Changes In Socioeconomic Structure Research Articles

Socioeconomic Status and Structural Change

Socioeconomic Status and Structural Change

Socioeconomic Status and Structural Change

A prominent feature of much of the “new” social history of the past decade is the use of various representations to convey socioeconomic status. Most of these studies have been concerned with aspects of horizontal and vertical mobility, but they include urban and community studies and miscellaneous topics as well. Using scales developed by sociologists in the twentieth century that were initially created to judge a family’s suitability for adoption or to assist the United States Public Health Service in analyses of vital statistics raises interesting problemsvis-à-viscurrent historical applications. One of these problems involves a familiarity with huge theoretical and empirical literature on status of the last half-century. Starting from Counts’ scale in 1925, a sociologist inventorying the literature in 1953 counted some 333 publications on the topic to that year.With these problems in mind, two objectives are proposed in this article. First, the use of socioeconomic status evaluations will be discussed from an historian’s perspective. This will be done under three general headings: context, ascription, and measurement. Second, having established the necessary critical background, the utility of using socioeconomic status evaluation to characterize and evaluate multidecade and aggregate developments in socioeconomic structures will be proposed.

Soviet Sociology and the Scientific-Technolo Gical Revolution

An analysis is made of the Soviet Scientific view of the Scientific-Technological Revolution (STR) in the light of the Marxist-Leninist thesis of a qualitative difference between the socialist and capitalist systems. The argumentation concerns three theses. 1. Socialism alone can use STR for the welfare of humanity. 2. Only socialism can give man the possibility of creative work. 3. STR within capitalism shows more clearly the antagonistic contradictions inherent in capitalism. A comparison is also made of how the respective system is regarded as regards structural shortage of manpower/unemployment, the changing socio-economic structure of society, migration of labour between countries.

The Social Status of Occupations: A Problem in Vocational Guidance

The object of the investigation here reported was twofold. In the first place, the writer was interested in obtaining information with regard to the social standing of the teaching profession. He was especially desirous of getting from high-school students some estimate of the status of this calling. In recent years much has been said and written regarding the altered condition of the teacher and the lowered prestige of those to whom society delegates the educational function. Many have assumed that the point has been reached in the degradation of the profession where one is justified in feeling some embarrassment if found within its ranks. In the second place, the writer wished to direct attention toward an important problem in vocational guidance which is seldom squarely faced. In all that has been written on occupations there is a tendency to disregard the fundamental question of social status. Detailed information has been gathered with respect to the financial remuneration, security, and hazards of occupations, but the question of social rating is ordinarily dismissed with the statement that a particular calling is highly respectable. These careful studies of the objective aspects of occupations are highly commendable, but the less tangible characteristics of vocational life should not be disregarded. It is even debatable that these characteristics are in peculiar need of examination. In order to throw some light on this question of status, fortyfive occupations were selected for study. These occupations were chosen more or less at random from the entire vocational range and were submitted to various groups of persons to be ranked according to their social standing. The list of occupations selected and the instructions for ranking them are as follows: