Social Stratification

Birkas barn - en studie om social stratifiering på Birka

by Patrik Gustafsson

This paper presents and analyzes the child burials in Birka. The goal is to find connections between burial location,... more This paper presents and analyzes the child burials in Birka. The goal is to find connections between burial location, burial customs and social stratification. By doing so I will try to get a better understanding of the childs social status during the Viking age in Birka.

How Resource Inequalities Among High Schools Reproduce Class Advantages in College Destinations

by Joshua Klugman

Forthcoming in Research in Higher Education.

Previous studies argued that high school resources play a modest role in students’ postsecondary destinations, but... more Previous studies argued that high school resources play a modest role in students’ postsecondary destinations, but they ignored schools’ programmatic resources, which provide opportunities for marks of distinction, such as Advanced Placement courses, and they focused on older cohorts of high school students who entered colleges before competition over admission to selective colleges intensified in the 1980s. Analyses of data on a cohort of students who entered college in the mid-2000s suggest that programmatic and non-programmatic resources found in high schools influence postsecondary destinations and mediates the effect of family socioeconomic status on choices among 4-year colleges.

The Advanced Placement Arms Race and the Reproduction of Educational Inequality

by Joshua Klugman

Forthcoming in Teachers College Record.

Background: Access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses is stratified by class and race.  Researchers have... more Background: Access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses is stratified by class and race.  Researchers have identified how schools serving disadvantaged students suffer from various kinds of resource deprivations, concluding that interventions are needed to equalize access to AP courses.  On the other hand, the theory of Effectively Maintained Inequality (EMI) argues that schools serving advantaged students may perpetuate inequalities by expanding their AP curriculum so their graduates can be competitive in the college admissions process. 

Research Questions: Between 2000 and 2002, California attempted to expand AP offerings and enrollments.  This study answers whether or not this intervention narrowed inequalities in AP along class and racial lines.  It also examines if community affluence affects district officials’ views of pressures to offer AP courses, which could explain any effectively maintained inequalities in AP access.

Research Design: This study uses a panel dataset of all California public high schools from 1997-2006.  It examines the changing effects of school poverty, upper-middle-class presence, and school racial composition on offerings of and enrollments in AP subjects. It supplements the quantitative analysis with interviews from 11 school district officials in California conducted in 2006.

Results: Hierarchical generalized linear models show that upper-middle-class presence structures California high schools’ AP subject offerings and enrollments, much more than school poverty.  California’s intervention resulted in increased AP subject offerings and enrollments in high schools serving disadvantaged and less-advantaged students, but these reductions in deprivation had trivial effects on inequalities, since schools serving advantaged students increased their own AP offerings and enrollments.  In addition, high schools serving white and Asian students had larger increases in AP offerings and enrollments than high schools serving black and Hispanic students.  Interview data indicate that officials in affluent districts perceived a greater demand for AP subjects, and were more likely to report their school staff were proactive to initiate new AP courses, than officials in districts serving working-class communities.

Conclusions: The findings document that while policies can increase AP access at schools serving low-income students, the actions of affluent schools and families will pose substantial barriers to achieving parity in AP offerings and enrollments. Moreover, studies gauging resource inequalities among schools may underestimate these inequalities if they use school poverty to measure schools’ socioeconomic composition. 

Tribal elite in EBA Unetice culture

by Dalia Pokutta

Info.FI conference June 2012 Århus

Intermarriage Patterns and Socio-ethnic Stratification among Ethnic Groups in Toronto

by Dan Rodríguez-García

Rodríguez García, Dan (2007) “Intermarriage Patterns and Socio-ethnic Stratification among Ethnic Groups in Toronto”. CERIS Working Paper No.60. Toronto: Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement.
http://www.ceris.metropolis.net/wp-content/uploads/pdf/research_publication/working_papers/wp60.pdf

This paper examines patterns of interethnic marriage in Toronto, Canada. Using data from the 2001 Canadian Census, the... more This paper examines patterns of interethnic marriage in Toronto, Canada. Using data from the 2001 Canadian Census, the paper makes a major contribution to the literature on intermarriage:
first, by relating various widely argued hypotheses concerning intermarriage to the results for Toronto, one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world and a perfect laboratory for investigating the scope of interactions between groups; second, by paying particular attention to how race/ethnicity, class, and gender intersect; and third, by using a large customized census data set (20 per cent sample). The results reveal the prevalence of ethno-racial endogamy and suggest the existence of socio-ethnic stratification and status exchange in patterns of intermarriage in Toronto, an officially multicultural context assumed to be structurally horizontal.

Who are the 'NGO People' in Mostar and Novi Sad?

by Piotr Goldstein

presented at the Balkan Connections Conference, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, June 2011

The long road – Merovingian Period social elite of Ostrobothnia, viewed as result of a long-term social evolution

by Jari-Matti Kuusela

in Hemmendorf, O. (ed.) 2012, Människor i vikingatidens Mittnorden. Föredrag vid de Mittnordiska Arkeologidagarna i Östersund 2010, Fornvårdaren 32, 157–168.

No social factor can truly be understood outside a long-term perspective. This paper examines the social elite of the... more No social factor can truly be understood outside a long-term perspective. This paper examines the social elite of the Merovingian Period Ostrobothnia (Finland) as the result of a long evolution of social stratification throughout the Iron Age. In the study I will demonstrate that the Iron Age burials in the area reflect changes in power structures of the local communities and that the Merovingian Period social order was the result of a long road of development.

Oppositional Culture and Educational Opportunity

by Christopher Lewis

The most common lay explanation for the racial gap in educational achievement in the U.S. is the ‘oppositional culture... more The most common lay explanation for the racial gap in educational achievement in the U.S. is the ‘oppositional culture hypothesis’, which holds that Black students tend to
undervalue education and stigmatize their high-achieving peers, accusing them of ‘acting White’. Many believe that, insofar as this hypothesis is true, Black underachievement is unproblematic from the perspective of justice, because Black
students are simply not taking the fair opportunities presented to them. This paper offers a systematic critique of the normative aspects of this view and some conceptual clarifications regarding the nature of opportunity.

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.

The structural transformation of embeddedness

by Poul F. Kjaer

PP. 85 – 104 in Josef Falke, Christian Joerges (Eds.): Karl Polanyi, Globalisation and the Potential of Law in Transnational Markets (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2011).

The concept of embeddedness plays a central role in the segment of economic sociology and social theory which is... more The concept of embeddedness plays a central role in the segment of economic sociology and social theory which is inspired by the works of Karl Polanyi. But to the extent that embeddedness is understood in a substantialist manner, implying the existence of a unitary lifeworld, the desire for embeddedness is an impossible aspiration under modern conditions. Throughout the modern era it is however possible to observe the emergence of complex societal stabilization mechanisms, which serve as substitutes to traditional forms of embeddedness. The emergence of function specific cultures, in the form of, for example, legal, political and scientific cultures, establishing a ‘second nature’ in the Hegelian sense, is one example of this. Other examples are (neo-)corporatist institutions which fulfilled a central stabilising role in classical modernity and the kind of network based governance arrangements which fulfil a similar position in today’s radicalised modernity.

Between marginalization and integration: colonial castas in the Zacatecas area at the beginning of the 18th century

by Soizic Croguennec

published in Jahrbuch für Geschichte Lateinamerikas, vol. 48, Köln, 2011.

It is a well-known fact in historiography: castas are a rather invisible part of the colonial society, which makes it... more It is a well-known fact in historiography: castas are a rather invisible part of the colonial society, which makes it very difficult to study and understand them. Of course, there is the abundant administrative documentation that illustrated the elites’ point of view and their prejudices. The study of such documents heavily contributed to the image of the dominated castas stuck in a society that rejected them. However, there are other kinds of sources that allow the development of new perspectives. For example, the large amount of civil and criminal suits that occurred during the 18th century in Zacatecas helps us to apprehend the castas in their daily lives and to discover and understand the way they were integrated, or not, in this particular, remote, mining region. This task is made easier by the utilization of methodological tools such as social networks which give us a different point of view: that of the individual. Some criminal event of January 1709 is the occasion to literally meet many castas in various social positions and to further our understanding of these elusive populations who constantly evolved between complete marginalization and real integration.

Family prestige as old-age security: Evidence from rural Senegal

by Jean-Luc Demonsant

This paper aims at studying the self-enforcing family contract between a migrant son and his ageing father who... more This paper aims at studying the self-enforcing family contract between a migrant son and his ageing father who remained in the village and expects to receive support. In 2004, a household survey conducted in the Senegal River Valley was especially designed to account for the complex socio-political structure of the local institutions. The empirical results suggest that the social rank of the family within the village is a key to the enforcement mechanisms at work. Indeed, while belonging to a prestigious family lowers the probability of migrating, it raises the probability of frequently remitting to the patriarch. Conversely, sons from historically disadvantaged groups are more likely to both migrate and cut ties with their village of origin, including their family. Additional qualitative evidence is rather suggestive that despite their economic success, low status migrants keep being stigmatized in their village of origin. Hence, inheriting his father's dominant position in the village represents a strong incentive for a migrant son from a high-ranked family to remit. Under such circumstances, patriarchs from prestigious families only, can actually rely on their migrating sons as old-age security.

Consensus and dissensus in occupational prestige

by Nico Stehr

The aim of this paper on occupational prestige is two-fold. The first part of the paper is devoted to a more general... more The aim of this paper on occupational prestige is two-fold. The first part of the paper is devoted to a more general discussion of some theoretical and methodological shortcomings of the sociological literature on occupational prestige. More specifically, this discussion intends to elaborate on some theoretical and methodological antecedents of the
preoccupation with the issue of consensus in occupational prestige by sociologists who have contributed to a theory of occupational prestige.

Death, Discipline and Domination in the Ituri Rainforest

by Daniel Bitton

A perspective on the dynamics of the complex social, economic and ritual partnership that exists between egalitarian... more A perspective on the dynamics of the complex social, economic and ritual partnership that exists between egalitarian hunter-gatherers and hierarchical horticulturalists in the Congolese rain forest.

Tamas Keller, Robert Peter - Structural Components of Lifestyle and Beyond - The Case of Hungary

by TARKI Social Research Institute

Studies of Transition States and Societies
Vol 3 / Issue 1

This paper deals with the question of when and how lifestyle and its components are important in social... more This paper deals with the question of when and how lifestyle and its components are important in social stratification. There is considerable consensus among scholars about the structure of the society being a consequence of hierarchical dimensions like occupation, income, or wealth.

Are NGO Activists in Mostar and Novi Sad All Middle-Class? (And why does it matter?)

by Piotr Goldstein

presented at the 6th South East European Doctoral Student Conference, SEERC, Thessaloniki, Greece, September 2011

Style as distinction - burials reflecting distinction and the development of the social stratification of the Iron Age elites of Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland

by Jari-Matti Kuusela

in: Tiina Äikäs, Sanna Lipkin & Anna-Kaisa Salmi (eds) 2012, pp 155-80
Archaeology of Social Relations: Ten Case Studies by Finnish Archaeologists.
Studia Humaniora Ouluensia 12

Material culture can be viewed from many different angle, but to me the most intriguing angle is to view it as a form... more Material culture can be viewed from many different angle, but to me the most intriguing angle is to view it as a form of social communication. In this paper I will examine,, with the aid of a theoretical framework heavily influenced by Pierre Bourdieu's work, the manner in which material culture has been used as a way of creating distinction amongst the elite members of society from the Pre-Roman Iron Age to the Merovingian Period (500 BC- AD 800) in Ostrobothnia, Finland and how this distinction reflects the development of social stratification and power structures of the elite.

"Racial Differences in Physician Use Among the Elderly Poor in The United States

by Corey M. Abramson

Co-Authored by Martín Sánchez-Jankowski

Despite the rapidly growing ranks of the elderly in America, the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of this... more Despite the rapidly growing ranks of the elderly in America, the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of this population, and the
large number of seniors who are poor, there are relatively few systematic investigations that examine the causes of racial differences in health care use specifically among elders living in poverty. This article addresses this issue by examining differences in patterns of having and using a physician among the elderly poor, the role that race plays and what might explain it. We demonstrate that even within this disadvantaged and medically engaged population there are persistent and significant racial differences in having and using a doctor. Specifically, we show: (1) Whites and women are more likely to have a regular doctor than men and African Americans; (2) Among those who have a doctor, whites and women also visit the doctor with greater frequency than other groups even at the same levels of health or illness; (3) After accounting for the varying levels and effects of social connectedness, racial
differences in having a doctor essentially disappear; and (4) While differences in having a regular doctor can be accounted for using measures of social connectedness, substantial and robust racial and gender differences in doctor use remain. In the end, we provide an analysis that examines typical factors known to influence health care use, and find that while need, structural factors, perceptions of care, and social connectedness have a powerful effect on doctor visits, the racial variation in using a doctor cannot be explained away with the available measures.

Disciplining and resisting in Multilingual Classrooms in MadridCitation Information. Constructing Inequality in Multilingual Classrooms Luisa Martín Rojo . See book

by Luisa Martín Rojo