From Chicago to Shenzhen, via Birmingham

2019 ◽  
pp. 81-100
Author(s):  
Ray Forrest

The ownership of residential property has always been a focus for urban conflict and a key source of advantage and disadvantage-in terms of location and social status. Park`s Chicago was a city conceived of as having a hierarchy of housing situations with a distinct spatial pattern. Rex and Moore`s Birmingham of the 1960s developed these ideas through a Weberian conception of housing classes and greater attention to institutional gatekeepers. This chapter argues that their argument that the competition for housing contributes to a particular form of social stratification finds new resonance in the contemporary Chinese city. The narrative traverses over a century in considering the ways in which the competition for housing in cities of migrants involves common processes but also quite distinct experiences and outcomes. Over space and time, the meaning of home ownership has changed as has the nature and role of zones of transition for migrants and those on the social margins. The ownership of residential property has always been a focus for urban conflict and a key source of advantage and disadvantage-in terms of location and social status. Park`s Chicago was a city conceived of as having a hierarchy of housing situations with a distinct spatial pattern. Rex and Moore`s Birmingham of the 1960s developed these ideas through a Weberian conception of housing classes and greater attention to institutional gatekeepers. This chapter argues that their argument that the competition for housing contributes to a particular form of social stratification finds new resonance in the contemporary Chinese city. The narrative traverses over a century in considering the ways in which the competition for housing in cities of migrants involves common processes but also quite distinct experiences and outcomes. Over space and time, the meaning of home ownership has changed as has the nature and role of zones of transition for migrants and those on the social margins.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-32
Author(s):  
Le Hoang Anh Thu

This paper explores the charitable work of Buddhist women who work as petty traders in Hồ Chí Minh City. By focusing on the social interaction between givers and recipients, it examines the traders’ class identity, their perception of social stratification, and their relationship with the state. Charitable work reveals the petty traders’ negotiations with the state and with other social groups to define their moral and social status in Vietnam’s society. These negotiations contribute to their self-identification as a moral social class and to their perception of trade as ethical labor.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 1750133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Kułakowski ◽  
Piotr Gronek ◽  
Alfio Borzì

Recently, a computational model has been proposed of the social integration, as described in sociological terms by Blau. In this model, actors praise or critique each other, and these actions influence their social status and raise negative or positive emotions. The role of a self-deprecating strategy of actors with high social status has also been discussed there. Here, we develop a mean field approach, where the active and passive roles (praising and being praised, etc.) are decoupled. The phase transition from friendly to hostile emotions has been reproduced, similarly to the previously applied purely computational approach. For both phases, we investigate the time dependence of the distribution of social status. There we observe a diffusive spread, which — after some transient time — appears to be limited from below or from above, depending on the phase. As a consequence, the mean status flows.


Author(s):  
Annemarie Steidl

This essay examines the effectiveness of the network of relatives and friends in providing support and information to Austrian transatlantic migrants under the Habsburg Monarchy, in attempt to broaden the historical study of migrant networks. It claims that these networks determined migrant movement collectively rather than individually, and sprung up in order to minimise the risk to migrants crossing the Atlantic. It analyses passenger shipping records, particularly data relating to the ports of Bremen and Hamburg in 1910, in order to draw the conclusion that social networks of migration under the Habsburg Empire did not solely rely on family ties, but also the established conventions of the migration process and the social status of the migrants themselves. It calls for further research into the role of families in migrant networks.


ARTMargins ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
Bécquer Seguín

This introductory essay examines the role of two articles on the Cuban painters Roberto Álvarez Ríos and Wifredo Lam, “A Young Cuban Painter Before Surrealism: Álvarez Ríos” (1962) and “Lam” (1977), in the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser's writing on art. It argues that these largely ignored articles offer snapshots of two key shifts in Althusser's thought: his transition, during the early 1960s, from Hegelian Marxism to structural Marxism, and, during the late 1970s, from structural Marxism to so-called aleatory materialism. It contextualizes the articles in the social and political milieu of French philosophy during the 1960s and 70s and shows how his articles on the Cuban painters, specifically, and art, more generally, are largely concerned with contemporary developments in the third world, a subject that receives scant attention elsewhere in his work. The articles not only register Althusser's reflections on Lacanian psychoanalysis, the nature of language, and the philosophy of history, but also reveal that his connections with Latin America to exceed mere questions of intellectual reception.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sascha Muennich

This article shows how research on the social structure of markets may contribute to the analysis the growing income inequality in contemporary capitalist economies. The author proposes a theoretical link between embeddedness and social stratification by discussing the role of institutions and networks in markets for the distribution of economic profits between firms. The author claims that we must understand profit and free competition as opposites, as economic theory does. In the main part of the article the author illustrates six typical mechanisms of rent extraction from networks or formal and symbolic rules that embed markets. They emerge from material as well as symbolical access to and influence on the orientation of other market actors. Social structures in markets lead to unequal chances for rent extraction, even if actors produce them for coordination rather than for accumulation purposes. This is how market sociology and theory of capitalism can be linked more closely.


Transfers ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 62-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gopa Samanta ◽  
Sumita Roy

This article examines the marginal mobilities of hand-pulled rickshaws and rickshaw-pullers in Kolkata, India. It traces the politics of rickshaw mobilities, showing how debates about modernity and the informal economy frequently overshadow the experience of the marginalized community of hand-rickshaw pullers. It shows how the hand-pulled rickshaw rarely becomes the focus of research or debate because of its marginal status—technologically (being more primitive than the cycle rickshaw); geographically (operating only in Kolkata city); and in terms of the social status of the operators (the majority being Bihari migrants in Kolkata). Drawing upon both quantitative and qualitative research, this study focuses on the backgrounds of the rickshaw-pullers, their strategies for earning livelihoods, the role of social networks in their life and work, and their perceptions of the profession—including their views of the state government's policy of seeking to abolish hand-pulled rickshaws. The article concludes by addressing the question of subalternity.


2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kawalko Roselli

Abstract This paper explores how gender can operate as a disguise for class in an examination of the self-sacrifice of the Maiden in Euripides' Children of Herakles. In Part I, I discuss the role of human sacrifice in terms of its radical potential to transform society and the role of class struggle in Athens. In Part II, I argue that the representation of women was intimately connected with the social and political life of the polis. In a discussion of iconography, the theater industry and audience I argue that female characters became one of the means by which different groups promoted partisan interests based on class and social status. In Part III, I show how the Maiden solicits the competing interests of the theater audience. After discussing the centrality (as a heroine from an aristocratic family) and marginality (as a woman and associated with other marginal social groups) of the Maiden's character, I draw upon the funeral oration as a comparative model with which to understand the quite different role of self-sacrifice in tragedy. In addition to representing and mystifying the interests of elite, lower class and marginal groups, the play glorifies a subordinate character whose contradictory social status (both subordinate and elite) embodies the social position of other ““marginal”” members of Athenian society. The play stages a model for taking political action to transform the social system and for commemorating the tragic costs of such undertakings.


Author(s):  
Adriana Opris ◽  
Corina Pelau ◽  
Laura Lazar

AbstractCelebrities are, in recent years, a popular way to draw the consumer’s attention to an advertisement. In an age with an abundance of details and advertising, the celebrities ‘ glamour has the power to increase the advertised product’s exposure and to attract the attention of the consumer. Several researches have focused on analyzing the impact of celebrity endorsement on the success of brands by pointing out the importance of the match between the celebrities’ personality and the image of the endorsed brand. Besides the positive aspects, there have been also pointed out the different disadvantages of using celebrities in advertising such as the overshadowing effect or the exaggerated costs involved. The results of our quantitative research have shown that, although there is not a high declared interest in celebrity endorsement, it has a role especially in shaping the social status of the consumer and that women are more attracted by celebrity endorsed product in comparison to men. :


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 179-188
Author(s):  
Shahabuddin

English: Venugopal has a distinct identity in Hindi poetry. The atmosphere of disillusionment and the social status quo had an effect on your poem. Oriented towards Akavita. But soon you realized his regression. As a result, progressives were oriented towards the stream. The land of reality shaped beautiful dreams of the future. Your poem conveys the hopes, dreams, feelings, sensations of the common man. It also exposes the middle class weaknesses while being sympathetic towards the neglected workers and is a proponent of action against the power. It shares the golden dreams of the future, in retaliation for its oppression-exploitation-violence. It has the content of strategy and tactics for the youth taking action from the power. Sometimes it is very suggestive and expresses socio-political reality in an interesting way. Where the dialogue style is present in it, its symbolism is multidimensional. This poem also questions the role of media by taking a sarcastic pose. Hindi: वेणुगोपाल हिन्दी कविता में विशिष्ट पहचान रखते हैं। मोहभंग के वातावरण और सामाजिक यथास्थिति का आपकी कविता पर प्रभाव पड़ा। अकविता की ओर उन्मुख हुए। परंतु शीघ्र ही आपको उसकी प्रतिगामिता का बोध हुआ। परिणामस्वरूप प्रगतिशील धारा की ओर उन्मुख हुए। यथार्थ की जमीन ने भविष्य के सुन्दर-सुखद स्वप्नों को आकार दिया। आपकी कविता साधारणजन की आशाओं, स्वप्नों, अनुभूतियों, संवेदनाओं को रूपाकार देती है। यह उपेक्षितों-श्रमिकों के प्रति संवेदना रखते हुए भी मध्यवर्गीय कमजोरियों को उजागर करती है और सत्ता के विरुद्ध मोर्चेबन्द कार्रवाही की प्रस्तावक है। यह उसके दमन-शोषण-हिंसा का प्रतिकार करते हुए भी भविष्य के सुनहरे स्वप्न बाँटती है। इसमें सत्ता से मोर्चेबन्द कार्रवाही करते युवाओं हेतु रणनीति और रणकौशल की सामग्री मौजूद है। कहीं-कहीं यह बहुत विचारोत्तेजक है और सामाजिक-राजनीतिक यथार्थ को रोचक ढंग से अभिव्यक्त करती है। इसमें जहाँ संवाद-शैली मौजूद है वहीँ इसकी सांकेतिकता बहुआयामी है। यह कविता व्यंग्यात्मक मुद्रा लेकर मीडिया की भूमिका को भी प्रश्नांकित करती है।


Author(s):  
О. О. Nikogosyan

The article defines the priorities of the social policy of Ukraine at the present stage. The socio-economic problems of Ukraine are analyzed, their causes and solutions are identified. It is shown that the main reason for the failures of the socio-economic policy of independent Ukraine is the uncritical attitude of Ukrainian reformers to the consequences of neoliberal policies in other countries, as a result of which foreign experience of socio-economic reforms began to be introduced without taking into account domestic specifics. The decline in the role of the state in socio-economic policy, the increase in the role of private business, the privatization of "everything and everyone" led to a sharp social stratification, an economic crisis, which became a trigger for crises in all spheres of Ukrainian society. One of the fundamental principles of neoliberal economics, deregulation, has also collapsed. It turned out that the market is not efficient in areas in which the business cannot make quick and large profits. The so-called "market failures" demonstrated the need for state regulation in the spheres of education, health care, ecology, etc. Conclusions of the study and prospects for further research in this direction. Thus, if the new government really wants to build a successful country of happy people, it must make social and economic policy its top priority. Its primary tasks at the present stage should be: reduction of tariffs for utilities by eliminating from them the corruption component and excess profits of suppliers; revision of the principles of granting subsidies for utility bills. Exclusion from the number of subsidies of those who do not need state aid, but have a formal right to receive it (they work unofficially); the fight against the shadow economy, with the concealment of income from taxation; reforming the system of wages and pensions; creation of jobs with decent wages; establishing interaction between the state and private business in order to increase the social responsibility of the latter.


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