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The winnowing hypothesis posits that transitions from dating to cohabiting to marital unions are marked by increasing selectivity in the mate selection or matching process. En this paper, we provide comparative estimates of educational, racial, and religious homogamy and heterogamy along a continuum of commitment: sexually intimate dating couples, cohabiting couples, and married couples. Log-linear models, fitted to cross-classified data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, provide only partial support for the winnowing hypothesis. On the one hand, homogamy with respect to race and religion increases slightly as relationships progress from dating to cohabitation to marriage. On the other hand, each relationship-dating, cohabiting, and married-is marked by substantial homogamy, at least for the traits considered here. And, in the absence of homogamy, each couple type reveals quite similar patterns of educational heterogamy or intermarriage, although upward mobility through partnering is less evident among cohabitors. Overall, however, the rather stringent sorting criteria that men and women use in selecting a marital partner, which manifests itself in marital homogamy, is also used in dating and cohabiting relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines race and gender differences in class consciousness and union support among a random sample of textile workers in a small North Carolina city. Class consciousness is treated as an ordinal variable consisting of class verbalization, class action orientation, and endorsement of egalitarian change. Union support denotes a recognition of the union's instrumental role in improving work and working conditions. The analysis reveals that blacks are significantly more class conscious and prounion than whites. On the other hand. males and females tend to share similar levels of class consciousness and union support. Comparisons by race, within gender and by gender, within race, are provided for finer distinctions and extended discussion. A multiple classification analysis reveals that racial differences persist and that gender differences remain unimportant when the covariates of age, job dissatisfaction, education, income, and skill are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aspirations may be measured in absolute terms, by asking individuals how much of a given goal they desire, or in relative terms, by asking individuals how much they desire a given goal relative to other goals. Prior studies on the relationship between social class and success goals have always employed either relative or absolute measures alone, with the absolute measures focusing on desire for education, occupational prestige, or income and the relative measures usually focusing on such goals as job security, advancement, and importance. This paper argues that a focus on absolute or relative aspirations alone can produce a misleading image of the relationship between social class and success goals, and it remedies the above neglect by examining the absolute and relative aspirations of different social classes for the same set of goals. Using a sample of males from Detroit and Baltimore, it was found that the lower class places more emphasis on economic security, while the upper class places more emphasis on self-actualization goals like job advancement and importance. However, when absolute aspirations were examined, it was found that lower-class people have a strong desire for self-actualization and that middle-class people do not have a strong desire for security. These findings provide a more complete picture of the relationship between social class and success goals, and they are relevant to such topics as Rodman's "lower-class value stretch," social mobility, anomie theories of deviance, and explanations of social movements based on relative deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between modernization and female crime rates and tests a model which incorporates female participation in various social roles as an intervening variable. Modernization is predicted to have positive, direct effects on female property crime, as well as positive, indirect effects through female role participation. Data from approximately forty countries were analyzed using correlational and regression techniques. The results offer little support for the general model. GNP/cap exhibits positive, direct effects on female theft and fraud but only minor indirect effects. The net effects of the several female role-participation variables are generally small. Differences by type of female crime are examined and several possible explanations for the results are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of social class, occupational experiences, and a variety of stratification factors on the ranking of a set of important life goals. Based on a national sample of Canadians from 1977, the findings indicate modest class differences in the evaluation of four "self-actualization" values. Specifically, middle class respondents rank "self-development," "achievement," and "activism" as more important than do working class respondents. There are no significant differences on the fourth concern, "independence." Multi-variate analysis reveals that the class differences in values are wholly attributable to differences in occupational experiences and educational training in the two class groupings. These findings are consistent with Kohn's thesis of "class and conformity." Additional controls on a set of stratification factors—sex, income, age, and language group (English/French)—suggest almost no differences between dominant and subordinate groups in the ranking of the four values. Only age has a significant influence, with the young rating self-actualization as more important than the old. The implications of these results for the study of dominant values and ideology and for the relationship between social inequality and values are briefly considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines three theoretical interpretations of the frequently observed relationship between social class, race and legal decision-making for juveniles. The literature provides only weak evidence of a social class differential, particularly at arrest and judicial decisions, but provides clear and consistent evidence of a racial differential operating at each decision level. Moreover, the differentials operate continuously over various decision levels to produce a substantial accumulative racial differential transforming a more or less heterogeneous racial arrest population into a homogeneous institutional black population. The importance of regarding legal decision-making for juveniles as a process is suggested. For the most part no one theoretical interpretation of this differential is supported by the literature. Controlling for the explanatory conditions suggested by either the legal, interactionist, or conflict perspective leaves a substantial portion of the observed differential unexplained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate the extent and scope of the Asian-American's integration into American society the majority of researchers have applied an assimilation perspective. This perspective has generated some useful research documenting various aspects of integration, but it has serious theoretical limitations. This paper addresses three specific weaknesses of current Asian-American assimilation studies and shows that to improve these shortcomings, they should incorporate some of the major ideas, especially the structural and historical variables, of the colonial and class models of racial stratification. The strength and the applicability of these two models to future Asian-American studies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic role of the black wife in contrast to her husband's weak economic position Is a key assumption in Moynihan's thesis of a black matriarchy. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of women, aged 30 to 44, in 1967, this paper examines the factors affecting the wife's contribution to the family income for both black and white families where the husband's income is below the median of all male-headed families. The results suggest that black wives and white wives respond similarly with respect to their overall contribution, the demand for female labor, and the effect of children. There is no support, moreover, for Moynihan's assumption that black wives are compensating for their husband's weak economic position. It appears, however, that the definition of the provider may differ among black families and white families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the notion that blue-collar workers have been converting from working-class to middle-class orientations as a consequence of gains m income and education over the past few decades. Cross-sectional analysis of survey data for white workers and spouses reveals that a considerable manual-nonmanual subjective class schism persists when remaining differences in income and education are taken into account. The gap is maintained both by an adherence to working-class identification among blue-collar workers at all socioeconomic levels and by a weaker tendency for these workers, compared with white-collar workers, to use income and educational status as criteria for self-placement in the class system. Longitudinal analysis further indicates that embourgeoisement among blue-collar workers has been slight and suggests that the manual-nonmanual gap in class orientations is widening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major objective of the research reported here is to investigate the significance and meaning of the contextual effects of communities on individuals' opportunities for socioeconomic attainment. A model which incorporates both individuals and their communities is proposed and tested. The empirical test was done by using samples of the Israeli labor force population. The findings demonstrate that community has significant effects on individuals' attainment. Community seems to be an additional factor that affects social mobility and as such an important dimension of the stratification system. Characteristics defining the social context of the community as an opportunity structure are identified and their significance discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between behavior and interpersonal evaluation is examined from the perspective of role theory. We hypothesize that others' evaluation of a role actor—his or her status—is related to the actor's conformity to their norms. Students in 50 university classes were asked (a) to indicate their expectations for a "typical university instructor" by filling out a 55-item questionnaire which incorporates Jackson's Return Potential Model for measuring normative role phenomena, or (b) to judge the frequency of the class instructor's behavior on the same 55 items. An index was constructed which indicates the degree to which each instructor's behaviors conform to students' expectations for a typical instructor. This index correlated with students' mean evaluation of each instructor: his or her status (r=.64, p<.001). We demonstrate, however, that this relationship between conformity and status holds more strongly for intense, powerful norms, and only for instructors with a moderate rather than a relatively high reputation, that is, estimated status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do differences in cultural capital operate in conditions of uncertainty? Interviews with 106 young adults of different social class backgrounds demonstrate significantly different knowledge of and attitudes about the Great Recession. Upper middle class youth are the most concerned about their long-term futures in light of the economic downturn and use distinctive strategies to combat these anticipated negative consequences. In contrast, working and middle-class youth are less concerned about the recession long term and more inclined to express hopeful and individualistic attitudes about their futures. This article demonstrates that threats to the reproduction of status bring about a disposition of anxiety among the most privileged. This discomfort is the result of greater levels of cultural knowledge. Importantly, it also leads to the activation of cultural capital to ensure the reproduction of their class standing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine individual- and country-level determinants of managerial employment, using data from the 1989 to 2009 waves of the World Values and European Values Surveys (n = 89,336 employed adults in 59 countries). Reflecting the rise of the transnational capitalist class, we find that factors related to globalization and international political institutions are most strongly associated with opportunities to join the managerial class relative to factors related to the business-cycle or development. Additionally, in a subset of countries with detailed occupational information, we find that global trade has a particularly strong, positive association with the odds of being a corporate manager in a large firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have documented relationships between parenting beliefs and social class. Few studies, however, have examined how parenting beliefs vary among those who share a class position. Drawing upon interviews with 54 college graduates-27 parents with working-class origins and their 27 spouses with middle-class origins- I show that heterogeneity in college-educated parents' beliefs cohered around class origin. Specifically, ideas of children's education and time use related to class origin, though ideas of how to talk with children did not. I discuss the implications of these findings in terms of cultural reproduction, cultural mobility, and intergenerational inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited research has specifically examined long-term heterosexual cohabiters ( LTHCs), whose lengthy unions challenge the notion that cohabitation is a life stage. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 48 LTHCs, this article identifies six themes that LTHCs use to talk about their attitudes toward marriage. Three of these themes highlight ways in which heterosexuals are trying to construct anti-oppressive heterosexual identities. These six themes are especially structured by social class, elucidating a broader class-based bifurcation of family life in the United States. These findings challenge existing paradigms about cohabitation and illuminate the diversity of reasons people choose to cohabitate. Implications for broader shifts in intimate life are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying Weber's theorizing on action and stratification, this study examines whether the early 20th-century extinction of half of the medical schools in the United States resulted from actions intended to serve class, status, and party interests by achieving social closure. Analyses reveal closure intentions in the school ratings assigned by the American Medical Association, although not in the recommendations in the 1910 Carnegie-sponsored Flexner report. In contrast to claims that schools failed largely because of economic exigencies, analyses indicate that failures were influenced by the AMA's and Flexner's assessments, as well as by state regulatory regimes and school characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the sociological and historical literature, ignoring long-standing interclass disputes over integration, takes for granted that during the 1950s, all blacks, parents, and members of civil rights organizations included, sought desegregation. This article examines the interests of different segments of New York City's black community regarding the public schools during that era. I use contemporary newspaper accounts of protests and more recent theoretical insights to analyze and interpret differences in expressed goals and demands. This article not only documents considerable educationally oriented protest in a Northern city during a decade often overlooked by scholars, but highlights important class-based differences within a single city's black community regarding changes needed. Of particular interest to social movement scholars are findings that reveal a large disjuncture between the demands of the grassroots parents' organizations and established, elite civil rights organizations. While civil rights organizations sought abstract ideals of integration, parents demanded tangible improvements in their children's schools. Class-based cultures and experiences are posited as the root of this disjuncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The visible and political gay community has been characterized as an increasingly middle-class, white institution. It is hypothesized that this middle-class nature requires economic and psychosocial resources that are not available to the working class and, thus, may limit the expression of sexual orientation for the working class. An analysis of data from the multi city Urban Men's Health Study supports this hypothesis. Nine of 14 hypothesized effects are statistically significant and indicate that working-class men who are homosexually active are less likely to describe themselves as gay, are more likely to have heterosexual experience, and are less likely to be involved in the gay community. Thus, it is important to incorporate class differences when addressing the social and the political dynamics of sexual orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an interactionist framework for the study of status stratification. This framework returns the focus of status research to how status works, especially emphasizing the symbolic and contextual aspects integral to the concept. By closely examining how status is indicated, how it is employed, and how it is maintained or changed over time, an interactionist approach provides an explanation on how status affects both individual and organizational behavior-an explanation that is currently lacking in status research. In addition, the development of this framework provides an argument against critics of interactionism who question whether this perspective can contribute to the study of social stratification. This article makes evident that status stratification, with its intimate ties to the symbols and contexts, proves to be an area of study ideally suited to the interactionist perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the 1996 Indiana Quality of Employment Survey, we reexamine gender and class differences in the effects of domestic work and family characteristics on earnings. We expand upon Coverman's (1983) original model by including several new measures. We find that the gender gap in domestic work has narrowed considerably, not because men are doing more but because women are doing less than they were twenty years ago. Women's earnings suffer more than men's from time spent on domestic work and generally benefit more from partners' domestic help. Women's earnings are more advantaged than men's by having preschool children, and men's earnings are more advantaged when their partner works. We find significant class differences in the effects of domestic work between working-class and non-working class women and in the effects of family characteristics between working-class and non-working class men. Non-working class women's earnings suffer more from time they put into domestic work, but their earnings generally benefit more from partners' or outside domestic help. Working-class men's earnings are more advantaged by having school-age children and more disadvantaged by having progressive gender ideologies. Non-working class men's earnings benefit more when their partners hold a job but suffer more as their partners work more hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 1 9S0 PUMS data for Miami Cuban and Bay Area Chinese immigrant males, this study operational lies and tests three theories about the earnings of employees in ethnic economics. The results consistently show chat the allocation of financial rewards in the ethnic economy closely resembles that found elsewhere. Although this finding merits more extensive confirmation in primary data, it implies that ethnic economy theories contribute little to the understanding of contemporary ethnic inequality within the working class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses a key issue within radical social science scholarship--the importance of class in modern capitalist society. Two different perspectives on the issue are discussed: the neo-Marxist, which continues to view class as the central structural variable; and the post-Marxist, which contends that other variables such as race, sex, and authority are potentially either additional or alternative structural influences. After developing a model linking structural locations to attitudinal consequences for position incumbents, two hypotheses comparing the perspectives are tested using a national sample of respondents: (1) that structural locations influence the attitudes of position incumbents toward societal inequalities; and (2) that the impact of a particular structural variable depends, at least to some extent, upon the nature of the societal inequality in question. The results provide qualified support for both hypotheses. The implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between the Philadelphia elite and upper class in 1914. Much of this study is a historical replication of Baltzell's (1958) empirical analysis of the Philadelphia elite and upper class in 1940. Data on the occupations, educational attainments and affiliations, club memberships, and religious affiliations of upper-class and non-upper-class members of the Philadelphia elite in 1914 generally are comparable to those presented by Baltzell for 1940. These and other data suggest that a caste-like, socially exclusive, upper class had emerged in Philadelphia by approximately 1914. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to explain collective protest have increasingly stressed the causal significance of elite structure and behavior. This trend is an unexamined manifestation of the broader and widely discussed trend away from "pluralistic" theories and toward "political" theories. But thus far, applications of the elite concept have been largely ad hoc, with little attention paid to its theoretical status or to developing it as an analytical tool. This problem can be rectified by turning to the neoelitist paradigm on which a number of scholars have been working in recent years. In particular, the neoelitist paradigm provides a conceptualization of unified and disunified elites which is theoretically and empirically grounded, capable of operationalization, generally applicable, and which plausibly helps account for variations in political conflict. It therefore complements and carries forward recent developments in the collective protest literature. This implies that the neoelitist paradigm merits serious attention alongside pluralist and Marxist paradigms as a guiding framework for macro social and political analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a widely accepted premise of mass society theory that voluntary associations play an important integrating role in modern society by mediating between the individual and the remote influences on life, work, and politics. There are two major variants of the mediation hypothesis: (1) purely social interaction within organizations lessens alienation in immediate relationships; (2) interaction accompanied by political exposures reduces alienation in the political domain. Controlling for social class, activity in instrumental, political groups is associated with significantly lower levels of political alienation. Activity in nonpolitical, social organizations is found to have more general attitudinal consequences—both for levels of social alienation and for estrangement from political processes. These patterns suggest that, despite the consistent effects of SES on nonalienative beliefs, voluntary associations provide independent settings of social and political integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four mobility and attainment propositions are extracted from a theoretical discussion relating class mobility and attainment processes to the development of capitalism. These propositions are evaluated empirically using United States Labor Statistics, General Social Survey data, and primary data collected from a SMSA. The first proposition maintains that paralleling the development of capitalism will be a structural decrease in the relative size of the capital-owning classes resulting in mobility. In the second proposition, it is asserted that with the development of capitalism, the likelihood of downward mobility will be significantly greater than the probability of upward mobility. The third proposition stated that in advanced capitalist societies, circulation class mobility will be substantially constrained by structural change. Lastly, it is proposed that in advanced capitalist societies, attained class positions will depend significantly on an unmediated (by educational attainment) origin class effect. Empirical support is uncovered for all propositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the earliest writings in social science there have been lively debates over the extent to which societies are dominated by elites. Recently, empirical data have been considered for elite backgrounds, elite interlock, elite unity, and elite influence on public policy, but interpretation of the data continue to be problematic. The findings are often confusing and conflicting mainly because of differing methodologies, definitions and indicators of elite status. Focusing on the four areas of quantitative research listed, we compare the findings in an attempt to explain some of the conflicts. When possible, we have prepared summaries of the consistent findings, which tend to show, with respect to these issues, greater support for elite theories as opposed to pluralist theory. Finally we discuss some of the major questions in the debate that current research is unable to answer, and outline future research needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state controls many matters of conflict between labor and management. This study attempts to identify the social conditions that lead to laws which favor either side in their ongoing struggle for influence. Using a cross-sectional ecological design I found that political systems with more blacks were least likely to have public policies in the interest of the working class. Other relevant factors which had less consistent effects were the type of enterprise and the level of resources in an area. Generally, the results are consistent with theories that racial antagonisms undermine the political efforts of workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correlation between social class and official delinquency is one of the more stable findings of sociological research. Consensus, conflict and organizational explanations of this correlation are examined with a coordinated set of survey, interview, and official data gathered in the central area of a middle-sized Canadian city. These data make possible the consideration of behavior and official rate-producing processes in a model that lends support to a combination of conflict and organizational perspectives. Consideration is given to the need for additional research using a similar framework in other types of community settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an attempt to replicate and extend past research dealing with the controversy over the existence of common versus class-differentiated success values. Three sets of hypotheses derived from Rodman's theory of the value stretch are tested. Two random cluster samples, one white, one black, were drawn from Roanoke, Virginia, yielding a total of 202 respondents. Results generally contradicted Rodman's theory; instead, a moderately class differentiated set of success values was found. Comparisons between blacks and whites surprisingly showed blacks with higher expectations when class was controlled. Age was associated with lower expectations as predicted. New directions for future research are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]