When studying schooling is not enough: Incorporating employment in models of educational transitions

Several recent studies have demonstrated the importance of incorporating qualitative differentiation within educational systems in the study of class inequality in student transitions. We extend these endeavors by broadening the definition of differentiation to include participation in the labor market. As increasing proportions of students continue their educational journeys beyond compulsory schooling, they are considering not only whether to stay in school but also whether to simultaneously enter the world of work. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth of 1997 (NLSY97), we show that family background influences not only whether students make specific educational transitions but also whether they combine those educational transitions with work. Student trajectories are also path dependent, with employment during one educational transition being related to specific transition patterns at a later point in time. Considering how students combine school and work reveals another dimension of differentiation which can be exploited by socioeconomically advantaged families to “effectively maintain” inequality in educational outcomes.     

An overture for the sociology of credentialing: Empirical, theoretical, and moral considerations

There are a variety of relatively new, and some old and persisting, empirical issues confronting scholars of credentialing. Success in understanding these matters will be aided by greater theoretical and methodological precision and sophistication, and by avoidance of morality-driven assumptions about these topics. This paper discusses both promising and problematic aspects of current credentialing research.     

Unequal transitions: Selection bias and the compensatory effect of social background in educational careers

Previous studies have shown that social background inequality differs among educational transitions and it is stronger for those transitions that involve a higher risk of social demotion. This paper focuses on two processes that may account for part of the observed differences in social background inequality across educational transitions. First, it studies how the family of origin might compensate for a ‘false step’ in the early stage of young people's educational careers. This compensatory effect of social background can be described as the likelihood of having ‘a second chance’ for unsuccessful educational transitions. Second, it focuses on two unobserved factors that might potentially bias the effect of social background across educational transitions. These are the students’ unobserved cognitive and non-cognitive skills and their unobserved anticipated choices of dropping out of the education system. Two issues – the compensatory effect of social background and selection bias in educational transitions – are addressed by estimating a probit model with sample selection for the transition to post-compulsory education in Spain.     

Proletarianization with polarization: Industrialization, globalization, and social class in Turkey, 1980–2005

This paper analyzes the social class structure of Turkey during the latest wave of economic globalization in four dimensions: by sector of employment, with the Erikson–Goldthorpe–Portocarero (EGP) class schema, by occupational group, and in terms of informal employment. Since 1980, when Turkey opened to the global economy, the Turkish social class structure changed significantly. During this period, Turkey became a significant exporter of mostly low-technology, but also increasingly medium- and high-technology, manufactured goods. I contend that this economic globalization and industrialization contributed to a dual process of proletarianization and polarization. Proletarianization occurred through a transition from Turkey's agrarian tradition, a relative decline of the public sector, and an expansion of classes who sell their labor without workplace authority. Polarization entailed the growth of private-sector entrepreneurial, professional and managerial classes, and a simultaneous expansion of the informal sector. There were also differences between sexes. The share of manufacturing employment and the low-skilled labor classes expanded at rates much higher among women than among men, contributing to more rapid proletarianization.     

Structuring access to higher education: The role of differentiation and privatization

Building on cross-national stratification research that examines how institutional arrangements affect stratification processes, I explore how two characteristics of higher education systems, differentiation and privatization, shape access to postsecondary opportunities. Using hierarchical linear models and relying on variation in educational systems across states in the U.S., I demonstrate that differentiation and privatization structure access to higher education, albeit at times in previously unanticipated ways. Differentiation, which denotes the presence of community colleges, has a democratizing effect: it increases overall enrollment in postsecondary institutions as well as decreases the gap in enrollment between students from different social strata. Moreover, contrary to the diversion hypothesis, differentiation does not disproportionately divert students from less privileged family backgrounds from 4-year institutions. Differentiation does, nevertheless, divert another group of students: those with lower test scores. The results also indicate that privatization has little effect on overall access to higher education, although it influences migration of students, facilitating out-of-state enrollment.     

Allocation and distribution: A discussion of the educational transition model,with reference to the Italian case

The main characteristic of education in the past century has been its expansion: a major stratification research question associated with this is whether the inequalities of educational opportunities among classes have persisted or changed (diminished) over time. The educational transition model (29 and 30), adopted by the majority of scholars in the field, separates the study of allocation, that is class inequality in education, from that of distribution, the amount of schooling and its expansion, using conditional logits. A consequence of the way this distinction has influenced subsequent research has been the emergence of a sharp gap between macro-level research on the expansion of education and stratification studies.     

大学生就业难问题：国外的研究与经验

大学毕业生就业形势严峻已经成为近年来我国社会面临的一个突出问题。大学生就业难并非中国所特有的现象．国际上很多国家都曾经经历过或现今仍然面临着这一难题。本文选取欧、美、日以及印度等典型国家曾经经历过的大学生就业难问题进行分析．探究这些国家大学生就业上出现的问题、原因以及在实际的政策操作中所积累的成型的经验。这无疑对我国现阶段大学生就业政策指向的确定、教育体系的改进、就业指导的完善、职业教育的改革发展等都有一定的借鉴意义。     

Credential inflation and educational strategies: A comparison of the United States and the Netherlands

This paper analyzes the trend in the effect of education on social class attainment, and uses this information to test hypotheses on the impact of credential inflation on educational decision making in the United States and the Netherlands. After having shown evidence for credential inflation of three educational transitions, it was shown that credential inflation between two generations increased the likelihood of making a transition into tertiary education in the Netherlands, and into high school completion and into 4-year university degrees in the United States. This supports the theory that education functions as a positional good, and if education loses value people need more of it in order to reach the same social class as their parents. Cross-national variation is explained with the theory that education in the United States functions more as a positional good than it does in the Netherlands.     

Poor Queer Studies: Class,Race, and the Field

ABSTRACT

This study asks, What are the material conditions under which queer studies is done in the academy? It finds a longstanding association of queer studies with the well-resourced, selective colleges and flagship campuses that are the drivers of class and race stratification in higher education in the U.S. That is, the field of queer studies, as a recognizable academic formation, has been structured by the material and intellectual resources of precisely those institutions that most steadfastly refuse to adequately serve poor and minority students, including poor and minority queer students. In response, “poor queer studies” calls for a critical reorientation of queer studies toward working-poor schools, students, theories, and pedagogies. Taking the College of Staten Island, CUNY as a case study, it argues for structural crossing over or “queer-class ferrying” between high-status institutions that have so brilliantly dominated queer studies’ history and low-status worksites of poor queer studies.     

Design,development and usability testing of Essential Coaching for Every Mother: A postnatal text message educational intervention

BackgroundThe transition to motherhood is an exciting yet challenging period that requires physical, emotional, and social adjustment. During the postpartum period, mothers require support and information to ensure a smooth transition and adjustment to motherhood. One innovative strategy to provide mothers with this information is mobile health (mHealth), and specifically, text messaging.ObjectiveTo describe the design, development and usability testing of a postnatal text message intervention called Essential Coaching for Every Mother.MethodsFirst time mothers (n = 11) and postpartum healthcare providers (n = 18) were involved in iterative interviewing in Halifax, Canada. Adaption of content occurred through three rounds of user testing using semi-structured interviews. The Information Assessment Method (IAM) Parents survey was also completed by mothers.ResultsThree cycles of iterative testing were conducted with eight participants (3 mothers, 5 healthcare providers), thirteen participants (8 mothers, 5 healthcare providers) and 8 participants (8 healthcare providers), respectively. Messages evolved from risk-focused to prevention and education focused. Mothers felt the messages addressed their needs and healthcare providers ensured the content was consistent with the messaging currently provided to postpartum mothers.ConclusionEssential Coaching for Every Mother is the first postnatal educational text message intervention developed for mothers in Halifax, Canada. We sought to involve first time mothers (end-users) and postpartum healthcare providers (experts) in the development and usability evaluation to ensure the intervention adequately met needs and was consistent with current practices related to postpartum education.     

Choosing fields in an expansionary era: Comparing two cohorts of baccalaureate degree-holders in the United States and Canada

In an era of expanding postsecondary markets and heightened student and institutional competition, students’ field of study decisions may be becoming an increasingly important point of differentiation in the process of social mobility. Drawing on the two most recent cohorts of the Baccalaureate and Beyond and National Graduates Surveys, this paper examines and compares field of study choices among American and Canadian baccalaureate degree-holders. Consistent with existing research, gender remains an important and consistent predictor of field of study choices. In Canada, the analyses show some evidence that the gender gap for business and management is shrinking, but the engineering and mathematics gap remains significant. In the U.S. the situation was reversed, as the engineering gap shrunk and the business and management gap did not change across cohorts. Moderate family background effects, strong and consistent academic ability effects and growing academic aspiration effects were found across most analyses, lending support to theories that predict family background has direct and indirect effects on higher education choices.     

Social Participation, Sense of Community and Social Well Being: A Study on American, Italian and Iranian University Students

Aim of the study was to assess the relationship between social participation and Sense of Community in a sample of University students and the impact of such variables on Social well being. A further aim was to assess the generality of the relationships between these constructs across different countries, and specifically, the USA, Italy and Iran. The sample includes 200 Italian, 125 American and 214 Iranian University students, male and female. Results show higher levels of social participation, Sense of Community and Social well being among American students. Sense of Community is positively correlated with social participation in all three samples; however, only among Italian students social participation positively predicts Social well being. Implications of results will be discussed.     

市场转型、社会资本与城市居民的贫困缓解：以广州和兰州的贫困居民为例

使用广州和兰州的实证数据,在对贫困居民的社会资本测量的基础上,对贫困居民所拥有的各种资本包括社会资本、人力资本和传统体制资本与贫困居民的贫困缓解关系进行探讨。结果表明,个体的社会资本对居民的贫困缓解具有显著意义,但是人力资本、体制资本对个体生活机遇建构无显著意义。文后对市场转型论进行回应,并对城市贫困居民主要资本类型作用的制度环境进行了解释与讨论。     

Global Cities,Public Transportation,and Social Exclusion: A Study of the Bus System in Abu Dhabi

As cities of the Gulf Cooperation Council grow and integrate with global markets, questions relating to their unique social compositions continue to emerge. Abu Dhabi has been competing with other cities in the region through massive investments in infrastructure and megaprojects, including the provision of public transportation. The paper examines the issues of bus ridership in Abu Dhabi and relates it to the broader debates on social exclusion and transportation. As a globalizing city with a majority expatriate population, and with a large presence of blue-collar workers, unique rifts in the society are further complicating the ‘usual’ prejudice against buses. The paper reports on results from fieldwork including surveys and observations. It concludes that the bus system could be more effective in fostering social inclusion if a broader accessibility planning approach is used.     

居住空间、邻里交往与社会距离--基于CSS2011的城镇居民与农民社会距离的影响因素研究

利用CSS2011调查数据,探讨了当前我国城镇居民与农村居民社会距离的影响因素。研究发现：个人经济地位越高,与农民的社会距离越近,家庭经济地位与个人文化地位越高,与农民的社会距离越远;居住空间条件越好,与农民的社会距离越远;与邻居互惠性交往程度越高,与农民的社会距离越近。研究认为,在城镇现实的体制和制度环境下,以下两个方面的努力可以缩减城镇居民与农民的社会距离,提升他们对农民的心理接纳程度：一是通过制定各种政策措施,遏制并缩小目前城镇内部和城乡之间的住房不平等程度;二是创造理想的社会交往环境,促进城镇居民与包括邻居在内的社区其他居民和进城农民之间的互惠性交往。     

个体特征、就业状况及工作满意度对农民工参加社会保险的影响--基于福州、厦门的调查数据

本文基于福州、厦门两地农民工问卷调查数据,运用二元Logistic回归分析,从个体特征、就业状况和工作满意度三个方面对农民工是否参加社会保险及其影响因素进行实证分析。研究结果表明：教育程度、外出务工年限年限及是否拖欠工资对农民工参加社会保险具有显著的影响。年龄、工作性质、是否签订劳动合同、有无技能培训、更换工作次数对农民工参加社会保险作用显著且系数为正。性别、家庭外出务工人数、职业类型、月平均收入及对当前工作是否满意的影响并不显著。最后根据分析的结果提出相应建议。     

‘Agrarian transition’-diversity in nature, notion and observations—A survey of theoretical expositions and empirical studies with reference to India and West Bengal

In India the issue of transition from pre-capitalist agrarian societies to capitalism has produced many controversies among the Marxist theoreticians. Various depictions of Indian agrarian transition have been attempted, either theoretical or empirical in nature. However, the crucial element of the debate is the diverse nature of agrarian transition that can or has been traversed. This study concentrates on the various expositions and underlying theoretical framework to get a clear knowledge on the issue of agrarian transition, mode of production and undergoing class differentiation in India.