Prestige Hierarchy Research Articles

Importance of undergraduate institution prestige in physics faculty hiring networks

Reforming the professionalization experiences of future faculty members, including their undergraduate experience, provides a possible means to create scalable change in higher education. However, this requires an understanding of where faculty undergraduate training occurs. We analyze data from 7748 tenure-line faculty members across 611 U.S. physics departments, including their undergraduate alma mater and their employer university. The resulting undergraduate professionalization network reveals a prestige hierarchy similar in strength to those previously found in hiring networks at the Ph.D. level, indicating that the road to faculty jobs begins during undergraduate admissions. Furthermore, 42% of physics faculty members earned their undergraduate degrees from institutions outside of the United States. These results reinforce the importance of institutional prestige in academia and offer a potential strategy for driving systemic change. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Career as Self-Identity in Chinese Malaysian Students’ Career Choice in STEM

Chinese Malaysians who inherit the traditional Chinese culture have evolved with assimilation of globalisation with colonialism elements to form a myriad of cultural mélange, with an impact on career choice in STEM. Applying Stuart Hall’s theory of circuit of culture, a study deploying obituaries has been used to understand media and cultural influence on STEM career choice. Career as self-identity and social status has influenced Chinese Malaysian students’ career choice, with a hierarchy of prestige among them and medicine occupying the top position. Career choice for them in STEM is found to be limited to a few which are socially visible. In addition, the hegemony of “university”, “degree” over “college”, “diploma”, “vocational” and “training” has resulted in Chinese Malaysians to consider technical and vocational education and training as well as practical-oriented courses in STEM as second choice. This does not augur well for national human resource development in emerging fields in STEM. Alternative discourses and narratives for STEM careers with reimaging of nature of jobs for STEM careers to reconstruct perception towards STEM via the media and science communications could enhance the attractiveness of STEM careers. Additionally, multi-disciplinary approach to higher education and promotion of specific STEM careers based on market needs could bring STEM closer to students.

Relacje Chińskiej Republiki Ludowej z wybranymi państwami koalicji rewizjonistycznej – studium przypadku na przykładzie Rosji, Pakistanu oraz Iranu

The People’s Republic of China’s relations with selected members of the revistionary coalition – a case study on the example of Russia, Pakistan and Iran There are many indications that China’s unquestionable successes in expanding its own reserve of economic and military power have simultaneously awakened the national pride and ambitions of the Chinese people. This, however, has led to an awareness of China’s limited ability to shape the international environment and to pursue its own interests in the international arena. As a result, the Chinese have adopted a revisionist policy with the aim of finally undermining the existing global order – after all, the ultimate goal is to achieve the position of hegemon (with all the benefits and responsibilities that implies). It should be noted, however, that a change of hegemon can only occur through a hegemonic war – which will result in the emergence of a new prestige hierarchy with a pretender as the new world leader. To prepare for a hegemonic clash, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is constantly expanding its economic and military influence (both internally and externally). Above all, China is trying to attract other dissatisfied states into its own coalition, forming the so‑called „revisionist coalition”. To do so, the Chinese offer other countries potentially lucrative trade deals, extensive investment, low- or no‑interest loans and development assistance. This paper intends to popularize the author’s perspective on hegemonic change within international relations – termed „hegemonic realism” as it best reflects the assumptions of the proposed theory. These theoretical assumptions and the author’s model of hegemonic change will be used in the rest of the article to analyze the dynamics of the relations between selected revisionist states and China as a contender for global hegemony. The author’s thesis is that states join the revisionist coalition in order to increase their own military and economic power. The case study will focus on China’s relations with Russia, Pakistan and Iran – all of which are seen by the author as key allies of the PRC on the Asian continent – due to their resources of power and revisionist policies. The study used secondary research sources, including academic publications and journalistic articles in Polish and English. Three methods were used in the research process: comparative analysis, historical‑critical method and desk research method.

Networks in philosophy: Social networks and employment in academic philosophy

AbstractIn recent years, the “science of science” has combined computational methods with novel data sources to understand the dynamics of research communities. Many of the questions investigated by science of science are also relevant to academic philosophy. To what extent can the discipline be divided into subfields with different methods and topics? How are prestige and credit distributed across the discipline? And how do these factors interact with other factors, such as gender, to shape job market outcomes? Using job market data for anglophone academic philosophy, this paper finds, first, evidence that is consistent with the analytic‐continental divide but is also consistent with other, more complex ways of organizing academic philosophy into distinct intellectual traditions; second, a clear prestige hierarchy, dividing Ph.D. programs into two distinct prestige categories; and, third, evidence that gender, prestige, and country have notable effects on academic job market outcomes for recent philosophy Ph.Ds.

National Retro and the Re-mattering of History in Twenty-First-Century Hungary

AbstractThis article investigates the international genre of “retro” and how it is used in Hungary to re-matter the nation’s modern past, repositioning the country within a twentieth-century European history where it was never cut off by an “Iron Curtain” from the modern West. It does this by selecting for modern consumer goods and popular culture from both East and West that fit international criteria for retro. For both young and old, retro “matters” the past in a way that affirms contemporary market sensibilities, infusing it with value through assertions of market equivalence in the past and new value as commodities in the present. If Hungarian Retro works as a form of nostalgia for some, it is for an era of perceived national prestige, value, and economic sovereignty relative to the demoralized present. While distinct from right-wing nationalist politics, Hungarian Retro nonetheless shares in the project of erasing a stigmatized state socialism from national history. This article builds on scholarship on the role of the material in producing the nation in everyday life. It contributes a perspective that brings together: (a) the domestication of international commercial and popular trends; (b) the global hierarchy of prestige based on national exports and imports; and (c) the constitution of value in citizens via the qualities of consumer goods both produced and consumed.

Interaction with the Information Environment and Contemporary Educational Approaches in Higher Education (Educational Level “Master”)

A new look at the professional training of a higher school teacher, in particular, a teacher of general technical disciplines and teaching methods for technology, the disclosure of their creative potential is based on contemporary methodological approaches. Let’s consider in more detail each of the indicated approaches. The emergence of the information society is one of the signs of the transition of civilization into the noosphere. With the introduction of integrated communication networks, the possibilities of direct communication of individuals on a global scale are expanding. The introduction of computer and communication technologies into the daily life of people and into production makes a great socio-economic impact on the post-industrial society and causes such powerful social changes, it (society) turns into a completely new type – an information society, the structure and dynamics of which is based on the production of information, and not material values, as it was before. Information in such a society becomes a social and productive value. Hence the new features of society: a certain hierarchy of prestige, a specific type of education, information technology that provides a balance of dynamics and social statics, a fundamentally different manage-ment system, etc. Analysis of the introduction of degree training in higher pedagogical educational institutions of Ukraine allows us to identify general approaches in the implementation of master’s programs, in particular: their focus on the bachelor’s degree; variability, flexibility and mobility of master’s education, taking into account current socio-economic trends and regional needs; scientific and practical pedagogical direction and individual approaches in the organization of the educational process.

The Role of Early-Career University Prestige Stratification on the Future Academic Performance of Scholars

This paper investigates the effect of university prestige stratification on scholars’ career achievements. We focus on 766 STEM PhD graduates hired by Mexican universities between 1992 and 2016. We rank university according to their prestige based on the pairwise assessment of quality contained in the PhD hiring networks. Further, we use a quasi-experimental design matching pairs of individuals with the same characteristics, PhD training or first job experience. Our results challenge the positive association between prestige and academic performance as predicted by the ‘Matthew effect’. Scholars hired internally sustain higher performance over their careers in comparison to those who move up or down the prestige hierarchy. Further, we find a positive (negative) relation between downward (upward) prestige mobility and performance that relates to the “big-fish-little-pond” effect (BFLPE). The evidence of a BFLPE-like effect has policy implications because hinders the knowledge flows throughout the science system and individual achievements.

Understanding concepts of generalism and specialism amongst medical students at a research-intensive London medical school

BackgroundMany prominent UK medical organisations have identified a need for more generalist clinicians to address the complex requirements of an aging society. We sought to clarify attitudes towards “Specialists” and “Generalists” amongst medical students and junior doctors at Imperial College School of Medicine.MethodsA survey exploring medical students’ beliefs was followed up by qualitative analysis of focus groups of medical students and Imperial-graduate foundation year doctors.ResultsFirst year medical students associated specialists with academia and higher income, and generalists with ease of training and job availability. Senior (Years 5/6) medical students associated specialists even more firmly with broader influence and academic work, whilst generalists were assigned lower prestige but the same workload as specialists. The medical student focus group discussed concepts of Generalism pertaining only to Primary Care. In contrast, the foundation year doctor focus group revealed that Generalism was now seen to include some hospital care, and the perception that generalists sat lower in a knowledge hierarchy had been challenged.ConclusionPerceptions that Generalism is associated with lower prestige in the medical profession are already present at the very start of medical school and seem to be reinforced during undergraduate training. In early postgraduate clinical practice, the perceived knowledge and prestige hierarchy lessens. These findings can help inform curriculum redesign and the promotion of Generalism as a rewarding career aspiration.

Upgrading or Polarizing? Gendered Patterns of Change in the Occupational Prestige Hierarchy Between 1997 and 2015.

This article contributes to the discussion on how the Swedish labor market is changing: is it upgrading or polarizing? Drawing on the Swedish Labor Force Survey the study examines the overall changes in the occupational job structure in Sweden by exploring how women and men were distributed within the occupational prestige hierarchy at two points of time, 1997 and 2015. The results show that changes in the labor market have resulted in different patterns of how women and men are distributed within the occupational prestige hierarchy. Women have an upgrading movement and have entered high-prestige occupations, while men have been subjected to job polarization, with an increase in employment in low-prestige occupations, as well as high-prestige ones.

Revisiting Horizontal Stratification in Higher Education: College Prestige Hierarchy and Educational Assortative Mating in China.

Existing research on assortative mating has examined marriage between people with different levels of education, yet heterogeneity in educational assortative mating outcomes of college graduates has been mostly ignored. Using data from the 2010 Chinese Family Panel Study and log-multiplicative models, this study examines the changing structure and association of husbands' and wives' educational attainment between 1980 and 2010, a period in which Chinese higher education experienced rapid expansion and stratification. Results show that the graduates of first-tier institutions are less likely than graduates of lower-ranked colleges to marry someone without a college degree. Moreover, from 1980 to 2010, female first-tier-college graduates were increasingly more likely to marry people who graduated from similarly prestigious colleges, although there is insufficient evidence to draw the same conclusion about their male counterparts. This study thus demonstrates the extent of heterogeneity in educational assortative mating patterns among college graduates and the tendency for elite college graduates to marry within the educational elite.

Diagnosis: Prestige Hierarchy Located in the Medical Profession

Diagnosis: Prestige Hierarchy Located in the Medical Profession

Understanding the relationship between university characteristics and prestige

PurposeBeing a prestigious institution depends on gaining respect in the eyes of various stakeholders with diverse expectations. Existing research is silent on how university characteristics affect judgments of prestige and, therefore, presents an incomplete picture of prestige dynamics in higher education. This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by empirically examining the stakeholders’ evaluation of university characteristics in terms of prestige value.Design/methodology/approachThe entire population of universities (public and private) in Turkish higher education constitutes the sample of the study. The analytic hierarchy process technique is applied to ascertain how stakeholders prioritize university characteristics in terms of prestige value, and regression analysis is used to determine the effects of these characteristics on university selectivity.FindingsThe findings suggest a novel conceptual model of university prestige, which establishes its multilayered and fragmented nature. Accordingly, universities may be subject to multiple prestige hierarchies based on universal or context-specific criteria, in the eyes of various stakeholders, and based on different markers of success.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical analyses are limited to the stakeholder groups that are key to university outcomes in Turkish higher education, and to selectivity in admissions as the only visible marker of success in this context.Originality/valueThe study enhances existing literature that posits that universities are subject to a single prestige hierarchy based on common metrics of performance. It illustrates the uneven landscape in which university prestige evolves by developing a wider and deeper focus on university characteristics.

Performance mechanisms meet professional autonomy: performance management and professional discretion within police investigation departments

ABSTRACT As with other parts of the public sector, policing has had to confront the principles and processes attached to new public management. This paper examines the impact of police performance management on the ‘occupational professionalism’ of British policing actors with a particular focus on organisational units concerned with criminal investigation. Based on qualitative empirical research on two major police forces in England and Wales, the paper arrives at three main conclusions. First, there appears to be a clear impact of police performance management, with its instruments of standardised operational procedures, performance monitoring and strengthened internal accountability, on the professional autonomy given to police actors. This takes the form of what others have seen as a shift from ‘occupational professionalism’ to ‘organisational professionalism’. Second, despite this overall trend, tensions and professional rivalries remain between police frontline officers, supervisors and middle managers around the perceived virtues and practices of performance management. In particular concerns are expressed at various levels over the dangers of ‘short-termism’ in police decision-making. Third, and building on this finding, varied modes of professional adaptation to the police performance regime have occurred in which some sectors, notably those involved with high profile serious criminal investigations, have worked to win professional space and exploit a hierarchy of prestige in order to actively interpret and shape agendas. We conclude that this situation is akin to the ‘managed professionalism’ found amongst many other public service professions.

Social Prestige of the Paramedic Profession.

Background: There is a lack of research on social image, prestige, and the position of the paramedic profession in the social structure. The main objective of the study was to determine the place of the paramedic profession in the hierarchy of prestige of professions as viewed by the public. In operationalizing the term ‘prestige’, we deemed the word ‘respect’ to best fit the sense of the subjective evaluation of prestige with regard to a profession. Material and methods: The data comes from cross-sectional survey-based research. The research was carried out on a group of 600 people over 18 years of age. The sample was of a random nature, and the selection of respondents was calculated on the basis of them being representative of the Polish population. Results: The median of respect declared for the paramedic profession, on a scale of 1 to 5, was 4.49, which placed the profession in fourth place in the ranking. The assessment of respect for paramedics among other medical professions placed them in third place, directly after doctors and midwifes. Conclusions: The profession of paramedic is characterized by high social prestige, locating it at the forefront of the medical profession and other examined professions, but its social position, expressed by objective measures (earnings, structural possibilities, social power), is significantly lower.

Film Chronicle

Film Chronicle Jefferson Hunter (bio) In a Lonely Place, directed by Nicholas Ray (streaming on Amazon) Sunset Blvd, directed by Billy Wilder (streaming on Amazon) White Hunter, Black Heart, directed by Clint Eastwood (streaming on Amazon and YouTube) Barton Fink, directed by Joel Coen (streaming on Apple TV and Amazon) Trumbo, directed by Peter Askin (streaming on Kanopy) Dreams on Spec, directed by Daniel Snyder (streaming on Amazon) Adaptation, directed by Spike Jonze (streaming on Apple TV and Amazon) Mank, directed by David Fincher (streaming on Netflix). In the Hollywood of old a well-defined hierarchy of power and prestige extended from studio moguls at the top down through unit managers and producers to directors and established stars, then to ordinary actors, and below them, finally, to screenwriters, the necessary but otherwise unimportant wordsmiths who crafted lines for stars to speak and studio moguls to sneer at. From the 1930s through the 1940s a lot of wordsmiths, among them highly regarded reporters, playwrights, and novelists like Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, Herman Mankiewicz, William Faulkner, Raymond Chandler, Nathanael West, and Scott Fitzgerald, headed west to make easy money by writing scripts, only to find that film-industry money came with a price, namely the incomprehension, disdain, or outright hostility of picture people. In the last sad year of his life Fitzgerald distilled his unhappy scenario-writing experiences into a dozen or so stories about an old alcoholic hack, Pat Hobby, still trying to scratch out a living in Hollywood. One of the stories, “Mightier Than the Sword,” sees Pat and another scrivener yelled at by a big-shot producer: Goddam writers! . . . What do we pay you for? Millions—and you write a lot of tripe I can’t photograph and get sore if we don’t read your lousy stuff! How can a man make pictures when they give me two bastards like you and Hudson. How? How do you think—you old whiskey bum? The producer promptly throws them out of his office and off the lot. So much for the might of the pen as compared with that of the sword. Interestingly, old Hollywood liked to depict fictional screenwriters in movies, low-positioned as they might be in the studio pecking order. After all, comedy or melodrama might be wrung out of their eccentricities [End Page 459] or disillusionments. Unquestionably, melodrama is wrung out of the experiences of the fictional screenwriter Duke Steele in Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place, from 1950. Humphrey Bogart plays Steele in what is generally regarded as one of the finest performances of his career; Gloria Grahame is no less impressive as Laurel Gray, the young actress-wannabe who falls hard for him. There are really three storylines here. First and least interesting, a murder mystery: did Steele seduce and then strangle a naïve hat-check girl? Certain clues point in his direction, but it is scarcely giving anything away to reveal that he is innocent, and finally proven innocent by a deus-ex-machina confession from someone else. Second comes the story of Steele’s uncontrollable anger. His outbursts may have to do with his drinking or being suspected by the police, but fundamentally they derive from built-up resentment at the whole Hollywood scene. Even when not enraged, Steele can be controlling, at times boorish, so that one sometimes wonders how Laurel can be drawn to him. Eventually she becomes terrified by him, his sudden fury at an innocent beach party, his lashings-out at another driver on the highway (could this be the first instance of road rage ever screened?). The third and by far most compelling story focuses on Steele as screenwriter. We watch him lost in concentrated thought, scribbling away, piling up pages of dialogue for Laurel to type. Many movies involving screenwriters feature getting-it-down-on-paper processes like this, often via montage sequences. In a Lonely Place, unusually, shows the mental work which precedes getting it down on paper. A genuinely startling moment from early in the film presents Duke imagining how the murder of the hat-check girl might have taken place, detail by lurid detail (note the melodramatic light Ray casts on...

Psychology, market pressures, and pricing decisions in higher education: the case of the US private sector

We examine listed tuition and institutional aid practices within the US private sector, a sector where market pressures are relatively strong and consequently influence organizational behavior. We present a conceptual framework that highlights three psychological aspects of pricing—the price-quality heuristic, ego-expressive aspects of aid, and the silver lining effect—that can influence the attractiveness of specific pricing strategies to prospective students. We review relevant literature from psychology, marketing, and behavioral economics to illustrate that these three psychological aspects should be especially important in higher education. Furthermore, we identify pricing strategies that could position colleges and universities advantageously within market-based competition due to these aspects. The key elements of the strategy include high listed tuition, widespread institutional aid awards, and aid awards that are framed in a manner that confers distinction upon the recipient. We use data from a range of sources to describe the nuanced ways in which these pricing strategies are used within the US private sector. Our empirical analysis reveals that many schools, especially those in the middle of the prestige hierarchy, provide institutional aid to all or almost all of their incoming students, which allows them to set listed tuition prices well above the demonstrated willingness to pay of students. We also present evidence that aid awards are named in a manner that exaggerates the distinction conferred by the award. Our conclusion highlights implications of our work for students, organizations, policymakers, and future research.

The professional prestige of librarians among the other professions: A literature review based on Sri Lanka

Library Profession has a history around 5000 years. It began with the origin and gradual development of ancient scripts writing tradition and its related materials. Library service in Sri Lanka began as a community contribution with a religious origin. Origin of library profession commenced in 19 century however, it was developed as a highly accepted profession in the 20th century. There are several factors involving the progress and development of a profession. Social recognition is one of the leading factors. The principal objective of the study is to investigate the hierarchy of the Professional prestige of librarians to study with reference to Sri Lankan literature

Do nurses rate diseases according to prestige? A survey study.

To see whether nurses rate diseases according to prestige and, if so, how their ratings compare to the disease prestige hierarchy previously uncovered among physicians. Cross-sectional survey. In 2014, 122 nurses in a continuing education programme for healthcare personnel in Norway rated a sample of 38 diseases according to how prestigious they see these as being among healthcare workers in general. The nurses were found to rank myocardial infarction, leukaemia, and brain stroke at the top of the prestige hierarchy and depressive neurosis, anxiety neurosis, and fibromyalgia at the bottom. Their rankings overlap significantly with those previously documented for physicians and suggest that nurses assess the diseases through a 'cure' rather than a 'care' perspective on health care. The nurses ordered diseases in a prestige hierarchy and their rankings are strikingly like those of physicians. The findings are of significant relevance to nursing practice and set a new course for future research into prestige and nursing culture. The findings should encourage nurses - individually and collectively - to reflect on whether and how notions of disease prestige influence their decision-making. By showing that nurses as well as physicians are able to rate diseases according to prestige, the study suggests new avenues for future disease prestige research.

Prestiż wybranych zawodów medycznych w opinii reprezentantów tych zawodów

The aim of this article is to present the prestige of selected medical professions in the opinion of people practicing these professions. The study was conducted by means of the survey technique. The research tool was an original questionnaire prepared by the authors of the study, which was carried out on a sample of 346 professionally active physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, psychotherapists, and occupational therapists. Those people were employed in public institutions (hospitals, outpatient clinics, rehabilitation centers) located in Kraków and Katowice. The selection of the sample was deliberate. The profession of a physician received the highest score of prestige, while the lowest one was achieved by the profession of an occupational therapist. As factors influencing the prestige of a given profession, physicians and physiotherapists most often indicated social respect for the profession, while nurses, psychotherapists, and occupational therapists emphasized the importance of education. The level of prestige of medical professions, as compared with other professions, decreased with seniority. The profession of a physician occupies the leading position in the hierarchy of the self-assessed prestige of medical professions. Physicians notice a general tendency to assess the prestige of their profession in a broader context - the position of this profession is weakening in favor of other public utility jobs, despite the fact that physicians still occupy an important place in the rankings of prestige including all professions. A negative self-assessment of the prestige of the occupation performed over the period of ten years prevail only in the case of physicians and nurses. Med Pr. 2019;70(5):587-95.

Stratyfikacyjne funkcje prestiżu

Hierarchia prestiżu zaliczana jest do podstawowych wymiarów nierówności społecznych. Podlega on oczywiście ewolucji, podobnie jak stratyfikacja klasowa, stosunki władzy i inne wymiary stratyfikacji społecznej. Na podstawie refleksji, i odwołując się częściowo do badań, próbuję odpowiedzieć na pytanie, jak wygląda to w Polsce. Chodzi głównie o rozstrzygnięcie kwestii, czy stratyfikująca rola prestiżu zwiększa się, czy może zanika.