Disadvantaged through discrimination? The role of employers in social stratification1

Sociologists have consistently demonstrated that a rather strong association exists between an individual's social class origin and their social class destination, even after controlling for educational attainment. One explanation for this persisting association which is rarely addressed in research in social stratification and mobility is the extent to which class inequalities in access to advantaged class positions are due to discrimination by employers. I set up a field experiment to test whether employers discriminate on the basis of class origin characteristics. I sent letters of job application for professional and managerial occupations to 2560 large UK companies, so as to compare the prospects of equally matched potential employees differing on a range of characteristics, some related to class of origin. The six treatment conditions in the experiment were: the name of the candidate, the type of school attended, the candidate's interests outside work, their sex, the university that they attended and their achieved degree class. Results suggest that employers do pay attention to the class origin characteristics tested here, and that candidates with a name, school type and interests associated with the social elite are more likely to receive a reply to their application than candidates with the equivalent non‐elite characteristics. However, the treatment conditions do not, on the whole, have significant effects on the employers' responses in and of themselves. Instead, employers appear to favour particular combinations of characteristics while penalising others.     

The Significance Level of Meta-Regression's Standard Hypothesis Test

Meta-regression is routinely used in the context of meta-analysis to assess the potential impact of covariates on the treatment effect. The limitations and pitfalls of this type of analysis have been documented, however, in particular, it has been claimed that the actual significance levels of the resulting tests can be higher than nominal levels. In order to examine the validity of this claim analytically, the distribution of meta-regression's standard test statistic, in the simplified scenario where the studies are the same size, is derived. The resulting significance levels can be used to give an indication of these more generally and it is found that relatively large numbers of studies are needed to provide actual significance levels that are sufficiently similar to the corresponding nominal levels. These findings can be used to inform those performing standard meta-regression hypothesis tests, so that they can avoid adopting the usual procedure in situations where this is likely to be inappropriate.     

Patient progress modelling and results in Wilm's Tumour

The report describes the development of a mathematical model of the progress of patients with Wilm's Tumour using the methodology developed by Jackson & Aspden [1, 2]. The model incorporates two prognostic factors which are shown to influence patient progress. These are the stage of the tumour and the age of the patient at presentation. The model proved adequate to represent an initial set of patient data, and comparison runs were performed with data from a later time period. These runs highlighted changes in patient progress between the two groups and illustrated the usefulness of the model in this type of analysis. The analysis also underlined the poor prognosis of patients over 5 years old who relapsed.     

Das deutsche System der Corporate Governance zwischen Persistenz und Konvergenz

We discuss the development of German corporate governance in light of the hostile takeover of Mannesmann by Vodafone. The paper criticizes the stability hypothesis of Thomas Heinze in KZFSS 4/2001 and demonstrates the deep changes within German corporate governance, which we describe as hybrid convergence. Given trade-offs between corporate growth and profitability, the preferences of German management have changed towards greater emphasis on shareholder returns. This change is evident in the implementation of new profitability targets, end of cross-subsidization and concentration on core competences. Through incremental changes throughout the 1990s, the importance of market mechanisms has increased and been internalized within corporations. German corporate governance is moving toward a U.S. market model through hybrid processes of institutional layering and conversion.     

Under Fives: Thirty Years of No Progress?

SUMMARY. The value of preschool education was already well recognised 30 years ago but the UK, unlike other European countries, has never developed a coherent system of public provision for young children. Reliance on private, voluntary and self-help facilities to fill the gaps has produced diversity but variable quality and little real choice. Over the same period attitudes and family structures have changed and there have been great advances in our understanding of how children's development can be supported and enhanced. The Children Act 1989 provides a legal framework for translating this knowledge into action. Yet at a time when a remarkable degree of professional consensus has been achieved on what is needed, we seem as far as ever from an adequate level of good quality provision. The article suggests that the reason is to be found in the marginalisation of our youngest children as the concern only of their parents and not of society as a whole.     

Shadows and Stories: Lessons from the Wayang Kulit for Therapy with an Anglo-Indonesian Family*

Therapy with families from ethnic and cultural backgrounds different from the therapist's own represents a particular challenge. How can the therapist be sufficiently mindful of ethnocultural factors and harness these to promote change, while at the same time avoiding the traps of stereotyping and labelling families? In this paper I hope to demonstrate, in addition to the worth of the case study approach, that information about cultural differences can be employed in a creative way by using it metaphorically rather than literally. A cultural artefact, the wayang kulit, the shadow theatre of Indonesia, is introduced as a metaphor for the process of therapy itself with a very stuck Anglo-Indonesian family.