Social Class Research Articles

Modelling household online shopping and home delivery demand using latent class & ordinal generalized extreme value (GEV) models

The surge in e-commerce during the past decade has led to dramatic changes in consumer shopping behaviour. The study applies two Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) family models to investigate households' e-shopping demands. The study proposes a model structure to jointly model ordinal-based choice behaviour with choice-makers' latent class membership. Introducing latent class structure with the OGEV formulation accounts for the relationship between choice-makers heterogeneous preferential groups and their ordinal choice outcomes. Furthermore, the study also applies the Ordered General Extreme Value (OGEV)-Negative Binomial (NB) model, capturing the interplay between consumers' in-store shopping demands and online shopping behaviour. The RUM principle inherited within the OGEV-NB model allows econometric valuation of in-store shopping activity explicitly considering households' e-shopping demands. Both models are empirically estimated using a dataset collected in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada. The empirical findings and behavioural implications are also discussed.

Social network analysis approach to identify agricultural key communicators

Aim: This paper employed Social Network Analysis approach to visualize and calculate different social network metrics. It identifies key communicators who play pivotal roles in information flow. Methodology: Research was conducted at Jammulapalem and Perali villages of Bapatla district, Andhra Pradesh, India, during 2022-23 using an exploratory research design. A total of 120 farmers Eigen vector were selected using simple random technique, and data was collected using a well-developed interview schedule. Network metrics such as Degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and eigen vector centrality were computed to evaluate the network structure using R software (version 4.3.1). R packages, namely igraph, statnet and network D3, were used for network creation, analysis and visualization to identify the influential nodes. Results: The study revealed a complex web of relationships among various stakeholders within the agricultural network through a network graph, identifying key communicators with the highest Degree centrality. Interpretation: The focal points identified through Social Network Analysis represent a specific demographic and socio-economic group, typically aged between 35 and 55, primarily medium-scale farmers,with landholdings spanning 10 to 25 acres and high annual income, with educational backgrounds ranging from high school to pre-university college, and wield significant influence within their local communities. They require sensitization, training, practical demonstrations, and personalized support to effectively disseminate agricultural information. Key words: Agricultural Information System Network, Centrality measures, Information Sources, Key Communicators, Network visualization, Social Network Analysis

Muslim Tatars in the Kama area sketches by K.F. Goon

The subject of the research in the article is the visual materials of the 1862-1863, reflecting the features of the costume complex of the Volga-Ural Tatars and its images depending on the time, theoretical and practical knowledge about the peoples living in a certain region and the representation of material heritage, through the socio-cultural perception of the artist K.F. Gun. Based on the results of the work, it was revealed that the artist executed the images in urban and rural settlements, designated class differences through the features of the costume complex - the materials used, multi-part headdresses and their differences from each other, decorative elements and ornaments. He was the first to distinguish between the differences in clothing that existed in private and public spaces, and actualized it in the images he created where the characteristic features of gender and age differences were revealed by the pictures of the costumes. However, it is necessary to highlight the controversial points in the images that were found in the works of K.F. Gun – atypical headdresses, analogues of which have not survived in museums or private collections; errors in administrative-territorial division, when the artist sketched the same people in different provinces, according to his signatures; confusion in peoples, for example - the ambiguous costume complex of the starokryashen Tatars (the Baptized Tatars), closer to the clothing of the Votyaks (Udmurts).

Elites and ordinariness in cross-status encounters: Adding Goffman's ritual interaction order to sociological interpretations

Elites and higher-class people often downplay – even conceal – their status when interacting with people of lower class/status than themselves. This finding has been reported from several countries in the Global North. It is also shown in research from disparate academic fields and disciplines: the sociology of class, psychology, cognitive decision-making, and microsociology. This paper reviews and synthesises the literature on elites and high-status people who downplay social differences in cross-status social interaction. It makes two main contributions: First, I show that the phenomenon is more widespread transnationally than especially Nordic researchers have assumed. The second contribution comes from tracing the theoretical interpretations in the research. I notice tendencies of an individual – structure dualism in some strands of research, with the relevant analytical levels being the broader moral repertoires and predispositions. Other strands of research suffer from overly individualist interpretations. I argue that what is missing in most current research on cross-status interaction, is an adequate theoretical grasp of the social situation. I discuss how the study of cross-status interaction can be fertilised by the classical microsociological idea of situations’ existence in themselves, a social domain that cannot be reduced to dispositions or broader culture. I engage here especially Erving Goffman's ritual interaction order. From this vantage point, I also highlight situational variation, something attended to by few studies of cross-status interaction.

Navigating Tensions in the Design of a New Equity Centered Elementary Teacher Preparation Program

ABSTRACT Working as concerned colleagues grappling with the notion that today’s schools reflect the social inequalities that exist in today’s society and are often characterized by racial, ethnic, social class, linguistic and cultural diversity with school curricula, instructional strategies, and teacher demographics that rarely reflect this diversity, this qualitative self-study sought to explore the following question: What tensions did a team of teacher educators experience and navigate when designing an equity centered initial teacher preparation program at a Historically White Institution (HWI)? This paper illuminates our design process, three significant tensions that emerged, and the corresponding navigation strategies that were utilized to implement our vision of progressive teacher education, with the goal of highlighting the complexity inherent in enacting an equity centered teacher preparation program that seeks to address the opportunity gaps that emerge in school contexts.

Book review “N.I. Vorobyev. Kazan Tatars. Kazan: Tatgosizdat, 1953”

The work under review is devoted to the characteristics of the material culture of the Kazan Tatars of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The author set himself the task to identify the main elements of the Kazan Tatars’ material culture, trace the history of its formation, and analyse its characteristic territorial and class differences. The work is based on the monograph of the same author, Material Culture of the Kazan Tatars, published in 1930. Since that time, the author has accumulated new material, critically revised previous conclusions, and essentially produced a new work (cit.: Smirnov A.P. (1954) N.I. Vorobyev. The Kazan Tatars. Tatgosizdat, Kazan, 1953. Sovetskaya etnografiya [Soviet Ethnography]. No. 3: 168–172. (In Russ.)).

PENGARUH METODE TALAQQI TERHADAP KEMAMPUAN MEMBACA AL-QUR’AN SISWA MADRASAH ALIYAH AL-USMANIYAH DI BAGAN BATU KABUPATEN ROKAN HILIR

Penelitian ini di latar belakangi oleh rendahnya kemampuan siswa dalam membaca Al-Qur’an. Jenis penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kuantitatif korelasi. Fokus masalah pada penelitian ini adalah apakah terdapat pengaruh Metode Talaqqi terhadap Kemampuan Membaca Al-Qur’an Siswa Madrasah Aliyah Al-Usmaniyah di Bagan Batu Kabupaten Rokan Hilir. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui Pengaruh Metode Talaqqi terhadap Kemampuan Memb This research was motivated by the low ability of students to read the Koran. This type of research is quantitative correlation research. The focus of the problem in this research is whether the influence of the Talaqqi Method on the Al-Qur'an Reading Ability of Al-Usmaniyah Madrasah Aliyah Students in Bagan Batu, Rokan Hilir Regency. This research aims to determine the effect of the Talaqqi method on the ability to read the Al-Qur'an of Madrasah Aliyah Al-Usmaniyah students in Bagan Batu, Rokan Hilir Regency. The subjects used in this research were all class XII students of Madrasah Aliyah Al-Usmaniyah in Bagan Batu. The population of this research was 55 students in class XII of Madrasah Aliyah Al-Usmaniyah, 29 students in science class and 26 students in social studies class. This research consists of two variables, namely the Talaqqi Method (variable X) and the Ability to Read the Al-Qur'an (variable Y). The results of this research show that there is an influence of the talaqqi method on the ability to read the Al-Qur'an. This can be seen from the results of data processing using IBM SPSS statistics 22 for windows, that a simple regression analysis obtained a significant value smaller than 0.05, namely 0.024 < 0.05, so the hypothesis of this research is that there is an influence of the Talaqqi Method on the ability to read Al-Qur'an. Qur'an for Class XII Students of Madrasah Aliyah Al-Usmaniyah in Bagan Batu, Rokan Hilir Regency. The level of influence between the Talaqqi Method (variable This means that the influence of using the Talaqqi Method on the Al-Qur'an Reading ability of Al-Usmaniyah Madrasah Aliyah Students in Bagan Batu, Rokan Hilir Regency is in the "very low" category.

Analisis Penerapan Pendidikan Karakter Pada Mata Pelajaran IPS Di SMPN 18 Kota Bengkulu

Character education plays an important role in forming a moral and ethical generation. Without character education, students may have difficulty distinguishing between good and bad. Character education teaches values ​​that are important for students' personal lives. This research aims to determine the application of character education in class VIII social studies subjects at SMPN 18 Bengkulu City. The research method used is qualitative research with research subjects involving social studies teachers and class VIII students. With data analysis techniques used are data collection, data reduction, data presentation and drawing conclusions. Data collection techniques use observation, interviews and documentation. The results of the research show that SMPN 18 Bengkulu City in the social studies learning process has implemented character education in the form of religious character, discipline, curiosity, responsibility and tolerance. The school also tries to continue to do its best to implement all existing character education for their students. The conclusion from this research is that SMPN 18 Bengkulu City has implemented character education in social studies subjects which can be a basis for teachers to develop their knowledge in order to create a conducive learning environment as an effort to develop student character.

You’ll never seek alone: The impact of active labour market policies on finding a job

Using the administrative records of the Spanish Public Employment Service for the period 2018–2019, we analysed the impact of participation in job search assistance and training programmes on the chances of unemployed jobseekers finding employment, as well as the quality of the job obtained. Propensity score matching techniques were used to evaluate the effectiveness of these programmes. We found that participation exerted a positive and significant differential effect on the probability of transition from unemployment to employment and on the probability of finding a job of intermediate quality compared to non-participation. This positive impact was largely due to the effect of training programmes, the magnitude of which persisted even as the period elapsed between participation and exit towards employment increased, whereas job search assistance was less effective over time. The positive influence of participation appeared to be more intense for specific socioeconomic groups.

Patterns of decomposition and functional traits for flower and leaf litter in tropical woody species.

The variation within and across species has afterlife effects on carbon and nutrient cycling through the alteration of litter decomposability. However, the focus on leaves may not reflect a whole-plant economic spectrum of strategies. Here, we assessed the patterns and predictors of flower and leaf-litter decomposition at the intra- (i.e., flowers and leaves of the same species) and inter-specific (i.e., flowers and leaves from different species) levels for 29 tropical woody species in northeast Brazil. We evaluated nine functional litter traits, including structural and chemical traits. Flower litter decomposed, on average, three times faster than leaf litter (11.9% and 39.4% mass remaining, respectively) and exhibited higher water-holding capacity (WHC), leaching (LEA), and N, P, and K content. Otherwise, leaf litter showed higher density (DEN) and Ca, Mg, and Na content. The average relative differences in decomposition rate and functional traits between flower and leaf litter did not differ at both intra- and inter-specific levels. The predictors of decomposition were mostly similar, explaining 39% and 37% of flower and leaf litter, respectively. Leaching, P, Ca, Mg, and Na predict both flower and leaf-litter decomposition. However, WHC exclusively predicted flower-litter decomposition, and DEN, N, and K exclusively predicted leaf-litter decomposition. The observed differences in decomposition rate and functional traits between flower and leaf litter indicate that the afterlife effects differ between these plant organs and leverage the role of flower litter and its secondary consequences to nutrient and carbon cycling on ecosystems.

Wood nutrients: Underexplored traits with functional and biogeochemical consequences.

Resource storage is a critical component of plant life history. While the storage of nonstructural carbohydrates in wood has been studied extensively, the multiple functions of mineral nutrient storage have received much less attention. Here, we highlight the size of wood nutrient pools, a primary determinant of whole-plant nutrient use efficiency, and a substantial fraction of ecosystem nutrient budgets, particularly tropical forests. Wood nutrient concentrations also show exceptional interspecific variation, even among co-occurring plant species, yet how they align with other plant functional traits and fit into existing trait economic spectra is unclear. We review the chemical forms and location of nutrient pools in bark and sapwood, and the evidence that nutrient remobilization from sapwood is associated with mast reproduction, seasonal leaf flush, and the capacity to resprout following damage. We also emphasize the role wood nutrients are likely to play in determining decomposition rates. Given the magnitude of wood nutrient stocks, and the importance of tissue stoichiometry to forest productivity, a key unresolved question is whether investment in wood nutrients is a relatively fixed trait, or conversely whether under global change plants will adjust nutrient allocation to wood depending on carbon gain and nutrient supply.

A functional trait-based assessment of urban street tree selection for Ethiopia

Urbanization in Ethiopia is rapidly reducing green space and biodiversity, and placing ecological stress on trees. Urban street trees (UST) can provide multiple ecosystem services, but need to cope with challenging street ecology and future climate risks. However, UST selection in Ethiopia is poor, and conventional trials and modern breeding are costly and time consuming to apply in Ethiopia. The main objective of the study was to identify potential UST species for two Ethiopian cities; Addis Ababa, and Arba Minch, by studying interspecific differences in functional traits. For the purpose, we created a database with list of 120 candidate UST gathered from multi-stakeholder workshop, literature review, and senior experts survey, and their ecological with their phenological and morphological features. Then we filtered 25 potential UST through framework analysis considering eco-morphological features of the trees. For the 25 species, we measured three types of plant functional traits: conservative traits (leaf mass per area and leaf dry matter content), acquisitive traits (leaf area, specific leaf area and leaf water content) and drought tolerance traits (leaf turgor pressure loss point, and leaf succulence index). Our results showed a strong trade-off between conservative and acquisitive traits, particularly between leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and specific leaf area (SLA) (r = −0.71), consistent with plant economic spectrum theory. Using PCA analysis, we identified three groups of potential USTs (Type I, II and III) that exhibit different adaptation strategies, consistent with Grime’s trait-based classification of universal plant adaptation strategies (CSR). Compared to species with high acquisitive traits (Type II and Type III), Type I species have high conservative and drought-tolerant traits shows better adaptation to harsh road environments, whereas Type II and Type III species may be more advantageous for urban parks and other resource-rich components of urban ecology. We also found significant variation in conservative, acquisitive and drought-tolerant traits among different species, indicating their different adaptation strategies. Our research advances the knowledge of plant adaptation in urban environments and provides a useful method for UST selection.

Examining the Effect of Parents on Children’s Career Choices in the Context of Class Positions

This article delves into the social mobility strategies employed by parents and their descendants from diverse social classes in structuring educational pathways and vocational choices across successive generations. The study relies on qualitative data from in-depth interviews conducted in Ankara with 24 parents and 18 offspring. Data analysis reveals that the strategies parents and their offspring embrace are intricately shaped by their social class positions and the cultural, social, and economic capital available to the latter. Labourer families grappling with cultural capital limitations exhibit constrained guidance to their offspring. In contrast, self-employed professional families actively deploy their comprehensive cultural capital to perpetuate privileged class positions across generations. Business owners or commercial entrepreneurs, characterised by a distinctive outlook, view education as a pathway to attain heightened social status rather than as a means of upward mobility. To address the inequalities uncovered in this research, establishing counselling centres for families to guide how to mentor their children and for the children themselves to facilitate the discovery of their abilities and interests could offer a solution toward mitigating these inequalities.

Leaf mass per area: An investigation into the application of the ubiquitous functional trait from a paleobotanical perspective.

Leaf mass per area (LMA) is a widely used functional trait in both neobotanical and paleobotanical research that provides a window into how plants interact with their environment. Paleobotanists have used site-level measures of LMA as a proxy for climate, biome, deciduousness, and community-scale plant strategy, yet many of these relationships have not been grounded in modern data. In this study, we evaluated LMA from the paleobotanical perspective, seeking to add modern context to paleobotanical interpretations and discover what a combined modern and fossil data set can tell us about how LMA can be best applied toward interpreting plant communities. We built a modern data set by pulling plant trait data from the TRY database, and a fossil data set by compiling data from studies that have used the petiole-width proxy for LMA. We then investigated the relationships of species-mean, site-mean, and site-distribution LMA with different climatic, phylogenetic, and physiognomic variables. We found that LMA distributions are correlated with climate, site taxonomic composition, and deciduousness. However, the relative contributions of these factors are not distinctive, and ultimately, LMA distributions cannot accurately reconstruct the biome or climate of an individual site. The correlations that make up the leaf economics spectrum are stronger than the correlations between LMA and climate, phylogeny, morphospace, or depositional environment. Fossil LMA should be understood as the culmination of the influences of these variables rather than as a predictor.

Socio-Economic Characteristics of Producers and Economic Size Classes of Enterprises According To Typologies and Risk Attitudes in TR21 Region

The aim of this study was to determine the typologies of agricultural enterprises operating in the TR21 Region according to the Farm Accounting Data Network methodology and the risk attitudes of the producers. According to the typologies and risk attitudes of the enterprises, the socio-economic characteristics of the producers and the economic size classes of the enterprises were determined. As a result of sampling based on a 95% confidence interval and a 10% margin of error, the number of enterprises surveyed was determined as 334. While 63.77% of the enterprises were specialized in field crops, 25.45% engaged in mixed livestock and plant production. Additionally, 7.49% were specialized in pasture livestock and 3.29% were in the perennial plant farming group. In the enterprises examined, 55.09% of the producers were classified as risk-averse and 44.91% as risk-lover. Of the average land holdings, 71.25% was property and 28.75% was rented land. It was noteworthy that the land rental rate in risk-lover enterprises was higher than in risk-averse enterprises. It was concluded that risk-lover enterprises had higher production value in both plant production and animal production, and risk-averse enterprises were engaged with product and animal diversity as they avoided taking risks. On average, in risk-lover enterprises, 53.64% of the operating expenses were vegetative special expenses and 46.36% were animal special expenses. In risk-averse enterprises, the share of vegetative special expenses in total expenses was 47.15%, and the share of animal special expenses was 52.85%. Compared to the average of enterprises and all enterprise typologies, standard gross profit was found to be higher in risk-lover enterprises. In enterprise typology groups, the average ESU values of the enterprises varied between 10.88 and 33.80 ESU. According to enterprise typologies, risk-averse agricultural enterprises in specialized field crop farming and perennial plant farming were in the below-medium enterprise class, while other enterprise groups were in the above-medium enterprise class.

“A Problem with the Person”: Class Blindness and the Reproduction of Social Class Inequality

“A Problem with the Person”: Class Blindness and the Reproduction of Social Class Inequality

A Morris Semiotic Perspective on the Characteristics and Cultural Significance of Traditional Guangdong Furniture Patterns

Based on Morris's semiotic theory, this paper systematically analyzes the symbolic features of traditional Guangdong furniture patterns and their cultural symbolism from the three dimensions of semiotics (syntax, semantics, and pragmatics). The study focuses on typical patterns such as dragon and phoenix, pine and crane, plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum in Guangdong traditional furniture, and explores their historical origins, social functions, and close links with Confucianism, family concepts, and social hierarchies in the context of Lingnan culture. By analyzing these symbols, the paper reveals their special symbolic meanings in different social classes and ritual cultures, as well as how they convey the values and lifestyles of the Guangdong region through visual forms. The study further explores the potential application of these traditional symbols in modern design, especially through simplification and abstraction, combining traditional cultural symbols with modern design concepts, materials and techniques to realize the fusion of cultural heritage and innovative design. This paper provides a new theoretical framework for the study of the patterns of traditional furniture in Guangdong, and practical suggestions for modern designers on how to effectively inherit and innovate the cultural heritage symbols, and to promote the synergistic development of cultural heritage preservation and design industry.

Patterns of change in the association between socioeconomic status and body mass index distribution in India, 1999-2021.

Body mass index (BMI) is an important indicator of human health. However, trends in socioeconomic inequalities in BMI over time throughout India are understudied. Filling this gap will elucidate which socioeconomic groups are still at risk for adverse BMI values. This repeated cross-sectional study analysed four rounds of India's National Family Health Surveys (1998-1999, 2005-2006, 2015-2016, and 2019-2021). The outcome was BMI categories, measured in kilogram per metres squared (kg/m2), defined as severely/moderately thin (<17.0 kg/m2), mildly thin (17.0-18.4 kg/m2), normal (18.5-24.9 kg/m2), overweight (25.0-29.9 kg/m2), and obese (≥30.0 kg/m2). We examined the prevalence, standardised absolute change, and odds ratios estimated by multivariable regression models by household wealth and levels of education, two important measures of socioeconomic status (SES). The study population consisted of 1 244 149 women and 227 585 men. We found that those in the lowest SES categories were more likely to be severely/moderately thin or mildly thin. Conversely, those in the highest SES groups were more likely to be overweight or obese. The gradients were steepest for wealth, and this was substantiated by the results of regression models for every wave. There has been a decline in the difference in the prevalence of severely/moderately thin or mildly thin between SES groups when comparing the years 1999 and 2021. SES-based inequalities in BMI were smaller in 2021 compared to 1999. However, those in low SES groups were most likely to be severely/moderately thin or mildly thin while those in high SES groups were more likely to be overweight or obese. Future research should explore the pathways that link SES with BMI.

Pterin-Based Red Coloration Predicts the Outcome of Male-Male Competition in Guinan Toad-Headed Lizard.

Animal coloration offers a unique opportunity to explore the evolutionary mechanisms underlying phenotypic diversity. Conspicuous coloration caused by pigments plays a crucial role in social signaling across multiple species by conveying information about individual quality, social ranks, or reproductive condition. Nevertheless, most previous studies have focused predominantly on colors produced by the exogenous pigments-carotenoids. Pterins are another prevalent group of conspicuous pigments, which can be produced endogenously and have received comparatively little attention. Whether pterin-based colors represent reliable signals remains elusive. The remarkable red ventrolateral coloration exhibited by males of the Guinan toad-headed lizard (Phrynocephalus guinanensis) in the Mugetan Desert presents an ideal model for investigating pterin-based coloration. Through electron microscopy and metabolomic identification, we discovered three types of pterin pigments within xanthophores. Integrating a series of morphological measurements and behavioral experiments, we found that this red coloration was not correlated with body size, bite force, and testosterone level, nor did females show a preference bias toward it. However, the red intensity predicted male-male competition outcomes, with deeper red males being more likely to emerge as winners. Our results indicated that the pterin-based coloration could convey information about male quality, suggesting its potential role in honest signaling, given the vital importance of pterin metabolism in physiological processes. This study provides a novel case into the understanding of pterin-based colors in animals.

Prescriptivist attempts at a spelling reform in Early Modern English: sociolinguistic and stylistic routes and rates of adoption

ABSTRACT Some late Renaissance scholars, like Smith (1568); Hart (1569; 1570); Bullokar (1580); Mulcaster (1582), attempted to reform English spelling to reflect the pronunciation changes resulting from the Great Vowel Shift. Their goal was to align letters and phonology by devising a more stable and predictable new system. This study explores the impact and diffusion of these spelling proposals. It examines texts from 1300 to 1700, written by authors from different socio-demographic and biological backgrounds, and across various genres, registers and text-types. The sources used as linguistic materials are the Innsbruck Corpus of Middle English Prose, an archival data source of prose pieces representing different genres from 1150 to 1500 and the Parsed Corpus of Early English Correspondence, a collection of 4,970 authored documents written from 1410 to 1681 by informants from different social ranks. This study may allow us to trace the sociolinguistic and stylistic route and rate of adoption (if any) followed by these attempts at reforming the English spelling system within processes of diffusion of linguistic innovations at the level of orthography, as well as to reconstruct the sociolinguistic contexts of language variation and change in past communities.