Opportunities For Upward Mobility Research Articles

Knowledge, Skills, Craft? The Skilled Worker in West German Industry and the Resilience of Vocational Training, 1970–2000

Abstract The spread of computer technology in West German industry during the 1980s and 1990s dramatically changed the demand for skilled and unskilled work in manufacturing. As a result the knowledge used in production was redefined and reformers pushed for radical reform in vocational and general education. In these decades a corporate agreement across trade unions, associations of employers and state bureaucracy brought about a series of adaptive reforms of existing apprenticeships and the creation of new apprenticeships in new branches. This survival of the dual system is analysed as part of the strategies of modernizing West German manufacturing industries. Both employers and trade unions defended the central role of skilled workers in the new system of flexible quality production that developed during this period of rapid technological change. Data from the Socio-Economic Panel and from other sources enable analysis of the social effects of this economically successful strategy. They show the large-scale use of skilled workers in industrial production and their opportunities for upward mobility and additional qualifications. At the same time unskilled workers, and unskilled migrant workers in particular, experienced greater risks of unemployment and increased job uncertainty.

How to communicate large-scale social challenges: The problem of the disappearing American corporation

Social science has distinct advantages and challenges when it comes to communicating its findings to the public. Its topics are often highly accessible to the general public, yet its findings may be counterintuitive and politically contentious. Conveying recent changes in the organization of the American economy provides an illustration of the difficulties and opportunities for engaging the public. The declining number of public corporations in the United States is associated with a shrinking middle class, lower opportunities for upward mobility, and a fraying social safety net, with important implications for individuals and public policy. Attempting to convey this set of findings to a broad public has demonstrated that some strategies and communication channels work better than others, and that some online media are particularly effective.

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The Hidden Curriculum of College Athletic Recruitment

In this article, Kirsten Hextrum considers institutional avenues that limit upward mobility opportunities by revealing a hidden curriculum of athletic recruiting that favors students from privileged backgrounds. The study's data center on forty-seven life history interviews with National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I athletes from an athletically and academically prestigious university. Hextrum's findings reveal three phases of a hidden curriculum—socialization, covert selection, and overt selection—that secure greater access to elite colleges for White middle-class communities via athletic participation. In this case, social reproduction required active effort by both representatives of higher education and representatives of White middle-class communities to protect existing class and race relations.

Seminar #2. The Natural Rights Constitution of the Liberty States of America: Individual Rights and the Promotion of the Sovereign National Economic Interest

Citizens in America today do not share common cultural values. Madison’s constitution devolved into an unelected, unaccountable tyranny that advocates globalism, not the sovereign national economic interest. In other words, there are not two political parties that represent distinct social classes, as intended by Madison’s British mixed government model. Both political parties, for different reasons, promote globalization of the American economy, to the detriment of the sovereign national economic interest. National economic growth is caused by capital investments in technical change made by entrepreneurs in new production units that create new interindustry relationships and new market relationships that did not exist before. Voluntary allegiance to the rule of law, in the natural rights republic results from the fact that all citizens have an equal opportunity for upward mobility and individual prosperity. The Natural Rights Constitution promotes allegiance to the rule of law by protecting an individual’s God-given natural right to pursue their own happiness.

Advanced Placement Environmental Science and the Curriculum and Community Enterprise for Restoration Science (CCERS) Project in the New York City High School

This paper explores the issue of social justice through the lens of equitable access to Advanced Placement courses inthe City of New York High Schools, with focus on Advanced Placement Environmental Science. A criticalcomponent of the Advanced Placement Environmental Science course is the incorporation of environmentalfieldwork. The National Research Council (2014) suggest that field stations are important for STEM education andprovide opportunities to engage students in the natural environment and get them excited about science. Through theCurriculum and Community Enterprise for Restoration Science, an NSF funded opportunity, students in theAdvanced Placement Environmental Science course are integrating their field station work in Oyster Restoration inthe New York City Harbor. These interactions with the environment offer unique experiences which engagemarginalized students in both rigorous coursework and affords equity in science learning. In turn, it affords allstudents the opportunity for upward mobility and increased career opportunities in the area of STEM.

A research-based inter-institutional collaboration to diversify the biomedical workforce: ReBUILDetroit

Background and purposeFaced with decades of severe economic decline, the city of Detroit, Michigan (USA) is on the cusp or reinventing itself. A Consortium was formed of three higher education institutions that have an established mission to serve an urban population and a vested interest in the revitalization of the health, welfare, and economic opportunity in the Detroit metro region that is synergistic with national goals to diversify the biomedical workforce. The purpose of this article is to describe the rationale, approach, and model of the Research Enhancement for BUILDing Detroit (ReBUILDetroit) Consortium, as a cross-campus collaborative for students, faculty, and institutional development. The ReBUILDetroit program is designed to transform the culture of higher education in Detroit, Michigan by educating and training students from diverse and socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds to become the next generation of biomedical researchers.Key program highlightsMarygrove College, University of Detroit Mercy, and Wayne State University established a Consortium to create and implement innovative, evidence-based and cutting-edge programming. Specific elements include: (1) a pre-college summer enrichment experience; (2) an inter-institutional curricular re-design of target foundational courses in biology, chemistry and social science using the Research Coordination Network (RCN) model; and (3) cross-institutional summer faculty-mentored research projects for ReBUILDetroit Scholars starting as rising sophomores. Student success support includes intentional and intrusive mentoring, financial support, close faculty engagement, ongoing workshops to overcome academic and non-academic barriers, and cohort building activities across the Consortium. Institutional supports, integral to program creation and sustainability, include creating faculty learning communities grounded in professional development opportunities in pedagogy, research and mentorship, and developing novel partnerships and accelerated pipeline programming across the Consortium. This article highlights the development, implementation and evolution of high-impact practices critical for student learning, research-based course development, and the creation of inter-institutional learning communities as a direct result of ReBUILDetroit.ImplicationsOur cross-institutional collaboration and leveraging of resources in a difficult economic environment, drawing students from high schools with a myriad of strengths and challenges, serves as a model for higher education institutions in large, urban centers who are seeking to diversify their workforces and provide additional opportunities for upward mobility among diverse populations.

Experiences of structural vulnerability among exotic dancers in Baltimore, Maryland: Co-occurring social and economic antecedents of HIV/STI risk

BackgroundWomen who grow up in economic scarcity often face limited opportunities for upward mobility, as a result of challenges securing stable housing, quality education, and steady employment. Chronic instability may limit the capacity of women to protect themselves against HIV/STI-related harm when engaging in sexual activity or drug use. Characterizing the structural contexts that facilitate HIV/STI risk among women are critical to effective design and implementation of drug and sexual harm reduction interventions. MethodsSemi-structured in-depth interviews were completed with 25 female exotic dancers working in Baltimore City and County exotic dance clubs July 2014–May 2015. Using thematic analysis, interviews were examined to understand the nature of structural vulnerability experienced by dancers during their early lives through the initial months of exotic dancing, including an examination of the roles of drug use and social relationships in engagement of sexual risk behavior. ResultsDancers depicted early experiences of social and economic disadvantage, which accumulated through early adulthood. Substance use emerged as an important subject for the majority of women, operating cyclically as both precursor to and product of accumulating social and economic hardship. Dancers revealed social strategies that buffered the effects of structural vulnerability and minimized exposure to workplace-related drug and sexual harms. ConclusionThis study provides insight on an understudied group of at-risk women with a unique demographic profile. Findings illustrate how the effects of structural vulnerability, substance abuse, social strategies, and opportunities for economic gain through sexual services in the workplace converge to produce varying levels of HIV/STI risk among exotic dancers.

Antecedents of Opportunity at Work: Evidence from White-Collar Employees in Turkey

1. IntroductionOpportunity provided to employees at work include promotion opportunity, development opportunity, challenge (Kanter, 1977; Kanter & Stein, 1981), and recognition opportunity (Kanter, 1986; Wayne et al., 2002). Opportunity at work has been shown to be related to many important organizational outcomes, such as organizational commitment (Chew & Chan, 2008; Ganesan & Weitz, 1996; Landau & Hammer, 1986), job satisfaction (Appelbaum & Kamal, 2000) job performance (Allen et al., 1998), and organizational performance (Birdi et al., 2012) which shows that opportunity is significant for both employees and employers.In addition, opportunity at work is a positive phenomenon in itself. The Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) approach emphasizes enablers, motivations, and outcomes or effects of positive phenomena in (Cameron et al., 2003). Likewise, in this study, enablers of a positive phenomenon, i.e. opportunity, are examined. POS puts emphasis on positive organizational outcomes not only as means but also ends, which are believed to be worth explaining on their own (Dutton et al., 2006). Thus, although opportunity at work is significant as an enabler of important organizational outcomes, it is worth explaining on its own as well, since it is valuable in and of itself. Hence, antecedents of opportunity at work are of paramount importance.Although opportunity is a significant topic of research, its antecedents have been under-explored. The antecedents of opportunity that have been studied in previous research include socioeconomic status (Colarelli et al., 1987), employee tenure and demographic variables such as age (Landau & Hammer, 1986), gender (Cassirer & Reskin, 2000; Igbaria & Baroudi, 1995), and education (Tachibanaki, 1987; Zhao et al., 2006). However, more research is needed to cover all possible antecedents of opportunity. This study fills a gap in literature by exploring antecedents of opportunity at work, with important implications for both research and practice. The study focuses on high performance work practices and leadership types as antecedents of opportunity at work.2. Literature Review and Hypotheses2.1. Opportunity at WorkSome researchers have restricted definition of opportunity to promotion opportunities. For instance, Harlan (1989:766) defined opportunity in terms of in organizational hierarchy and as workers' perceptions of degree to which firm's administrative system awards promotions fair and open competition. Likewise, Baron et al. (1986) studied opportunity structures in in relation to promotion ladders, and Mano-Negrin and Tzafrir (2004) related opportunity in an organization to employees' perceptions regarding degree of internal recruitment for departmental and organizational positions.Kanter's (1977: 161) description of opportunity as the relationship of a present position to a larger structure and to anticipated future positions was balanced by her emphasis on importance of a job as a type of opportunity at work. Thus, her definition is not restricted to promotion, but covers movement from or growth through a specific job (p: 161) arguing that structure of opportunity in a job is determined by matters such as promotion rates, access to challenge, and skill increases. Similarly, Kanter and Stein (1981) argue that opportunity includes not just promotion but also other types of opportunity, such as development of professional skills and continual challenge. Parallel to these arguments, some scholars have argued that concept of opportunity at work should not be confined to promotion opportunity, since opportunities for upward mobility in workplace have been reduced in recent years. For instance, Iles (1997: 352) explained that opportunities for upward mobility have been reduced due to organizational restructuring, downsizing, outsourcing and delayering; he proposed that since organizations still need to recruit, retain and motivate people with potential to lead organization, fast-track programmes for high-potential employees should be re-evaluated. …

Performing Work: Locality, Embodied Practice and Career Mobility of Chinese Women Bankers in Hong Kong

Women are emerging as significant actors in international financial industries concentrated in metropolitan cities which function as national and international business hubs. Based on 17 in-depth interviews with Chinese women bankers in Hong Kong, where one finds the highest concentration of banking institutions in the world, this paper examines the interplay between locality, gender performance and the career mobility of women bankers. The author argues that branch location is embedded within hierarchical fields of power and leads to different client groups, and ultimately, to different opportunities for upward mobility. Women bankers in Hong Kong are skilled in displaying multiple identities by using differentiated styles of language and different tongues, or languages, when interacting with different client groups in different branches. This strategy involves evaluative interpretation of perception because clients themselves make class distinctions according to different service settings. Although mid-level management teams in the banking industry have recently been rapidly feminised, this paper demonstrates that the glass ceiling is still real and continues to exert its invisible, negative impact. The upward mobility of Chinese women bankers is often blocked by informal barriers deeply embedded in the social structure and culture of both local society and international companies. These structural barriers and their resultant structured disadvantages for women are the consequence of the intersection, and sometimes the collusion, of ethnic politics, business or capitalist interests and social norms. Factors and structural forces such as race, ethnicity and gender are intertwined with and compounded to produce deep and far-reaching effects that are often beyond the control of the individual actor.

Subjective beliefs about the income distribution and preferences for redistribution

We investigate whether beliefs about the income distribution are associated with political positions for or against redistribution. Using a novel elicitation method, we assess individuals’ beliefs about the shape of the income distribution in the United States. We find that respondents’ beliefs approximate the actual distribution on average. However they tend to overestimate the median income and underestimate the level of inequality. Surprisingly we find that beliefs about overall inequality, measured in terms of income dispersion, play only a marginal role in political positions as well as prospects of future wealth. Political preferences, however, are predicted by first, beliefs about the level of income of the poorest members of society, and second, a belief in an open society with equal opportunities for all. Support for redistribution is lower for people who give higher estimates of the income level of the poorest members of society and for people who perceive that opportunities for upward mobility are available.

Sifiso Mzobe’s Young Blood: Spaces of getting and becoming in post-apartheid Durban

ABSTRACTSifiso Mzobe’s Young blood (2010) generates much of its energy, this article will argue, through its representation of social and physical mobility and its articulation of space with modes of consumption in post-apartheid South Africa. The novel is set chiefly in the township of Umlazi, the city of Durban and some of its middle- class suburbs. The chief protagonist, a young car thief, moves between township, city and suburb with ease in stolen cars. The open space of the highway separates township and suburb, but also connects them. The novel shows how the spatial arrangements of power and control associated with apartheid are increasingly undermined and reconfigured by new practices of everyday life. Young blood suggests that a certain style of driving can offer new ways of inhabiting the South African city and of bringing its disparate parts together. The ability to move between places in the novel provides opportunities for upward mobility and also enables new forms of symbiosis, trade and consumption. Stealing and driving cars enable Sifiso and his friends to bridge the divide between township and suburb and turn the distance between the two places into a domain of attainment and performance. But the rapid upward social mobility that high-level criminal activity allows is exposed as uncertain and ephemeral by the end of the novel, and the slower route offered by education to self-improvement and class mobility is proffered in its place.

Merit matters: Student perceptions of faculty quality and reward

This empirical research explores a role that the quality of teaching and students’ competence play in shaping students’ views about the upward mobility opportunities in their higher education institutions. It is often understood that the principal role of higher education is to promote merit-based mobility amongst students, as well as espouse the merit-based upward mobility amongst its faculty. How exactly students in higher education form their views about the presence of meritorious upward mobility is the question that remains largely unanswered, especially in developing societies. To help answer this question, the study relies on the binary logistic regression of data collected via 762 surveys from 6 public higher education institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and determines what factors help predict students’ views on whether faculty promotions are merited or not. Findings in this article are sub-selected from a broader empirical work, and they point to a novel link: the quality of teaching and students’ views on whether the most competent students are first to graduate in their faculties are the key predictors of whether students believe the faculty members within their higher education institutions are promoted based on merit. In the absence of meritocracy, students are, as this research finds, likely to categorize the educational system as corrupt. When the merit-based competition does not determine who moves up within higher education, one's belonging to the political, social, and economic elites tends to become the alternative basis for the upward mobility. Moving away from the merit-based mobility can have broad social consequences particularly in developing countries that are poorly equipped to react to such digressions, underlining the relevance of this work cross-nationally.

Is Hong Kong no Longer a Land of Opportunities after the 1997 Handover?

A belief that Hong Kong is a land of opportunities for the talented and the hardworking makes many speculate that an increasing involvement of younger generations in politics in recent years results from their blocked social mobility. What remains unclear is whether new generations are indeed deprived of mobility opportunities in nowadays Hong Kong. We seek to address this issue empirically by analysing two datasets collected in 1989 and 2007. Situating our discussion against the context of the study of social mobility, we discuss our analysis from two perspectives of social mobility: absolute mobility (mobility due to structural changes) and relative mobility (mobility due to changes in social fluidity). Against a changing class structure over the set period, structural opportunities for upward mobility are actually available to the younger generations; but, seemingly, whether they could grasp such opportunities to get ahead has become more strongly dependent on their class background.

Worker Performance in State-Owned Factories in Maoist China

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 97 retirees in different cities, this article reexamines worker performance in state-owned enterprises during the Mao era. It disputes the conventional wisdom that assumes widespread shirking and inefficiency in state firms before the reform and attributes this problem primarily to the lack of adequate material incentives. Instead, this article investigates the issue of work incentives in the context in which multiple economic, social, and political factors worked together to motivate and constrain workers. It argues that state-firm workers were subject to not only the pressure of political conformity, disciplinary regulations, and peer-to-peer surveillance at the workplace but also the incentives embedded in their shared consciousness as a privileged group, their identity as members of a work unit, and, most important, the opportunities for upward mobility that motivated them in the absence of material stimuli. Workers’ performance, therefore, varied over time and space, depending on how the mechanisms of motivation and control operated on the shop floor.

Hispanics at the Starting Line: Poverty among Newborn Infants in Established Gateways and New Destinations

High rates of Hispanic fertility raise an important question: Do Hispanic newborn babies start life’s race behind the starting line, poor and disadvantaged? To address this question, we link the newborn infants identified with the new fertility question in the 2006–2010 American Community Survey (ACS) to the poverty status of mothers. Our results document the disproportionately large share (40 percent) of Hispanic babies who are born into poverty. The prospect of poverty is especially high in new Hispanic destinations, especially those in rural areas. For Hispanic newborn babies, poverty cannot be reduced to supply-side explanations that emphasize maladaptive behavioral decision-making of parents, that is, nonmarital or teen childbearing, low educational attainment, acquisition of English language skills, or other dimensions of human capital. Hispanics in new destinations often start well behind the starting line—in poverty and with limited opportunities for upward mobility and an inadequate welfare safety net. The recent concentration of Hispanic poverty in new immigrant destinations portends continuing intergenerational inequality as today’s newborn infants make their way to productive adult roles.

“It’s not easy but it's still possible to be an abstainer here”: Non-Drug Use Among Young Men in a Slum Area in Makassar, Indonesia

This qualitative study explores the social context and protective factors that enable young men in a slum area (lorong) in Makassar, Indonesia, to abstain from using drugs. Semi-structured interviews, conducted with fifteen male non-drug users in the lorong showed, despite living in a drug risk environment, non-drug users were involved in neither the drug scene nor street culture. There were two main reasons for this: their employment opportunities, albeit in low paid jobs and the informal economy, and their schooling. These non-users asserted that respectability and the status of rewa (a local construct of masculinity) should and could be achieved through traditional means, i.e. employment providing legitimate income and education leading to a career. Their work provides both direct benefit, i.e. legitimate income (economic capital), and indirect benefits such as meaningful activities and structured time. Employment and schooling also generated a respectable identity (symbolic and cultural capital), wider social networks (bridging social capital) and the opportunity for upward mobility. All of these enable them to have a stake within mainstream society and are incentives for them to abstain from drug taking. This study demonstrates the crucial role of direct and indirect benefits of employment and of economic, symbolic, cultural and social capital in understanding the social context of non-drug use among young men in the lorong. The findings suggest protagonists of drug policy reform and implementation in Indonesia should be more cognizant of social marginalization in the lorong, and of the need to improve young people’s access to employment and education, in order to decrease the likelihood of drug initiation and use.

Much More than Money: Remittances and Human Development

In Migrant Remittances and Development in the Global Economy, Manuel Orozco analyzes “the ways that migrant remittances operate worldwide and the implication of these inflows for developing countries” (p. 1). He defines development broadly defining it as “a condition that enables individuals and society to enjoy a healthy quality of life, be free, have opportunities for upward mobility, and improve their material circumstances” (p. 5). Orozco aptly argues that the regulations that shape marketplaces and financial service access in both the host and home states also shape remittances' impact on development. Orozco supports his claim using comparative analyses of four major remittance corridors: the United States to Latin America and the Caribbean; Japan to Southeast Asia; Russia to Central Asia and the Caucasus; and Europe to Western Africa. Remittances and Development is empirically and theoretically strong in the sense that it employs a variety of original studies to identify and describe how remittances have a positive impact on human lives. Its description of remittance trends and the myriad of regulations that shape them is a particular strength. Orozco also covers an impressive range of subjects regulations and remittance trends, including the role of microfinance institutions, migrant philanthropy through transnational organizations, and nostalgic trade. However, this wide scope limits the depth of discussion and, ultimately, the book's substantive contributions.

The African Middle Class in South Africa 1910–1994

ABSTRACTContemporary interest in the black African middle class requires holistic attention to how this class has developed historically. In what follows, the origins of the African middle class are located in the efforts of Christian missionaries to create a literate, ‘civilized’ African elite. The resultant middle class was defined by its employment in professional, service and clerical spheres, and was noted for its orientation towards material improvement. However, confronted by racial barriers which stunted its opportunities for upward mobility, the African middle class played a key role in the establishment of the African National Congress (ANC). Although significant debate attends the extent to which middle-class leaders of the ANC connected with the masses during the inter-war years, there is strong for backing for the claim that the radicalization of the movement in the 1950s saw middle-class elements move into political alliance with the black working class. Thereafter, however, the banning of the liberation movements 1960 led the African middle class to lapse into political quiescence, although some of them pursued the limited advances offered by the bantustan programme. In turn, these were to be overtaken by political developments of the 1980s alongside accompanying reformist efforts to promote a collaborationist middle class within African urban communities. Ironically, this paved the way for the African middle class to line up behind the ANC, and for the ANC to become a predominantly middle class formation after 1994.

Trapped in the Working Class? Prospects for the Intergenerational (Im)Mobility of Latino Youth

Opportunities for upward mobility have been declining in the United States in recent decades. Within this context, I examine the mobility trajectories of a contemporary cohort of 1.5‐, second‐, and third‐plus‐generation Latino youth. Drawing on survey data from California that accounts for the precarious legal status of many 1.5 generation immigrants, I find that Latino youths' patterns of postsecondary enrollment and employment do not differ by generation since migration. Additionally, I do not find evidence of racial/ethnic barriers to Latino youths' enrollment in less selective colleges and participation in the labor market. Yet, given the low socioeconomic origins of many Latino youth and their correspondingly low 4‐year college enrollment rates, only a small proportion will likely enjoy upward mobility through jobs that require a bachelor's degree. Overall, the cohort of Latino youth coming of age during the Great Recession is poised to experience working‐class stagnation. This group's future access to economic and political positions of power will likely be limited by their low enrollment rates in 4‐year colleges in general, but in selective postsecondary institutions in particular.