Social Stratification Research Articles

Freire, Critical Pedagogy, and Culture Circles

In celebration of our 20th Anniversary as a journal, the InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies editorial team opted to put forth a call on the work of Paulo Freire, critical pedagogy, and culture circles. It’s hard not to continue to see why critical pedagogy, a praxis of nurturing critical consciousness toward humanization and society towards justice, continues to be an essential aspect of education in P-20 settings in a healthy democracy. This issue was an opportunity to showcase contemporary work and research inspired by the legacy of Paulo Freire. Humanizing education is a collective practice in partnership with students and communities, redresses structures that maintain social inequalities and hierarchies of human life, and repairs the harm they have inflicted (Freire, 1970; Paris & Alim, 2017). The call to humanize education is especially urgent given our ongoing crises in education: unceasing youth gun violence and school shootings (Schildkraut & Muschert, 2019); the defunding divestment of public instruction and closures of public schools (George, 2024); the varied emergences COVID-19 variants and other looming pandemics (Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021); corresponding deterioration of working conditions and livable wages for those working for our nation’s education systems (Schmitt & deCourcy, 2022; Souto-Manning & Melvin, 2021); book bans and bans misconstruing interpretations of Critical Race Theory, and acceptance and kindness towards LGBTQIA students, teachers, and their families (Morgan, 2022); proposed and implemented legislation to dehumanize queer, trans, nonbinary, and intersex children and parents (Goldberg & Abreu, 2024); and ongoing racialized hate and terror harming Black, Asian, and other nonwhite students, teachers, and their families, among others (Gillborn, 2006; Gover et al., 2020 ; Tuchinda, 2023; Wun, 2014). The urgency of critical pedagogy remains as relevant as ever.

GrARffiti: The Reconstruction and Deployment of Augmented Reality (AR) Graffiti

Graffiti relies on social instrumentation for its creation on spatial structures. It is questioned whether different mechanisms exist to transfer social and spatial hierarchies under a new model for better engagement, management, and governance. This research aims to replace physical graffiti using augmented reality (AR) in smartphones. Contact-free AR graffiti starts with the creation of 3D graffiti; this is followed by an AR cloud platform upload, quick response (QR) code access, and site deployment, leading to the secondary reconstruction of a field scene using smartphone screenshots. The working structure was created based on the first 3D reconstruction of graffiti details as AR models and second 3D reconstruction of field graffiti on different backgrounds using a photogrammetry method. The 3D graffiti can be geotagged as a personal map and 3D printed for collections. This culture-engaged AR creates a two-way method of interacting with spatial structures where the result is collected as a self-governed form of social media. The reinterpreted context is represented by a virtual 3D sticker or symbolized name card shared on the cloud. The hidden or social hierarchy was reinterpreted by a sense of ritual without altering any space. The application of digital stickers in AR redefines the spatial order, typology, and governance of graffiti.

Social media and the ordinary: Marginalized voices in neo/non-liberal China

Thirty years into China’s internet development, much recent scholarship has focused on rather daunting forces—big data, algorithmic control, surveillance, and platformization, to name a few. This article centers the “small,” or how social media is articulated to the ordinary practices, pursuits, feelings, passions, ethical decisions, and struggles for voice of people who are socially, economically, and/or politically marginalized. I focus on these processes and practices among marginalized young creatives and domestic workers in a context I call “neo/non-liberal China,” which manifests as an amplification of prior discourses regarding self-responsibilization, happiness, and harmony along with greater social stratification, platformization, repression, and an emphasis on creativity and innovation. The analysis is grounded in theories of “ordinary affects,” or the inarticulable energies, passions, and forces that move bodies, and “ordinary ethics,” or the ethical aspects of practices, choices, and judgments that make up daily life and, thus, selfhood. I argue that centering diverse marginalized individuals’ passions, feelings, and ordinary ethical decisions, as these are articulated to social media, enables deeper insight into their dreams and goals and the challenges and obstacles they face in achieving these. Their experiences also speak to larger ongoing transformations in China.

Transactional pathways: Institutional possibilities for status and wealth under racial/caste capitalism

I introduce the concept of transactional pathways, coined by anthropologist Jane Guyer, to trace the institutional processes that contribute to uneven and unjust patterns of wealth and status distribution under systems of colonialism and racial/caste capitalism. Transactional pathways employ historical perspectives to reveal how divergent economic institutions and sources of valuation relate to social hierarchies. This approach links everyday economic transactions with patterns of wealth accumulation that are based not only on class, but intersectional social groups including race, caste, and/or ethnicity. Transactional pathways account for the fact that not only do different groups receive different amounts of valuable resources because of uneven distribution, but they have variable access to the symbolic power required to define which resources are deemed valuable in the first place and to monopolize them accordingly. The article briefly surveys foundational concepts from the economic anthropology literature before detailing transactional pathways. It introduces the case of attempted formalization of waste collection and recycling in Delhi, India, using the related concepts of thresholds and conversions to analyze key moments when wealth and status accumulation becomes especially possible in institutionally plural contexts.

REFLECTION OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN ART: THE CASE OF CASTA PAINTINGS

Visual culture products are not neutral objects. It can be argued that visual culture products are indicative of power relations, and that these relations are more pronounced during periods of social change and upheaval. Understanding visual cultural products beyond the confines of their frames, evaluating these images within contexts, and looking beyond the images are necessary both to conduct a profound analysis of artistic production and to reveal the dynamics of social power relations. Throughout mainstream art history, it is evident that people of colour have been represented with stereotyped identities distinct from those of whites. Western visual regimes reproduce existing inequalities and stratifications in society through racialized images. Casta paintings crystallize this perspective, depicting the process of racial mixing among the three main groups living in Mexico, which was part of the Spanish colony in the 18th century. Casta paintings narrate the ways in which a racialized society is expressed in visual culture. This study focuses on the exhibition Casta: The Origins of Caste to examine how social stratification and race are visualized in works of art.

Migration Trajectories of Uzbek Students in France and the UK

This paper offers a comprehensive overview of select findings extracted from a PhD dissertation, employing a comparative analysis to investigate the trajectories of Uzbek students in both France and the UK during the period from 2004 to 2009. The paper advocates for the integration of the trajectory element into existing theories on international student mobility and international migration, with a particular emphasis on the context of South-North mobility. Utilizing qualitative research methods, including interviews, surveys, and participant observation, the study underscores the significance of tracking migrants' pathways over an extended period for a nuanced comprehension of migrant strategies and state policies with which they contend. The evidence suggests that stringent measures significantly influence the trajectories of migrants, not necessarily compelling a return to their countries of origin. Migration for studies goes beyond financial considerations as it also addresses the demands of a new social hierarchy emerging within the home country. In essence, migration for studies exposes individuals to diverse perspectives, surpassing the simplistic notion of a linear journey from point A to point B.

THE ROLE OF JAVANESE CULTURE ON COMMUNICATION PATTERNS IN THE CAMPUS ENVIRONMENT

This study explores the role of Javanese culture on communication patterns among communication science students in campus environments. Javanese culture, rich in values such as harmony, respect, and empathy, plays a pivotal role in shaping interactions among Javanese communication science students. Employing a qualitative descriptive approach, data was gathered through observations and in-depth interviews with Javanese communication science students at one of campuses in Java. Findings reveal that Javanese communication science students tend to engage in subtle communication and avoid direct conflicts, reflecting their efforts to maintain harmony in daily interactions. The formal and respectful communication patterns observed in their interactions with professors or senior peers also underscore their reverence for social hierarchies ingrained in Javanese culture. Furthermore, Javanese students demonstrate adeptness in adapting to multicultural environments, adjusting their communication styles without compromising their cultural values. Despite technological advances and the influence of social media, traditional Javanese cultural values persist in their online interactions, indicating cultural resilience amidst modernization. This study highlights the significance of cultural education in preserving Javanese cultural identity among students and enhancing understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity on campus. It provides insights into local cultural dynamics within the context of higher education and its relevance in an increasingly interconnected global era.

Increased sensitivity to social hierarchy during social competition versus cooperation.

Social hierarchy is a typical feature of social organization. The ability to quickly recognize social hierarchy information is crucial for adapting to social contexts. Here, we adopted fast periodic visual stimulation with electroencephalography to assess the neural responses to social hierarchy during social competition and cooperation, respectively. Participants first learned hierarchical faces from a competitive game versus a cooperative game. We then sequentially presented the learned hierarchical faces with a specific frequency in a set of faces. Results showed that participants rated the inferior player as lower in the social hierarchy in the cooperative context compared to the competitive context, indicating that social context affects the judgment of others' rank. Moreover, higher neural responses to high and low-hierarchy faces versus medium-hierarchy faces were observed, suggesting rapid discrimination of social hierarchy from faces. Interestingly, rank-specific neural responses were more pronounced in the competitive context than in the cooperative context, indicating increased sensitivity to social hierarchy during social competition versus social cooperation. This study provides behavioral and neural evidence for rapid, automatic processing of social hierarchy information and for an increased sensitivity to such information in competitive versus cooperative social contexts.

Implications of tragic experiences on symbolic power: The case of displaced persons in Kenya

Displacement of human populations is a common phenomenon from natural and human causes. Conflict and natural disasters such as floods, volcanic eruptions, landslides, out-breaks of diseases are among the regular culprits. Victims of displacement experience dramatic changes in their life situations a common denominator being temporary and at times permanent deprivation of crucial resources for their daily lives. This affects their place in the social hierarchy among members of their host community. The displaced persons in Kenya following the 2007-2008 post-election violence were uprooted from their homes and deprived of their property. They lived in camps and with well-wishers depending on assistance from others. How does this affect their social station in life and how do they manifest? This paper examines the effect of displacement on the perception and treatment of the affected persons by their host communities. The paper utilizes qualitative methods to analyze the discourse of the displaced persons, providing a deeper understanding of their experiences upon displacement. The paper was guided by insights from Critical Discourse Analysis and Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts of capital, symbolic power and symbolic violence the paper. It brings to light the sudden changes in the perceptions and social evaluations of the victims and their response to the undesired changes. The paper comes to the conclusion that the new life status leads to new self-evaluations as well as the evaluations by those around them and the displaced persons lose symbolic capital and symbolic power and come to the receiving end of symbolic violence. In so doing, the paper illuminates the plight of the displaced persons beyond the evident material loses and recommends interventions to address these effects.

Ethnoracial disparities in childhood growth trajectories in Brazil: a longitudinal nationwide study of four million children

Growth is an important marker of child health and development. It is related to aspects such as social-economic conditions, being affected by social inequalities. Race is a social construct that functions as an essential tool of racism. It creates social hierarchy, resulting in segregation, different quality and access to health care, and unequal distributions of social determinants on health. Understanding the effects of ethno-racial inequalities on growth trajectories is essential to improve children development and well-being. In the study we investigated child growth according to maternal ethno-racial group using a nationwide Brazilian database. Data were obtained via linkage of the CIDACS Birth Cohort and the Brazilian Food the Nutrition Surveillance System. It included 4,090,271 children under 5 years old, born at term, followed-up between 2008 and 2017. We used mixed-effects model to estimate both original and standardized forms of length/height and weight trajectories. Results pointed out to growth differences among the racial groups, concerning both markers. Children born to Indigenous mothers presented the most critical situation, followed by those born to Parda, Asian-descent, and Black mothers. The strengthening of policies aimed at protecting Indigenous children should be urgently undertaken to address systematic ethno-racial health inequalities. Additionally, these findings may help policymakers to achieve the United Nation’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (eradication of hunger and all forms of malnutrition).

Mapping the internal border through the city: an introduction

ABSTRACT This editorial to the Special Issue introduces the concept of the internal border and presents its individual contributions. It discusses the shift from the borderline toward diverse sites and actors within the territory of the state and points to the border’s still neglected turn to city and urban space, and how this is connected to the external border. In doing so, the introduction explores the meanings of the internal border as a crucial mechanism of ordering and othering that represents, enacts, and creates the line between insiders and outsiders, citizens and non-citizens, along with divisions of racialisation, ethnicity, gender, class, and health. This notion assumes that the practices of bordering articulate social differences mapped onto space. Thus, recognizing the city as urban border space, this introduction proposes studying the border through the city, embedded within a multiscalar and relational framework.

Are Younger Students More Likely to Drop Out? Spanish Evidence on the Moderator Role of Gender and Social Origin

ABSTRACTEarly school leaving (ESL) is considered one of the most serious problems in the functioning of European education systems. In particular, Spain has traditionally exhibited one of the largest ESL rates in Europe. This study aimed to shed light on the role of the month of birth as a factor conditioning the probability of ESL. Using high‐quality census data and a regression discontinuity design, we documented that Spanish males from lower social strata born before the school‐entry cut‐off are substantially more likely to be observed as early school leavers than their counterparts born after that date. We do not find such effect among females or males from other social strata. Overall, educational policy should target more seriously the inequalities associated with the month of birth as they do not vanish before affecting relevant decisions such as leaving education early, at least for males from lower social strata.

Political Ideology and Anthropomorphized Servant Versus Partner Brand Roles

Going beyond the realm of politics, consumers’ political ideology influences how they perceive brands portrayed in advertisements. This research examines how consumers respond to two distinct anthropomorphized brand roles (servant vs. partner). Across three experiments, we show the impact of brand roles on consumers’ willingness to purchase is contingent upon their political ideology. Politically conservative consumers manifest greater willingness to purchase servant brands over partner brands, as servant brand roles align better with their inherent beliefs of social dominance orientation, leading to temporarily heightened relaxation. In contrast, their politically liberal counterparts tend to be indifferent toward different brand roles, as they are less motivated to support social hierarchy. This research offers valuable implications for academics and industry practitioners in relation to understanding the social nature of brands and optimizing branding strategies by leveraging consumers’ political ideology.

Implementation of the Protection Policy for Children and Women

Sexual violence against children is one of the serious problems facing the government today. Socially child protection is a joint effort and action from all social strata, different positions and different roles. They are very aware of the importance of children for the future of the homeland and the nation. As a young generation who have high aspirations for the country, future leaders of the country, and a source of hope for the previous generation, they need the widest possible opportunity to grow and develop mentally, physically and physically. This research approach uses descriptive or data collection using published or perish databases from Google Scholar to produce 640 documents. UU no. 23 of 2002 concerning Child Protection also explains that Child Protection is all activities to guarantee children and their rights so that they can live, grow, develop and participate optimally in accordance with human dignity and status and receive protection from violence and discrimination. But unfortunately in its application often experience obstacles and obstacles, both caused by internal factors and external factors. This can be seen from the increase in cases of child abuse which are increasing every year. The issued policies are hampered in terms of implementation, even though several bodies have been formed such as KPAI (Indonesian National Commission for Child Protection) and P2TP2A.

Exploring the impact of internet usage on individuals’ social status discordance: evidence from China

This study examines the impact of internet usage frequency and behavior on social status discordance using CSS2021 data, and adopts a causal random forest model to test the heterogeneity of the impact of internet usage on social status discordance. The results reveal a clear inconsistency between objective and subjective social status among Chinese residents. In addition, increasing internet usage frequency can make actors more inclined to underestimate their social status. Moreover, capital enhancement through the internet significantly reduces the likelihood of status inflation. Finally, individuals with higher social status are less likely to have an upward bias in status cognition than those with lower social status when they use the internet frequently and use it for capital enhancement. These findings advance our understanding of social status identification among Chinese residents and provide different perspectives for studying social stratification in the digital age.

Towards the Adoption of A Novel More Integral Model for Teaching Entrepreneurship in Higher Education Institutions

The “Radiography of the Teaching of University Entrepreneurship in Mexico” is situated within the context of the necessity to comprehend and enhance the pedagogical practices associated with entrepreneurship in Mexican universities. This context encompasses a global examination of entrepreneurship and its prevailing trends, as well as a detailed analysis of the entrepreneurial landscape in Mexico. The principal objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive examination of the pedagogical approaches employed in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Mexico with regard to the teaching of entrepreneurship. The objective is to establish a unified approach to entrepreneurship teaching, identify the most effective pedagogical tools for fostering an entrepreneurial mindset, and disseminate the requisite technical knowledge among educators to facilitate their integration into the classroom. The methodology employed begins with a review of secondary sources to provide a detailed overview of the global and Mexican entrepreneurship landscapes, as well as the current state of entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions (HEIs). In conclusion, the Delphi technique is employed to conduct interviews with experts directly involved in the teaching of entrepreneurship in various HEIs, with the objective of collecting and synthesizing their opinions on the subject matter. The research yielded a “Teaching Model of Entrepreneurship in the University,” which is based on the identified approaches, models, and methodologies. The teacher plays a pivotal role in the teaching of entrepreneurship in higher education institutions (HEIs). The findings indicate that in Mexico, the probability of success or opportunity for entrepreneurs is significantly influenced by the material conditions of the individual, which are shaped by their social stratum and geographical location. Furthermore, data indicates that all HEIs endeavor to impart instruction on entrepreneurship. However, due to significant disparities between private and public institutions, smaller or more remote ones may lack the capacity and resources to do so effectively. Therefore, this results in heterogeneity in the teaching of entrepreneurship, which could condition the chances of success for those wishing to become entrepreneurs. Consequently, the necessity was identified for all entrepreneurship teachers in HEIs in Mexico to be able to achieve a robust and comprehensive process of teaching entrepreneurship, whereby students can develop their entrepreneurial skills at an early stage, as well as the creation of companies at a later stage.

Сопоставительный анализ категории обращения в русском и японском языках (новая редакция)

This article undertakes a comparative analysis of address forms in the Russian and Japanese languages. As address constitutes a linguistic universality, numerous commonalities in speech functioning, syntactic peculiarities, as well as phonetic, morphological, and semantic developments of linguistic units used in vocative positions were discovered in Russian and Japanese. However, some significant differences were identified. For instance, address forms in Japanese, to a greater extent than in Russian, are associated with expressing social hierarchy relations. Consequently, Japanese speakers tend to avoid using address forms when communicating with unfamiliar people (whose social status is unclear). In familial interactions, juniors are addressed by their names, while elders are referred to using kinship terms. In business sphere, superiors are addressed by their titles, while inferiors are addressed by their surnames with added necessary politeness suffixes. In the Russian language, a wide range of figurative and metonymic means are employed as address forms, and their list is not limited. There even exist specific grammatical constructions characteristic of the vocative position. In the Japanese language, the freedom in employing vocative means, akin to Russian, is only present in poetic style. In colloquial Japanese, the utilization of figurative and metonymic means is restricted.

Migration for school choice: urbanisation and rural social stratification in China

ABSTRACT The peidu trend has become prevalent in rural China in the last decade, with many rural children seen studying in urban schools accompanied by their adult family members in county capitals. Essentially, peidu is a practice of migration for school choice. However, unlike in the international context, this school choice phenomenon in rural China is not driven by marketisation reform, but by a strategy of the local government to achieve urbanisation. Based on questionnaires and interviews, this study reveals that peidu is stratified by family socioeconomic status. As the rural middle and top strata migrate out of the countryside by choosing urban schools for their children, rural schools further deteriorate and children of the most disadvantaged families are left behind in deeper struggles. Similar to school choice effects in other countries, peidu reinforces the rural-urban educational disparities and calls into question the urbanisation strategy in China.

The widening occupational space of jurists: differentiation and stratification of Danish jurists (1974–2019)

ABSTRACT This paper joins the discussion on differentiation and stratification of legal professionals through the lens of Danish law graduates and the evolution of their careers from the 1970s. Using register data, we analyse the job positions and wages of six cohorts 20 years after their graduation. This enables us to sketch an overview of, on the one hand, the professional spaces the law grads occupy at a specific point in time, and on the other, gain insight into the overall trajectories of the different cohorts, as well as the more specific trajectories of different professional groupings. These groupings are then examined in terms of their wages and corporate income to get an understanding of the degree of stratification of each group within each cohort, and thereby the social hierarchy structuring the cohort.

Social Background Effects on Educational Outcomes—New Insights from Modern Genetic Science

Sociological theory and empirical research have found that parents’ socioeconomic status and related resources affect their children’s educational outcomes. Findings from behavior genetics reveal genetic underpinnings of the intergenerational transmission of education, thus altering previous conclusions about purely environmental transmission mechanisms. In recent years, studies in molecular genetics have led to new insights. Genomic data, polygenic scores, and other facets of sociogenomics are increasingly used to advance research in social stratification. Notably, the 2018 discovery of “genetic nurture” suggested that parents’ genes influence children above and beyond the genes they directly transmitted to their children. Such indirect genetic effects can be interpreted as consequences of parental behavior, which is itself influenced by the parents’ genetics and is essential for their children’s environment. Indirect genetic effects fit hand in glove with the sociological literature because they represent environmental transmission mechanisms. For instance, parenting behaviors, which are partly influenced by parents’ genes, shape children’s home environments and possibly their later educational outcomes. However, current findings based on more sophisticated research designs demonstrate that “genetic nurture” effects are actually much smaller than initially assumed and hence call for a reevaluation of common narratives found in the social stratification literature. In this paper, we review recent developments and ongoing research integrating molecular genetics to study educational outcomes, and we discuss their implications for sociological stratification research.