Chances Of Social Mobility Research Articles

Gender Issues that Influence Financial Inclusion of Rural Women in Developing Nations.

Rural women in the developing world often face barriers that hinder them from benefiting from the formal financial sector. They experience structural challenges which frustrate their efforts to participate meaningfully in rural development processes as a result of this financial exclusion. This subsequently leads to the feminization of poverty thereby reducing their chances for social mobility. This paper analyses the gender issues influence these rural women’s financial inclusion. The paper mainly relied on desk research to identify and analyses common factors influencing rural women in the developing world’s financial inclusion in the contemporary world. The researchers utilized a systematic literature review method to identify and analyse information related to rural women’s financial inclusion. This entailed a robust internet search for different articles deemed relevant to the topic under study. The search revealed that rural women face challenges to do with time poverty, rural-urban gender gap, and lack of gender mainstreaming and patriarchal barriers. Basing on the factors highlighted above, the paper recommends that women should be helped to acquire saving techniques, improve their mobility, coopted into agricultural leadership positions, enhance their access to and participation in livestock production and have their self-concept improved. There is also need for structural changes where the government and other development agencies gender mainstream different financial services and projects offered in rural areas and to promote gender sensitive training for rural women programmes. They should consider cultural, psychological and legislative barriers that hinder rural women’s financial inclusion so as to improve access to financial products and services. Contract farming companies should also consider the implementation of contracts plus programmes.

Specificity of Socio-Economic Processes in the Hungarian Microregion

The Kunhegyesi District is the most disadvantaged district in the Northern Great Plain Region of Hungary. The aim of this study, which serves as a basis for a social comparative analysis of the District’s settlements in the future, is to understand the demographic processes. Population in the District has been steadily decreasing since 2011 besides lower income levels, poorer health indicators and a higher proportion of premature mortality. Two out of three children are disadvantaged, while the vast majority of young people drops out of secondary school without any qualification. The higherthan-average proportion of Roma population alone does not explain worsening economic output, economic performance has nothing to do with ethnic origin. Reasons are rather to be found in the deterioration of social mobility of the past two decades. Similarly to areas with a higher proportion of Roma population, the District also undergoes an exodus of nonRoma, resulting in ghettoization, thereby further diminishing chances of social mobility. Thanks to social inclusion and recovery programs, as well as the commitment of local Roma stakeholders, promising changes are coming true with an increase in qualification and employment levels and a decrease in the number of disadvantaged children, question is whether development is sustainable in the long run, and also, whether the District has a potential to independently selfsustain social development.

“Useless Schooling” or “Hopeless Schooling”: An Ethnographic Study of Lower-Class Rural Parents’ Perceptions on the Value of Schooling

Based on the data collected in a one-year long fieldwork in Zhong, a county located in middle part of China, this article reconsiders the concept of “useless schooling,” which was proposed in recent studies on the perceptions of value of education among lower-class rural residents in China. It calls for a understanding of those changes in the macro social structure, which becomes increasingly stratified, and the emerging patterns of educational opportunity structure in the era of social transformation, and argues that this is the base for the understanding lower-class rural parents’ perceptions on the value of schooling. This article employs Bourdieu’s concept of “habitus” and conceptualizes the process of how lower-class rural residents form their value on school education as a process of structural factors being internalized into individual dispositions. Based on the data collected, this article proposes to use the concept of “hopeless schooling” to capture their perceptions on the value of school education. It emphasizes that the emerging education opportunity structure and differentiated chances of social mobility by different social groups have gradually been transformed into a stratified pattern of “expectations” for education and social mobility, and proposes the need to examine the ongoing solidification of social structure in this period of transformation.

Managing acceptable academic outcomes in a context of multiple deprivation: Making do in a South African township school

This article explores the intervention strategy used by the staff and school management team of a South African township school to ensure that final-year learners exposed to an environment of multiple deprivation are adequately prepared for the year-end standardised examination. Analysis of the interview data confirms literature findings on the debilitating effect of multiple deprivation, in the form of absolute poverty, on learners’ chances of learning successfully. Research findings reveal strategies related to an intervention programme to prepare final-year learners for the year-end examination. The intervention programme, consisting of Saturday morning and school holiday morning classes and a study camp event a fortnight before the final examination commences, counteracts inhibiting home and environment conditions, to support learners holistically to achieve acceptable academic outcomes. However, the negative influence on learners’ diligence of extending their final school year over two years and the constraint on knowledge and skills attainment of a pass mark of only 30% for some subjects are adverse factors limiting the chances of social mobility for learners with multiple deprivation.

What Works? Family Influences on Occupational Aspirations among Descendants of Middle Eastern Immigrants on the Swedish Labour Market

In this article, we examine family influences on occupational aspirations among employed descendants of Middle Eastern immigrants. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with native-born descendants of Middle Eastern immigrants. We present and analyse their interpretations of their parents’ experiences and living conditions before, during and after migration and demonstrate how these interpretations shaped their own occupational aspirations. We discuss parents’ high expectations of their children in relation to ethnic-community valuations of educational and occupational achievements. These high expectations may increase the chances of social mobility but can also become a negative pressure, especially if parents set high standards but cannot help their children to meet those expectations. In these cases, older siblings who possess valuable knowledge of the educational system and labour market can function as important transferrers of resources.

Más allá del dinero: redes familiares, amicales e institucionales y su relación con las trayectorias educativas postsecundarias de jóvenes peruanos

La educación superior moldea las probabilidades de movilidad social de los individuos. La literatura pone el énfasis en la influencia de la clase social en las trayectorias educativas post secundarias, pero descuida el estudio de las formas en las cuales las relaciones sociales y su funcionamiento afectan estos itinerarios. En este contexto, este artículo analiza la influencia de las redes familiares, personales e institucionales en las trayectorias educativas post secundarias de jóvenes peruanos de diferentes orígenes sociales. El diseño metodológico consistió en un estudio longitudinal cuantitativo (sociométrico) y cualitativo. Se encontraron cuatro tipos de inserción en la educación superior: transición, inserción con estabilidad, inserción con movimiento continuo e inserción con interrupción temporal. Asimismo, existe una retroalimentación compleja entre las trayectorias e hitos biográficos, los cambios en los espacios en los que se mueve el joven, los cambios en las redes sociales, los cambios en la agencia del actor, la trayectoria socio-económica de la familia y el papel de las instituciones. Con respecto al papel de las redes sociales, estas tienen consecuencias diversas y ambivalentes, positivas y negativas, según las circunstancias, contextos y momentos del ciclo vital de la persona.

The Direct Effect of Social Origins on Social Mobility Chances: ‘Glass Floors’ and ‘Glass Ceilings’ in Britain

textabstractIn this article we pursue, using appropriate British birth cohort data, various issues that arise from recent research into the ‘direct’ effect of social origins on individuals’ social mobility chances: i.e. the effect that is not mediated by education and that can be seen as giving rise to non-meritocratic ‘glass floors’ and ‘glass ceilings’. We show that if educational level is determined at labour market entry, class destinations are significantly associated with class origins independently of education. However, we go on to investigate how far the direct effect may be underestimated by an insufficiently comprehensive treatment of social origins, and also how far it may be overestimated by a failure to take into account the effects of later-life education and resulting changes in individuals’ relative qualification levels. Finally, having arrived at our best estimates of the extent of the direct effect, we seek to identify factors that mediate it. While individuals’ cognitive ability and sense of locus of control prove to play some part, reported parental help in the labour market does not appear to be of any great importance. Some implications of our findings both for further research and for the ideal of an education-based meritocracy are considered.

GARANTISMO À BRASILEIRA: UMA ANÁLISE CRÍTICA À LUZ DA APLICAÇÃO DO PRINCÍPIO DA INSIGNIFICÂNCIA

Este ensaio busca demonstrar, por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e de análise jurisprudencial, que o garantismo penal segue uma linha de teorias que foram importadas pelos pensadores nacionais, mas que aqui adquiriram um novo significado, colaborando – diferentemente do que vaticinam em tese – mais para a conservação das estruturas fundamentais de nossa sociedade do que para a sua transformação. Não é feita, portanto, uma crítica aos princípios do garantismo penal, mas sim uma análise de como esses princípios vêm sendo utilizados no Brasil. Conclui-se, assim, que quando as garantias constitucionais não são uniformemente asseguradas a todos, elas perdem o seu caráter de garantias, funcionando como uma espécie de privilégio, do qual só gozam com segurança aqueles indivíduos com condições financeiras para custear uma defesa consistente em uma eventual ação penal. Desse modo, o estigma social deixado pelo cárcere acaba recaindo majoritariamente sobre indivíduos pertencentes às camadas mais pobres da população, diminuindo radicalmente qualquer chance de ascensão social dessas pessoas, bem como do grupo social que as rodeia, colaborando, assim, para a manutenção da desigualdade social.

Patterns of social mobility and the role of education in India

This paper investigates the role played by education as a mediator of inter-generational social mobility in India. It uses a nationally representative data set (the National Election Study 2009) to describe and establish patterns of social mobility in India, and subsequently, to establish the role played by education with regard to this mobility. In particular, it attempts to test the ‘merit’ argument by analysing whether the effect of social origins (class and caste; along with locality and gender) on mobility and on gaining access to one class destination (where education is expected to be critical) has declined, and whether education plays a role. However, while the paper finds high rates of inter-generational stability, rural–urban disaggregation complicates the broader picture. The role of education is also key, especially for women. The paper finds that education plays an important role with regard to social mobility chances, but the effect of caste and class of origin remains significant. Focusing on one class destination – the professional class – once we control for education, the impact of caste seems to vary, while the role played by class of origin remains statistically significant. The implications of these patterns by gender and locality are discussed.

Can high-performing academies overcome family background and improve social mobility?

This article investigates whether schools that match Coalition Government criteria for excellence can enable hardworking students, regardless of background, to achieve good examination results and improved chances of social mobility. Students at two case-study academies were interviewed about family influences on their development and choice of education and employment pathways. In a ‘best case’ scenario, where prototype academies have rigorously implemented government policy, are students less reliant than before on family resources, influences and dispositions? Our data suggest that family background continues to be an important influence on participants’ attitudes, values, occupational interests and preferences. There are few signs that the new academy regime is creating improved opportunities for social mobility.

Intergenerational social mobility and health in Brazil: analyzing the "Social Dimensions of Inequalilies Survey (PDSD)," 2008

Although most studies consider health to be the result of social and economic insertion of the individuals, health may be considered a determining factor of the social opportunities achieved, especially with respect to chances of social mobility. The scope of this article is to understand the magnitude of the concurrent associations that sociodemographic, health and quality of life conditions (SF-36) exercise on chances of intergenerational social mobility on a probability sample of Brazilian homes in 2008. Social mobility was determined by the transition between occupational groups, which were defined using the Ganzeboom scale. Sociodemographic, health and quality of life features were associated with upward social mobility through logistic regression. A high level of schooling was the main determinant of chances of intergenerational social mobility. Women and youngsters ascended more intergenerationally. A positive association was observed between self assessment of health, physical health scores and upward mobility. Social mobility has become established as a multideterminate event. Physical health and perceived health were capable of influencing social transitions.

Race and Affirmative Action: The Implementation of Quotas for “Black” Students in a Brazilian University

In 2003, some Brazilian public universities began to reserve a percentage of their posts (quotas) to “black” students, allowing them to be accepted with lower scores at the admission exam. These type of policies became common during the last decade as a way to fight against social inequalities, but have also become the object of public disagreement due to its potentially “racializing” character. The present article engages with the racial-quota debate, using some ethnographic data collected at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro between 2007 and 2008. The author defends these measures as a way to diversify what have been traditionallyelite university spaces and as a way to increase chances of social mobility for lowerclass students. These facts should be considered within a debate on affirmative action, without necessarily implying that racial quotas should be the best and only solution to address racial inequalities in Brazilian education.

The Consumption Styles of Immigrant Families in Italy: Identifications, Status, and Practices

The purpose of this article is to show how consumption patterns can provide insight into the way in which immigrant parents and their children negotiate their identities, deal with their social status, and try to build a new life in their country of arrival. There is a lot of research on consumption—especially about the role of objects and brands as identity markers—and migrant families—especially evaluating their social status or their reduced chances of social mobility. However, what is often missing is the link between consumption styles and the “management” of cultural diversity and identification patterns within migrant families. This article is based on data from a 2‐year qualitative research project during which the authors conducted 70 in‐depth interviews with migrant families involving both parents and their children. The interviews took place in Milan which is the most multicultural city in Italy. Although the empirical investigation was conducted in only one country, the overall aim was to investigate broader tendencies about the role of consumption styles in migrant families in western countries and to include two generations (parents and their children in the late teens and early twenties).

Noblemen in an urbanised society: Zeeland and its nobility in the late Middle Ages

The Low Countries became one of the most urbanised regions in late-medieval Europe. This article analyses the consequences of urbanisation and also state formation for the nobility in Zeeland. Noble lords remained the dominant political power, the result of their position in the States of Zeeland, but only a significant minority of the nobility was active in state service or urban government. The Zeeland towns offered the nobility a range of opportunities for service, and political, economic and familial networks developed across social boundaries. The nature of these ties depended on the status and objectives of those involved, making late-medieval society in Zeeland more complex than merely a division between nobility and burghers. Zeeland also illustrates the regional diversity within the Low Countries in the position of the nobility in urban society. It refutes the idea that they were transformed into a state nobility and shows that the chances of social mobility for the inhabitants of the small towns of Zeeland were slight.

New Migrants in the UK: Employment Patterns and Occupational Attainment

The share of Old and New Commonwealth migrants in Britain greatly diminished between 1971 and 2002. The decline of former colonial Commonwealth migrants occurred alongside the rise of Central, Eastern European and Middle Eastern migrants. This paper focuses on the chances of social mobility of the previously little-studied new migrant groups and outlines the differences in employment patterns between them and UK-born Whites and old migrants. It establishes that huge differentials exist between new immigrant groups in their labour-market participation, employment rates and occupational attainment. The disadvantage of EU10, Eastern European, Turkish and Middle Eastern migrants in terms of their probabilities of being active, employed and accessing intermediate positions cannot be explained by a lack of human capital, and their situation is not likely to improve with time. For migrant women, inactivity rather than unemployment seems the greatest concern.

Educational Expansion and Social Mobility in the 20th Century

Sociologists consider inequality in educational attainment to be a major cause of inequality between people in their chances of occupying a more advantageous class position. However, there is dispute as to whether educational inequality according to social class background declined during the 20th century. What is not in doubt is the expansion of education in the advanced economies during this time, and several authors have pointed to educational expansion as a mechanism by which inequalities in social mobility chances may be reduced. I measure this effect and compare it with the impact of educational equalization on social mobility in Britain, Sweden and Germany during the 20th century. I find that in all three countries educational expansion promoted greater social mobility.

The dream of social mobility: ethnic minority players in Danish football clubs

The purpose of this essay is to inquire into the prospects of social mobility among young ethnic minority males who are at the start of their career in Danish football clubs. The essay is based on a local field study which involved interviews with 10 talented ethnic minority players, and eight coaches and club leaders in two ethnic minority clubs, three clubs that we refer to as transit clubs, and one premier league club in a Danish provincial city. Bourdieu’s concepts are used to describe the players’ chances of social mobility and the observed disparity between the prospects for ethnic minority players from a ghetto area and those from other parts of the city. According to Bourdieu, the players compete not only for a position in a particular football team but also for an improvement in their position within a stratification system (in this case, the field of football). The analysis shows that the possibility of social mobility is here dependent on whether the players’ physical capital is acknowledged and converted into cultural, social and economic capital.

Social mobility and health in the Turin longitudinal study

One of the most controversial explanations of class inequalities in health is the health selection hypothesis or drift hypothesis which suggests there is a casual link between the health status of individuals and their chances of social mobility, both inter- and intra-generational. This study tests this hypothesis, and tries to answer three related questions: (a) to what extent does health status influence the chances of intra-generational mobility of individuals? (b) what is the impact on health inequalities of the various kinds of social mobility (both mobility in the labour market and exit from employment)—do they increase or reduce inequalities? (c) to what extent does health-related intra-generational social mobility contribute to the production of health inequalities? The data analysed in this paper were drawn from the records of the Turin Longitudinal Study, which was set up to monitor health inequality of the Turin population by combining census data, population registry records and medical records. Occupational mobility was observed during the decade 1981–1991. To evaluate the impact of the various processes of social mobility on health inequalities, mortality was observed over the period 1991–1999. The study population consists of men and women aged 25–49 at the beginning of mortality follow-up (1991), and registered as resident in Turin at both the 1981 and the 1991 censuses ( N=127,384). Health status was determined by observing hospital admission. For the purpose of the study healthy individuals were those with no hospital admissions during the period 1984–1986, while those admitted were classed as unhealthy. Social mobility in the labour market was measured via an interval data index of upward and downward movements on a scale of social desirability of occupations, designed for the Italian labour force via an empirical study carried out by de Lillo and Schizzerotto (La valutazione sociale delle occupazioni. Una scala di stratificazione occupazionale per l’Italia contemporanea, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1985). Movement out of the labour market was described by a discrete variable with four conditions: employed, unemployed, early retired and women returning from work to the housewife status. The relationship between health status and occupational mobility was analysed via analysis of variance and multinomial logistic regression. Health inequalities were measured by the ratio of standardised mortality rates in the unskilled working class and the upper middle class. The study found a weak relationship between health status and occupational mobility chances. Decidedly stronger was the impact on occupational mobility of gender, education and “ethnicity” (being born in the South of Italy). The relationship between occupational mobility and health takes two different forms. Occupational mobility in the labour market decreases health inequalities; occupational mobility out of the labour market (early retirement, unemployment, housewife return) widens them. The maximum contribution health-related intra-generational social mobility can make towards health inequalities was estimated at about 13% for men.

Social Mobility in Britain: An Empirical Evaluation of Two Competing Explanations

Existing data on social mobility in Britain demonstrate a disparity of up to 4:1 in the relative chances of children from different social class backgrounds ending up at the top or bottom of the occupational class system. In an earlier paper, it was argued that such disparities should not necessarily be seen as the result of social advantages or disadvantages associated with different class origins, for they are also consistent with a model of meritocracy in which class differentials in average levels of ability are reflected in the class destinations achieved by people from different social backgrounds. That paper has been criticised, both analytically and empirically, and this paper addresses some of these criticisms through an analysis of data from the National Child Development Study. The analysis shows that ability is an important factor influencing social mobility chances, and through a series of logistic regression and multiple regression models, it demonstrates that meritocratic factors (individual effort and ability) outweigh social advantage/disadvantage factors in predicting the occupational class achieved by over 6,000 men and women by age 33. The paper ends by answering the analytical criticisms made against the earlier paper.

Long-term social development of Hungary, measured by social indicators

Social indicators of social structure, urbanisation, level of living and social mobility chances are used to study the development of Hungarian society from the period of capitalist society to the present. The impact of socialist transformations, as well as the influences of the new economic and social conditions appearing in the second half of the 1960's and leading to the economic reforms are especially investigated. Modernization, the decline of inequalities of income and of social mobility opportunities characterized the socialist transformations. Since the mid-60's new tendencies are emerging that need careful investigation.