Social identities, class identity and political perspectives

There has been considerable controversy over the extent to which class is a salient social identity, and the importance of other social identities Marshall and his colleagues (1988) argue that class identity remains a salient frame of reference in people's daily lives while Saunders (1989;1990) and Emmison and Western (1990) argue that class identity is not as strong as they claim, and the importance of other social identities cannot be denied. However, proponents and opponents in the debate are agreed that the salience of social identities depends upon the context in which they are found which cannot be fully explored in highly-structured interviews. Drawing on data from a ‘qualitative re-study’ of the Affluent Worker series, it will be argued that people have many different identities, including a strong class identity, which co-exist at the same time. That said, their class identity is the most important influence on the formation of political perspectives. This finding concurs with the Essex team and Saunders even though he has sought to distance himself from this conclusion.     

Social media,political expression,and participation in Confucian Asia

This study reviews and analyzes the published empirical research on the role of social media in promoting political expression and participation in Confucian Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. In addition to providing a narrative review of the literature, our analyses show clear numerical estimates of the relationships among different types of social media use (i.e., informational, expressive, relational, and recreational), political expression, and participation in Confucian states. The findings reiterate the importance of the expressive use of social media, showing its moderately strong relationship with participation. The findings also show weak positive relationships with informational and relational uses. We also examine the role of political systems in these relationships and conclude that the strongest relationships are in democratic states, followed by hybrid and authoritarian systems.     

Youth and political participation: case in Turkey

The aim of this research is to explore views about, and the extent of, political participation amongst students in a Department of Social Work. The sample was composed of 127 fourth and sixth-term students. One of the most striking outcomes of the research is that young peoples' political participation remains low, despite widespread dissatisfaction with political and economic systems. The results of this study and analysis are based on sociocultural and historic developments specific to Turkey, specifically the culture of fear fostered in Turkey following the military coup d'état of 1980, and the influence this had in the intergenerational conveyance of the notion that the ‘father government’ can protect the public without the need for active political participation, which is still prevalent amongst the study participants.     

Social participation and charitable giving: A multivariate analysis

Despite an abundance of survey data on charitable giving, researchers have not analysed these data asking the kinds of theoretical questions and employing the kinds of multivariate statistical techniques that would advance our understanding of the social processes leading to charitable behaviour. This article reports the authors' first findings from their continuing efforts to develop and test such a multivariate causal model of the social, demographic, economic and motivational determinants of individual charitable giving. The first section outlines ouridentification theory of charitable giving. In the second section we discuss the data and how we operationalise our variables. The third section examines whether there is broad quantitative support for major tenets of the model developed if applied at the household level. In the fourth section we enquire about which factors are most strongly related to giving behaviour. We conclude with a discussion about the centrality of communities of participation for inducing charitable giving and about the practical implications for fundraising. An earlier version of this article was prepared for presentation at the annual conference of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, Berkeley, October 1994. The authors are grateful to the T. B. Murphy Charitable Trust, the Lilly Endowment and the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy for their support of this research. We are also grateful to Virginia A. Hodgkinson and Stephen M. Noga for providing data from theSurvey of Giving and Volunteering and for sharing their expertise. Finally, we wish to thank the Editor ofVoluntas and three anonymous reviewers for their careful and constructive suggestions.     

Different paths: gender,immigration and political participation

"Building on arguments made by Grasmuck and Pessar (1991), Hardy-Fanta (1993), and Hondagneu-Sotelo (1994), among others, this article makes the case for a gendered understanding of immigrant political socialization. Looking at recent Latin American immigrants to New York City, the article argues that immigrant Latino men are more likely to favor continuity in patterns of socialization and organization, and immigrant Latinas are more likely to favor change. This finding helps bridge theoretical and empirical literatures in immigration studies, applying the logic of gender-differentiated decisionmaking to the area of immigrant political socialization and behavior."     

Social class and psychotherapy: A sociolinguistic approach

Professional social workers are the primary resource for psychotherapeutic services among the lower status groups in our society. While everyone in the profession knows this, relatively little systematic research and theory has been generated on the question of how to adapt our interventions so as to better serve this clientele.Bernstein's work on social class and speech codes is examined. His theories are applied to the problem of conducting psychotherapy with a social stratum whose language code is ill-suited for the more traditional verbally oriented therapies. Some suggestions for alternative treatment approaches are made.     

Media use and political participation reconsidered: the actual and perceived influence of political campaign messages

This study examines the actual and perceived effects of political advertising on the voting intention of less-experienced eligible voters. Elaborating on the demobilization, stimulation, and influence of presumed influence hypotheses, this study examines the effects of political disaffection, presumed influence, and political efficacy on political mobilization. The study analyzes the effects of political advertisements on 311 college voters. The results of the structural equation modeling (SEM) suggest that instead of demobilizing turnout, self-reported exposure to political advertisements boosts young voters' sense of political efficacy and stimulates their political participation by raising the degree to which they perceive that campaign advertisements affect other voters.     

Unconventional political participation and political confidence in South Africa: A longitudinal analysis using data from the world values study

Money‐go‐rounds: The Importance of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations for Women edited by Shirley Ardener &; Sandra Burman. Oxford, Berg, 1993

Illicit Union: Scientific Racism in Modern South Africa by Saul Dubow. Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press, 1995.

Christianity and Democracy: A Theology for a Just World Order by John W. De Gruchy. Cape Town, David Philip, 1995.

African Women and Development: a History edited by Margaret C Snyder and Mary Tadesse. Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press, 1995.

Rethinking South African Literary History, edited by Johannes Smit, Johan van Wyk and Jean‐Philippe Wade. Durban, YPress, 1996.     

Negotiating civic identity across different political contexts: Immigrant participation in social movements and political incorporation

This article examines the understudied intersection between migration and contentious politics, focusing specifically on immigrant participation in social movements within their host societies. Drawing upon data from the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (Anti-ELAB) Movement in Hong Kong, it illuminates the process through which Chinese immigrants become politicized, evolve collective identities, and mobilize against civil dominance. Further, it underscores the transformative potential of social movements in facilitating immigrant political incorporation. However, it also recognizes the unilateral acceptance determined by mainstream society, which often leaves immigrants sidelined in discussions regarding their qualifications for unconventional political participation. To address civil inequality, immigrants establish their civil identities, challenge dominance, and amass political capital for future incorporation. This study extends the migration and social movements literature by shedding light on the political dynamics of immigrant participation and the hurdles they encounter during their journey toward political incorporation. It also underscores the significant role of progressive social movements in fostering immigrant political participation. Furthermore, the research highlights the unique immigrant political identity that emerges and evolves through participation in social movements, contesting exclusion and monopolistic dominance over democratic realization.     

Becoming independent: political participation and youth transitions in the Scottish referendum

Sociological debates on youth engagement with electoral politics play out against a backdrop of supposed ‘decline’ in civic participation (e.g. Putnam 2000 , Norris, 2011 ), in turn contextualized by theories of individualization in ‘late’ or ‘reflexive’ modernity (Beck, Giddens). However, the enfranchisement of 16 and 17 year olds in the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum catalysed remarkably high levels of voter turnout among this youngest group, and was accompanied by apparently ongoing political engagement. We explored this engagement among a strategic sample of young ‘Yes’ voters, in the immediate aftermath of this exceptional political event. Analysis of qualitative interview data generated an unanticipated finding; that interviewees narrated their political engagement biographically, articulated their referendum participation reflexively, and located their new political ideas, allegiances and actions in the context of their own transitions to ‘independent’ adulthood. This inspired us to rethink young people's political engagement in relation to youth transitions. Doing so enables a synthesis of divergent strands in the sociology of youth, and offers new insights into the combinations of ‘personal’ agentic and ‘political’ structural factors involved in young people's politicization.     

Weibo use and political participation: the mechanism explaining the positive effect of Weibo use on online political participation among college students in contemporary China

This study examines the various aspects of Weibo use, including the number of people users follow; the number of fans they have; the frequency with which they read friends’, celebrities’, and opinion leaders’ Weibo; and the number of Weibo group memberships on youth online political participation in contemporary China. The study also investigates the underlying mechanisms explaining the positive effects of Weibo use on youth online political participation using survey methods. Chinese users mainly use Weibo to satisfy their needs for information and connectedness. As an alternative source of information, Weibo indeed functions as an ‘online school of political participation’ to foster political interest, a sense of belonging to an online community, and civic virtue among Weibo users. As a new platform for Chinese to form online civic groups, memberships in Weibo groups significantly increases users’ likelihood of being politically mobilized, which is essential for online collective participation. Our study shows that Verba, Schlozman, and Brady’s [(1995). Voice and equality: Civic voluntarism in American politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press] civic voluntarism model can be extended to the online environment in an authoritarian system.     

Social class in the educational system: an international comparison*

Nous avons construit un schéma objectif pour les classes sociales fondamentales de la société capitaliste en utilisant deux dichotomies de base: L'engagement directement dans le processus de production ou non, et L'exercise d'une fonction de contrôle ou non. Nous trouvons quatre classes sociales: les capitalistes, les professions idéologiques, les cols blancs, et les ouvriers. Pour L'étude d'une société capitaliste spécifique, il nous faut au moins deux autres classes, plus périphériques, les petits propriétaires indépendants dans la production et dans le commerce. Nous étudions les enfants des six classes sociales dans les systèmes d'éducation de sept pays de capitalisme avancé par rapport aux trois variables principales: le type de programme, les notes en mathématiques, et le souhait de poursuivre les études. Des ressemblances frappantes se trouvent pour les variables de chaque pays et à travers les pays. Une polarisation existe entre les deux classes de contrôle et les deux classes ouvrières dans les pays européens. Par contre, aux Etats-Unis, les classes idéologique et col-blanc forment une ‘classe moyenne.’ Les positions des deux classes de petits propriétaires varient selon le pays. Les contradictions de classe dans le système d'éducation en Belgique et en France indiquent les causes des conflits récents sur la politique de L'éducation. Le ‘capital culturel’ de L'education des parents paraît aider le plus les enfants de la classe idéologique. II maintient et reproduit les rapports capitalistes de domination/subordination. An objective schema for the fundamental social classes of capitalist society is developed by means of two basic dichotomies: direct involvement in the production process or not, and exercise of a function of control or not. This yields four classes: the capitalist, ideological, white collar, and manual working classes. In the study of a given capitalist society, at least two other, more peripheral, social classes are also required - the small proprietors involved in production and in commerce. Children from these six social classes are studied within the educational systems of seven advanced capitalist countries using three principal variables: enrolment in a school program, mathematics test score, and desire for further education. Strong similarities are found both among variables within countries and across countries, with a polarization of the two control classes versus the two working classes in the European countries, while the ideological and white collar classes form a ‘middle class’ in the USA. The positions of the two small proprietor classes vary with the country. Class contradictions within the school systems of Belgium and France     

Social support among homeless and housed mothers: an integrative review

Homelessness has been associated with levels of stress beyond the normal strain of living in poverty. For mothers who are homeless, support from their social networks may provide a buffer from some of the stresses associated with being homeless. To better understand the relationship between social support and female-headed homeless families, an integrative review was conducted of 12 research articles that compare social support among low-income housed mothers and homeless mothers, using guidelines set forth by Ganong. The included studies revealed four significant attributes of social support among housed and homeless mothers: size of the social support network; composition of the social support network; contacts with members of the social support network; and perceived support from members of the social support network. Nurses who work with homeless families are in a position to help develop ways for these families to cultivate and maintain their social support networks while homeless. Nurses can be available to offer support, including the necessary mental health services or referrals.