Status Aspirations Research Articles

Status Orders: Toward a Local Understanding of Status Dynamics in World Politics

Abstract This analytical essay highlights the importance of status orders in the study of status and prestige in world politics. Drawing on recent research in the field, I argue that understanding the particular social structures that regulate the status dynamics within social collectives is crucial to understanding how actors seek and receive status in world politics. I review the literature on status in IR and introduce the concept of status orders as context-specific and local social structures that determine what is considered prestigious within a particular group, community, or club. Using examples from war-making, nuclear weapons, and diplomatic practice, I argue that the fact that status dynamics is often produced locally and not globally forces us to focus less on “universal” aspirations for status, and more on where that actor sought status from and eventually according to which yardstick that actor experienced a change in status.

The spectacle of automation and status aspirations: adoption of automated metro systems around the world, 2000–2020

The spectacle of automation and status aspirations: adoption of automated metro systems around the world, 2000–2020

Do people make sufficiency-oriented mobile phone choices based on dynamic norms? The perception and effectiveness of sufficiency-promoting messages in online media

Excessive consumption poses a significant threat to the environment. Therefore, overall consumption reduction is necessary. The sufficiency strategy aims to achieve this reduction by enabling individual behavioral changes. In the context of mobile phone choices, one way to promote sufficiency is by encouraging consumers to refrain from purchasing new devices and instead prolong the lifespan of their existing ones. As companies play a major role in shaping products and market conditions that influence consumption, they have a responsibility to support consumers in adopting sufficiency-oriented mobile phone use. However, previous research on the effectiveness of sufficiency-promoting communication and the use of dynamic norms in behavior-change interventions has yielded mixed results. We conducted an online experiment with two specific objectives: First, we examined whether messages emphasizing a dynamic norm have positive impacts on individuals' intentions and behavioral choices regarding sufficiency-oriented mobile phone use. The results indicated no significant effects of a sufficiency-promoting message emphasizing a dynamic norm, compared to two other conditions. Nevertheless, regardless of the message people received, one third of the individuals in all groups chose a sufficiency-oriented voucher. Materialism was found to positively predict both the intention to buy a new mobile phone and sufficiency-oriented behavior, partially contradicting our hypothesis. This suggests that sufficiency-oriented consumption may also be motivated by aspirations for status, albeit in the context of sufficiency. In contrast, personal norms for sufficiency consistently predicted intentions or behaviors aligned with sufficiency, however, not always in the direction we hypothesized. Second, we investigated consumers' attributed motives for online media by comparing a search engine, as an unbiased source of information, with an online store driven by commercial interests. Our analysis revealed significant differences in consumers' perceptions, with altruistic motives attributed to the search engine and exploitative motives attributed to the online store. Our results contribute to the ongoing discussion about the requirements for effective communication strategies that promote sufficiency-oriented choices. We confirm the limited effectiveness of interventions based on dynamic norms in online settings. Nevertheless, our study offers valuables insights for designing future communication initiatives aimed at fostering sufficiency-oriented behaviors.

Changes in college students' socioeconomic status aspirations during the COVID‐19 pandemic

AbstractAlthough university students tend to be optimistic about their future socioeconomic status (SES), little is known how their SES aspirations changed during the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Using latent growth curve modeling techniques, we examined changes in subjective SES aspirations for students who began college before the pandemic (cohort 1; Fall 2019) and students who began college during the pandemic (cohort 2; Fall 2020). Moreover, we assessed how SES indicators (i.e., subjective family SES; first‐generation status; low‐income status) and a contextual financial indicator (i.e., pandemic‐related financial impacts) predicted changes in SES aspirations for both groups of students. Although SES aspirations were similar at the beginning of college for both groups of students, students who began college before the pandemic experienced a greater rate of downward change between the baseline assessment and the assessment shortly after the pandemic began. In both cohorts, students from higher‐SES families had higher SES aspirations at the beginning of college and steeper rates of downward change. Furthermore, despite having similar SES aspirations at the beginning of college, first‐generation students whose first year was interrupted by the pandemic experienced steeper downward changes in their SES aspirations. However, pandemic‐related financial impacts did not predict this downward change for either cohort. Our findings suggest that uncertainty in the early stages of the pandemic may have led to cautiousness in students' aspirations for their future SES attainment, particularly for first‐generation students.

»Should I Stay or Should I Go?« Prevalence and Predictors of Spatial Mobility among Youth in the Transition to Vocational Education and Training in Germany

Spatial mobility is an important means of tackling regional disparities and matching problems in education and labor markets, but it is also a source of individual social inequality as it is associated with higher socio-economic resources and returns; however, there is a paucity of research on the prevalence and predictors of spatial mobility among youth entering vocational education and training (VET). We examine the importance of (a) individual occupational orientations, (b) regional opportunity structures, and (c) social ties for the spatial mobility of youth in this early transition phase using longitudinal data from the German NEPS, which we combined with administrative geospatial data of German districts (NUTS-3). Our results show widespread spatial mobility among students entering the VET system: 16% are mobile within and 22% between regional labor markets. Multinomial logistic regression models show that, in addition to young people’s occupational orientations (status aspirations; search duration) and social ties to friends, regional opportunity structures (general unattractiveness; person–environment mismatch) are crucial for youths’ spatial mobility. This underscores the importance of spatial mobility given regional disparities to promote youths’ access to VET and reduce regional mismatches in the VET market.

Free Agency, Hard Work, and the Justification of Economic Inequality in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Free Agency, Hard Work, and the Justification of Economic Inequality in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Racial Inequality and Status in Contemporary Organizations: A Supply- and Demand-Side Perspective

Among contemporary organizations that purportedly support an equal and equitable workplace, we often see mixed evidence involving employees’ own experiences, particularly those of minority individuals, in response to issues involving racial inequality, such as racial discrimination and bias, that remain persistent in the workplace. These issues also point to the relevance of status of individuals and organizations on both the supply- and demand-sides of the labor market. While studies attempt to address the consequences of such issues, further work that focuses on current and more recent efforts to address issues of racial inequality, particularly from the vantage point of individuals of minority racial groups, needs to be explored. This symposium not only aims to provide further contribution to these areas with an empirical oversight of the interplay of organizational status, diversity, and racial stratification, but it also uniquely hones in on the salience of Asian Americans as a racial group that moves beyond the scope of a traditional focus on a Black/White dichotomy that has often been the subject of relevant literature. At the end of the presentation, Matthew Bidwell, a leading scholar on status and inequality in organizations, will facilitate an interactive group discussion about these papers with the audience and presenters with key commentary. Keywords: race, inequality, status, diversity, racial stratification, labor markets Threading the Diversity Needle: Minority Group Presence and Perceptions of Organizational Status Presenter: Noah Askin; INSEAD Seeking Only the Best: How Hometown Pressures Influence (East-) Asian Americans’ Status Aspirations Presenter: Oliver Hahl; Carnegie Mellon U. - Tepper School of Business Presenter: Jenny Oh; Carnegie Mellon U. - Tepper School of Business Presenter: Trevor Daniel Young-Hyman; U. of Pittsburgh Racial Inequality in Organizational Environments Presenter: Letian Zhang; Harvard Business School Creativity Ceiling: Stereotypes and Underrepresentation of Asian Americans in Corporate Leadership Presenter: Wyatt Lee; U. of Toronto

Why Russia attacked Ukraine: Strategic culture and radicalized narratives

ABSTRACT This article explores Russia’s attack on Ukraine using the lens of strategic culture. Specifically, two strands in Russian strategic culture are identified. The first is a deep-seated sense of vulnerability, especially vis-à-vis “the West.” To counter this perceived threat, Russia’s national security establishment has long emphasized the importance of possessing strategic depth and buffer zones. The second strand revolves around a feeling of entitlement to great power status. A central component in Russia’s great power vision is the right to have a sphere of influence in its Eurasian neighborhood. The article shows that Kremlin officials perceived Ukraine’s drift toward the West as a major threat to both Russia’s security interests and its status aspirations. As a result, Russia’s rhetorical milieu regarding Ukraine became increasingly radicalized. The article concludes that this provided the discursive and intellectual habitat that enabled Putin to launch a large-scale attack.

Producing Place-Based Masculine Subjectivities: Aspirations for Recognition and Status among Socially Mobile Vietnamese-Australian Young Men

ABSTRACT This article presents a longitudinal case study of five second-generation Vietnamese-Australian males experiencing the transition from boyhood to manhood. The participants reside in the same peri-urban region in Australia and come from families working in factories and restaurants or on farms and all aspire to pursue more middle-class forms of employment. Our investigation compels us to reflect on gendered identities as intercultural where place-based experiences open up opportunities for young men to gain recognition and status. Central to the analysis is how masculine subjectivities are embodied and performed as these young men navigate through different places. We draw on Bourdieu’s concepts (habitus, capital and field) to decipher how their experiences with place shape their sense of who they are as well as who they want to become. This case study complements scholarship which addresses intra-group differences in Vietnamese-Australian cultures, and how these differences are deeply influenced by access to and operationalisation of capital through sustained contact with various fields.

Religious Creolization and Differentiation

Religious differentiations are as important as creolization processes in creole societies. Taking four generations of a family in La Réunion as an example, I illustrate how religious practices and identifications can develop historically, culturally and socially in a creole context. Changing importance of and identification with religious practices are interrelated with political developments and power relations, ranging from the colonial context via departmentalization to regionalization, which come along with possibilities and felt expectations of cultural identification, including as French, Indian, Hindu, Reunionese, and Creole. Religious practices also reflect changing images of Hindus, such as from indentured laborers to successful entrepreneurs, as well as their aspirations for recognition and status. Combining people’s material and sensory approaches to religion with the discursive level of their life stories reveals a complex historically embedded relation between religious creolization and differentiation.

Women's Activism and Pakistani State Policies: A Comparison of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif Governments (1988-1999)

The purpose of this article is to trace the history of women's activism in Pakistan, as well as the policies of the Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League (N) Governments (1988-1999). This period after the revival of democracy following the military government is significant in understanding women’s activism as well as the policies of two prime ministers with diametrically opposed ideological orientations. Explaining this movement's various expressions is necessary to comprehend its various phases. This study will help to identify the significance of specific historical circumstances, power structures, and national and international policy dynamics in shaping the women's rights movement in Pakistan. This study critically examines women's rights activism during the four terms of democratically elected prime ministers and how they responded to women's rights aspirations for equal status for women in society. This historical analysis is necessary to determine whether contemporary activism is a continuation of the past or distinct in terms of goals and modalities.

The Political Logic of Status Competition: Leaders, Status Tradeoffs, and Beijing’s Vietnam Policy, 1949–1965

Abstract Students of status politics among nations could hardly evade two broad questions: how do status aspirations drive state foreign policy? And when do leaders consider international conflict a vehicle for status assertion? Conventional wisdom holds that humiliating international events could sensitize leaders to great-power status, increase their propensity for geopolitical competition, and fuel domestic agitation for provocative policies abroad. This assertion is empirically and theoretically flawed. In response, my argument underscores the fact that leaders often have to reconcile their status claims with the imperatives of national security and political survival. Two hypotheses follow. First, in the aftermath of humiliating international events, leaders tend to abstain from provocative policies. That is because such policies risk escalation of conflicts abroad which could jeopardize leaders’ interests in national security and domestic political survival. However, should the moderate approach either encourage the rival power to threaten leaders’ ties with a client state or stir a domestic backlash, leaders may pursue a provocative policy (a second hypothesis). Beijing’s Vietnam policy in 1949–1965 provides crucial evidence for these hypotheses, which carry implications for theory and current events.

Dream Big: Effects of Capitals, Socioeconomic Status, Negative Culture, and Educational Aspirations Among the Senior High School Student Athletes.

To understand the impact of social, financial, cultural capitals, negative culture, and socioeconomic status of families on educational aspiration in the senior high school student athletes, it will be beneficial to promote their career developments. The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of ethnicity, year of sport experience family income, the educational expectations of significant others, and the three aforementioned types of capital on educational aspiration among the senior high school student athletes. This study was conducted with a sample of 262 U-18 male baseball student athletes. Of the participants, 20.20% had attained the qualifications to play on the national team. The results showed that monthly family income positively affected social capital and positively indirectly affected educational aspirations through social capital, whereas monthly family income negatively affected negative culture and positively affected educational aspirations through negative culture. Moreover, social capital positively affected educational aspirations compared with negative culture negatively affected educational aspirations. The results serve as a reference for the formulation of educational policy as it relates to student athletes.

From “Greater Europe” to “Greater Eurasia”: Status concerns and the evolution of Russia’s approach to alignment and regional integration

Russia’s approach to alignment and regional integration has evolved dramatically—from a focus on the West and disinterest and neglect of regional integration in the 1990s, to vigorous efforts to reintegrate the post-Soviet space under Russian leadership in the period between 2009 and 2014, to forming a “Greater Eurasia” that transcends the post-Soviet space and includes China and other non-Western powers (such as Turkey, India, and Iran) today. Status concerns are key to understanding this evolution in policy and vision as a declining Russia struggles to avoid losing great power status. Russia initially eschewed its relationships with post-Soviet states in favor of integration with Europe and the West, which seemed to offer greater status gains. When Russia failed to find a place in the Western liberal order and “Greater Europe” commensurate with its status aspirations, it shifted its attention to regional integration of the post-Soviet space, believing this would make Russia, in the words of President Putin, “one of the poles in a future multipolar world.” However, integrating the post-Soviet space proved to be an arduous task (that failed miserably in Ukraine) and did not yield the status gains Russia hoped for. The scope of Eurasian integration has now shifted to the formation of a “Greater Eurasia,” as Russia looks to gain status through its association with more dynamic rising and emerging powers.

National interests and identity in the face of the challenges of european integration

National identity and values have been one of the most often studied topics among researchers in international relations throughout the years, from a variety of angles, especially in relation to European democratic ideals. The ideals at the heart of European Integration have been hotly debated in recent years as a result of some significant changes in EU governance. It is well known that European Integration is seen in a wide range of elements. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the best approach to build shared values as a chance to hold European nations and citizens together and to support European public policy was through the expansion of the EU and the established constitution. The process of Albania’s European integration is a significant and ongoing component of the topic of European integration. Since June 1991, Albania has had a relationship with the European Union. In this topic, I’ve discussed the advancement Albania has made thus far in relation to the requirements it still needs to meet, the Balkan nations that want to join the EU, and Albania’s current status aspirations. Considering a country’s sovereignty, where sovereignty currently stands in relation to the European Union and its integration, and the relationship between European and National identity, the study of this topic modestly brings the interaction between national identity and values with European identity and European standards.

Status Matters in World Politics

AbstractThis article explores the burgeoning literature on status in world politics. Toward that end, it reviews three recently published books. The three books are representative of the different theoretical perspectives that have come to dominate status research in international relations. Renshon's Fighting for Status offers a rationalist–instrumental approach; Larson and Shevchenko's Quest for Status draws on insights from social identity theory; and Murray's The Struggle for Recognition is informed by constructivist theory. The article contrasts and compares the three works. Moreover, it identifies shortcomings and limitations in each book and, based on this discussion, suggests areas for further research. In particular, it is argued that scholars should devote more attention to competitive theory testing through process tracing; incorporate domestic politics more systematically into approaches of status seeking; develop case-specific explanations that fuse insights from the various perspectives; and examine how the interplay of material and ideational factors shapes states’ status aspirations.

Striving for greatness: status aspirations, rhetorical entrapment, and domestic reforms

How do leaders use external events or pressures as political levers to facilitate domestic reforms? In this article, we build a theory of aspirational politics to address this question. We show that aspirations to improve a country’s international status can help leaders justify the implementation of their preferred domestic policies. For instance, the aspiration of wanting to join prestigious international organizations or agreements creates focal narratives that reformers can use to highlight the need to catch up and rhetorically constrain domestic actors who oppose reforms. We illustrate this mechanism through the Chinese leaders’ counterintuitively positive statements towards the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) from 2013 to 2016. By framing the TPP as an aspiration through which China can enhance its international status, Chinese leaders were able to justify domestic economic reforms. Unlike conventional explanations, this was done without the onset of crises or actually signing the TPP. We substantiate this claim using evidence from computer-assisted text analysis of Chinese news coverage of the TPP from 2008-2018 (N = 10189) and process-tracing of the establishment of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.

Show them the flag: status ambitions and recognition in small state coalition warfare

ABSTRACTWhy do small states actively contribute to US- and NATO-led military operations? The small state literature has recently developed a novel explanation, referring to their dependency upon the alliance hegemon. The logic is that the small states aim to improve their status and reputation in order to remain relevant and to receive protection. This article contributes to this literature by moving away from this fear of abandonment motivation towards more positive status incitements. It shows how such status motives actually guide and shape small states’ military contributions in US- or NATO-led operations. It does so by using recent innovations in process-tracing methodology to create a status-seeking mechanism. Using the case of Belgium’s participation in the military coalition against ISIL, this article goes beyond the usual Scandinavian suspects in the small state literature and demonstrates that status motivations have relevance for a wider group of small states.

Adolescents' development of occupational aspirations in a tracked and vocation-oriented educational system

The formation of occupational aspirations is an important developmental task during adolescence, and aspirations are an important predictor of occupational attainment in adulthood. This paper investigates the formation and development of occupational aspirations in a tracked educational system. We focus on the social status of occupations and take Switzerland as an example. We use data of the Swiss Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth to examine how characteristics of the educational pathway influence the status of adolescents' occupational aspirations between the ages of 15 and 21. Our findings show that the level and development of adolescents' occupational status aspirations differ by tracks of upper-secondary education. Whereas young people in baccalaureate school decrease their status aspirations slightly over time, those in some types of vocational education and training increase their aspirations considerably. Overall, the results support the assumption of a strong relationship between the development of occupational status aspirations and the structure of the educational system.

Russian responses to the changing character of war

Abstract For much of the post-Soviet era there was a widespread belief that improving capabilities required for dealing with local small wars and insurgencies was the central focus of Russian military reforms. As a result, Moscow's military assertiveness and return to geopolitical rivalries since 2014 came as a surprise to many in the West. The article argues that small wars were never the major focus of Russian military transformation and reforms. Tracing the country's experience of war and conflict regionally and internationally since the end of the Cold War, and the impact this had on Moscow's views on what kind of armed forces it required, the article shows that the Kremlin's military ambitions started to diverge dramatically from western expectations as early as the mid-1990s. Russia never really saw armed forces geared towards small and ‘new war’-type scenarios as sufficient for upholding its regional and international status ambitions. Moreover, the Kremlin's growing preoccupation with internal order and regime stability has increasingly reinforced the rhetoric of a hostile West, which is used to justify the increasing centralization of domestic politics. Russia's military revival has been long in the making and poses serious challenges to its neighbours and to the West.