Social Inequalities

La felicidad prometida y sus límites. Desarrollo institucional, inclusión/exclusión social y el legado colonial en Centroamérica, 1770-1870

by David Diaz-Arias

(Con la colaboración de Ronny Viales Hurtado) en: Independencias, Estados y política(s) en la Centroamérica del siglo XIX. Las rutas históricas del bicentenario (San José: Centro de Investigaciones Históricas de América Central, 2012), pp. 45-62.

To pay back and the selective mobilization of social capital: the case of economic support in Italy

by Alberta Andreotti

English version of the article published in Polis, XIX(1), 5-30

I am interested in understanding how economic support is distributed among the population in economic difficulty (but... more I am interested in understanding how economic support is distributed among the population in economic difficulty (but not necessarily in poverty).  More precisely what is the part played by education, social class, job position, size of the network and the potentiality to give back the help received. I will also investigate whether these characteristics are relevant independently from the profile of the donor that is to say when the donor is a parent or a friend. In order to carry out the analysis the sample survey ISTAT: "The condition of childhood and the support of social networks, 1997" will be used.

Capacità di restituzione e attivazione di capitale sociale: il caso del sostegno economico

by Alberta Andreotti

in Polis, XIX(1), 5-30.

In questo contributo sono interessata a capire come si distribuisce il sostegno monetario tra la popolazione che si... more In questo contributo sono interessata a capire come si distribuisce il sostegno monetario tra la popolazione che si trova in difficoltà economica (ma non necessariamente in povertà), e più in particolare come incidono la classe sociale, la posizione occupazionale, l’ampiezza della rete e la potenzialità di restituire l’aiuto ricevuto. Indagherò anche se tali caratteristiche sono rilevanti indipendentemente dal profilo del donatore, vale a dire quando a donare sono i genitori o gli amici. Per condurre l’analisi verrà utilizzata l’indagine campionaria dell’Istat ‘La condizione dell’infanzia e il sostegno delle reti sociali, 1997’. Il presente contributo è articolato in tre sezioni, nella prima saranno presentate la problematica e le ipotesi di ricerca, nella seconda i dati analizzati e i risultati delle analisi, e nella terza si discuteranno i risultati.

Religion, Socioeconomic Status, and Inequality in the United States: An Overview

by Joseph Langston

Class Paper. An overview of the scholarship examining the relationship between religion, socioeconomic structure/status, and inequality in the United States, beginning in the 1940s and moving into contemporary times.

Who do you think they were? How family historians make sense of social position and inequality in the past

by Wendy Bottero

published in the British Journal of Sociology, 2012, 63(1): 54-74

How do social comparisons over time shape perceptions of inequality? In thinking about subjective inequality, it is... more How do social comparisons over time shape perceptions of inequality? In thinking about subjective inequality, it is important to ask which social comparisons matter in establishing people’s sense of relative social position and wider inequalities. These issues are discussed by drawing on a qualitative study of popular genealogy, which examines how people make sense of social position in the past, and explores how social change affects people’s sense of social hierarchies. The gaze of family history promotes certain sorts of social comparisons, between ‘then and now’, and between immediate kin, which can flatten the sense of social hierarchies. However, the ability to determine social position also depends on the quality of information available, and how different practical engagements facilitate ‘sideways’ comparisons between contemporaries, affording different fields of vision on relative inequalities. On this evidence, when exploring subjective inequality it is necessary to examine when and how people engage in social comparison as part of everyday practical activities.

Keywords: Social comparison; social position; family history; subjective inequality; social hierarchy; social class; social classification.

Richter, M., Vereecken, C.A., Boyce, W., Maes, L., Nic Gabhainn, S. & Currie, C. (2009). Parental occupation, family affluence and adolescent health behaviour in 28 countries. International Journal of Public Health, 54, 1-10.

by Saoirse Nic Gabhainn

Desigualdad económica y bienestar: tres modelos de justicia social

by Borja Barragué

Spotlight on The Spirit Level

by Lyndsay Grant

With Glen O'Hara

Dauerhafte Bildungsungleichheiten in Westdeutschland, Ostdeutschland und der Schweiz: Eine Kohortenbetrachtung der Ungleichheitsdimensionen soziale Herkunft …

by Joël Berger

with Andreas Hadjar, published in Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 2010, 39 (3), 182-201.

Eine Kernfrage bildungssoziologischer Debatten ist, inwieweit über die Bildungsexpansion herkunfts- und... more Eine Kernfrage bildungssoziologischer Debatten ist, inwieweit über die Bildungsexpansion herkunfts- und geschlechtsspezifische Bildungsungleichheiten abgebaut werden konnten. Mit neueren Daten und im Rahmen eines Vergleichs der Entwicklungen in drei verschiedenen Untersuchungsgebieten – in Westdeutschland, Ostdeutschland und der Schweiz – wird unser Beitrag dieser Problematik nachgehen. Betrachtet werden kohortenspezifische Unterschiede (Geburtskohorten 1925 bis 1974) in der Bildungsbeteiligung zwischen sozialen Herkunftsschichten und zwischen den Geschlechtern. Eine komparative Perspektive ermöglicht die Betrachtung bildungssystemspezifischer Merkmale, welche die gesellschaftliche Entwicklung des Bildungsniveaus und das Ausmaß an Bildungsungleichheiten beeinflussen. Als Datengrundlage dienen das Schweizer Haushalt-Panel (SHP) und das Sozioökonomische Panel (SOEP). Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass in der Schweiz die stärkste Verbesserung der Bildungschancen der Arbeiterschicht stattgefunden
hat, während in der ehemaligen DDR am frühesten Geschlechterunterschiede im Bildungserwerb eingeebnet werden konnten – wobei in den jüngeren Kohorten der ostdeutschen Teilstichprobe neue Bildungsungleichheiten zu Ungunsten von Männern auftreten.

Confronting the Challenges of Work Today: New Horizons and Perspectives

by Jane Parry

Care in the Community? Gender and the reconfiguration of community work in a post‐mining neighbourhood

by Jane Parry

Parry, J. (2005), ‘Care in the Community? Gender and the reconfiguration of community work in a post-mining neighbourhood’, in L.Pettinger, J.Parry, R.Taylor and M.Glucksmann (eds.) A New Sociology of Work?, Oxford: Blackwell.

This chapter draws upon a qualitative research project which examined the post-1984/85 Strike experiences of a South... more This chapter draws upon a qualitative research project which examined the post-1984/85 Strike experiences of a South Wales coalmining population, and looked at how people engage in work for their communities, why this work is undertaken, and how it fits in with their other responsibilities, transgressing private and public, formal and informal boundaries (Parry, 2000). I argue that
community work continues to provide a powerful occupation for local populations, and that the disruption of traditional solidarities in the coalfields has at once encompassed gain, loss and stasis. These have given way to a more diverse array of community activities, which reflect the increasingly variable socioeconomic circumstances of people’s lives.

European Inequalities - Income Distribution and the Risk of Poverty

by TARKI Social Research Institute

European Inequalities: Social Inclusion and Income Distribution in the European Union

(2009. Edited by Terry Ward, Orsolya Lelkes, Holly Sutherland, István György Tóth; ISBN 978-963-7869-40-2; Budapest: TÁRKI Social Research Institute Inc.)

This chapter of the "European Inequalities: Social Inclusion and Income Distribution in the European Union"... more This chapter of the "European Inequalities: Social Inclusion and Income Distribution in the European Union" is divided into three parts. The first part examines the distribution of income and the extent of inequality in income in EU Member States; the second part is concerned with the risk of poverty across the EU, as measured by the proportion of the population with disposable income below 60% of the national median; the third part extends the analysis by considering alternative indicators of the risk of poverty defined at an EU level and the relative number of people in the different Member States who are at risk according to the various indicators.

Stratification in Higher Education and Its Relationship with Social Inequality: A Comparative Study of 11 European Countries

by Moris Triventi

Household possessions and wealth in agrarian states: implications for archaeology

by Michael E. Smith

Transnational Inequalities, Transnational Responses: The Politicization of Migrant Rights in Asia (with Nicola Piper)

by Stefan Rother

Piper, Nicola; Rother, Stefan (2011): Transnational Inequalities, Transnational Responses: The Politicization of Migrant Rights in Asia. In: Rehbein, Boike (ed.): Globalization and Inequality in Emerging Societies: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 235–255.

In this chapter, we explore processes which cause and result in inequality from the vantage point of social justice... more In this chapter, we explore processes which cause and result in inequality from the vantage point of social justice organizations, by which we refer to organizations involved in the struggle for migrant workers’ rights. In other words, we analyze inequality through the activism by those collective organizations whose raison d’être it is to achieve greater social justice for migrants. In this sense, we establish a link between justice and equality because ‘(n)otions of justice require knowledge of processes of inequality … and activists’ personal involvement in attempting to transform them’ (Routledge and Cumbers 2009, p. 19). However, instead of analyzing individual advocates or single migrant rights organizations, we discuss political activists’ involvement in the struggle for migrants’ rights from the perspective of transnational activism. We do so in order to explore the effects of organizational networks on addressing inequality as the cause and result of migration. We argue that it is through such transnational responses that migrants react innovatively to their socioeconomic marginalization and multiple inequalities at both ends of the migration chain. This is borne out empirically by the networks spanning origin and destination countries in Asia which have sprung up in the last two decades.

These networks and their constituent member organizations engage in the politicization of migrants’ grievances and inequalities. By ‘politicization’ we mean the articulation or framing of such inequalities as an issue of rights as per the slogan ‘migrant rights are human rights’. Politicization also goes way beyond the mere ‘blaming’ of these inequalities; many organizations actively participate in the political process, be it through consultations or the formation of party chapters or trade unions. Many of these formations are transnational in character, and the network structure provides them with an opportunity for exchange and support. It is, therefore, through the network form that these organizations address the imbalance of the current discourse and practice in migration policy on the part of origin and destination countries. Governments tend to treat migration predominantly as an issue of population or labor control without giving due concerns to rights protection. The latter could be provided by developing a stronger rights-based approach to migration policy. The push for this is coming from transnational networks in the form of ‘rights claims’, demanding greater justice for migrants.

In our exploration of the organizational dimensions involved in responding to inequality experienced by migrants and their effects on transnational networking, we focus on the following three aspects: 1. inequalities in, or owing to, the policies of the sending countries; 2. inequalities in the receiving country; and 3. inequalities among migrants themselves. These inequalities are inherently transnational in nature, since, to name one example, the different levels of service and protection offered by sending countries may affect the migrant in the preparation stage at home as well as during his or her stay in the host country – and even after return. While the migrants may encounter inequalities in specific places, such places form part of a broader transnational social and political space that transcends the container model of the nation state (Rother 2009d). We argue that these transnational inequalities are being counteracted by the formation of transnational networks which function as a space for empowerment and agency. In doing so, however, new forms of inequality may emerge.

Empirically, our discussion draws on the migration experience of several major migrant sending and destination countries in Asia (that is, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, SAR) as well as primary research conducted on three regional networks from their headquarter (or ‘nodal’) locations (Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Hong Kong). The chapter is structured as follows: first, we will outline the aforementioned three aspects, or levels, of inequality caused by, or relating to, temporary contract labor migration, the dominant form of ‘legal’ migration in the region in question. In the second part, we will give a brief theoretical background on existing research on activist networks. In the third and main part, we will discuss how these organizational responses respond to inequalities of migrants and how this may lead to new inequalities, by introducing three examples of transnational migrant networks: the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body (AMCB), the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) and the Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility in Asia (CARAM Asia).

Tamas Keller - Self-confidence and Earning Inequalities - a Test on Hungarian Data

by TARKI Social Research Institute

In.: Sociologicky časopis/Czech Sociological Review, Vol. 46 (2010), No. 3: 401-425

In this article the author tests a self-confi dence scale that is similar to the most widely used Rotter locus of... more In this article the author tests a self-confi dence scale that is similar to the most widely used Rotter locus of control scale. People with high self-confidence have determination, feel they have an infl uence on their future, and are optimistic. In the analysis the author investigates the predictive power of self-confi dence in wage equations using Hungarian data.

Can Occupy Wall Street Succeed? A Long-Term Perspective (Susan Kepecs and Gary Feinman, 2011)

by Gary Feinman

Inequalities and Power. Three millenia of Prehistory in Mediterranean Spain (5600-2000 cal BC). 2006

by Teresa Orozco-Köhler

Co-authored with: J. Bernabeu, Ll. Molina & A. Diez
published in Social Inequality in Iberian Late Prehistory. (P. Diaz-del-Rio & L.García Sanjuán, eds). British Archaeological Reports, IS, 1525: 97-116.

This paper focuses on recent discoveries made in the central valleys of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. Fresh evidence recovered from this area allows us to propose some alternative pathways in the development of power and social inequalities, using an approach based on non-linear systems and the so called chaos-complexity theory. In archaeological terms, non-linear systems can explain cycles of power and complexity in richer ways than classical Braudelian theories, thus giving more relevance to concepts such as conjuncture and historical contingency. This paper is an attempt to explain why, with the arrival of agriculturalist pioneers to the Mediterranean West, power and social inequalities rapidly emerged, showing how they were maintained and also why they collapsed.

WENN AUS SOZIALEN UNGLEICHHEITEN, KULTURELLE DIFFERENZEN WERDEN. ZUM VERHÄLTNIS VON MULTIKULTURELLER GESELLSCHAFT UND NEORASSISMUS

by Athanasios Marvakis

1998
In: Forum Kritische Psychologie No. 39, pp. 42-58.

Social capital and social inequality in adolescents’ health in 601 Flemish communities: A multilevel analysis

by Bart De Clercq

Although it is widely acknowledged that community social capital plays an important role in young people’s health,... more Although it is widely acknowledged that community social capital plays an important role in young people’s health, there is limited evidence on the effect of community social capital on the social gradient in child and adolescent health. Using data from the 2005-2006 Flemish (Belgium) Health Behavior among School-aged Children survey (601 communities, N = 10,915), this study investigated whether community social capital is an independent determinant of adolescents’ perceived health and well-being after taking account of individual compositional characteristics (e.g. the gender composition within a certain community). Multilevel statistical procedures were used to estimate neighborhood effects while controlling for individual-level effects. Results show that individual-level factors (such as family affluence and individual social capital) positively related to perceived health and well-being and that community-level social capital predicted health better than individual social capital. A significant complex interaction effect was found, such that the social gradient in perceived health and well-being (i.e. the slope of family affluence on health) was flattened in communities with a high level of community social capital. Furthermore it seems that SES differences in perceived health and well-being substantially narrow in communities where a certain (average) level of community social capital is present. This should mean that individuals living in communities with a low level of community social capital especially benefit from an increase in community social capital. The paper substantiates the need to connect individual health to their meso socio-economic context and this being intrinsically within a multilevel framework.