Human Capital vs. Quality of Life: A Sociological Appraisal

The present article sociologically analyzes how human capital and quality of life mutually affect each other. Yet, human capital is strongly possible in changing quality of life. Most countries first try to build their human capital, to be followed by a better and more prosperous quality of life. For example, South Korea and India in Asia have initially upgraded their human capital which was followed by improvement in quality of life in various sectors. In fact, in all societies, educated men and women generally have lower mortality rates; their offspring also have higher survival rates. Thus, the educational capital that leads to social capital, while affecting the current generation, also has a positive effect on future generations. Almost globally, women with higher levels of education have fewer children. They have better access to birth control tools. Such a quality of life further leads to the continuity of future quality of life. Improved quality of life leads to food per capita, accommodation per capita, services per capita, convenience per capita, and many more.

Aesthetic Disposition, Educational Capital, Personality Trait Openness, and Sex: A Study of French High-School Students

Aesthetic disposition has been defined as the propensity to prioritize form over function and to approach any object as potentially valuable from an aesthetic standpoint. In this study, we examined whether and how aesthetic disposition was predicted by educational capital, personality trait openness, and sex. In addition, we investigated the association of educational capital and sex with openness. We compared students from a general high school (“high” educational-capital group) with students from a vocational high school (“low” educational-capital group). We found that (a) aesthetic disposition was positively associated with educational capital and, to a lesser extent, with openness, (b) sex was of minor importance in the distribution of aesthetic disposition, and (c) openness was positively linked to educational capital and unrelated to sex. Our findings support the view that educational capital plays an important role in the social distribution of aesthetic disposition and highlight a link between education and openness.

Ways to Success in Education: Students’ Behavioral Strategies in Regional Universities of Russia

The article discusses the behavioral strategies of students of regional Russian universities, focused on achieving educational success. The situation of uncertainty in modern higher education is shown as a social context that determines the variability of students’ behavioral strategies. A factor that has a significant impact on the phenomenon under study is the change in the views of the main educational communities (teachers and students) about educational success: the expansion of the range of its components, differentiation among different groups of students, orientation to non-educational benefits and values that can be obtained by university graduates in the future at the expense of educational capital. Based on the data of an empirical study conducted in the universities of the Sverdlovsk region in 2019-2021, the characteristic of behavioral strategies for achieving educational success implemented by students of Ural universities is given. It is noted that strategies for achieving success in education begin to be formed in the pre-university period, as part of the transition from school to university. It is concluded that during the university period, in response to new goals and learning difficulties, different groups of students develop four types of behavioral strategies – traditional, innovative, imitation, and «withdrawal» strategies.

ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF HUMAN CAPITAL

Purpose of the research: based on theoretical analysis, to develop a classification and structure of human capital, allowing for its development most optimally. The structure of human capital, proposed by the authors and considered in this article, consists of 5 main components, namely, demographic capital, educational capital, labour capital, research capital, socio-cultural capital. Along with the proposed structure of human capital, 8 third-party human capital structures by various authors were analyzed. To confirm the uniqueness of the human capital structure proposed by the authors, 25 state programs implemented in the Sverdlovsk region were analyzed. In this study, the authors propose their own classification of human capital, which meets modern realities and can be digitized for each item, which makes it possible to directly influence labour productivity in several aspects. Also, an important conclusion of this article is the need to develop educational and research capital, since these components of the proposed structure play an important role in innovative and economic development. The study's theoretical significance consists of proposing a new classification of human capital, which fully reflects its essence from different angles. Based on this, it allows formulating new hypotheses for the development and improvement of human capital. The practical significance lies in the relevance of the proposed structure for the next 10-15 years and specific recommendations for the development of educational and research capital in the Sverdlovsk region and other regions of the Russian Federation.

Is Science for Everyone? Exploring Intersectional Inequalities in Connecting With Science

Several studies have investigated the way learners connect with science, re-emphasising persisting inequalities in science learning. This article combines the concept of intersectionality with the theoretical lens of science learning ecologies to focus on inequalities in connecting with science: Which factors influence the formation of a positive science attitude of young learners and how does the social background of young learners influence their opportunities of connecting with science, focusing on the intersections of class and gender? Based on a quantitative survey among 1,486 visitors of non-formal science education offers aged between 8 and 21, we analyze important factors for the development of a positive science attitude and investigate structural inequalities. The intersectional perspective was implemented in the sampling, survey design as well as its analysis. Using composite indicators of age and gender as well as gender and educational capital, we avoid a homogenisation of broadly defined groups. The results highlight that the development of a highly positive science attitude–as identified in a stepwise logistic regression model–is linked to supportive social environments, intrinsic motivation, science learning in school as well as regular engagement in arts-based learning, and self-directed science learning. The learning ecology perspective illustrates the influence of school on science attitudes in general. From an intersectional perspective, however, our findings demonstrate that the persistence of an androcentric and classist concept of science is not compatible with every learning ecology; male learners from educationally affluent backgrounds are most likely to enjoy science learning and see how science relates to their everyday realities. In turn, however, not only female learners with lower educational capital but also male learners with lower educational capital might find it more difficult to connect with science. The intersectional approach unveiled the multiple ways educational capital and gender shape individual learning ecologies. More equitable science learning spaces and offers have to adapt to a diversity of needs and preferences in order to make science activities enjoyable for all.

I skuggan av kulturellt kapital – om konsten att omforma habitus för skolframgång

This article focuses on how high-achieving Swedish upper secondary students from families with low educational capital manage to transform their cultural capital and habitus to embark on a successful educational career. The analytical framework of the study is based on Bourdieu’s understanding of cultural capital and habitus. The data analyzed are based on interviews with 23 upper secondary students. Their success is based on a combination of a caring home environment and seeing both trustfully teachers, and like-minded peers as resources for their educational success, together with an awareness that good grades equal desirable position on the labour market.

Youth, Work and the Post-Fordist Self

Youth, Work and the Post-Fordist Self represents a paradigm shift in contemporary understandings of youth and work: from the study of youth transitions to the formation of young people as workers. With this focus, the book addresses transformations in the status of young people as economic actors. Despite high levels of youth unemployment, young people are increasingly encouraged to view work as a realm of meaning and self-actualisation, and are required to invest more and more in their identities as workers. In this, young people are evocative of broader shifts in labour force formation processes, which now go beyond the possession of skills or educational capital to encompass aspects of the working self that were previously considered ‘unproductive’, such as a worker’s relational style and mode of self-expression. The book draws on a large qualitative data-set in which young people articulate the meaning of work in their own words, describe their experiences of employment, and articulate their plans and aspirations for the role that work will play in their own lives. More than a set of employment conditions to move through, this book explores work as a realm in which young people’s selves and identities are produced in line with post-Fordist social and economic changes, which make work into an increasingly all-encompassing arena for the production of youth itself. In this sense, the book represents a new research agenda in studies of youth and work, situating youth as critical to the dynamics of labour and value in contemporary capitalism.

Introduction

The chapter introduces how middling migrants now comprise the majority of regular migration flows to post-industrial countries where migrants with skills and educational capital are increasingly prioritized over unskilled migrant workers. While this middle space is one of relative privilege compared to low-skilled and undocumented labour migrants globally, it is also a space, particularly for those who are young and navigating early career and life transitions, of decidedly uneven experiences. Exploring these lived experiences of mobile temporality is highly significant to migration studies, largely because these experiences reflect the broader spatio-temporal changes migration has undergone in our current era of globalized modernity. The chapter explains that the book seeks to highlight the multifarious ways that temporality operates within the lives of young and middle-class migrants from Asia to Australia whose open-ended mobilities criss-cross multiple spaces, statuses and identities. It draws on the concept of chronomobilities, which it uses to describe the temporalities that structure mobile lives as well as emerge from them. It positions chronomobilities — which encompass the disjunctures, velocities, synchronizations and rhythms of everyday mobile lives and the meanings they entail — as fundamentally shaped by specific global and national 'time-regimes' of the early 21st century. It also argues that three 'time-logics' emerge as the primary ways in which time is 'lived' and understood within migrants' own meaning making and narrations of their lives under these broader temporal conditions. The focus on the three logics — sequence, tempo and synchronicity — allows time to be understood as multiply and simultaneously sequential, rhythmic and relational.

The evolution of shadow education in China: From emergence to capitalisation

Private supplementary tutoring, or shadow education, has become a global phenomenon, and China is among the countries where it is most prevalent. By 2019, China’s private tutoring industry had grown into a prominent sector providing educational services to millions of students and parents. This article examines the development process of shadow education in China, and explores the path that led to its current prevalence. Drawing on existing literature and publicly available data sources, the article maps key stages of shadow education’s evolution and its changing characteristics. The analysis suggests that China’s private tutoring industry has undergone three stages of evolution: first, the emergence stage, when small numbers of individuals started to provide tutoring on an informal basis; second, the industrialisation stage, when institutionalised providers became primary providers of more formal types of tutoring services; and third, the capitalisation stage, when major providers of shadow education evolved into part of the educational capital market. The discussion argues that the development trajectory of shadow education occurred in line with the continued marketisation of education in China. The article also addresses the implications of capitalised shadow education as it enters a more intensified and controversial phase of development.