scholarly journals Dealignment: Class in Britain and Class in British Sociology Since 1945

Societies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Ken Roberts

This paper sets changes in Britain’s class structure since 1945 alongside the parallel sociological controversies about class. Since the 1970s, the class scheme developed by John Goldthorpe and colleagues for initial use in their study of social mobility in Britain has become sociology’s standard template for thinking about and researching class. Versions have been adopted by the UK government and the European Union as their official socio-economic classifications. This paper does not dispute that the Goldthorpe scheme is still the best available for classifying by occupation, or that occupation remains our best single indicator of class, or that a constant class scheme must be used if the purpose is to measure trends over time in rates of relative inter-generational mobility. Despite these merits, it is argued that the sociological gaze has been weakened by failing to represent changes over time in the class structure itself and, therefore, how class is experienced in lay people’s lives. There has been a relative neglect of absolute social mobility flows (which have changed over time), and a pre-occupation with the inter-generational and a relative neglect of intra-career mobilities and immobilities.

Author(s):  
Michael Keating

Modern perspectives on Scotland see it neither as an undifferentiated part of a unitary nation state, nor as a radically distinct or ‘ethnic’ community. Rather it is a component nation within a union, which itself changes over time. Since the late twentieth century, Scotland has become more important as a political community and at the end of the century it gained an autonomous Parliament. It is not a homogeneous unit but a space in which political contestation takes place. Even as it increasingly resembles the rest of the UK in its economic and social structures and values, it is politically differentiated. Devolution in 1999 started an institutional dynamic whose effects are still being worked out. Scotland now has a distinct party system. Its constitutional future is unresolved after the independence referendum of 2014 and the European referendum of 2016, in which Scotland voted to remain in the European Union whilst England and Wales voted to leave.


Author(s):  
Christopher Hood ◽  
Rozana Himaz

This chapter draws on historical statistics reporting financial outcomes for spending, taxation, debt, and deficit for the UK over a century to (a) identify quantitatively and compare the main fiscal squeeze episodes (i.e. major revenue increases, spending cuts, or both) in terms of type (soft squeezes and hard squeezes, spending squeezes, and revenue squeezes), depth, and length; (b) compare these periods of austerity against measures of fiscal consolidation in terms of deficit reduction; and (c) identify economic and financial conditions before and after the various squeezes. It explores the extent to which the identification of squeeze episodes and their classification is sensitive to which thresholds are set and what data sources are used. The chapter identifies major changes over time that emerge from this analysis over the changing depth and types of squeeze.


2003 ◽  
Vol 183 (4) ◽  
pp. 314-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Wessely ◽  
C. Unwin ◽  
M. Hotopf ◽  
L. Hull ◽  
K. Ismail ◽  
...  

BackgroundWartime traumatic events are related to subsequent psychological and physical health, but quantifying the association is problematic. Memory changes over time and is influenced by psychological status.AimsTo use a large, two-stage cohort study of members of the UK armed forces to study changes in recall of both traumatic and ‘toxic’ hazards.MethodA questionnaire-based follow-up study assessed 2370 UK military personnel, repeating earlier questions about exposure to military hazards.ResultsThe κ statistics for reporting of hazards were good for some exposures, but very low for others. Gulf veterans reported more exposures over time (no significant rise in the Bosnia cohort). In the Gulf cohort only, reporting new exposures was associated with worsening health perception, and forgetting previously reported exposures with improved perception. We found no association between physical health, psychological morbidity or post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and endorsement or non-endorsement of exposures.ConclusionsReporting of military hazards after a conflict is not static, and is associated with current self-rated perception of health. Self-report of exposures associated with media publicity needs to be treated with caution.


Author(s):  
Tahir Abbas

Patterns of racism in the Global North are correlated with the changing nature of globalization and its impact on individual economies, especially over the last four decades. The ‘left behind’ are groups in society who have faced considerable downward social mobility, with some becoming targeted by the mainstream and fringe right-wing groups who do this to release their pent up frustration towards the center of political and economic power. How this form of racism has evolved over time to focus on race, ethnicity, culture and now religion is explored in relation to the UK case, discussing the rise of Trump and the issue of Brexit as symptoms of a wider malaise affecting societies of the Global North. These forms of tribalism act to galvanize the right, combining racism with white supremacy, xenophobia and isolationism.


Sociology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 883-903
Author(s):  
Saffron Karlsen ◽  
James Yzet Nazroo ◽  
Neil R Smith

This study uses data from consecutive England and Wales censuses to examine the intragenerational economic mobility of individuals with different ethnicities, religions and genders between 1971 and 2011, over time and across cohorts. The findings suggest more downward and less upward mobility among Black Caribbean, Indian Sikh and Muslim people with Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani ethnicities, relative to white British groups, and more positive relative progress among Indian Hindu people, but also some variation in the experiences of social mobility between individuals even in the same ethnic groups. For some groups, those becoming adults or migrating to the UK since 1971 occupy an improved position compared with older or longer resident people, but this is not universal. Findings suggest that these persistent inequalities will only be effectively addressed with attention to the structural factors which disadvantage particular ethnic and religious groups, and the specific ways in which these affect women.


Author(s):  
Martina Bozzola ◽  
Robert Finger

Abstract This article investigates the stability of farmers’ risk attitude over time. To this end, we estimate responses to changes in agricultural policies and production shocks. We use a unique panel data of over 36,000 Italian farms specialised in cereals, during the period 1989–2009. We find evidence of risk preference changes over time in response to changes in the European Union Common Agricultural Policy and possibly after a drought-induced production shock.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Hatton

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare data from national social care statistics on the living situations of people with learning disabilities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Design/methodology/approach National social care statistics (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) reporting the living situations of adults with learning disabilities (residential and nursing care, living with family, other forms of accommodation) were accessed, with data extracted on trends over time and rate of service use. Findings There were substantial differences in the statistics collected across the UK. Overall, there were higher reported rates of adults with learning disabilities in residential/nursing accommodation in England than Scotland or Wales, but much lower reported rates of adults living in other forms of unsupported and supported accommodation and much lower reported rates of adults living with their families. In all three countries, trends over time suggest that reductions in residential care towards more independent living options may be stalling. In Northern Ireland reductions in currently extensive residential and nursing care services are continuing, unlike other parts of the UK. Social implications Despite similar policy ambitions across the four parts of the UK, statistics on the living situations of adults with learning disabilities report substantial differences. Originality/value This paper is a first attempt to compare national social care statistics concerning the living situations of adults with learning disabilities across the UK. With increasing divergence of health and social service systems, further comparative analyses of services for people with learning disabilities are needed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Masood ◽  
George Mnatzaganian ◽  
Sarah R. Baker

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank M Häge

Little firm knowledge exists about the allocation of the Council's political attention across policy areas and over time. This article presents a new dataset of the date, duration, and policy coding of more than 70,000 meetings of Council working parties, covering all areas of the Council's policy activities between 1995 and 2014. In terms of both scope and resolution, the data allow for the generation of unprecedented insights into what issues occupy the Council's agenda, how that varies between and within policy areas, and how that changes over time. After discussing conceptual issues and explaining the construction of the dataset, the article demonstrates its usefulness and versatility through analyses of the Council's political attention at various levels of aggregation.


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