational outcomes. Six research questions are answered. First, is family size associated with familial resources? Second, is having a large family associated with lower levels of objective and subjective educational outcomes and has this changed over the 20th century? Third, is there evidence of an association between family size and emotional health and life perspectives of young people? Fourth, is there any evidence of an association between family size and the degree of confidence and sociability? Fifth, do parenting strategies vary by family size? Sixth, is there evidence if a causal relationship between family size and educational outcomes? The British Household Panel Survey, the Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England and the ONS Longitudinal Study are used to answer these questions. The key findings from the observational studies are as follows. First, as family size increases there is a reduction in familial resources. Second, as a result of resource dilution there is a reduction in the highest qualification attained; this finding is robust to alternative measures of educational outcomes. Third, there is a positive relationship between family size and reporting poor emotional health and external locus of control. Fourth, there is some evidence that the manner in which the young person socialises varies by family size. Fifth, parenting strategies vary by family size; these strategies are positively associated with GCSE achievement and ameliorate the negative family size association. Sixth, testing the resource dilution model using twins as an exogenous increase in family size found that there is weak evidence of a causal relationship between family size and educational outcomes. This thesis addresses the influence of the family on inequalities in education. The findings have important implications for future research on this topic
BNO Panel Survey W1 Research Highlights: reason for migration
Get PDFThe Hong Kong British National Overseas (BNO) visa route isn’t like any other route people can use to come
to the UK. It was introduced as a humanitarian route after the Chinese government passed a controversial
National Security Law in Hong Kong in 2020, but BNO visa holders’ characteristics resemble migrants on
work visas more than those arriving via humanitarian routes. How, then, are BNOs integrating into UK
society? Which group are they closer to, and does this depend on why BNOs came to the UK
Essays in occupational social class and status in post-Soviet Russia
Get PDFThe aim of this thesis is to explore several aspects of occupation-based inequality in post-Soviet Russia that have previously been given little attention in the literature. The data sources for statistical analysis are the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) and the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Various statistical techniques have been used, such as regression models with random and fixed effects, nonparametric and semiparametric regression models, survival models and log-multiplicative models for contingency tables. First, the thesis looks at the validity of the application of the European Socio-Economic Classiffcation (ESeC) in Russia. The results show that ESeC classes in Russia are different in respect to several aspects of their employment contract, such as the probability of informal employment, the index of fringe benefits and unemployment risks. This confirms the validity of the ESeC for Russia. Second, the association between earnings and age is analyzed. The shape of cross-sectional age-earnings profiles in Russia is different from the shape in Western countries, especially for men. There is little variation in earnings across age groups, and younger men have higher average earnings than older men. The thesis suggests and discusses several explanations for this, such as age segregation in the labour market and the effect of class structure. Third, the thesis explores the class gap in mortality. Non-manual classes have lower mortality risks than manual classes, both for men and women. The size of the class gap in mortality in Russia is larger than in Western European countries. Fourth, the thesis constructs an occupational status scale and analyzes its properties. The scale is based on the information about intermarriages between occupational groups. The Russian scale is similar to the scales previously constructed for European countries and the USA. Overall, the thesis demonstrates similarity in the patterns of occupation-based inequality in Russia and in Western industrial countries. It also discusses some technical aspects of class analysis and suggests a more clear separation between the descriptive and causal logic within it
Social policy and income inequality in the Southern Cone during the 20th century: a comparative perspective
Get PDFThis dissertation compares the effects of progressive social reform on income inequality in the Southern Cone of South America, Scandinavia, and Australasia. These regions faced comparable economic challenges at the start of the 20th century, but experienced different trends of income inequality after they introduced progressive policies in this period. Australasia and Scandinavia converged on a downward trend while the Southern Cone remained comparatively more unequal. The dissertation concentrates on three areas that significantly predict inequality in contemporary research: labour markets, education, and taxation and spending policies. Existing explanations usually focus on supply-side aspects of policy reform: wage regulation, and increased taxation and spending on education and social insurance, are thought to bring inequality down in the long-run. These reforms are seen as the outcome of the relative power of working class groups over elites. Despite institutional variation, the three regions enacted progressive policies to address distributional conflict and protect their economies from global risks. I study the demand-side of policy reform; policies faced considerable collective action problems to promote compliance and cooperation in order to work in the long-time and include populations at large. The fact that most people were motivated to comply meant that labour markets generated formality and standard wages, education increased human capital, and spending became stable as the tax base increased in Scandinavia and the Antipodes. The opposite happened in the Southern Cone as social actors tried to link selectively with the state while state officials neglected the material constraints that limited access to welfare and education. Each chapter spells out the conditions through which policy addressed collective action problems to motivate cooperation with wage agreements, sending children to school, and compliance with taxation and spending policies. Behind comparable aggregate numbers in these areas, the underlying social processes differed as Australasians and Scandinavians fostered cooperation between state and social actors, while the Southern Cone did not
Family and school factors on educational outcomes in contemporary Brazil
Get PDFThis thesis investigates how family and school factors affect selected educational outcomes in Brazil. In particular, the effectiveness of two nationwide compensatory policies - the National Fund for Basic Education and Bolsa Família - in improving and equalizing educational outcomes is assessed. Three main research questions are answered. First, what are the trends in Inequality of Educational Opportunities (IOE) during the twentieth and beginning of the twentieth-first centuries in Brazil? Second, is there stability or change in average scholastic performance as measured by test scores in language and mathematics over time? Do changing school resources predict average scholastic performance over time? Third, does the Bolsa Família programme improve test scores performance in language and mathematics of poor beneficiary pupils? The Brazilian National Household Sample Survey, Prova Brasil (or Brazil Exam), School Census, Single Registry, and the Attendance System are used to answer these questions. The key findings from the observational studies are as follows. First, there is an equalisation in early educational transitions (completing some and graduating primary education), followed by a strengthening in the association between parental education and the completion of secondary and some tertiary education respectively. We also observe a stable but very unequal trend for completing university degree over time. Second, there are positive gains in average school performance between 2009 and 2015 (compared to the same schools in 2007): from 4 to 24 of a standard deviation for mathematics, and from 19 to 37 of a standard deviation for language. Moreover, increasing selected school resources have significant effects on average school achievement in language and mathematics over time, but the effects are very small, between 0.3 and 2.3 of a standard deviation. Third, there is a positive effect of the Bolsa Família programme on test scores in language and mathematics, but the effect is very small: between 1 and 3 of a standard deviation. This thesis addresses the influence of family and school on inequalities in selected educational outcomes accounting for socioeconomic differences observed by region and school type in a large and unequal developing country. The findings have important implications for future research and policy on this topic
Social mobility in Hong Kong
Get PDFThis thesis examines the micro-process of social mobility in modern Hong Kong. It also studies Hong Kong's mobility regime in a conventional macro-comparative fashion. By applying the core model of social fluidity developed in the CASMIN (Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations) project to the mobility data collected in the 1989 Hong Kong Social Mobility Survey, I point to several distinctive features of Hong Kong's mobility regime. This exercise also allows me to engage in the ongoing debate concerning the degree of commonality and variation in relative mobility rates across industrial nations. Having made this macrocomparison, I turn to explore the micro-mobility process. Drawing on worklife data collected in the 1991-92 follow-up study, I consider the following issues: (a) typical mobility paths in Hong Kong, (b) how social networks facilitate the job search process, and (c) how career beginning affects subsequent mobility outcome. In this study, I also test and apply a new technique, Optimal Matching Analysis, which compares and classifies complete career sequences. Thus, apart from offering substantive findings on social mobility in Hong Kong, this thesis also seeks to make a technical contribution to the analysis of life course data
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