Search

Quantitative approaches to conflict research are evolving to incorporate better theoretical, methodical, and dataset tools. One key area where our progress is especially limited relates to the social origins of rebel groups: how a group's political identity emerges as a focal point for mobilization and future conflict behaviors. We benchmark two key empirical agendas in civil war and rebellion research and then discuss key contributions of this special issue. In bringing together multiple theoretical perspectives and original datasets, including the individual-level and group-level data, the contributions to this special feature push the research frontier further along these lines. Jointly, they demonstrate that a rebel group's origins – where it comes from, who are its constituents, what is its political appeal, and how it organizes – have far-reaching implications to explanations along different dimensions and across a wide range of contexts and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Izmir Journal of Economics is the property of Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Shenzhen University Humanities & Social Sciences is the property of Journal of Shenzhen University (Humanities & Social Sciences) Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite predominantly lower social class origins, the second generation of established immigrant groups in the UK are now attaining high levels of education. However, they continue to experience poorer labour market outcomes than the majority population. These worse outcomes are often attributed in part to their disadvantaged origins, which do not, by contrast, appear to constrain their educational success. This paper engages with this paradox. We discuss potential mechanisms for second‐generation educational success and how far we might expect these to be replicated in labour market outcomes. We substantiate our discussion with new empirical analysis. Drawing on a unique longitudinal study of England and Wales spanning 40 years and encompassing one per cent of the population, we present evidence on the educational and labour market outcomes of the second generation of four groups of immigrants and the white British majority, controlling for multiple measures of social origins. We demonstrate that second‐generation men and women's educational advantage is only partially reflected in the labour market. We reflect on the implications of our findings for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inequality of opportunity (IOp) in the four largest economies in Europe – France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom – around 2015 accounts for a significant share of inequality of incomes, between 30 and 50 percent, depending on the inequality index and using a parametric approach. Mirroring the reduction of inequality of incomes over the last three decades, the long-term trend of IOp, the focus of this paper, has been declining for all countries but Italy. Declining trends are also observed for IOp estimated for age, gender, and birth cohorts sub-groups of the national populations. The closing of the gender gap accounts for a large share of the reduction of the IOp of the overall population. When decomposing age and birth cohort effects, the age effect of IOp exhibits an inverted U shape and, at the same age, IOp experienced by most recent cohorts is lower than preceding ones. To guide the interpretation of the observed declining trends, we use a theoretical framework describing the mechanisms through which changes in circumstances may be correlated to changes of inequality of opportunity. Three variables are considered by this framework: a) intergenerational persistence in educational attainment, b) return of education, and c) social origins. The first two variables are declining in all countries and are consistent with the reduction of IOp. However, 'higher' social origins seem to become increasingly more correlated with higher (labor) incomes and, in some countries (notably Italy), increasing relevance of this third variable slows down the overall reduction of IOp. Social origins, proxied by educated parents, remain significant even after controlling for parental resources (books at home when aged 14) or children' skills (numeracy and literacy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comparative study examines patterns of inequality in participation in two different types of adult learning and education (ALE)–job-related formal ALE (JFALE) and job-related non-formal ALE (JNFALE)–as related to social origins at the micro-level and three categories of social inequality at the macro-level at the macro level (economic, education, and skill inequality). Using data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), two methods are used to analyse 19 selected OECD countries: multivariate binary logistic regressions to explore the extent to which individuals’ social origins are associated with ALE participation and two-stage multilevel analysis to examine the relationship between social origins’ advantages in ALE participation and social inequality. Statistically significant advantages in ALE participation of social origins were observed in some countries. Additionally, statistically significant positive relationships between social inequality and social origins’ advantages in JNFALE participation are found, which implies that increases in social inequality strengthen advantages associated with social origins.

Copyright of Revista Latinoamericana de Población is the property of Revista Latinoamericana de Poblacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract This paper contributes to the literature on social stratification by analysing the role of internal migration as a possible channel for the intergenerational transmission of inequality. While internal migration is associated with social mobility, it can also be used as a strategy of status maintenance among graduates from privileged backgrounds. The aim of this paper is to scrutinize whether internal migration for study or work, and subsequent labour market outcomes, are associated with social origins. Using a rich administrative and survey data set on a cohort of Italian graduates, findings show a substantive effect of social origins on graduates’ migration for study but not on migration for work. Finally, the results also more tentatively indicate that migration for study is one relevant path connecting social origins and income, thus emphasizing how privilege is not bound to place, but travels.

We present an analysis of the social composition of the UK scientific elite, as represented by Fellows of the Royal Society, in terms of Fellows' social class origins and type of secondary schooling. From various sources, we have assembled data for 1691 Fellows, representing 80% of our target population of all Fellows born from 1900 onwards whose scientific careers were spent predominantly in the UK. We find that while these elite scientists come largely from more advantaged class backgrounds, it is professional rather than business or managerial families that are the main source of their recruitment—and, increasingly, such families where a parent is in a STEM occupation. Recruitment from working‐class families has declined and for most recent birth cohorts almost ceased. The scientific elite is thus now more homogeneous as regards the social origins of its members than it was in the second half of the twentieth century. At the same time, little change is evident in the secondary schooling of Fellows. In all birth cohorts, between two‐fifths and a half of all—and over two‐thirds of those from more advantaged class backgrounds—were privately educated, although the proportion attending Clarendon schools would seem low compared with that in other elites. A further finding of interest is that some variation in Fellows' class origins and type of schooling exists across different research fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we complement a previous study of the UK natural science elite, as represented by Fellows of the Royal Society, with a comparable study of the humanities and social sciences elites, as represented by Fellows of the British Academy. We seek to establish how far similarities and differences exist in the social composition of these three academic elites and in the routes that their members have followed into elite positions. We are also concerned with the consequences of the humanities and social sciences elites being brought together in the British Academy, in contrast with the situation in most other countries where elite natural and social scientists are located in the same academy. We pursue these issues in the context of C. P. Snow's discussion of the social underlay of the cultural disjunction that he saw between the natural sciences and the humanities, while also considering how the social sciences fit in. We find that there is support for Snow's position at the time of his writing. However, a notable development in more recent years is that the growing social sciences elite is moving in its social composition away from the humanities elite and closer to the natural science elite. This is primarily due to changes in the social origins and education of Fellows in those sections of the British Academy that are on the borderline between the social and the natural sciences. A widening difference thus arises with Fellows in the humanities sections most representative of Snow's 'traditional culture'., (© London School of Economics and Political Science 2024.)

This paper contributes to the literature on social stratification by analysing the role of internal migration as a possible channel for the intergenerational transmission of inequality. While internal migration is associated with social mobility, it can also be used as a strategy of status maintenance among graduates from privileged backgrounds. The aim of this paper is to scrutinize whether internal migration for study or work, and subsequent labour market outcomes, are associated with social origins. Using a rich administrative and survey data set on a cohort of Italian graduates, findings show a substantive effect of social origins on graduates' migration for study but not on migration for work. Finally, the results also more tentatively indicate that migration for study is one relevant path connecting social origins and income, thus emphasizing how privilege is not bound to place, but travels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volunteer rates vary greatly across Europe despite the voluntary sector's common history and tradition. This contribution advances a theoretical explanation for the variation in volunteering across Europe—the capability approach—and tests this approach by adopting a two-step strategy for modeling contextual effects. This approach, referring to the concept of capability introduced by Sen (Choice, welfare and measurement, Oxford University Press, 1980/1982), is based on the claim that the demand and supply sides of the voluntary sector can be expected to vary according to collective and individual capabilities to engage in volunteering. To empirically test the approach, the study relied on two data sources—the 2015 European Union (EU) Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), including an ad hoc module on volunteering at the individual level, and the Quality of Government Institute and PEW Research Center macro-level data sets—to operationalize economic, human, political, social, and religious contextual factors and assess their effects on individuals' capability to volunteer. The results support the capability hypothesis at both levels. At the individual level, indicators of human, economic, and social resources have a positive effect on the likelihood of volunteering. At the contextual level, macro-structural indicators of economic, political, social, and religious contexts affect individuals' ability to transform resources into functioning—that is, volunteering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a period of declining interest in elites among social scientists, elite studies are now reviving. But it is important to understand why the decline occurred. We examine the largely contradictory explanations put forward by John Scott and Mike Savage and their related proposals for new research. We suggest an alternative approach that, we believe, would prove more rewarding. This entails treating elites as 'small‐N' entities, clearly distinct from social classes. On this basis, elites can be characterised through 'prosopographical' methods—the construction of collective biographies of their members. More reliable accounts can thus be produced of the social composition of different elites and, in turn, questions can be addressed as to how far their skewed recruitment results from the processes through which they are formally constituted as well as from the composition of the 'pools' from which their recruitment primarily occurs. Further questions follow about the implications for both equality of opportunity also also for the waste of talent and loss of diversity in elite memberships and for the neglected issue of the quality and the effectiveness of elites in whatever field they exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic research on social mobility from the 1960s until now has made several facts clear. First, and most important, it is better to ask how the conditions and circumstances of early life constrain adult success than to ask who is moving up and who is not. The focus on origins keeps the substantive issues of opportunity and fairness in focus, while the mobility question leads to confusing side issues. Second, mobility is intrinsically symmetrical; each upward move is offset by a downward move in the absence of growth, expansion, or immigration. Third, social origins are not a single dimension of inequality that can be paired with the outcome of interest (without significant excluded variable bias); they are a comprehensive set of conditions describing the circumstances of youth. Fourth, the constraints of social origins vary by time, place, and subpopulation. These four “knowns” should inform any attempt to collect new data on mobility.

This article pinpoints the mathematic performance gaps among high-socioeconomic background (SES) students from different racial groups in the United States. By doing so, it sheds light on how racial and socioeconomic privilege intersects thus creating different educational outcomes among high-SES children. In short, it illuminates who are the truly advantaged in the American educational system. Taken together, the results suggest that there are substantial racial performance gaps among high-SES children. First, white and Asian privileged children outperform their black and Hispanic counterparts. Second, black high-SES children appear to be the least advantaged among the privileged, and their mathematic performance lags over two years behind that of whites and Asians. What is more, low-SES Asians and whites are more likely to be high achievers than high-SES blacks are. Finally, Hispanics appear to perform better than their black counterparts, nonetheless, they lag about one year behind their Asian and white high-SES peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Departamento de Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Soziale Welt is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We aim to bring together two current strands of research into inequalities in individuals' educational attainment that are associated with their social origins: that concerned with the "primary" and "secondary" effects of social origins in creating inequalities, and that concerned with the relation between these inequalities and different components of social origins, taken to represent different forms of parental resources. Our main findings are the following. The secondary effects of social origins—their effects via the educational choices that young people make given their prior academic performance—are clearly operative across five key educational transitions within the English educational system. More specifically, we estimate that 35% of the total effect of social origins is secondary in the earliest transition that we consider, and from 15% to 20% in the subsequent four. Furthermore, mediation analyses reveal that secondary effects are most strongly associated with parental education and then, to a lesser degree with parental status, while little association exists with parental class and none at all with parental income. Primary effects are also at all transitions most strongly associated with parental education and status but in this case both parental class and parental income do retain some importance. We suggest an explanation for our empirical findings as resulting largely from the concern of highly educated, professional parents, and their children to avoid the occurrence of downward intergenerational mobility, especially in terms of education and status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to identify the moderating effect of the stratification of education systems (especially the extent to which the first selection is based on student ability) on the association between social origins and destinations, while holding the effect of education constant. Two hypotheses are formulated. The first hypothesis expects a negative moderating effect of the stratification of education systems on the direct effect of origins on destinations, while the null hypothesis argues for no moderating effect. Individual-level data from the European Social Survey (round 1–5) are complemented with new contextual indicators measuring various education system characteristics. Apart from employing these new indicators, another contribution of this article is the use of a more comprehensive measurement of social origins, simultaneously accounting for social class and parental education. Findings show that the direct effect of social origins on occupational attainment is not moderated by the extent to which the first selection is based on student ability. The null effect holds against several robustness checks employing different measurements, sample selections and model specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wine is a social object, established in the Old World and later migrated to the New World. Champagne is an internationally important and famous French sparkling wine, significantly present worldwide. Brazil, a New-World wine producer, has a recent but expanding history of sparkling wine production and consumption. As to its social aspect, this product has different representations and roles in both these countries. Therefore, this study aims to understand how culture and social status influence the organization of social representations associated with sparkling wines in Brazil and France. Thus, we used the Social Representation approach, a theory of knowledge and communication. For content collection, we carried out a verbal association task. Two hundred and thirteen Brazilians and one hundred ninety-eight French participants provided the first four words which came to mind after hearing four inducted words. The verbal associations were categorized using semantic contextualization. Then, we performed a Correspondence Factor Analysis. The results supported our hypothesis that culture, social status, and social origins all influence social representations associated with sparkling wine, revealing this kind of wine to be a product of social distinction and affluence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Derecho del Estado is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas is the property of Centro de Investigacao e Estudos de Sociologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The reasons people have to give money to charities varies between different societal settings. This article explores the interaction between individual and social reasons to give in Sweden, a country representing a distinct type of such settings. The purpose of the article is to addresses not only the question of how much that is donated and to what, but to also provide an interpretation of why people give and what it means to give in this national context. Social origins theory is used to analyse results gathered from a national survey on civic participation in Sweden. The results show that giving in Sweden is widespread, small-scale and relatively uniform across different groups of givers. It is concluded from this that giving is mainly a civil act performed for personal reasons and to a lesser degree a civic act with significance for the social standing of the donor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines educational stratification cross-nationally through the context of German division and unity. Drawing on representative German Social Survey (ALLBUS) data from 1991-1998 on cohorts schooled in the 1980s and 1990s, the analysis explores educational inequality at the secondary school level with respect to social origins and gender in four settings: the late state socialist German Democratic Republic, the immediate pre-unification setting Federal Republic of Germany, and the two halves of a now-united Germany. The paper includes a discussion of possible underlying reasons for the major finding of the descriptive analysis: a lack of variation in the parameters of educational inequality, despite varied and changing institutions and ideologies.

The numbers of women writers of the early modern Spain currently identified have risen to over five hundred, with their writings catalogued and systematized by the Spanish data base Biblioteca de Escritoras Españolas (BIESES). The data base’s findings demonstrate the kinds of genres women writers selected, and includes archival documents, correspondence, and other kinds of documentation that reveal much more biographical information than previously obtained. What has yet to be studied more in depth, however, is the social status of the writers, as social origins were a crucial means of identifying one’s self, both from a psychological perspective as well as within society. This article examines the social stratification of writers to weigh their contributions, and arrives at the conclusion that while non-noble women tended to dedicate their time to writing literary works, whether poems, theater, or prose fiction; the few women of the titled nobility who wrote instead authored non-literary works such as correspondence and treatises that allowed them to participate significantly in political crises of the time.

In this article, three country contexts are compared with regard to inequality by social origin in late enrollment in post-secondary education. Countries differ in the frequency at which young adults leave the labor market and (re)-enroll. This article discusses how inequality in late entry into education by social origin can be linked to characteristics of the education system and the labor market. Two cases with education systems that welcome adult learners and offer many second chances – Sweden and the US – are contrasted with the German system before its recent reforms. Systems with a welcoming environment for adult learners in higher education are shown to have higher educational inequalities in later transitions, while inequality in earlier transitions is lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that understanding uncertainty in contemporary societies and its psychosocial consequences is possible through a transdisciplinary perspective. This integrates sociological, psychological, economic and political dimensions. To address this, we offer a critical theoretical reflection that draws on diverse conceptual perspectives within the social sciences. In recent years, in psychological research, uncertainty has been mainly analysed as an intrapsychic phenomenon and as a psychological trait through the concept of (in)tolerance of uncertainty. In contrast, we argue for a psychosocial analysis of uncertainty, considering its socio-economic and political origins, thereby challenging its trait-like analysis. For example, we highlight the inputs of attachment theory for the understanding of uncertainty, connecting it to Marris's thesis of an unequal distribution of uncertainty and of the power to cope with it (1996). This analysis of uncertainty integrates psychological dimensions with social ones within contemporary western societies, proposing the use of the concept of psychosocial uncertainty. The consequences of uncertainties impact upon employment, relationships and communities, where we can locate the social origins of depression, anxiety, distrust, victim-blaming or lack of cohesion in communities. Besides precarity at work, we now face precarious forms of living, endangering the fundamental processes of psychic and social individuation. Finally, we locate the social origins of uncertainty and its psychological consequences within the responsibilities of social sciences. Drawing on psychology, from social and community psychology to clinical and organizational psychology, we query the relationship between theory and practice. Underpinning this argument is an appreciation of Marris's contribution to the construction of 'politics of collaboration/association and reciprocity, as opposed to politics of disempowering uncertainty/dissociation'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos de Historia Moderna is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Plural - Revista de Ciências Sociais is the property of Revista Plural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent research into educational inequalities has shown the importance of decomposing social origins into parental class, status and education, representing economic, socio-cultural and educational family resources, respectively. But we know little about how inequalities in educational attainment at the micro-level map onto institutional characteristics of educational systems at the macro-level, if we treat social origins in a multidimensional way. Drawing on the rich over-time variation in educational systems in four European countries – Britain, Sweden, Germany and Italy – this paper develops and tests a number of hypotheses regarding the effects of various components of social origins on individuals’ educational attainment in different institutional contexts. It is evident from our results that a great deal of similarity exists across nations with different educational systems in the persisting importance for individuals’ educational attainment of parental class, status and education. But our findings also indicate that changes in the institutional features of educational systems have, in some instances although not in others, served to reinforce or to offset the social processes generating educational inequalities at the micro level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The extent to which societies suffer ‘wastage of talent’ due to social inequalities in educational attainment is a longstanding issue. The present paper contributes to the relevant literature by examining how social origins and early-life cognitive ability are associated with educational success across three British birth cohorts. We address questions of over-time change, bringing current evidence up-to-date. Our findings reinforce the well-established trend that the importance of cognitive ability declined for cohorts born between 1958 and 1970, but we show that for a cohort born in the early 1990s this trend has reversed. We further show that the relative importance of family background has not seen a corresponding decline. In distinguishing between different components of social origins, we show that family economic resources have become somewhat less important for children’s educational success, while socio-cultural and educational resources have become more important. Even high ability children are unable to transcend the effects of their social origins. The problem of ‘wastage of talent’ remains; young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are still lacking the opportunity to fully realise their potential within the British educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schooling decisions made in later life tend to be overlooked in conventional studies of educational attainment. Even when they are examined, too often focus is placed on individual biographies, while the roles of historical timing and the state are neglected. This paper adds to the literature by investigating to what extent cohort membership is directly associated with returning to school and intersects with social origins, gender, and political credentials to shape one’s returning-to-school decision. I compare three Chinese cohorts who turned age 19 in different historical periods. Coming of age during the turbulent decade of the Culture Revolution (1966–76, CR), members of the CR cohort lost the chance to receive a higher education “on time” and were subject to a state intervention that deliberately demolished early-life advantages conferred by families, whereas adjacent cohorts (pre-CR and post-CR cohort) were largely able to climb the educational ladder “on time.” Drawing on detailed life history data from the 2003 Chinese General Social Survey , Cox proportional hazards models show that members of the CR cohort are more likely to return to school from their mid-20s on compared with adjacent cohorts, thereby narrowing but not closing their educational gap. Cohort membership is also a contingency factor. Parental education does not predict college reentry rates for members of the pre- and post-CR cohorts, but does for members of the Cultural Revolution cohort, reflecting their early-life discrimination during the Cultural Revolution and their regained resources following it. Women are less likely to return compared with men, and the gender gap is particularly large for the CR cohort at the associate college level. Party members are more apt to return, suggesting party-sponsored patronage, and their advantages are most pronounced among members of the CR and post-CR cohorts. Taken together, this study highlights the roles of the state and historical timing in the shaping of decisions around returning to school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical studies have repeatedly shown that in Germany educational success still strongly depends on the social origin of individuals. Using the National Educational Panel Study, we analyse the effects of fathers’ and mothers’ education levels on their sons’ and daughters’ educational attainments across three successive birth cohorts in West Germany. We calculate the predicted probabilities of reaching low, medium or high education levels on the basis of the level of education of the mothers and the fathers. Our results show: a persistence of the status maintenance model, with very few exceptions; a growth in the educational level of women via medium-level education connected to segregation in the labour market; and finally that the first transition of girls to medium-level education has been completed, leaving space for daughters to attempt to outnumber sons in tertiary education, mainly due to the pressure of mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present paper answer two basic questions: what are the association patterns of the Persian-speaking satellite television channels amongst Tehrani audiences? What are the social origins of these patterns? To answer these questions, we have adopted the research tradition of "the uses and gratifications" in it's structural-cultural variant. In order to identify the uses patterns of such televisions, we initially interviewed 32 audiacnes. Content analysis of the interviews resulted in identifying 60 most-frequently-stated gratification items to be used as part of a large scale questionnaire survey of 400 viewers who were accessed via snowball sampling. Employing an exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation, we constructed and named ten gratification scales as follows: dissatisfaction with the national television programs, getting political information, cross-cultural comparison (instructional usage),escaping from everyday life difficulties, lifestyle guidance, facilitating social interaction, familiarity with global and Iranian (underground) popular culture, information on tourism and emigration issues, seeking social status, and finally seeking unedited information on sport events. A series of correlation tests on these ten factors as dependent variables and all the study's independent variables showed that the Blumler's conceptualization of the social character of media gratifications explains the usage patterns of Persian-speaking satellite televisions in Iran. Accordingly, different people turn to such televisions for different purposes and that the prevalent pattern of such usage is mainly of facilitatory, rather than compensatory character.

The aim of this article is to probe the degree of correlation between social origins and achievement in higher education and analyze patterns of intergenerational educational mobility in Argentina. The author uses data from a 2010 survey about stratification and social mobility in the country. The research limits itself to Argentina nationwide in the year 2010. The estimates of logistical regression models for the three age groups suggest a moderate reduction in unequal educational opportunities over time. The analysis of educational mobility through log-linear models shows that the greatest reproduction can be seen at the top and at the base of the educational structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Health inequalities reflect multidimensional inequality (income, education, and other indicators of socioeconomic position) and vary across countries and welfare regimes. To which extent there is intergenerational transmission of health via parental socioeconomic status has rarely been investigated in comparative perspective. The study sought to explore if different measures of stratification produce the same health gradient and to which extent health gradients of income and of social origins vary with level of living and income inequality. Methods: A total of 299,770 observations were available from 18 countries assessed in EU-SILC 2005 and 2011 data, which contain information on social origins. Income inequality (Gini) and level of living were calculated from EU- SILC. Logit rank transformation provided normalized inequalities and distributions of income and social origins up to the extremes of the distribution and was used to investigate net comparable health gradients in detail. Multilevel random-slope models were run to post-estimate best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) and related standard deviations of residual intercepts (median health) and slopes (income-health gradients) per country and survey year. Results: Health gradients varied across different measures of stratification, with origins and income producing significant slopes after controls. Income inequality was associated with worse average health, but income inequality and steepness of the health gradient were only marginally associated. Conclusions: Linear health gradients suggest gains in health per rank of income and of origins even at the very extremes of the distribution. Intergenerational transmission of status gains in importance in countries with higher income inequality. Countries differ in the association of income inequality and income-related health gradient, and low income inequality may mask health problems of vulnerable individuals with low status. Not only income inequality, but other country characteristics such as familial orientation play a considerable role in explaining steepness of the health gradient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the impact of social background on the probability of over-education in a cohort of Spanish university graduates born in the 1970's and graduating in 1999/2000, based on the 2005 Reflex survey. The influence of three resources associated to social origins (cultural, social and economic capital) is evaluated in order to challenge one of the pillars of the modernization theory: the merit-based selection. Our results reveal that, even when controlling for field of study, occupational experience and average grade, both cultural and social capital exert an effect on the risk of over-education in Spain, but economic capital does not. Moreover, we conclude that the direct effect of social origins on over-education is not significantly mediated by a field of study choice dependent on social origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents and explains differences in governmental implementation strategies of volunteer centers in Norway and Denmark. In the first part, we describe the emergence of centers, focusing on shifting policies and governmental initiatives. The second part aims at explaining the observed variations. First, we found that the functions of the centers were strongly affected by centralistic trends in Danish social policy in contrast to a broader acceptance of local welfare variations in Norway. Second, we found that Danish centers managed to establish a national umbrella organization, while the Norwegian centers lacked a national coordinating unit. Third, an independent legal form in which local associations are members may have helped Danish centers bring about a sense of local ownership. In Norway, volunteer centers had weak ties to other local voluntary associations and were at times perceived as a threat to them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]