scholarly journals The structural dynamics of social class

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Kraus ◽  
Jun Won Park

Individual agency accounts of social class persist in society and even in psychological science despite clear evidence for the role of social structures. This article argues that social class is defined by the structural dynamics of society. Specifically, access to powerful networks, groups, and institutions, and inequalities in wealth and other economic resources shape proximal social environments that influence how individuals express their internal states and motivations. An account of social class that highlights the means by which structures shape and are shaped by individuals guides our understanding of how people move up or down in the social class hierarchy, and provides a framework for interpreting neuroscience studies, experimental paradigms, and approaches that attempt to intervene on social class disparities.

Author(s):  
А.А. Костригин

Изучалась биография и творчество выдающегося отечественного психолога, философа и представителя российского психологического зарубежья В.В. Зеньковского (1881-1962 гг.). Рассмотрены его ранний период эмиграции и работа в г. Белграде (Королевство сербов, хорватов и словенцев) и г. Праге (Чехословакия) (1920-1926 гг.). Проанализированы фундаментальные психологические идеи В.В. Зеньковского в общей, детской и педагогической психологии, сформулированные им в его монографии «Психология детства» (1924 г.) и курсах лекций «Педагогическая психология» (1924 г.) и «Курс общей психологии» (1925 г.) (на основе архивных материалов). Рассмотрены также его научные концепции в области теории и методологии психологии (структура психологической науки, строение душевной жизни, о ведущей роли эмоциональной сферы в психике человека), детской психологии (педологические основы психологии ребенка, задачи и методы детской психологии, проблемы понимания и самостоятельности феномена детства, роль игры в биологическом, психическом и социальном развитии ребенка) и педагогической психологии (социально-психологические основы педагогической психологии, социально-психологические феномены педагогического процесса, классификация социальных ролей ученика и учителя, психология поведения класса). В.В. Зеньковский представляется как оригинальный теоретик и методолог психологии, разработчик основ изучения психики ребенка, создатель социально-психологического подхода в педагогической психологии. Его концепции этого периода могут быть востребованы в настоящее время при решении методологических вопросов психологии, социально-психологических проблем педагогики, проблем социального воспитания личности, при изучении развития психических процессов и личности ребенка. The author refers to the biography and work of the outstanding Russian psychologist, philosopher and representative of the Russian psychological abroad community V.V. Zenkovsky (1881-1962 y.). The early emigration period of his life and work in Belgrade (the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) and Prague (Czechoslovakia) (1920-1926 y.) is considered. The author discusses the fundamental psychological ideas of V.V. Zenkovsky regarding general psychology, child psychology and pedagogical psychology, which he formulated at that time in his monograph “Psychology of Childhood” (1924) and lecture courses “Pedagogical Psychology” (1924) and “The Course of General Psychology” (1925) (based on archival materials). There are significant scientific concepts of V.V. Zenkovsky in the field of theory and methodology of psychology (the structure of psychological science, the structure of mental life, the leading role of the emotional sphere in the human psyche), child psychology (pedological foundations of child psychology, tasks and methods of child psychology, the problem of understanding and independence of the childhood phenomenon, the role of the game in biological, mental and social development of the child) and pedagogical psychology (social-psychological foundations of pedagogical psychology, social-psychological phenomena of educational process, the classification of social roles of student and teacher, the psychology of class behavior). V.V. Zenkovsky is presented as an original theoretician and methodologist of psychology, pedologist, developer of the basics of studying the child’s psyche and creator of the social-psychological approach in pedagogical psychology. Nowadays the analyzed concepts of the Russian psychologist can be demanded when solving methodological issues of psychology, social-psychological problems of pedagogics, problems of social education of a person, when studying and designing the development of child’s mental processes and personality.


Author(s):  
Concepción Maiztegui ◽  
Esther Aretxabala ◽  
Aitor Ibarrola ◽  
Pedro J. Oiarzabal

<p>This article describes and explores an analytical framework based on the concept of belonging, which, in turn, takes into consideration the personal, social, and performative dimensions of the integration process of young migrants. The concept of belonging is becoming one of the central pillars in current research on migration and integration, since it allows us to look into the subjective experiences of individuals and into the social environments that have an impact on the daily lives and give shape to the identity frameworks of young migrants. Approaches based on this concept also take into account the role of participation in social processes.</p><p><strong>Published online</strong>: 11 December 2017</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Wang

AbstractNW by Zadie Smith opens with a multicultural and multiracial scene and revolves around the crises in the lives of four people with longstanding connection to Northwest London. The Northwest London in NW is a besieged city, and the people therein could not see any possibility of getting out because the gate has been latched with the concept of social class. In NW, the social class is materialized as space, economic position and race. Geographically NW features the main areas of London, and considers the role of that city in shaping the consciousness of the major characters, a partly spatial configuring of identity. In addition, the major characters in NW also suffer from occupational exclusion and economic exploitation, which then lead to their lower-class position since social class is constructed in such a way that agents are distributed according to their positions in the statistical distribution based on the economic and cultural capital. Finally the racial discrimination encountered by the characters in NW shows that class relations shape the form that racial oppression takes. The racialization of class issues becomes a politically effective tool for the wealthy to divide and rule the lower classes. In NW, Smith thus has adopted a more political attitude than in her previous books, so the relatively new perspective of her fiction might be the attention she draws to the persistent obstacles to class crossing and the acknowledgment of the rigid lines that still define the social classes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (88) ◽  
pp. 21-46
Author(s):  
Ante Bećir

The article sought to put the social and political agency of the Trogir Canons in the period from 1300 to 1360 into the wider context of political conflicts that took place between opposing noble factions within the Trogir commune in the 14th century. However, before commencing with the analysis, the author gives a basic insight into the status and infrastructure of the Trogir ecclesiastical organization, situated in its respective Dalmatian- Croatian and Hungarian context. Starting with the normative definition of a Cathedral Chapter, which exists to assist the Bishop and engage in the pastoral care of its human flock, the article compares the idea with the practical dealings of the Trogir Canons. It is highlighted that their dealings were almost primarily concerned with these-worldly matters. On the other hand, and on the basis of tracking several Trogir Canons, namely Jacob son of Peter (Vitturi), John son of Peter (Castrafoci), Stephan son of Michael (Cega), Lampredius son of Jacob (Vitturi), Kazarica son of Martin (Kazarice), Albert son of Marinus (Andreis) and some others, which are heavily exposed in the primary sources, it is argued that the Trogir Cathedral Chapter was not functioning in practice as an independent church corporation, rather than the Canons were in one way or another involved in the factional strifes. More precisely, the considered canons were deeply connected with the noble families, from which practically all of them originated, and sequentially with the informal factions. Therefore, the Canons exploited the existing institutional (corporate) framework and material resources of the Cathedral Chapter in the pursuit of their own individual or factional goals. In that respect, the Cathedral Chapter cannot be considered as an entity separate from the activities of the city lay authorities, regardless of the actual distinction in political and judicial jurisdiction between ecclesiastical and secular institutions. The Case of Trogir provided very fruitful material, which allowed the unraveling of social and political networks and the role of individual participants in the collective (political) agency. In other words, the paper put the focus more on individual agency, and less to structures, bearing in mind that individual agency is exactly that which shapes the institutions in the end.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0192513X2110557
Author(s):  
Changhui Song ◽  
Joyee Shairee Chatterjee ◽  
Donna L. Doane ◽  
Philippe Doneys

This qualitative study based on 34 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with cis-gendered tongzhi (men who are attracted to men) critically explores the factors influencing their decisions to enter mixed-orientation marriages (MOMs) in China. Theoretically, the study weaves together insights from queer and feminist theorizing and analyzes the role of heteronormativity and patriarchy, especially in relation to hegemonic masculine ideals, in the context of marriage norms in contemporary China. Our examination showcases the contradictory role heteronormativity and patriarchy play in simultaneously marginalizing and privileging these groups of men along the axes of sexual, gender, and lineage (inter-generational) hierarchies. It also underscores the continued role of filial piety norms. Overall, the study contributes to deepening our understanding of the complex nature of MOMs and discussions of MOMs as marriage fraud. We argue that examining these non-normative marriages furthers explication of the social structures underpinning gender and sexuality in a context of patriarchal marriage-normative societies.


2020 ◽  
pp. 61-102
Author(s):  
Alex Belsey ◽  
Alex Belsey

This chapter analyses how, in his wartime journal-writing, Keith Vaughan articulated the social differences and exclusions that he believed were preventing him from fully participating in British society. In his accounts of failing to connect with those around him, he romanticized his failures and dramatized his distance from others, thereby justifying his exclusion and ultimately ascribing himself the powerful (if lonely) role of observer – a position from which he could assert superiority over his fellow C.O.s and men of lower social class whilst representing them in his sketches, paintings, and bathing pictures. The first section of this chapter considers how Vaughan used the early volumes of his journal to record his difficulties in making contact with his fellow man and reinforce them through self-dramatization. The second section explores the strategies employed by Vaughan to emphasize his difference from other individuals and groups, particularly around his homosexuality and artistic inclinations, and therefore justify and maintain his distance from them. The third section argues that Vaughan constructed an empowering role that made use of his remove from male society: that of the observer, enabling him to laud his own powers of perception whilst evading the problems of social involvement and possible surveillance.


2019 ◽  
pp. 101-126
Author(s):  
Karen Stohr

This chapter presents an argument that moral identities are cultivated within shared normative spaces called moral neighborhoods. Moral neighborhoods are constructed through networks of social practices and conventions that are situated in specific physical and social environments. The chapter draws on Confucian ideas about the role of ritual in moral formation, as well Jane Austen’s novels, to argue that these networks of social practices are important for moral improvement. Good moral neighborhoods enable participants to work out and enact shared moral aspirations in the form of jointly constructed narratives. The social practices of good moral neighborhoods create normative spaces in which we enact fictive moral selves. Because moral neighborhoods are constructed in non-ideal conditions, they must be responsive to the underlying social and physical landscape if they are to reflect shared moral aspirations. Creating a good moral neighborhood is thus a practical exercise in non-ideal theory.


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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anatolia Batruch ◽  
Frédérique Autin ◽  
Fabienne Bataillard ◽  
Fabrizio Butera

Selection practices in education, such as tracking, may represent a structural obstacle that contributes to the social class achievement gap. We hypothesized that school’s function of selection leads evaluators to reproduce social inequalities in tracking decisions, even when performance is equal. In two studies, participants (students playing the role of teachers, N = 99, or preservice and in-service teachers, N = 70) decided which school track was suitable for a pupil whose socioeconomic status (SES) was manipulated. Although pupils’ achievement was identical, participants considered a lower track more suitable for lower SES than higher SES pupils, and the higher track more suitable for higher SES than lower SES pupils. A third study ( N = 160) revealed that when the selection function of school was salient, rather than its educational function, the gap in tracking between social classes was larger. The selection function of tracking appears to encourage evaluators to artificially create social class inequalities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 882-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donncha Marron

Contemporary public health approaches increasingly draw attention to the unequal social distribution of cigarette smoking. In contrast, critical accounts emphasize the importance of smokers’ situated agency, the relevance of embodiment and how public health measures against smoking potentially play upon and exacerbate social divisions and inequality. Nevertheless, if the social context of cigarettes is worthy of such attention, and sociology lays a distinct claim to understanding the social, we need to articulate a distinct, positive and systematic claim for smoking as an object of sociological enquiry. This article attempts to address this by situating smoking across three main dimensions of sociological thinking: history and social change; individual agency and experience; and social structures and power. It locates the emergence and development of cigarettes in everyday life within the project of modernity of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It goes on to assess the habituated, temporal and experiential aspects of individual smoking practices in everyday lifeworlds. Finally, it argues that smoking, while distributed in important ways by social class, also works relationally to render and inscribe it.


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