scholarly journals Employment Relations and Social Stratification in Contemporary Urban China: Does Goldthorpe’s Class Theory Still Work?

Sociology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 1133-1150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Zou
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Class Theory

Variations in the adoption and use of mobile social apps in everyday lives in urban and rural China

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pu Yan ◽  
Ralph Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Central China ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Digital Gap ◽  
Everyday Problem

China has in recent years seen the rapid adoption of multifunctional social networking applications such as WeChat. This paper aims to explore if China’s social stratification has influenced the adoption and use of mobile social apps and if social apps such as WeChat can help to bridge the digital divide by providing urban and rural users equal access to diverse information and communication resources. The study is based on 4 months of fieldwork in the Henan Province of central China and combines quantitative data from surveys and qualitative data from semistructured interviews and focus groups. We found that there still exists a digital gap in the adoption and use of mobile social apps such as WeChat between rural and urban China, but such differences are also associated with demographic variables such as age, gender, and education level. Meanwhile, we found that WeChat has become more than a communication tool; it has also played an essential role in everyday problem-solving and information seeking for both rural and urban users. Our qualitative interviews and focus group studies reveal how WeChat influences various aspects of daily life in developing areas in China. We argue that although some divides in information seeking are being overcome, other new divides are emerging.

scholarly journals Editors' welcome, PORTAL, Vol 6, No 2, July 2009

1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Allatson
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Urban China ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Contemporary China ◽  
New Members ◽  
Editorial Committee ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
The University

‘Post-Mao, Post-Bourdieu: Class and Taste in Contemporary China,’ is a special issue of PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies guest-edited by Yi Zheng (University of Sydney) and Stephanie Hemelryk Donald (RMIT University). The special issue explores the relationship between taste, choice and social stratification in contemporary China, and includes a new section, ‘New Perspectives Reports,’ which is intended to showcase opinion and ideas—in this case from the People’s Republic of China, in Mandarin—that complement the main articles. We hope to include this section in future issues of the journal. The guest editors and the PORTAL editorial committee would like to acknowledge that this special issue of is a result of a funding grant from the Australian Research Council, 2003-2005: ‘The Making of Middle-Class Taste: Reading, Tourism, and Educational Choices in Urban China.’ I am also delighted to announce that the PORTAL Editorial Committee has three new members, all from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney: Dr Malcolm Angelucci, Dr Beatriz Carrillo, and Dr Fredericka van der Lubbe. Paul Allatson, Editor, PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies.

scholarly journals Measuring Class Hierarchies in Postindustrial Societies: A criterion and construct validation of EGP and ESEC across 31 countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Smallenbroek ◽  
Forian R. Hertel ◽  
Carlo Barone
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Construct Validity ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Criterion Validity ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Educational Inequalities ◽  
European Working ◽  
Class Hierarchies ◽  
European Working Conditions Survey ◽  
Cross National

In social stratification research, the most frequently used social class schema are based on employment relations (EGP and ESEC). These schemes have been propelled to paradigms for research on social mobility and educational inequalities and applied in cross-national research for both genders. Using the European Working Conditions Survey, we examine their criterion and construct validity across 31 countries and for both genders. We investigate whether classes are well-delineated by the theoretically assumed dimensions of employment relations and we assess how several measures of occupational advantage differ across classes. We find broad similarity in the criterion validity of EGP and ESEC across genders and countries as well as satisfactory levels of construct validity. However, the salariat classes are too heterogeneous and their boundaries with the intermediate classes are blurred. To improve the measurement of social class, we propose to differentiate managerial and professional occupations within the lower and higher salariat respectively. We show that implementing these distinctions in ESEC and EGP improves their criterion validity and allows to better identify privileged positions.

scholarly journals Šiuolaikinės Lietuvos klasinė struktūra: neovėberiška analizė

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaidas Morkevičius ◽  
Zenonas Norkus
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Class Theory ◽  
Political Processes

Santrauka. Straipsnio tikslas – pritaikyti socialinės nelygybės ir politinių procesų pokomunistinėje Lietuvoje analizei Roberto Eriksono, Johno Goldthorpe’o ir Lucienne Portocarero (EGP) klasių teoriją, kuri tęsia Maxo Weberio socialinės struktūros analizės tradiciją. Pirmame skirsnyje analizuojamos priežastys, kodėl atkūrus Lietuvos nepriklausomybę Lietuvos sociologai beveik visiškai apleido tyrimų barą, kurį sociologijos klasikai laikė pagrindiniu, – visuomenės socialinės struktūros analizę. Aptariami dviejų tyrimų, skirtų pokomunistinės Lietuvos socialinės struktūros analizei (Rūtos Brazienės disertacijos ir Arvydo Matulionio vadovaujamo autorių kolektyvo parašytos monografijos) rezultatai, palyginama indukcinė ir dedukcinė socialinės struktūros analizės metodologija, išryškinami dedukcinės metodologijos privalumai. Antrame skirsnyje išdėstoma EGP klasių teorija, pateikiant ją kaip kūrybišką klasikinių Maxo Weberio socialinės struktūros idėjų tąsą. Išryškinami Maxo Weberio ir Karlo Marxo klasių sampratų skirtumai, o EGP klasių teorija palyginama su jos pagrindinėmis šiuolaikinėmis alternatyvomis: neomarksistine Eriko Wrighto klasių teorija, orientuota į išnaudojimo santykių analizę, ir amerikietiškąja socialinės stratifikacijos analizės koncepcija, orientuota į individualaus socialinio ekonominio statuso (SES) matavimus. Trečiame skirsnyje neovėberiškai analizuojama pokomunistinės Lietuvos klasinė struktūra, pateikiant jos 11, 7, 5 ir 3 EGP klasių modelius. Šiam tikslui panaudojami 2009 m. pabaigoje atliktos reprezentatyvios Europos socialinio tyrimo (EST) Lietuvos gyventojų apklausos duomenys. Remiantis diachroniniais ir sinchroniniais palyginimais bei istorine analize išryškinami šios struktūros bendrieji (lyginant su panašiomis į Lietuvą šalimis) ir saviti nacionaliniai bruožai. Paskutiniajame skirsnyje modifikuotas 7 EGP klasių modelis pritaikomas statistiškai nagrinėjant vėberiškai apibrėžiamą (kaip „gero gyvenimo šansų“ nelygaus pasiskirstymo) socialinę nelygybę Lietuvoje, o taip pat bandant nustatyti (pasitelkiant statistinę atitikties analizę) klasinės priklausomybės įtaką politinėms orientacijoms bei elgsenai.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: Eriksono-Goldthorpe-Portocarero (EGP) klasių teorija, pokomunistinės Lietuvos socialinė struktūra ir politika, gero gyvenimo šansų nelygybė, atitikties analizė.Key words: Erikson-Goldthorpe-Portocarero (EGP) class theory, ABSTRACTTHE CLASS STRUCTURE OF CONTEMPORARY LITHUANIA: A NEO-WEBERIAN ANALYSISThis article analyses social inequality and political processes in post-Communist Lithuania, using the neo-Weberian class theory of Robert Erikson, John Goldthorpe and Lucienne Portocarero (EGP). The opening section considers why the analysis of social structure, which was a central concern in classical sociology, has been so neglected in Lithuanian sociology since the restoration of independence. There are just two exceptions to this trend, discussed in the same section – Rūta Brazienė’s 2002 thesis and the 2005 volume edited by Arvydas Matulionis. The first part also compares inductive (data-driven) and deductive (theory-driven) methodologies of social structure analysis to substantiate the advantages of the latter for this article’s empirical analysis. The second part outlines EGP class theory, considered as a creative continuation of Weber’s classical analysis of social structure, and as a genuine alternative to Marx’s theory of classes and class struggle. EGP class theory is compared with two other approaches – Erik Olin Wright’s neo-Marxist class theory, which emphasises exploitation relations between classes, and American social stratification analysis, which focuses on the measurement of socio-economic status (SES). The third section offers a neo-Weberian examination of post-Communist Lithuania’s class structure, represented by four different EGP class types. Diachronic and synchronic comparisons and historical analysis are used to point out the features of Lithuanian class structure that are shared with other similar countries and those features that are nationally specific. To this end, data from Round 4 of the European Social Survey in Lithuania (conducted at the end of 2009) is used. In the last section, which applies statistical methods of correspondence analysis, a slightly modified EGP class model is used to explore manifestations of social inequality (conceived in Weberian terms as an unequal distribution of ‘life chances’), as well as the voting and ideological orientations of the Lithuanian electorate.

scholarly journals Social class and the risk of unemployment: Trends, gender differences and the contribution of education

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannu Lahtinen ◽  
Outi Sirniö ◽  
Pekka Martikainen
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Market Structures ◽  
Market Risks ◽  
Over Time

Previous research has shown that an advantaged social class position protects individuals from unemployment, but less is known about how this relationship has developed after the turn of the millennium, how it varies by gender and to what extent education contributes to the association between these factors. We assess these questions using register-based data on the Finnish labour force over a 28-year period between 1988 and 2015. The overall risk of unemployment was 2.7–3.7-fold among manual classes compared to upper non-manual classes, and 1.4–1.7-fold among lower compared to upper non-manual classes. Controlling for education attenuated the differences between social classes by about two-thirds. Social class disparities were somewhat more distinct among men than among women, but gender differences narrowed over time. Overall, temporal changes were small, especially among men, except for a curvilinear pattern observed for the relative unemployment risk of the lower non-manual class. To conclude, despite a comparatively egalitarian context and drastic changes in economic conditions and labour market structures over time, social stratification in unemployment has been substantial and considerably persistent. This is in line with the conceptualization of social class underpinning differing employment relations and, therefore, inherently creating variation in labour market risks.

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