Mechanisms Of Social Reproduction Research Articles

Access to Labour and “Differential Inclusion” for Young Venezuelan Migrants in Ecuador

Young migrants and refugees provide important inputs concerning production and social reproduction mechanisms (care work) that reproduce unequal but highly profitable patterns of accumulation around the world. The expansion of globalisation and neoliberalism has deepened such social dynamics, leading to a “multiplication of labour.” The diversification and heterogenization of migrant labour within neoliberal frameworks raise ethical and human rights concerns, including issues related to fair wages, working conditions, and access to social protections. After a neoliberal era in Latin America, the emergence of post‐development politics in the region led to increased efforts to address the needs of these populations. This article seeks to contribute to debates about “differential inclusion” in South–South migration and access to labour and social protection by analysing a specific case study of young Venezuelans, a recently growing phenomenon that has a great impact on the region. Ecuador is noteworthy because it hosts one of the largest populations of Venezuelan migrants and refugees and has adopted a human rights perspective in conjunction with public investments in social policy, health, and education. Despite efforts to legalize the work status of Venezuelan migrants, a more restrictive policy began to be implemented in 2019 that limited their access to formal labour and social protection. Within these complex dynamics of differential inclusion, instead of seeing these young migrants and refugees as victims, we analyse their resilience strategies of accessing social provisions while coping with informality and irregular status, as well as conditions of multiplication of labour. Using four real‐life stories as examples taken from a larger ethnographic study, we illustrate how dynamics of differential inclusion intersect with the gender, age, and legal status of young Venezuelans in Ecuador. The case studies are complemented with structural explanations from 6,000 household surveys collected between 2017 and 2020.

How Therborn's Theory of Ideology Enhances Bourdieus's Theory of Fields

AbstractPierre Bourdieu's theory of subjectivity is perhaps the most elaborate within the broad constructivist tradition, and Göran Therborn's is perhaps the most elaborate within the Marxist tradition. These traditions emphasize opposite components and tend to produce different explanations on micro‐cognitive levels. But this article demonstrates a striking complementarity and ventures elements of synthesis. The two theorists are contrasted on four broad areas of social science: consciousness versus unconsciousness, identity formation, class, and discourse. Bourdieu emphasizes unconscious dispositions generally unamenable to individual control, whereas Therborn emphasizes formation of conscious beliefs. By bracketing the unconscious processes that Bourdieu captures, Therborn omits key mechanisms of social reproduction. Yet the mechanisms he does capture fit almost seamlessly into Bourdieuian theory on the mutual constitution of individual‐level subjectivity and societal‐level reproduction. Each theorist supplies what the other is missing for a theory of subjectivity with greater explanatory power than either offers alone.

The Reinforcement of the ‘Dowry for Groom’ Tradition in Customary Marriages of West Sumatra’s Pariaman Society

In contrast to the customary mahar or dowry system in typical Indonesian marriages, West Sumatra's Minangkabau people in Pariaman practice a unique ‘dowry for groom’ tradition, in which the bride pays a dowry to the bridegroom based on his social status. Payment is adjusted according to the social status of the man and is a must for the marriage to take place. This paper aims to examine the persistence and strengthening of the ‘dowry for groom’ tradition in the Pariaman Muslim community in West Sumatra by focusing on three main issues, namely the practice of ‘dowry for groom’ in the Pariaman community; factors that make the ‘dowry for groom’ tradition survive among Pariaman Muslims in the midst of the swift currents of modernization and globalization; and the mechanism of social reproduction of the 'dowry for men' tradition in the Pariaman community. The study is an empirical legal research using sociological theory as an analytical tool. Data is collected through interviews, observation and literature studies. The findings reveal that the reinforcement of the 'dowry for groom' tradition in Pariaman society is supported by several fundamental factors, including the widespread practice and support from the community, religious and traditional leaders, the local government, and the younger generation. The 'dowry for groom' tradition in Pariaman reflects the values of Muslim identity, such as adherence to religious teachings by finding husbands for daughters and maintaining a spirit of mutual aid, while also protecting the Minangkabau institution of ninik mamak (elders) and strengthening women's position as the true "monarchs" in Minangkabau society. Further research could explore more extensive meanings related to the 'dowry for groom' tradition

Access to Baccalaureate School in Switzerland: Regional Variance of Institutional Conditions and Its Consequences for Educational Inequalities

In Switzerland, baccalaureate school is still considered to be the royal road to a university education and the elite path for the social reproduction of the upper class. However, cantonal enrollment to baccalaureate school varies widely due to Swiss federalism. There is a recurring debate on whether access to baccalaureate school is fair and equal among pupils who live in different cantons and who are of different social origin. This paper aims to analyze how the institutional conditions of cantons and municipalities impact a pupil’s probability of entering baccalaureate school and how the cantonal provisioning of places in baccalaureate school affects social inequality of access. For our theoretical foundation, we combine concepts of neo-institutionalism with mechanisms of social reproduction in education. Empirically, we analyze national longitudinal register data to model educational transitions from compulsory to baccalaureate school by using logistic regression models. Our results show that institutional structures at the cantonal and municipal levels influence the probability of transition beyond individual pupils’ characteristics. The degree of inequality varies between cantons, depending on the supply of baccalaureate school places. Inequality first increases with an increasing number of places (the scissors effect) and decreases only after the demand of more privileged families for places at baccalaureate school is saturated.

Social reproduction and gender beliefs of ethnic minority women

AbstractResearch suggests that ethnic minority women in employment negotiate more than one culture and grapple with beliefs that stem from a bi‐cultural experience. Research also contends that gender is at the center of social reproduction and the production of labor and social reproduction is invariably linked. However, how is social reproduction at work, and how gender beliefs influence social reproduction and work‐life choices amongst highly educated, employed, second‐generation ethnic minority women, deserves in‐depth attention. Contributing to the intersection of social reproduction and diversity research, the present paper offers two life stories of highly educated second‐generation British Pakistani women and examines in‐depth the role of two cultures on gender beliefs and the influence of those gender beliefs on social reproduction and work‐life choices. Drawing on Ridgeway and Correll's (2004) work on gender beliefs, we extend their work by focusing on two cultures (the host country and the country of ethnic origin). While the literature has generally focused on issues of social reproduction across generations, our study also takes into account the contours of social reproduction across cultures. Our findings reveal the mechanisms of social reproduction, the push and pull of two cultures in the creation of gender beliefs within one person, the fluidity and fixity of gender beliefs, and the ways these are negotiated while the individual contributes toward social reproduction and makes work‐life choices.

Urban Students’ Critical Race–Class Narratives: An Examination of the Relationship Between Race and Class Within the Context of Punitive School Discipline

Background/Context: In the wake of the 1994 national call for zero tolerance and the growth of school policing programs in the United States throughout the 1990s and 2000s, an abundance of research has demonstrated that Black and Latinx students are disproportionately targeted for suspension and expulsion from school, and students of color, particularly those attending racially segregated schools in high-poverty neighborhoods, are substantially more likely to be subjected to daily policing and arrests. In addition, there is a significant body of critical scholarly work that examines the larger social–historical context of punitive school discipline and policing. Such studies illuminate the historical and structural underpinnings that give rise to punitive school discipline and reveal how school discipline policies have become an extension of the societal project of mass incarceration and aggressive policing in high poverty, racially segregated neighborhoods in the United States and elsewhere. Existing critical studies of school discipline and policing generally acknowledge both the race and class dimensions of punitive discipline. However, most critical studies tend to situate punitive school discipline and policing in either a political economic or a critical race analysis, so they do not necessarily provide insight into the specific ways students’ class positions and racial identities work together to shape their experiences of punitive discipline, schooling, and a racialized political economy. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This article offers an analysis of ways that students in a racially segregated urban high school with punitive disciplinary practices narrate their understandings of the impact of race and political economy on their experiences of schooling, the labor market, and policing in and out of school. The author, building on the political economic analyses of Jean Anyon, argues that the students’ “critical race–class narratives” offer important theoretical and practical insights into the ways social class and race intersect to shape students’ experiences of schooling and policing in urban schools. Research Design: This analysis draws on a previously published critical ethnographic study of school policing in a racially segregated high school in a high-poverty Bronx, New York, neighborhood. The larger study examined students’ lived experiences of school policing and the ways that order-maintenance-style street-policing tactics inside the school worked to funnel students into the criminal justice system, often for minor school infractions. The investigation also revealed a disinvestment in educational interventions and counseling services in favor of a social-control approach in the school. For this study, the author revisits the interview data with four key research participants to gain insight into the interconnectedness of race and class oppression within the students’ lived experience of schooling, policing, and the labor market. In addition, drawing on critical (Marxian) education theory, critical race theory, and historical analyses in the Black radical tradition, the author analyzes the students’ critical race–class narratives with the aim of contributing to a more integrated theory of race and political economy in educational research. Findings: The author identifies two interrelated narrative strategies used by the students as they discussed their experiences of racial oppression and economic exclusion. Specifically, students provided an integrated critical race–class analysis through the use of a collective frame and the use of spatial terms to describe their experiences. As they spoke in collective and spatialized terms about their local and immediate lived experiences of education, discipline, and the labor market, the students’ conceptualizations of race and class became fused. Their use of the word “ghetto,” for example, signified both a racialized and a social class experience. The author argues that the students’ narrative strategies reflect historical analyses within the Black radical tradition that reveal how race and racism are constructed to support the rise of capitalism. Conclusion: First, the critical race–class narratives of young people living in ghettoized neighborhoods and attending racially segregated schools can serve as an important starting point for examinations of contemporary mechanisms of social reproduction as well as the resistance practices, resilience, cultural resources, and lived experiences of students of color in urban schools. The narratives can hold urban education scholars who tend to dismiss the centrality of race or skirt around the dire impact of neoliberal capitalist political economy accountable to the lived realities of the students they study. Second, critical urban education researchers must recognize the tremendous significance of penal control and what it signifies in the lives of racialized youth in urban areas.

Minding the curve: The influence of social origin on earnings inequality by education in Mexico

Relying on data from the Mexican Mobility Survey for 2006, I evaluate by how much earnings inequality improves upon reducing the influence of social origin on educational attainment. A semiparametric estimation of a counterfactual distribution is used to simulate a distribution of earnings that is not overdetermined by the effect of social origin on education. The contrast between the simulated and the observed distribution reveals that social origin worsens inequality by inducing an earnings bonus. In particular, the earnings bonus associated with social origin, benefits most those with a high school degree or more. Those who have attained at most middle school obtain a small earnings bonus or none at all. Social origin's boosting of returns to education is most salient above the median of the earnings distribution and increases disproportionately above the 80th percentile. The results emphasize the importance of universal educational opportunities for reducing the effect of social origin on labor market outcomes. The absence of any indirect effect of social origin on the earnings of those with less than a high school education is not consistent with sociological perspectives that emphasize social reproduction mechanisms in explaining inter-generational persistence in the labor market.

Whatever Happened to Socialization?

Socialization is a key mechanism of social reproduction. Yet, like the functionalists who introduced the concept, socialization has fallen out of favor, critiqued for ignoring power and agency, for its teleology and incoherence, and for a misguided link to “culture of poverty” arguments. In this review, we argue for a renewed, postfunctionalist use of socialization. We review the concept's history, its high point under Parsons, the reasons for its demise, its continued use in some subfields (e.g., gender, race and ethnicity, education), and alternative concepts used to explain social reproduction. We then suggest that something is lost when socialization is avoided or isolated in particular subfields. Without socialization, conceptions of social reproduction face problems of history, power, and transferability. We close by outlining a postfunctionalist agenda for socialization research, providing a framework for a new theory of socialization, one that builds off of cognitive science, pragmatism, the study of language, the reinterrogation of values, and the development of ideology in political socialization.

The objective development mechanism of agriculture in the Russian Federation: theory, methodology, and practice

The problem of determination of the the objective mechanism of social reproduction of agriculture is yet to be resolved. Its cognition furnishes the clue ti the rational solution of a range of socioeconomic, environmental, scientific-technological, ideological, political, and practical tasks for successful development of the sector and its branches in the Russian Federation. The existing domestic and foreign experience proves the inadequacy of the used theories, methodologies and practices, which give only a partial representation in the conditions of considerable uncertainty. The modern theories, methodologies, and practices are incapable of determining the objective mechanism for agricultural development in relation to social reproduction, and thus, ensure the development of agriculture in the current context of sanctions and increased competition in the world market. The author offers an alternative approach with a fundamentally new scientific base, systemic and comprehensive methodology, an adequate theory that fully reflects all aspects of the objective reproduction mechanism on all economic levels. The pivotal link in transformation in the strategy of agricultural development of the Russian Federation is the drastic change in the socioeconomic ideology and state policy aimed at improvement of living conditions for all members of the society based on the legislative consolidation, which via state coercion, ensures the increase in the share of advantageous  spending and reduction of disadvantageous, harmful spending within the budget structure of a social worker and spare time of each person or society in nature. Successful transition of agriculture to an innovative type of reproduction becomes possible only in terms of the accelerated (5-7 years) second Industrialization of the Russian Federation in all production sectors.

Генезис становлення нової економіки

The article analyzes that in the conditions of globalization the world economy is developing in the direction of increasing integrity, at the same time feeling the influence of destructive processes, centrifugal, disintegrating forces. In opposition to these trends, the main contradictions of the era are expressed, the traditional processes of interstate integration are intensifying, the purpose of which is not so much the expansion and liberalization of international markets, but primarily protectionist protection and common customs regulation within global economic exchange. It is determined that the movement towards integrity in the process of globalization is disharmonious and uneven in different spheres of socio-economic life. The movement of goods, services, capital actually means the creation of a global reproductive integrity with all its inherent features (cyclical, economic gaps, etc.). At the same time, in the sphere of politics, intercivilizational and intercultural interaction, the process is reversed from movement to integrity. It is substantiated that the key role in understanding modern economic transformations is played by the creation of a fundamentally new theory of economic and technological development, its value criteria and indicators. It is analyzed that traditional ideas based on resource components of growth, measured by incremental values of output, income, production and others, at the beginning of the XXI century have exhausted themselves, because the qualitative transformation of the structure and mechanism of social reproduction requires rethinking the system of factors and sources of economic and technological development. The traditional scheme: labor, land and capital - even with the mechanical addition of science and information to it is no longer able to explain the changes taking place in the world at the beginning of the XXI century.

Worldwide shadow education and social inequality: Explaining differences in the socioeconomic gap in access to shadow education across 63 societies

This article examines the cross-national differences in socioeconomic accessibility to shadow education (SE) across 63 societies. Drawing on arguments from two competing theoretical models either emphasizing cross-national cultural, economic, and institutional differences (e.g. model of secondary schooling, scale of SE) or universally working social reproduction mechanisms (e.g. enrichment features of SE), this study provides a novel approach to understanding the role of SE for social inequality. More specifically, while the first model explicitly allows equality in access to SE, the latter suggests that SE fosters inequality under all circumstances. Using data from the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and official sources, first, the difference in the probability of top in comparison to bottom socioeconomic strata to use SE is predicted separately for all societies, before analyzing what causes the found considerable cross-national variation in the socioeconomic gap in access to SE at the country level. Results indicate that differences in SE access are linked to incentives for high-performing students to use SE. These incentives are especially common in societies with higher educational institutional differentiation (e.g. early or mixed tracking schooling models). In societies with less stratified education systems, access to SE is more equal, wherefore the potential effect of SE to social inequality is dampened. Overall, findings suggest that simple generalizations based on existing theoretical models provide no comprehensive explanation for the connection between SE and inequality. Instead, prominent beliefs about the relationship between SE and inequality are questioned.

História e historiografia do trabalho indígena em São Paulo colonial

O objetivo central do presente artigo é discutir o papel fundante e estrutural que a exploração do trabalho indígena desempenhou na formação histórica da região de São Paulo, fronteira colonial da América Portuguesa. Partindo de um balanço historiográfico sobre o problema, cinco episódios históricos concretos (extraídos de documentos tais como cartas de missionários, pleitos judiciais e registros parlamentares) serão expostos e apresentados como representativos de uma variedade de situações conjunturais peculiares que, não obstante, podem ser lidos como momentos de um mesmo processo de longa duração: a proliferação e permanência do trabalho compulsório indígena nos mecanismos regionais de reprodução social. Com base em uma demarcação conceitual até agora não explorada pela historiografia americanista (a qual procura distinguir as categorias de “regime”, “sistema” e “modalidade” de trabalho), sugere-se uma periodização da história colonial paulista tendo como critério privilegiado os diferentes padrões de emprego do braço indígena. Conclui-se que a escravidão indígena em São Paulo teria sido uma espécie de instituição “elástica” que, ao longo de quatro séculos de história, sofreu inúmeras transformações de ordem jurídica, política e social, mas que nunca deixou de apresentar-se como parte integrante das relações hegemônicas de sociabilidade na região.

Embeddedness dilemma and alternative commoditization of social economy in rural China: a case study

AbstractThis article identifies different aspects of the embeddedness dilemma in a rural social economy project in South China. The term ‘alternative commodification’ is proposed to summarize the practitioners’ strategy. This strategy highlighted social embeddedness of economic development, but on the other hand involved the village deeper into the commodification process. Participants of the project only focused on newly emerged economic opportunities, with little concern of the embeddedness goal. Based on social transformation theory of Wright, the article also identifies two social reproduction mechanisms brought by marketization reform as structural barriers for realizing embeddedness goal: universal commodification and consumerism, both of which intensify villagers’ demand for cash income and ignorance of social dimensions of the project. Future research also needs to identify more barriers and methods to overcome obstacles in the process of developing social economy.

Educational Upward Mobility. Practices of Social Changes--Research on Social Mobility and Educational Inequality

Social class is defined by the possession of all forms of economic capital, cultural capital and social capital which together shape the kinds of experience and lifestyles. This process is dubbed symbolic violence by Pierre Bourdieu. Education is crucially linked to assets such as income, occupational position and social prestige. Educational upward mobility requires more than individual effort and intelligence, and sometimes different ingredients, such as specific social conditions. The different dimensions of inequality—income, poverty, social exclusion, education and social mobility—are interconnected. The paper has been inspired by Bourdieu’s work on symbolic domination and capitals, and lifestyles. The author identifies a persistence of inequalities among the students due to social reproduction mechanisms: family background and parents’ social situation have a substantial influence on the life chances. The empirical data of this study come from a survey in 2019. The paper ends with a summary of findings and conclusions.

A contribution to the critique of worthless education: between critical pedagogy and welfare sociology

ABSTRACT The article deals with changes in the area of education, especially at the higher level, after the so-called neoliberal turn of the 1980s. In order to explore the transformation of the sphere of education, the Marxian concept of commodification was used, as well as the four-level approach to the mechanisms of social reproduction of inequalities of Göran Theborn. This allows the introduction of the concept of worthless education, which, in turn, takes into account the role of not only the phenomena of education in the contemporary capitalist society, but also – similarly to the proposal of Max Weber – phenomena that are conditioned by and important in terms of education. Thus outlined research area was confronted with the approach of critical pedagogy and welfare sociology, in order to articulate the social consequences of the process of spoiling education. The main aim of the article is, therefore, to critically analyse the changes in the area of education after the neoliberal turn, which through the concept of ‘worthless education’ allows to see the overt and covert consequences of the ongoing transformations on many levels of society (although attention and examples have been focused mainly on the issue of labour).

Residential and school segregation as parameters of educational performance in Athens

The paper explores the relation of educational performance with social and urban inequalities in the Athens Metropolitan Area during the 2000s. It draws on discussions about education as a mechanism of social reproduction and on work about education inequalities in Greece, and in particular in Athens, where a socially stratified secondary education –compared to the rest of the country– leads to a rather open, but at the same time socially unequal higher education. We analyze how the performance of candidates in the Greek national admissions examination (Panelladikes Exetaseis) relates to the social position of candidates’ families, to the type of secondary schools they attended, to the social profile of candidates’ residential neighborhoods (tentatively) and to their demographic features (age and sex). The object is to illustrate and roughly quantify the function of social reproduction in this socially selective process of transition to higher education.

Discussões entrelaçadas: a sexualidade e a (des)construção de identidade e expressão de gênero

From a theoretical-critical perspective, this paper discusses the construction of gender roles in society from the inter/transdisciplinarity between the content conveyed by Eleonore Pourriat's film “I am not an easy man” and the sociological assumptions of Pierre Bourdieu's studies, evidenced in the book “Masculine Domination”. The textures of the text turn to a presentation to the reader about concepts of “sex”, “sexuality” and “gender identity/expression”. The discussions lead to analyzes that reveal that there are mechanisms of social reproduction that are little perceived by the dominated, including the media, when it is observed that the descriptions of the synopses of the films reveal signs of maintenance of male domination. Finally, it is noteworthy that film narratives are of great value in interconnecting fields of human knowledge and allowing inter/transdisciplinary discussions.

The Costs of Exclusionary Practices in Masculinities Studies

Feminist scholarship on masculinities ossified into a recognizable “subfield” of gender studies, in part, through systematically centering the work of a very small group of white men. This process of collective centering works as an effective “exclusionary practice” that I argue hinders both the scholarly and political potential of this field. This article examines the transformation of the status of the subfield alongside an examination of women’s contributions to feminist scholarship on masculinities, and an emergent politics of citation that works to reproduce inequality within this subfield. In addition to identifying the processes by which a small group of white men have accumulated a disproportionate amount of power and status within “masculinities studies” as problematic, I also question the lack of critical dialogue and debate between various subfields examining systems of power and structured advantage. Here, I put masculinities studies into conversation with whiteness studies, critical heterosexualities studies, research on elites, and more to argue that there should be more dialogue between scholars doing research in these areas. Disrupting exclusionary practices in masculinities studies with both political and practical intent will better situate feminist scholars of masculinities to adapt their scholarship to transformations in the character and form of durable systems of inequality as well as identifying emergent processes and mechanisms of social reproduction.

Alternating School-Work Pathways in Italy. Some Remarks on the "Competence Society"

Since the mid-nineties, the European Union and UNESCO have promoted a new form of didactics aimed at developing competences. These subsequently identified by the Council and the European Parliament, are considered as fundamental for Europe's response to globalisation. Their close link with a neoliberal perspective of the working world - as can also be deduced from the non-random choice of the term - is evident. In particular, the competence related to the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship has assumed a strategic role within the Lifelong Learning Programme and the Europe 2020 programme, fostering the spread of a new labour market model no longer based on the prevailing paid employment. Recent Italian legislation on educational institutions, and Law 107/2015 in particular, have acknowledged the European Union guidelines regarding promotion of the key competences, and more specifically of alternating school-work pathways. Although it is too early to make an overall evaluation of the effects these laws have produced, the actions promoted so far do not seem to overcome the existing inequality in Italy's educational and employment opportunities. Furthermore, the objective of promoting competences that can be directly used on the labour market, to the detriment of broader cultural preparation deemed useless for this purpose, risks impoverishing the education of the most disadvantaged, those people who have the fewest chances of acquiring knowledge and critical thinking outside the school context. The transformations taking place in the educational field appear to proclaim the advent of a Competence Society, the last metamorphosis of an epiphenomenon with its roots in the globalised capitalist system which is leaving social reproduction mechanisms unchanged.

A Teoria Crítica entre Marx e Honneth

Neste artigo considerarei as principais objeções marxistas ao modelo de Honneth para uma Teoria Crítica da sociedade e também as objeções centrais de Honneth aos modelos inspirados em Marx. Depois tentarei esboçar uma reaproximação entre ambas posições ao mostrar como o conceito normativo de reconhecimento de Honneth não é oposto a argumentos funcionalistas, e sim que ele contém uma dimensão socioteórica: a ideia de que a reprodução social e a evolução social revolvem ao redor de lutas pela interpretação de normas sociais centrais. Ao iluminar o lado socioteórico do reconhecimento, é possível esboçar um modelo de Teoria Crítica da sociedade que, de fato, corresponda às características descritivas e normativa delineadas pelo próprio Marx. No entanto, o preço desta reaproximação para a Teoria Crítica de Honneth é uma ênfase maior na divisão do trabalho como o mecanismo central da reprodução social.