Theory Of Reproduction Research Articles

Arabic Culture As A Defensive Strategy: Tunisian Education As An Example

Since independence, the educational system in the Arab world in general, and Tunisia in particular, has continued to alienate itself from the mainstream society. Deeply rooted in a colonial past, education has failed to effect social, economic, and political change. this paper focuses on the status of education, and by extension Arabic language, in Post-independent Tunisia. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of Cultural Reproduction, and Antonio Gramsci’s theory of Cultural Hegemony. The method used is descriptive; to describe the research topic problems qualitatively to draw conclusions objectively according to primary data. The historical method is analyzing past events, interpreting them, and presenting the results to highlight their present and future effects.The finding sets out to argue that educational institutions are sites of power play.

A Conversation Between Dual and Triple System Theories and Social Reproduction Theory

This article attempts to understand if we can speak of a transition from Feminist Marxism to Feminist Materialism and Social Reproduction Theory, using a critical apparatus consisting of theorists such as Silvia Federici, Heidi Hartmann, as well as SRT feminists like Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharaya, Nancy Fraser, and Susan Ferguson. Starting from the proponents of the “Wages for Housework” campaign, I will make a short incursion into dual and triple system theory, to the unitary theory of Social Reproduction.

Gender- and SES-Specific Disparities in Shadow Education: Compensation for Boys, Status Upgrade for Girls? Evidence From the German LifE Study

In the present article, we draw on social reproduction theories to explain the increase in the use of “shadow education” (SE) in Germany over the last two decades as a status-based, gender-specific investment strategy of families. Thus, we ask whether investing in private tutoring for both girls and boys alike serves to maintain or improve their status position, or whether gender-specific investment strategies exist. Our hypotheses are quantitatively tested by means of logistic regression using data of the 2012 German Life Courses into Early Adulthood (LifE) study. In contrast to prominent beliefs, our results show that SE in Germany does not function as a tool to promote social inequality. Instead, SE is used largely independent of social origin to achieve higher educational credentials. We found that particularly boys from non-academic but high-income families use SE, whereas girls seem unaffected by social origin entirely. Our findings call for further strengthening the gender dimension in existing inequality theories.

Should different countries participating in PISA interpret socioeconomic background in the same way? A measurement invariance approach

It has been claimed that there is a lack of theory-driven constructs and a lack of cross-country comparability in International Large-Scale Assessment (ILSA)’s socio-economic background scales. To address these issues, a new socio-economic background scale was created based on Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory, which distinguishes economic, cultural and social capital. Secondly, measurement invariance of this construct was tested across countries participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). After dividing the countries which participated in PISA 2015 into three groups, i.e., Latin American, European, and Asian, a Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis was carried out in order to examine the measurement invariance of this new socio-economic scale.
 The results of this study revealed that this questionnaire, which measures the socio-economic background, was not found to be utterly invariant in the analysis involving all countries. However, when analysing more homogenous groups, measurement invariance was verified at the metric level, except for the group of Latin American countries. Further, implications for policymakers and recommendations for future studies are discussed.

Formation of theories of reproduction and development

Formation of theories of reproduction and development

Socio-economic Status and School Types as the Determinants of Access to Higher Education

This study aims to evaluate the impact of socio-economic status and the type of secondary school at which a student studied, on their access to higher education. The conceptual framework around this is discussed within the framework of Bourdieu’s theory of reproduction. The study was carried out in two complementary stages where different research approaches were used. In this study we used sequential explanatory design as a mixed method strategy, which uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Based on the mixed model approach, our research involved two study groups. The study group, which was part of the quantitative research, consisted of 983 newly enrolled first year students at Trakya University, in 2017. The study group, which was used for the qualitative part of the research, consisted of 26 students from eight different faculties, two different colleges, and four different vocational schools affiliated with Trakya University, in the spring semester of the 2018 academic year. The quantitative data was collected by the “Determinants of Access to Higher Education Survey,” which had been developed by the researcher. A Chi-Square test was used to test whether students’ opinions differ according to the departments (faculties and colleges) in which they study. Qualitative data was obtained through “the focus group” interview and analyzed using a descriptive analysis technique. The results of this study indicate that: 1) The socio-economic status of students, the quality of pre-higher education experiences, students’ preparation process for higher education, and higher education decisions, are contingent on students’ ability to be decisive and efficient. 2) There is a significant relationship between social class, as determined by the education level of the family, the parental profession, and family income, and the faculty/field of their higher education. 3) Lower class students and their families view higher education as a human capital investment which can help to improve their income and living conditions in the future. When the overall results of this research were evaluated we were able to understand that an individual’s social, economic, and cultural capital, was the main determinant of access to higher education.

Décrire et analyser la production des inégalités scolaires: l'apport de la sociologie de Basil Bernstein

Dès les années 90 le sociologue britannique Basil Bernstein reprochait aux travaux de Bourdieu et aux théories de la Reproduction (mais la question vaut d’être également posée à bien d’autres sociologies de l’éducation qui se posent en alternative à ces théories) de demeurer trop générales, de ne pas se soucier suffisamment de l’analyse interne des structures et modes de fonctionnement du champ éducatif, et de ne pouvoir ainsi « fournir des principes puissants de description des instances pédagogiques, de leurs discours, de leurs pratiques » (Bernstein, 2007, p. 26). De fait, à de rares exceptions près, la fonction de transmission du savoir et ses modalités pratiques apparaissent comme le parent pauvre de la sociologie de l'éducation : objet opaque et objet suspect, « mauvais objet », mystification, leurre derrière lesquels se cacheraient les « véritables fonctions » (reproduction sociale, aliénation, domestication...) de l'institution scolaire dont la sociologie aurait pour objet de rechercher et dévoiler les modes opératoires. Cette réticence est devenue un obstacle pour décrire et analyser, et donc pour contribuer à transformer, les processus concrets par lesquels se produisent, entre contextes et situations, les inégalités scolaires, de classe et de genre. Il nous faut au contraire pour cela savoir nouer des rapports renouvelés entre sociologie, psychologie culturelle et didactique. Nous montrerons, à partir d’exemples tirés d’observations prolongées de classes ordinaires, combien la théorie de Bernstein constitue un outil précieux pour construire un cadre conceptuel et des méthodologies empiriques au service de cet objectif.

Reproduction without polarity in the work of Johann Wilhelm Ritter.

The theories of reproduction that emerged at the end of the eighteenth century exhibited a range in experimental thinking about concepts of gender and sexuality. This essay focuses on the work of a writer who proposed an unusual alternative to polarity-based ideas of reproduction. Johann Wilhelm Ritter (1776-1810) was a physicist and friend to the German Romantics and someone whose writing also shares many interests with German Naturphilosophie. The essay discusses how, inspired by ideas from the alchemical tradition, Ritter challenged conventional thinking about reproduction in two significant ways: by linking it to the idea of rotation, and by using the figure of the androgyne to understand reproductive models in terms of triads, rather than oppositional pairings. A further objective of this essay is to consider which aspects of the alchemical tradition proved the most useful for Ritter's experimental thinking and to show how he integrated them with reflections on contemporary scientific developments around 1800.

Globalization and Pandemics: Interrogating the Differential Impact of Pandemics on States

The revolutionary interconnectedness of the planet through production flows, trade, technologies and finance representing increased globalization has eased the spread of pandemics. This has integrated the world into a single epidemiological system and resulted in calls for co-operation amongst countries. Despite this, countries’ responses to the outbreak of pandemics have been largely characterized by panic and co-operation has been sacrificed on the altar of national interest. Pandemics have therefore affected different countries differently. This informs this paper’s task to assess the underlying cause of the differential impacts of pandemics and to proffer plausible solution on how countries, especially the less developed ones can best adapt to the pressures emerging from pandemics in a globalized world. The paper was qualitative and time-series data relating to influenza pandemics, HIV/AIDS pandemic and the Coronavirus pandemic were extracted from secondary sources. Ogban-Iyam’s theory of Social Production and Reproduction was adopted as a theoretical framework for analysis. The study revealed that the emergence of globalization and the resultant ease in the spread of pandemic is a consequence of the social relations that occur in the capitalist production system. It was found that the differences in the impact of pandemics result mainly from the capabilities of states and the degree of sophistication of their productive forces. It was therefore recommended that the best option to ease the adaptation of states to changes posed by pandemics in a globalized world is the development of their productive forces. Keywords : Globalization, Pandemics, COVID-19, Influenza, HIV/AIDS ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0473-8825 DOI: 10.7176/IAGS/87-04 Publication date: October 31 st 2020

CONCEPT OF SWITCHING MODE OF REPRODUCTION AND EVOLUTIONARY THEORY: ISSUES OF METHODOLOGY

The purpose of the article is to show that the innovation development of the economy, being the subject of research of evolutionary economic theory, occurs mainly in the switching mode, and therefore is organically linked with the so-called switching mode of reproduction, which is currently being intensively developed at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. For representatives of the Orthodox Economic Science, all subjects are homogeneous, that is, they are characterized by rational behavior, the intention to maximize profits and the striving for equilibrium states. Evolutionary economists consider this homogeneity to be far from obvious. They pay primary attention to innovative development as a process of qualitative changes, distinguish subjects who implement qualitative changes and subjects who do not, but rather counteract changes. The concept of a switching mode of reproduction is based on a fundamentally different methodological prerequisite and therefore is a development of both evolutionary and orthodox economic theory.

Social Reproduction, Ecological Dispossession and Dependency: Life Beside the Río Santiago in Mexico

ABSTRACTThis article uses an integrated social reproduction theory (SRT) framework to highlight the interrelation between all non‐wage forms of survival, such as debt, community and the environment. The analysis demonstrates how Mexico's unregulated industrialization and social housing policies have created new forms of poverty and market dependency. The article relies on a comprehensive literature review and extensive fieldwork carried out in El Salto, one of Mexico's industrial peripheries, and shows how vulnerable populations become trapped, in this case on the banks of the Río Santiago, one of Mexico's most contaminated rivers. Parallel developments of industrial and housing policies contextualize the conditions unfolding throughout Mexico where populations are relocated to areas without adequate water and where drinking water is supplied by bottled water companies. This contribution highlights why an expanded SRT framework is valuable for understanding the relationship between ecological dispossession and the forced reliance on markets and debt.

Subjectifying objectivity: Delineating tastes in theoretical quantum gravity research.

Research in theoretical quantum gravity has continued expansively even as it has become detached from classic arbiters of research such as direct empirical falsification. This makes it an interesting test case for theories of what motivates and mediates contemporary scientific research and of the nature of scientific objectivity. We conducted 50 semi-structured interviews with researchers in the rival camps of string theory and loop quantum gravity, coded a subset for reoccurring themes, and subjected the resulting data to statistical analysis. To delineate the subjective tastes and the related process of collective consensus-making in contemporary quantum gravity research, we mobilize aspects of Daston and Galison's depiction of the scientific self and its relation to epistemic virtues, Bourdieu's field-centered account of social space, and Kantian notions of aesthetics. We make two key contributions. First, our analysis sheds light on the inner workings of the field by connecting its internal epistemic struggles with approaches to understanding scientific fields. Second, our application of theories of social reproduction to the substance of scientific inquiry allows some substantive generalizations of Daston and Galison's framework.

The social reproduction of science education outcomes for high school students in Israel

This paper investigates patterns of social reproduction of science education outcomes for high school students in Israel, specifically by examining the relationship between one aspect of science capital – as measured by having a scientist in the family – and SES with three measures of science education success: interest in science; science self-efficacy; and aspirations to pursue science at university. Regression analyses of questionnaire data (N = 380) from 14- to 18-year-old high school students yield differences between Jewish (majority) and Arab-Palestinian (minority) students. Specifically, regarding aspirations for university science, having a scientist in the family and higher SES are positively associated with better outcomes for Jewish students only. The analyses highlight the potential advantages of employing theories of social reproduction and science capital to explore inequalities in science education, which in this case is used to identify additional challenges in increasing minority student uptake in postsecondary science.

“Good schooling” in a race, gender, and class perspective: The reproduction of inequality at a former Model C school in South Africa

Abstract After the first democratic elections in 1994 in South Africa, many Model C schools were opened for Black, Coloured and Indian learners. Model C schools that used to cater solely for White female learners had now entered the democratic period, and while the Cape Town Model C school in our study swiftly became populated with Black middle-class female learners, little was known of other transformations on the ground. In 2016, a protest by Black female learners quickly found favour on Twitter. They claimed that differentiated racialised treatment was directed at them and enshrined in the school’s Code of Conduct (COC). In order to investigate these claims, we employ an intersectional discourse analysis to investigate the 2015 COC prior to the protest, as well as the post-protest 2017 COC. Drawing on theories of social reproduction, cultural capital, symbolic violence and habitus, we endeavour to show how Black learners’ embodied capital and lack of cultural capital ensured their inability to be accommodated at the school. We investigate the outcomes of the COC in terms of empowerment, as measured by equitable school access, and the reproduction of inequality, indicated by the implementation of “school rules” directed at Black female learners whilst maintaining the status of the dominant (White) group of middle-class students. We conclude that analysis of the COC reveals an attempt at cultivating a particular White middle-class womanhood through the guise of “good schooling”.

African Refugees in Australia: Social Position and Educational Outcomes

National equity policy debates in education are often driven by issues of disadvantage, opportunity, and achievement. However, little is known about how a disadvantaged position mediates people’s ability to transform opportunities into valuable achievements. Using African refugees in Australia as an empirical case, and drawing on a mixed method of research, this paper aims to address this knowledge gap. The main sources of data were policy documents, population census reports, and national higher education statistics. The findings highlight limitations with existing higher education equity policies in Australia and the extent to which African refugees have benefited from generic equity programs. In making sense of the data, the paper develops a new conceptual model by innovatively synthesizing the capability approach to social justice and a theory of social reproduction. The model offers an analytical lens to understand the dialectical interplay between objective contexts and subjective conditions that mediate substantive opportunity, conversion ability, and educational choice of the refugee youth.

Testing Weissman's Lineage Selection Model for the Maintenance of Sex: The Evolutionary Dynamics of Clam Shrimp Reproduction over Geologic Time.

One of the most perplexing questions within evolutionary biology is: "why are there so many methods of reproduction?" Contemporary theories assume that sexual reproduction should allow long term survival as dispersal and recombination of genetic material provides a population of organisms with the ability to adapt to environmental change. One of the most frustrating aspects of studying the evolution of reproductive systems is that we have not yet been able to utilize information locked within the fossil record to assess breeding system evolution in deep time. While the fossil record provides us with information on an organism's living environment, as well as some aspects of its ecology, the preservation of biological interactions (reproduction, feeding, symbiosis, communication) is exceedingly rare. Using both information from extant taxa uncovered by a plethora of biological and ecological studies and the rich representation of the Spinicaudata (Branchiopoda: Crustacea) throughout the fossil record (from the Devonian to today), we address two hypotheses of reproductive evolutionary theory: (1) that unisexual species should be short lived and less speciose than their outcrossing counterparts and (2) that androdioecy (mixtures of males and hermaphrodites) is an unstable, transitionary system that should not persist over long periods of time. We find no evidence of all-unisexual spinicaudatan taxa (clam shrimp) in the fossil record, but do find evidence of both androdioecious and dioecious clam shrimp. We find that clades with many androdioecious species are less speciose but persist longer than their mostly dioecious counterparts. These data suggest that all-unisexual lineages likely do not persist long whereas mixtures of unisexual and sexual breeding can persist for evolutionarily long periods but tend to produce fewer species than mostly sexual breeding.

The political economy of state regulation: the case of the British Factory Acts

AbstractThis paper examines the British Factory Acts (enacted 1833–78) to articulate a political economic theory of policy formation. It argues that the British Factory Acts stabilised conditions for both capital accumulation and social reproduction, while perpetuating patriarchal–capitalist relations. Through these Acts, the state intervened in industrial relations to address social coordination problems and overexploitation caused by the incentive structure of firms and households. Overexploitation posed three threats to social reproduction: the deterioration of the health of the working class, the destabilisation of gender norms and patriarchal structures and political mobilisation of the working and middle classes. By conceptualising protective policy as the solution to social coordination problems in the industrial capitalist labour market, this paper builds upon Polanyian insights into the ‘double movement’, with an explicit Marxian theory of exploitation, the classical theory of competition and insights from feminist theories of social reproduction, unwaged labour and the patriarchal–capitalist system.

The ability trap: reductionist theorising about academic ability and the ramifications for education policy and school-based practice

ABSTRACT The paper argues that there is a reductive logic inherent in conceptualisations of academic ability in some Western education research as currently configured. Effective interrogation of this concept necessitates consideration across relevant fields of research, as outlined in three areas of critique: that research on educational stratification can adopt a contradictory stance with respect to conceptualising academic ability and defer to innate cognitive ability in pupil test data while denouncing this elsewhere; that cultural reproduction theory is itself a powerful social construction with ramifications for the possibility of equal learning opportunities for all; and that a narrow focus on educational stratification reifies instrumental outcomes, devaluing some of the broader purposes of education. It is argued that these reductive tendencies have ramifications for education policy and school-based practices. A lack of focus on, and clarity about, the concept of academic ability warrants more holistic conceptualising, which draws on methodological pluralism.

Social Reproduction in the Making: Recentering the Margins, Expanding the Directions

This essay aims to broaden existing historical narratives of social reproduction by revisiting Black-feminist, postcolonial feminist, and migrant diasporic writings on social reproduction from the 1970s onwards. Centering on the historical experience of women of color, migrant communities, and women in postcolonial contexts and other parts of the world, these writings develop much-needed critiques of dominant social reproduction themes developed in the capitalist contexts in Western Europe and North America. These alternative feminist methodologies and historical accounts add important correctives to what is becoming the main corpus of social reproduction theory and its historiography today. They contain political potentials that expand feminist visions of struggle on the terrain of social reproduction

Toward an Ecology of Life-making: The Re-membering of Meridel Le Sueur

This essay advances Marxist feminism’s attention to social reproduction in order to account more fully for the relations that support life-making. The ecology of life-making is, I argue, an under-developed facet of social reproduction theory and an extension of its reach. I begin by clarifying social reproduction theory’s explanations of the value of reproductive labor time to life-making. I then turn to feminist political ecology’s attention to capital’s deregulation of life and to Native feminist onto-epistemologies as they expand the material history of capital’s theft of time and imposition of embodied debt. In the essay’s final section, I consider the writings of Meridel Le Sueur as theoretical contributions to a feminist ecology of life-making. I highlight literature’s capacity to render a history of life-making under capitalism as a complex and contradictory felt experience. From the 1930s through the last decades of the twentieth century, Le Sueur attended to the embodied debts incurred by capitalism’s theft of reproductive time and elaborated an ecology enriched by materialist and Indigenous thought. In countering capital’s fragmented temporalities, knowledges, and dependencies, her work exemplifies a timely feminist representation of life-making as critical re-membering and contributes to an ecology of life-making that more effectively addresses capital’s escalating squeeze on life.