Political democracy,economic liberalization,and macro-sociological models of intergenerational mobility

Building on the previously investigated macro-sociological models which analyze the consequences of economic development, income inequality, and international migration on social mobility, this article studies the specific contextual covariates of intergenerational reproduction of occupational status in post-communist societies. It is theorized that social mobility is higher in societies with democratic political regimes and less liberalized economies. The outlined hypotheses are tested by using micro- and macro-level datasets for 21 post-communist societies which are fitted into multilevel mixed-effects linear regressions. The derived findings suggest that factors specific to transition societies, conventional macro-level variables, and the legacy of the Soviet Union explain variation in intergenerational social mobility, but the results vary depending which birth cohorts survey participants belong to and whether or not they stem from advantaged or disadvantaged social origins. These findings are robust to various alternative data, sample, and method specifications.     

社会资本、市场化改革与企业绩效——来自中国上市公司的面板证据

本文通过对2004～2006年沪市210家上市公司高管人员的政治网络、经营网络和学校网络进行赋值,将其社会资本予以量化。我们将企业所在地的市场化程度引入模型,检验社会资本与市场化改革对于企业经营绩效的影响。本文得到的主要结论包括:(1)用政治网络度量的企业家社会资本对企业绩效存在显著的正向关系;(2)企业家社会资本对企业绩效的作用随着市场化的推进逐渐减弱;(3)企业家政治网络对企业绩效作用的影响高于经营网络和校友网络。     

中国实践与中国理论的话语权

“话语权”表达的是在语言外壳背后,承载着的某个特定社会,具有特定经济政治地位的人们（社会集团）的实际权力（利、益）要求,本质上是一种经济政治权力（利、益）,有确定的阶级内涵。“话语权”是由话语体系体现出来的。在当今世界普遍关注话语权的背景下,坚持用中国理论的话语体系解读中国实践,不断增强中国理论的话语权,把话语权牢牢掌握在中国人民自己手里,这是党和国家向学术界、理论界提出的重大而紧迫的课题。     

Social mobility in 20 modern societies: The role of economic and political context

It is commonly argued that social mobility rates are influenced by economic and political conditions. Nevertheless, research on this issue has tended to be hindered by two limitations that make it difficult to draw strong conclusions about contextual effects: (1) seldom have country-level and individual-level influences been tested simultaneously, and (2) only rarely have data more recent than the 1970s been employed. We improve on previous research by employing multilevel models fitted to relatively recent survey data collected from 20 modern societies by the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) and national-level characteristics derived from various official sources. Our findings demonstrate systematic cross-national variation in the association between the occupational status of respondents and their fathers. Consistent with the industrialization thesis, this variation is positively associated with per-capita GDP, suggesting that more affluent nations are characterized by more open and fluid stratification structures. Our results also suggest the importance of political regimes and migration for social mobility. In contrast, economic inequality appears to explain very little of the cross-national variation in mobility rates.     

Three experimental approaches to measure the social context dependence of prejudice communication and discriminatory behavior

Empirical research on discrimination is faced with crucial problems stemming from the specific character of its object of study. In democratic societies the communication of prejudices and other forms of discriminatory behavior is considered socially undesirable and depends on situational factors such as whether a situation is considered private or whether a discriminatory consensus can be assumed. Regular surveys thus can only offer a blurred picture of the phenomenon. But also survey experiments intended to decrease the social desirability bias (SDB) so far failed in systematically implementing situational variables. This paper introduces three experimental approaches to improve the study of discrimination and other topics of social (un-)desirability. First, we argue in favor of cognitive context framing in surveys in order to operationalize the salience of situational norms. Second, factorial surveys offer a way to take situational contexts and substitute behavior into account. And third, choice experiments – a rather new method in sociology – offer a more valid method of measuring behavioral characteristics compared to simple items in surveys. All three approaches – which may be combined – are easy to implement in large-scale surveys. Results of empirical studies demonstrate the fruitfulness of each of these approaches.     

现代性话语体系下的风险与风险控制

现代性话语体系下的风险及风险社会的概念,是作为社会学家们反思现代性的切入点而映入理论研究视野的。伴随着人类文明的进程和科技理性主义的扩张而出现的跨越了社会、民族国家界线的世界性风险,一方面打破了技术权威与专家系统对知识的垄断,推进了世界风险意识的形成,另一方面也破坏了现存制度与秩序存在的合法性基础。中国社会转型的特点是工业化和市场化同时并举,在现代化的过程中,传统风险依旧存在,新的风险在转制的过程中大量涌现,中国社会风险具有明显的复合特征。     

解读经济市场化的三个维度——兼论中国市场秩序完善的内在机理与基本思路

中国以社会主义市场机制为体制目标的改革进程已经进入强化市场竞争秩序为主的新阶段。学术研究迫切需要突破经济市场化的逻辑理路与内在机理等重大问题。首先,需要澄清作为"规则集"的制度与作为"事物存在的一种可识别的可欲状态"的秩序是两个不同的理论分析概念,秩序分析方法涵盖制度分析;其次,需要明确经济市场化有其三个秩序维度——经济秩序、法律秩序与社会秩序,其本质上是三种秩序相互依赖、整体互动、协同演进的历史动态过程。单从经济秩序维度来看,中国的市场化进程带有明显梯度、层次推进特征;而深层原因则是法律与社会两种秩序发育的明显滞后。随着改革的不断深化、经济体系中深层矛盾的出现以及世界经济竞争加剧,中国经济市场化进程很可能出现各种秩序协同演变的局面。因此,从经济市场化三个秩序维度整体推进改革的视角,来探讨中国市场体系完善的原则性思路和建议,意义重大。     

Learning-related behaviors, cognitive skills, and ability grouping when schooling begins

We use ECLS-K data from a national sample of students to estimate the determinants and consequences of reading ability group placement in kindergarten and first grade. We find that prior test score performance is the strongest determinant of such placement, followed in magnitude by the teacher’s judgment of the student’s learning-related classroom behavior. These variables explain most of the race, gender, and social class differentials when students are placed into ability groups for the first time. Within kindergarten and first grade classes where grouping is used, placement into a higher group exerts a positive effect on student learning-related behavior and reading achievement. Ability group placement and the teacher’s assessment of student behavior both have significant effects on student’s growth in reading achievement, even net of their prior reading achievement scores. Such grouping takes individual and group-level performance differences that emerge during the preschool period and causes them to widen more than would otherwise be the case during the first 2 years of formal schooling.     

Life course transitions in early adulthood and SES disparities in tobacco use

A huge literature has documented adult socioeconomic disparities in smoking but says less about how these disparities emerge over the life course. Building on findings that smoking among adolescents differs only modestly by parental SES, we utilize a life course perspective on social differentiation to help explain the widening disparities in smoking in young adulthood. Our theory suggests that achieved socioeconomic status and the nature and timing of adult role transitions affect age-based trajectories of smoking and widen disparities in adult smoking. The analyses use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which follows a representative national sample over four waves from ages 11–17 in 1994/1995 to 26–34 in 2007/2008. The results show divergent age trajectories in smoking by parental education and that achieved socioeconomic status and life course roles in young adulthood account in good part for differences in the age trajectories. The findings demonstrate the value of the life course perspective in understanding processes of increasing stratification in health behavior and health during the transition to adulthood.     

对“资本主义”的两种不同规定——在马克思与布罗代尔之间

布罗代尔认为马克思对“资本主义”的含义一无所知。他用“资本主义”一词来确指不同于“物质生活”和“市场经济”并在它们之上的领域。他提出了关于“资本主义”的三层分立解释模式。但实际上,马克思对“资本主义”有其恢弘的论述。他从社会形态演进和内部要素矛盾冲突、对立统一的路径展开了对“资本主义”的解构之路,形成了其独特的“资本主义”解释模式。     

Income inequality and participation: A comparison of 24 European countries

Previous research suggests that when there is a high level of inequality, there is a low rate of participation. Two arguments are generally offered: First, inequality depresses participation because people from different status groups have fewer opportunities to share common goals. Second, people may participate more in civic and social life when they have more resources. However, until now, these explanations have not been separated empirically. Using EU-SILC data for 24 European countries, we analyze how income inequality is related to civic and social participation. Our results indicate that the main effects of inequality manifest via resources at the individual and societal level. However, independent of these resources, higher inequality is associated with lower civic participation. Furthermore, inequality magnifies the relationship between income and participation. This finding is in line with the view that inter-individual processes explain why inequality diminishes participation.     

论国家治理的若干基本问题

行动者、制度、秩序以及此三者间关系,是考察国家治理问题的基本出发点,因为通过前两者才能说明人类社会不可或缺的秩序,而国家治理是属于秩序范畴的问题,但直接决定某种秩序状态的是相关领域的机制。在讨论国家治理问题时,有必要分开国家能力和国家治理能力,而国家治理能力是由政府、市场、社会等在制度平台上通过竞争与合作,以和平的方式解决公共问题的综合能力。正是由于这一点,治理又与信任密切相关,而国家治理所需要的信任应该建立在制度和共识的基础上。必须强调,国家治理并不只是富强的手段,富强只是现代化的一个结果,而现代化与国家治理在根本上是同一个过程,这个过程伴随着社会领域的自治,这就要求必须推动社会的组织化,从而可以提升整个国家的理性化程度。     

The downside of marketization: A multilevel analysis of housing tenure and types in reform-era urban China

Based on data from the 2005 National Population Sample Survey and compiled covariates of 205 prefectures, this research adopted principal-component and multilevel-logistic analyses to study homeownership in urban China. Although the housing reform has severed the link between work units and residence, working in state sectors (government, state-owned enterprises and collective firms) remained significant in determining a household’s entitlement to reform-era housing with heavy subsidies or better qualities. While the prefecture-level index of marketization reduced local homeownership of self-built housing, affordable housing and privatized housing, its effect is moderated by cross-level interactions with income, education and working in state sectors across different types of housing. Meanwhile, the index of political and market connections promoted all types of homeownership except for self-built housing. By situating the downside of marketization within a context of urban transformation, this research not only challenges the teleological premise of the neoliberal market transition theory but calls for research on institutional dynamics and social consequences of urban transformation in China.     

Discovering complex interrelationships between socioeconomic status and health in Europe: A case study applying Bayesian Networks

Studies assume that socioeconomic status determines individuals’ states of health, but how does health determine socioeconomic status? And how does this association vary depending on contextual differences? To answer this question, our study uses an additive Bayesian Networks model to explain the interrelationships between health and socioeconomic determinants using complex and messy data. This model has been used to find the most probable structure in a network to describe the interdependence of these factors in five European welfare state regimes. The advantage of this study is that it offers a specific picture to describe the complex interrelationship between socioeconomic determinants and health, producing a network that is controlled by socio-demographic factors such as gender and age. The present work provides a general framework to describe and understand the complex association between socioeconomic determinants and health.     

Explaining ethnic polarization over attitudes towards minority rights in Eastern Europe: A multilevel analysis

This paper examines divisions between majority and minority ethnic groups over attitudes towards minority rights in 13 East European societies. Using national sample surveys and multilevel models, we test the effectiveness of competing explanations of ethnic polarization in attitudes towards minority rights, as well as regional and cross-national differences in levels of polarization. We find that, at the individual level, indicators of ‘social distance’ (inter-marriage and social interaction) account most effectively for the extent of ethnic polarization. However, regional and cross-national variations in polarization between majority and minority groups are explained most effectively by cultural (linguistic and religious) differences. These findings accord with research in the West, indicating the importance of cultural differences as a source of ethnic polarization, while offering little support for theories focusing on economic and structural factors or the size of minority groups. They also suggest the likely sources of difficulties for democratic consolidation in ethnically divided post-communist societies.     

The relationship between societal change and rising support for gender egalitarianism among men and women: Results from counterfactual analyses in the Netherlands, 1979–2012

This study examines the relationship between important social, cultural, economic, and demographic changes and the rise of support for gender egalitarianism within the Dutch population between 1979 and 2012. Cohort replacement, educational expansion, secularization, and the feminization of the labor force are important processes that have taken place in western societies in ways that may have fostered support for gender egalitarianism. Using unique data from 16 repeated cross-sectional surveys in the Netherlands, we estimate age-period-cohort regression models, and the outcomes are subsequently applied in counterfactual simulation designs. Our results show that the social, cultural, economic, and demographic changes explain only a small part of the modest rise in support for gender egalitarianism for men, while they provide a much better explanation of the stronger rise among women. Especially the replacement of older female cohorts by younger ones seems to have propelled support for gender egalitarianism among women throughout the years.     

Marketization,occupational segregation,and gender earnings inequality in urban China

This article analyzes a large sample of the 2005 population mini-census data and prefecture-level statistics of China to investigate gender earnings inequality in the context of economic marketization, paying special attention to the changing role of occupational segregation in the process. We approximate marketization by employment sectors and also construct an index of marketization at the prefecture level. Results show that, despite the tremendous economic growth, marketization has exacerbated gender earnings inequality in urban China's labor markets. Gender earnings inequality is the smallest in government/public institutions, followed by public enterprises, and then private enterprises. The gender inequality also increases with the prefecture's level of marketization. Multilevel analyses show that occupational segregation plays an important role in affecting gender earnings inequality: the greater the occupational segregation, the more disadvantaged women are relative to men in earnings in a prefecture's labor market. Moreover, the impact of occupational segregation on gender earnings inequality increases with the prefectural level of marketization. These findings contribute to understanding the dynamics of gender earnings inequality and have important implications for policy to promote gender equality in urban China.     

略论民主社会的内部排斥问题——以迈克尔·沃尔泽的理论为视角

西方民主社会的日益多元化导致了内部排斥,它打破了民主制是最能平等尊重并维护每个公民的基本权利的政治制度的理论承诺。内部排斥的产生原因主要包括经济发展所带来的不平等以及长期形成的习惯性偏见与多元文化的差异这两个方面。在解决这一问题时,沃尔泽强调公民参与和各种地方性社群自治的重要性,而政府在提供社会福利和保护多样性的少数文化群体等问题上则负有不可推卸的责任。     

一盘棋与小卒子:中国工人在全球化中的命运

诸多研究希望用一个词语来描述中国市场化进程中工人的状况,然而这里的事实远非那么简单。用基于西方个人主义、契约主义背景的概念,难于透彻地解释中国的工人与这里的劳动关系。本文立足于中国的社会传统和社会构造,对影响工人状况的社会因素进行分析,认为工人的命运既与国家和企业在全球化中的命运有关,又与工人群体在国家和企业中所具有的地位和力量有关。     

Moral opinion polarization and the erosion of trust

Since Puntam's seminal work on declining levels of social capital, the question of how social trust is formed has reached unprecedented heights of critical enquiry. While most of the current research concentrates on ethnic diversity and income inequality as the main influences driving down generalized trust, we focus on opinion polarization as another potential impact factor on trust. In more detail, we investigate the extent to which polarization over morally charged issues such as homsexuality, abortion and euthanasia affects individuals' likelihood to trust others. We hypothesize that moral issues have a natural tendency to divide societies' opinions into opposing poles and, thus, to challenge social cohesion in modern civil societies. Based on hierarchical analyses of the fifth wave of the World Values Survey (WVS) — comprising a sample of 39 countries — our results reveal that individuals living in countries characterized by more opinion polarization tend to have less trust in other people.