RETURN TO SYMBOLIC CAPITAL: CASE STUDY

In this paper we propose to reconsider the concept of symbolic capital, as presented by Bourdieu and as it is understood today, and to present the results of a study on how social identity is being built, a study conducted on the ground in an ethnic, confessional and cultural community in a period of post-communist transition. The research is a quantitative one. The results highlight the current practical value of the symbolic capital concept, internalized and manifested differently by the different social groups belonging to the same communities. Equally, symbolic capital can be a vector of preserving local identity and the community can rely on it to shape its future.

The problem of humanization: Affect and investigative mindset in U.S. capital mitigation

This article has two goals. First, I demonstrate the challenges that “humanization” poses for the defense as an ideal of sentencing mitigation in U.S. capital trials. Capital case procedure largely neutralizes the sympathetic effects of humanization with jurors. In addition, potential mitigation witnesses inhabit affective environs that undermine any inclination to help the defense through sympathetic testimony. Second, I explain how defense advocacy responds to humanization’s challenges. Practitioners adopt an investigative mindset that focuses on forging the conditions to cultivate relationships with mitigation witnesses. This intensive affective labor translates back into the realm of procedure through strategic maneuvers intended to avoid trial and the performance of humanization.

RETURN TO CULTURAL CAPITAL: CASE STUDY

In this paper we propose to reconsider the concept of cultural capital, as presented by Bourdieu and as it is understood today, and to present the results of a study on how social identity is being built, a study conducted on the ground in an ethnic, confessional and cultural community in a period of post-communist transition. The research is a quantitative one. The results highlight the current practical value of the cultural capital concept, internalized and manifested differently by the different social groups belonging to the same communities. Equally, cultural capital can be a vector of preserving local identity and the community can rely on it to shape its future.

Rural-urban migrants’ remittances and wage inequality: Evidence from China

There is a link between rural-urban remittances and wage inequality. However, the existing literature sheds little light on this topic. In this study, we establish a three-sector general equilibrium model to investigate the effects of rural-urban migrants’ remittances on wage inequality. Further, we use Chinese macroeconomic data to calibrate the parameters and conduct analysis with numerical simulation. We find that, when rural-urban migrants raise their remittance rate, wage inequality between skilled labour and the urban formal sector remains unchanged in the sector-specific capital case but narrows in the sector-mobile capital case. Moreover, in the sector-specific case, skilled and unskilled wage inequalities, w_SY and w_SZ, decrease at the same rate as the urban-rural wage inequalities, w_XY and w_XZ, respectively. In the mobile case, however, the former declines faster than the latter.