Occupational Self-direction Research Articles

New-class dissent among social-cultural specialists: The effects of occupational self-direction and location in the public sector

Recent research suggests that new-class dissent is concentrated among the “social-cultural specialists” Kristol identifies as the principal critics of a business culture. Kohn's research on the micro-foundations of “authoritarian conservatism” suggests a plausible explanation centered on the subjective effects of occupational self-direction, a variable curiously missing from other models of new-class dissent. An alternative explanation, derived from state-centered theories of the new class, points instead to the concentration of these “social-sicence and arts-related occupations” outside the commercial economy. Using covariance structure analysis of new survey data, this study finds that occupational self-direction entails a propensity to question systemic inequities and a reluctance to “blame the victims” of poverty and discrimination. The antibusiness animus of Kristol's counterelites, conversely, arises in spite of, not because of, their highly self-directed work, reflecting instead their concentration in the public and nonprofit sectors.

Cultural Capital and the Liberal Political Attitudes of Professionals: Comment on Brint

Previous articleNext article No AccessCommentary and DebateCultural Capital and the Liberal Political Attitudes of Professionals: Comment on BrintMichele LamontMichele Lamont Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 92, Number 6May, 1987 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/228673 Views: 23Total views on this site Citations: 29Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1987 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Mehmet Şükrü NAR EĞİTİM, İDEOLOJİ, DEMOKRASİ İLE OY VERME DAVRANIŞI ARASINDAKİ İLİŞKİ: TÜRKİYE ÖRNEĞİ, Mecmua (Sep 2021).https://doi.org/10.32579/mecmua.990437Marko Grdešić The Strange Case of Welfare Chauvinism in Eastern Europe, Communist and Post-Communist Studies 53, no.33 (Sep 2020): 107–122.https://doi.org/10.1525/cpcs.2020.53.3.107Abel François, Cal Le Gall, Raul Magni Berton Why do academics oppose the market economy? Sophistication and perception of market failures, French Politics 17, no.33 (May 2019): 228–256.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41253-019-00088-4Amy C. 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Alexander, Christian Welzel, Ronald Inglehart Rising Support for Reproductive Freedoms: Emancipatory Breakthroughs into a Bulwark of Tradition, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2013).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2373158Job C van den Berg, Hilde Coffé Educational and class cleavages in voting behaviour in Belgium: The effect of income, EGP class and education on party choice in Flanders and Wallonia, Acta Politica 47, no.22 (Dec 2011): 151–180.https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2011.34Neil Gross, Ethan Fosse Why are professors liberal?, Theory and Society 41, no.22 (Jan 2012): 127–168.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-012-9163-yAyse Güveli, Ruud Luijkx, Harry B.G. Ganzeboom Patterns of intergenerational mobility of the old and new middle classes in a post-industrial society: Netherlands 1970–2006, Social Science Research 41, no.22 (Mar 2012): 224–241.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2011.11.002Donald Rosdil Civic Culture, Sub-cultures, Non-traditionalism and Progressive Policy, Urban Studies 48, no.1616 (Dec 2011): 3467–3486.https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098010396236Jeroen van der Waal, Peter Achterberg, Dick Houtman, Willem de Koster, Katerina Manevska ‘Some are more equal than others’: economic egalitarianism and welfare chauvinism in the Netherlands, Journal of European Social Policy 20, no.44 (Oct 2010): 350–363.https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928710374376Miguel Caínzos, Carmen Voces Class Inequalities in Political Participation and the ‘Death of Class’ Debate, International Sociology 25, no.33 (May 2010): 383–418.https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580909360298Tally Katz-Gerro New Middle Class and Environmental Lifestyle in Israel, (May 2009): 197–215.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9938-0_11Ayse Güveli, Ariana Need, Nan Dirk de Graaf The Rise of `New' Social Classes within the Service Class in The Netherlands, Acta Sociologica 50, no.22 (Jun 2016): 129–146.https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699307077655AyŞe Güveli, Ariana Need, Nan Dirk de Graaf Socio-political, cultural and economic preferences and behaviour of the social and cultural specialists and the technocrats. 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Teacher education and educational self-direction: A conceptual analysis and empirical investigation

The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of educational self-direction in teacher education, an educational environment that encourages the use of initiative, thought and independent judgment in learning. First, this concept is examined conceptually. The theory and research on occupational self-direction is summarized, and the relevance of this work to education settings is analyzed. Second, the concept is examined empirically. The development of an instrument to assess educational self-direction is documented. Data from two separate studies indicated that the questionnaire was reliable (alpha values from 0.63 to 0.84), and valid. Finally, implications of this work for research on teacher education are considered.

Alienation, Occupational Self-Direction, and Worker Consciousness

Alienation is reconceptualized in terms of low position on three dimensions of occupational self-direction (autonomy of the worker, complexity of the work, and variety of the tasks performed) isolated by Kohn and Schooler. Factor analysis of survey data confirms the existence of these three dimensions, and their impact on job satisfaction and class consciousness within the working class is explored. Specific hypotheses are abstracted from the work of several writers on the new working class, whose explanations, we argue, focus on occupational rather than class factors as independent variables. Regression analyses show that one of the occupational dimensions (complexity) has a positive effect upon both class consciousness and job satisfaction. In general terms, the approach adopted here provides a way of organizing and presenting in a testable form a wide range of hypotheses relating work experience to job satisfaction and class consciousness.

Continuity of Learning-Generalization: The Effect of Job on Men's Intellective Process in the United States and Poland

Data from both the United States and Poland show that the effect of occupational self-direction on intellective process is similar for younger, middle-aged, and older workers. Multiple-regression analyses of cross-sectional data consistently indicate that the job conditions determinative of occupational self-direction, the substantive complexity of work in particular, have as great an effect on the ideational flexibility and authoritarian conservatism of older as on those of younger and middle-aged workers in both countries. Longitudinal analyses of U.S. data demonstrate that the reciprocal effects of the substantive complexity of work and intellective process are as great for older as for younger workers. All the evidence supports the conclusion that job conditions continue to affect, and be affected by, intellective process with undiminished force throughout adult life.

Social stratification and the transmission of values in the family: A cross-national assessment

For both the U.S. and Poland, we develop measurement models of the family's social-stratification position and of parents' and children's valuations of self-direction. We find that the relationship between parents' and children's values is much stronger than past studies had indicated. In both countries the family's stratification position has an impressive bearing on the values of its adolescent and young-adult offspring. Much of this impact is through social stratification affecting parents' values, and parents' values, in turn, affecting children's values. Social stratification affects parental values primarily because of the impact of parents' occupational self-direction on their values. Although parents' and children's values may be reciprocally related, the predominant effects are from parents' to children's values. The one notable cross-national difference we find is in the relative roles of fathers and mothers in the intergenerational transmission of values: in the United States, fathers play at least as important a role as do mothers; in Poland, mothers play the predominant role.

Occupational Conditions and Psychological Functioning in Japan

This paper compares the occupational conditions of workers in Japan and the United States and tests whether the reciprocal effects of occupational conditions and psychological functioning in Japan are similar to those found in the United States. The comparisons of occupational conditions reveal a tendency for work in Japan to be done in a way in which consensus is promoted and individual responsibility avoided. The central result of the analysis of the reciprocal effects of occupational conditions and psychological functioning is the generalization to Japan of American findings on the effects of occupational self-direction. In Japan, as in the United States, occupational self-direction leads to ideational flexibility and self-directed orientation to self and society. Other results center on the more extensive relationship in Japan between position in the work organization and psychological functioning. The pervasiveness of this relationship provides evidence for those who emphasize the importance of the o...

Stratification, Work, and Values: A Polish-United States Comparison

In Poland and the United States social stratification is related to parental values and to social orientations, with men of higher position more likely to value self-direction and to have a social orientation consonant with valuing self-direction: a nonauthoritarian perspective, personally responsible standards of morality, and trustfulness. These relationships result in large measure from the greater opportunities afforded by higher position to be self-directed in one's work. In the United States, higher social-stratification position is associated with more favorable self-conceptions, largely as a result of the greater opportunities for occupational self-direction that higher position affords. In Poland, lower position is associated with greater self-confidence and less anxiety.