阶层固化、社会流动与社会稳定

“阶层固化”作为中国转型时期的一种客观存在,对社会和谐的危害明显。“子承父业”观念、家庭社会资本的不均等、现行制度的漏洞等是其形成的主要原因。要逐步打破“阶层固化”,建立起公正、合理、开放的现代化社会流动机制,促进社会稳定必须进行包括经济体制、政治体制在内的一系列制度创新。     

Pathways from origins to destinations: Stability and change in the roles of cognition,private schools and educational attainment

While much attention has been devoted to measuring levels of social mobility over time, less attention has been given to the possibility of changing pathways to social mobility. This paper examines pathways from social origins to socio-economic destinations in midlife for two British cohorts, born in 1958 and 1970 respectively, using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). We address the roles of cognitive attainment, private schooling and educational attainment in mediating the link between social origins and destinations. Have these mechanisms become more or less important over time, in a context of structural change in the state schooling system and educational expansion? We find that private schools displayed greater academic selectivity and an increased link to high levels of educational attainment for the younger cohort. Essentially, private schools adapted to changing circumstances, becoming more academically selective and less socially selective, and more focused on educational credentials. Childhood social origins were less strongly linked to childhood cognitive scores in the younger cohort, but cognitive scores were also more weakly linked to educational attainment for this cohort. We also find a decreased association between social origins and educational attainment for the younger cohort. While the finding that educational inequalities weakened over this time period is positive, the lack of a corresponding reduction in the overall link between social origins and destinations suggests that reducing educational inequalities was not sufficient to increase social mobility when accompanied by countervailing changes in the role of private schools.     

Relocating subalternity: scattered speculations on the conundrum of a concept

ABSTRACT

This article introduces the special issue ‘Relocating Subalternity: Scattered Speculations on the Conundrum of a Concept’, in which we take Spivak’s particular invocation of (gendered) subalternity and its scholarly reception as a point of departure to confront the ‘foreclosure’ of subalternity. While the gesture of (re)locating inevitably triggers a tense dialectic between the attempt to define contingent empirical loci and subalternity’s resistance to be empirically circumscribed, we suggest that relocating the subaltern from her (non)place may provide constructive avenues for performing a productive ‘ab-use’ of the notion of subalternity. The engagement with the notion of subalternity that this issue encourages suggests that one should claim the heuristic epistemological and political value of the category of subalternity against every conceptual attempt to dilute its aporetic specificity, as well as against any simplistic effort to shorten the distances between the subaltern and its possible interlocutors in the name of too-easy transnational alliances.     

Healing the Hidden Injuries of Class? Redemption Narratives,Aspirational Proxies,and Parents of Low‐Income,First‐Generation College Students

Existing scholarship has examined how low‐income individuals conceptualize their socioeconomically constrained positions in relation to the meritocratic ideologies and stratified mobility structures of the United States, but little is specifically known about how these individuals' ideas regarding their own status may be impacted by raising children who surpass their educational and occupational achievement levels. Drawing on interview data from both low‐income first‐generation (LIFG) college students and the parents of those students, this article examines how parents framed the achievements of their upwardly mobile, college‐going children in relation to their own experiences of socioeconomic, educational, and occupational constraint. Engaging qualitative understandings of the “hidden injuries of class,” the analysis demonstrates how parents of LIFG college students reconciled their own experiences of limited mobility despite hard work with their steadfast beliefs in meritocratic ideals by (1) invoking narratives of personal “redemption” from past “mistakes” or “failures” in relation to their children's educational accomplishments, and (2) conceptualizing their upwardly mobile children as “aspirational proxies” through whose accomplishments they measured their own success.     

Getting Serious About Inequality

Sociologists have spent a great deal of energy studying social inequality, but in this presentation I suggest that we need to refocus our efforts a bit. I examine four popular myths among the general public, and among some in sociology, regarding the drivers of extreme inequality: (1) that most inequality is generated by race and gender, (2) that most inequality is driven by educational inequality, (3) that most inequality is driven by differences in family structure, and (4) that most inequality results from face‐to‐face interactions. I provide preliminary evidence that our explanations need some work. That work involves recognizing that most inequality is generated within demographic groups and that this inequality is growing rapidly. It also involves recognizing that there are few ways to incorporate underrepresented groups into the mainstream of a social and economic system where extreme inequality is getting worse and substantial percentages of the population face economic stagnation and downward mobility. The conclusion represents a call to focus on the most important group gap—the widening gap between the wealthy and the poor—and the mechanisms through which most people gain access to economic goods, services, and social respect—jobs and money.     

The Ties That Bind: Midlife Parents' Daily Experiences With Grown Children

Daily pleasant or stressful experiences with grown children may contribute to parental well‐being. This diary study focused on midlife parents' (N = 247) reports regarding grown children for 7 days. Nearly all parents (96%) had contact with a child that week via phone, text, or in person. Nearly all parents shared laughter or enjoyable interactions with grown children during the study week. More than half of parents experienced stressful encounters (e.g., child got on nerves) or stressful thoughts about grown children (e.g., worrying, fretting about a problem). Pleasant and stressful experiences with grown children were associated with parents' positive and negative daily moods. A pleasant experience with a grown child the same day as a stressful experience mitigated effects of those stressful experiences on negative mood, however. The findings have implications for understanding intergenerational ambivalence and stress buffering in this tie.     

Enhancing the intercultural effectiveness of exchange programmes: formal and non-formal educational interventions

This paper examines how the addition of intercultural interventions carried out throughout European credit-bearing exchange programmes can enhance sojourners’ development of intercultural competencies, and it explores how both formal and non-formal pedagogical interventions may be designed and implemented. Such interventions were conducted at a Portuguese university with 31 sojourners throughout one academic year, and their impact was assessed using a mixed methods research design. Sojourners included incoming students of the exchange programmes Campus Europae and Erasmus, as well as highly skilled immigrants. Findings confirm the positive impact of interventions on the development of intercultural competencies and, in turn, their contribution to internationalisation efforts. Implications for further research suggest a need to increase interventions and to develop a systematic approach for fostering intercultural competencies throughout the study abroad cycle.     

清代禁酒与粮食问题

清朝统一中国后,出现了和平稳定的局面及经济社会的繁荣发展,人口数量得以迅速恢复并出现了快速增长,康熙时期中国人口突破1亿大关,至清中后期,人口增长峰值超过4亿人,因而清朝成为古代中国人口规模最大的历史时期。人口大幅度增长导致粮食供应问题越来越突出,为了节约粮食以供给新增人口维持生计的需求,清前期(以康雍乾三朝为主)提出过严厉的禁酒政策并颁布了相关法令。加之清代是中国灾害的多发期,由此导致清前期出现了以“因灾禁酒”为标志的禁酒法令。但禁酒法令的提出也引起了清朝官方内部的极大反响,形成了旗帜鲜明的禁酒政令的支持派与反对派,围绕着是否推行禁酒政策展开激烈争论。虽然作为最高统治者的皇帝多是支持并推行了禁酒政策,但这些禁酒法令在实际执行过程中被各级官吏大打折扣,基本无法落实。究其原因,一方面是受到全国范围内普遍饮酒习俗已基本形成的影响,尤其是酒已成为日常社会生活的必需消耗品且消费量巨大;另一方面则是因酒产业作为地方经济发展重要驱动力的现实影响,因为酒的生产能够提高粮食作物的市场经济价值,同时也能够带动相关产业的发展,为人们提供更多维持生计与增加收入的机会。因此,不少地方官员从实际出发,指出酒的生...     

代际流动与外群体歧视——基于2005年全国综合社会调查数据的实证分析

本文基于CGSS2005的调查数据,以对角线参照模型为分析工具,考察了阶层代际流动对城市居民歧视性态度的影响。研究发现,在工作歧视和邻里居住歧视上,代际流动本身能够产生独立于流动者出身阶层与现处阶层的影响;随着年龄的增长,相对于出身阶层,流动者现处阶层对其歧视态度影响程度明显增强;进入社会歧视氛围更低的阶层能够显著降低流动者的歧视态度;相比向上流动,地位下降者对外来人口的歧视程度更高。研究指出,分层与流动研究不仅要考察客观社会结构及其开放状况,也要重视分层及流动对个体行为与态度所带来的主观层面影响。