Class Imagery and Subjective Social Location During Iceland’s Economic Crisis, 2008–2010

It has long been argued that perceptions of the class structure shape how individuals see their position in society. However, researchers using nationally representative data to study subjective social location rarely include class imagery in their models. This study uses OLS regression of two surveys, conducted 18 months apart following Iceland’s 2008 economic collapse, to analyze the effects of class imagery on subjective social location. Results show that respondents who perceive the class structure as inegalitarian report lower subjective social location as compared to those with egalitarian class imagery. The influence of objective class position on subjective social location depends, partly, on class imagery. The study finds that Icelanders saw the class structure become more egalitarian and their own subjective social location climb following the collapse, even as the economic crisis deepened between the two surveys. These findings reflect that income inequality in Iceland dropped sharply after the collapse.     

Effects of Neighborhood Inequality on the Relative Distance between Objective Position and Subjective Identification

This article is an exploratory attempt to assess the relationship between an individual's objective class position and their subjective class identification and to understand the effects of neighborhood inequality on individual variations. It tests three theses that the relationship between objective class position and subjective identification: is based on reflection, middle-class consciousness or variation. The degree to which neighborhood-level variables impact on the relative distance between objective class position and subjective identification is examined in assessing the possible contextual effects of the spatial setting individuals in which individuals are located. It utilizes 2015 City Policy Index Survey data administered by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and goes through two steps in analysis. First, a correspondence analysis was performed to calculate the relative distance between individuals’ objective position and subjective identification. The relative distance calculated was used as a dependent variable in a multilevel linear model examining the possible cross-level interaction between neighborhood inequality and individual-level variables. The results indicate that the relationship between an individual's objective class position and subjective identification was captured in the variation thesis. Women, and people who are younger, college educated and who hold non-manual occupations are more likely to identify with a position that is lower than their actual position. Neighborhood inequality was found to exaggerate the gap in relative distance scores by gender and occupation.     

Migration aspirations and the perceptions of the political,economic and social environment in Africa

While much research has investigated how objective pull factors in the destination countries affect migration movements, and how subjective push factors affect migration aspirations, we know little about the interrelationship between subjective and objective factors. This paper therefore examines how people's perceptions of their political, economic and social structural environment affect their migration aspirations and to what extent these perceptions are determined by the objective situation in a country. Accounting for individual perceptions is important because individuals may be affected by structural factors to different degrees, and their knowledge of the objective situation may vary. Perceptions may also be affected by individuals' norms and values as well as people's different expectations. This study is based on data from Round 7 of the Afrobarometer survey, fielded between 2016 and 2018 in 34 African countries. Our findings show that positive perceptions of the structural environment are related to lower migration aspirations and that this relationship is only partly dependent on the objective situation in a country.     

Generationenbeziehungen

The different persons involved in social relationships perceive the same relationship quite differently. This assumption, called the ?intergenerational stake hypothesis“ in intergenerational relations research, is tested by an investigation of emotional closeness, perception of conflicts, and the exchange of support among familial generations. In these data, parents tend to perceive greater emotional closeness and less conflict than their children. In the perception of exchanges of support, however, both parents and children impute greater weight to support received than to support given. Given that some differences among generations are observable, the fact that both parties of the same relationship are rarely captured in survey data presents a potential problem for empirical social research. What kinds of skewing or bias can be expected when not all perspectives are accounted for? The constructed models indicate that the bias so produced is marginal, thus the current practice of surveying only one side of the relationship would appear to be adequate.     

The Walking Wounded: Employees’Perspectives on Mergers and Acquisitions*

Several popular and academic works have reiterated Marx's concern over the issue of social class polarization in capitalist societies. Marx characterized this polarization as the increasing concentration of wealth and poverty in the upper and lower classes, respectively, coupled with a disappearing middle class. Building on these ideas, other work suggests a process of fragmented polarization with an increasing economic, political, social, and psychological diversity within each social class. This paper illustrates this process of class fragmentation, and shows that even though the upper class is gaining overall, there are segments which are beginning to feel the effects of economic restructuring. We address corporate restructuring in the form of mergers and acquisitions and how upper- and-middle managers perceive these processes and outcomes. We conducted 33 interviews with individuals from different organizational levels, involved in four different mergers or acquisitions. We focus on the meaning these individuals attribute to these processes and changes. Although most respondents remained with the new company, all were faced with major changes in their work environment. Respondents often experienced a breach of social contract, a dramatically altered perception of managerial control and decision making, a shift from corporate loyalty to self-interest, and new forms of power and resistance. We conclude by discussing the implications of such class fragmentation, and suggest directions for future research and policy.     

Individuals’ power and their social network accuracy: A situated cognition perspective

Individuals differ in how accurately they perceive their social environment, but research and theory provide conflicting predictions on whether powerful people are more or less accurate than others. Drawing on social network theory and the situated cognition theory of power, we examine the relationship between individuals’ formal and informal power and their perceptual accuracy of social network relationships. We propose that individuals’ perceptual accuracy is related to: 1) their formal and informal power in the organization; 2) the type of relationship being perceived (positive/negative valence) and its relevance to task and goal completion; and 3) the dependence relationship with the target of perception (i.e., whether the perceiver is dependent on the perceived to get their work done). Predictions were tested using cognitive social structure data collected from a technical call center. Results showed that power was generally linked to increased perceptual accuracy, particularly for the types of relationships most relevant for task and goal completion. We further demonstrated that social network accuracy was related to employees’ outcomes, including subsequent transfer, promotion, and exit from the organization.     

Determinants of Bias Perceptions in South Africa: The Case of A Highly Unequal Society

While objective class dynamics have received much attention in South Africa, less is known about the subjective social positions individuals place themselves in. For example, in a highly unequal society like South Africa, some individuals would overestimate (inflate) or underestimate (deflate) their social position compared to their objective class position. This paper aims to provide further information on status inconsistency in South Africa by assessing some of the socioeconomic determinants of bias perceptions. Using International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) data and a multinomial probit model, the results show that education and race play a significant role in influencing the biased perceptions of individuals in South Africa. For example, individuals with higher education levels have a stronger tendency to deflate their social position, while Coloreds, Indians/Asians, and whites tend to inflate their social positions more than Africans. The results indicate the vital role of race and education in determining status inconsistencies in a society that is still suffering from high levels of racial and education inequality due to the lingering legacy of apartheid. The results provide a better understanding to policymakers and government on the dynamics behind social status perceptions in South Africa.     

Understanding the mobility chances of children from working-class backgrounds in Britain: How important are cognitive ability and locus of control?

Research in social stratification has shown that children from working-class backgrounds tend to obtain substantially lower levels of educational attainment and lower labor market positions than children from higher social class backgrounds. However, we still know relatively little about the micro-level processes that account for this empirical regularity. Our study examines the roles of two individual-level characteristics—cognitive ability and locus of control—in mediating the effect of individuals’ parental class background on their educational attainment and social class position in Britain. We find that cognitive ability mediates only about 35% of the total parental class effect on educational attainment and only about 20% of the total parental class effect on respondents’ social class position, net of their educational attainment. These findings contradict existing claims that differences in the life chances of children from different social class backgrounds are largely due to differences in cognitive ability. Moreover, we find that although individuals’ locus of control plays some role in mediating the parental class effect, its role is substantially smaller than the mediating role of cognitive ability. We measure individuals’ social class positions at different points in their careers—at labor market entry and at occupational maturity—and find that the mediating roles of cognitive ability and locus of control are remarkably stable across individuals’ working lives.     

Les deux faces - objective/subjective - de la mobilité sociale

How does objective social mobility, traditionally measured with tables of mobility drawn up by sociologists, relate to feelings about mobility, i.e., how individuals perceive, explain and appraise their social trajectory? Using a question from a survey (Insee's Formation, qualification professionnelle), subjective mobility was statistically evaluated so as to bring the two approaches to mobility together and measure the (considerable) frequency of deviations. Subjective mobility was then analyzed qualitatively on the basis of interviews conducted with respondents in the same survey. This helps us account for deviations and identify the bundle of parameters that people use to assess their own mobility. Certain limits, both methodological and conceptual, are pointed out that classical statistical surveys encounter in dealing with mobility.     

CROSS-CLASS PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL CLASS

This article explores how members of the American middle and working classes perceive themselves and each other's lives. The data offer an opportunity to address the relevance of social class as a concept for understanding American society while at the same time helping to clarify the debate over the question of whether the working class is integrated into American society or angry, alienated, and resistant to mainstream goals and institutions. The data reported here suggest that the attitudes held by many members of the middle class, which members of the working class perceive during social interaction, have an impact on the self-confidence of working-class individuals, causing some of them to experience self-doubt, pain, and hidden injuries. Social class as defined by education, occupational prestige, and income still matters in the United States. The American working class may not be class conscious in the classic Marxian sense of the concept - a class for itself - but it does have a deep understanding of the inequalities between "us" and "them". The respondents in this study do not yet know they live in a postmodern world. The attitudes and actions of members of the middle class toward working-class culture help (re) create the American working class.     

Adolescent involvement in face-to-face and cyber victimization: can personal well-being mediate social-emotional behavior?

This study examined the relationships between perceived loneliness, self-efficacy, and subjective well-being as related to students’ experiences as victims of cyber and face-to-face bullying. Participants included 902 students from 18 different Israeli schools, aged 10–18 who completed self-report questionnaires. Results revealed that social loneliness fully affects the experience of cyberbullying through the mediation of well-being. Greater social loneliness decreases the perception of well-being and therefore the probability of cybervictimization increases. Furthermore, social efficacy increases personal well-being, which decreases the likelihood of experiencing cyberbullying. In addition, students experiencing social and emotional loneliness were more likely to be victims of cyber- and face-to-face bullying than students who were not lonely. Age was found to be an overall indicator for the probability of exposure to bullying and being a victim. The current findings suggested that boys who are more socially effective perceive their well-being higher than girls, and these higher perceptions lead them to a higher immunity to, or a lower experience of cyber bullying. This indirect effect is fully operated through the mediators. Boys experience greater social and emotional loneliness than girls, but perceive their well-being more highly than girls. Boys also experience more face-to-face victimization, but not more cybervictimization compared to girls.     

Accusation and confession discrepancies in bullying: Dual-perspective networks and individual-level attributes

Previous research on bullying implicitly assumes that individuals agree on who bullies whom and whom is bullied by who. We analyse dual-perspective networks from 96 school-classes in Germany, where adolescents were asked both whom they bully (confession network) and who bullies them (accusation network). Drawing from goal framing theory we explicitly examine discrepancies in the subjective perception of bullying, demonstrating that the majority of accusations have no corresponding confessions, and vice versa. There are more confessions than accusations overall. Furthermore, we investigate how individual-level attributes are associated with these discrepancies. Our study indicates that analyses of bullying relationships, as well as social networks in general, should account for relational discrepancies resulting from individuals’ subjective perceptions of social behaviour.     

Race,Wealth, and Class Identification in 21st‐Century American Society

This study examines the determinants of Americans’ subjective class identities, using General Social Survey data from 2006. In particular, this study addresses the question of whether individuals’ objective class positions, including wealth, account for differences in class identification between whites and blacks. The principal finding is that self‐identified blacks have lower odds of identifying as middle class or upper class than self‐identified whites, net of their objective class positions and their class origins. This finding suggests that the class identities of blacks are shaped by experiences of racial discrimination or by other elements of racial inequality.     

Is everyone really middle class? Social class position and identification in Alberta

In defining social class, researchers often rely on measures of objective class position, even though subjective perceptions of social class identity can better account for the creation of social class boundaries. We explore the relationship between measures of objective class position and subjective class identity using data from an online survey of 1155 residents in Alberta, Canada, a conservative province dependent on a fluctuating energy sector. We find that although most Albertans identified as middle class, the strength of class identity and views regarding linked social class fates varied across categories with poverty class and uppermiddleclass respondents standing out. In reporting class identity, respondents considered measures related to objective class position, especially their income and economic security levels, but gaps still remained. We then use the results of this exploratory study to advocate for more comprehensive measures of social class.     

In Families or as Individuals? Theoretical and Methodological Problems in the Incorporation of Women in Class Analysis

The issue of how to properly include women in class analysis has posed a significant problem for social scientists for the past 40 years. A lack of consensus on this issue has informed the debate regarding women's subjective class identification as well as that regarding their objective class location. The failure to resolve it highlights a deeper problem in the study of social class: an uncertainty regarding whether the proper unit of class analysis should be the family or the individual. This article discusses the theoretical and methodological problems in the study of women's class and suggests further development of the dynamic conception of class offered by an ‘individuals in families’ approach.     

The Implication of Wife's Occupational Attainment for Husband's Class Identification*

Drawing upon research indicating that the subjective class identifications of working wives are to a considerable extent the result of their own occupational attainments, this study seeks to determine if husbands of working wives also derive perceptions of status from their wives' occupational attainments. Regression analysis is conducted on a subset of husbands of working wives in three General Social Surveys gathered from 1973 to 1975. A husband's level of subjective class identification is unaffected by the occupational achievements of his working wife. If husbands and wives derive perceptions of status from different sources, then they may not perceive themselves as sharing the same level of status in society.     

Children’s perception of social boundaries: The intersectionality of age and social group affiliation in rural Pakistan

This study explores how children perceive social boundaries in rural Pakistan. It discusses that children develop and navigate their social relationships through their perception of social boundaries, which are shaped by kinship and sociospatial organisation in rural areas. Children's perception of social boundaries is also mediated through the intersectionality of their age and social group affiliation. An ethnographic case study of a village in Southern Punjab, Pakistan, is presented here. It uses a quantifiable photo-elicitation technique and social mapping to analyse children's everyday mobilities and intersectionality in the cultural context of rural Pakistan to illustrate their perception of social boundaries.     

Widowhood and Well‐being in Europe: The Role of National and Regional Context

Researchers have documented that widows have lower levels of subjective well‐being than married individuals, but we still know little about how the regional and national contexts affect the impact of widowhood on well‐being. Building on social capital theory and using data from 5 rounds of the European Social Survey (N= 119,292 people, 206 regions, 23 countries), the authors tested how marital status composition at the national and regional levels affects the well‐being of widows. Widows fare worse in countries with high proportions of married people and in regions and countries with high proportions of widowed persons. The proportion of married individuals at the regional level does not affect their well‐being. These results are in line with the greedy marriage hypothesis, but varying effects at regional and national levels suggest that the standard explanation for this phenomenon, lack of individual social support, is not valid. This study demonstrates the importance of multiple contextual embeddedness.     

Oh,Canada

SUMMARY

This article focuses on an exploratory study, documenting the experience of ten working class gay men in Toronto. Using qualitative methods in an effort to uncover clues about how the informants themselves perceive the experience, this article offers practice insight into the world of some working class gay men. Various themes such as the issue of appearance, the role of work, coming out to families, and attitudes and participation in the Toronto gay political/social scene are discussed.