Suchergebnisse

This paper tests the theory of Relative Risk Aversion (RRA), which argues that educational decisions are intended to minimize the risk of downward social class mobility. We propose a structural model which distinguishes the instantaneous utility of educational decisions from the future utility of these decisions with respect to reproducing one's parents' social class position. We analyse British data and find that RRA accounts for some of the observed social class differences in educational decisions. We also find that while more than 90% of individuals derive utility from reproducing their parents' social class position (RRA 'conformists'), a small group of individuals experience disutility from reaching their parents' social class position (RRA 'rebels'). Individuals who experience disutility from reproducing their parents' social class position are characterized by low cognitive ability and a high incidence of behavioural problems in childhood.

I denne artikel undersøger vi en række forhold omkring Thomas Højrups livsformsanalyse. For det første undersøger vi, om livsformerne kan spores empirisk i den danske befolkning. For det andet undersøger vi forandringer i livsformernes kvantitative udbredelse i Danmark i perioden 1981-2005. For det tredje efterprøver vi Højrups hypotese om livsformscentrisme, som tilsiger, at individer er bærere af én og ikke flere livsformer. Vores empiriske analyse viser følgende: (1) vi kan identificere en lønarbejder- og karriereorientering i den danske befolkning, (2) lønarbejderorienteringen er blevet mindre udbredt i perioden 1981-2005 og karriereorienteringen er blevet mere udbredt, (3) der er kun sket små forandringer i livsformsorienteringer inden for forskellige beskæftigelsesgrupper på arbejdsmarkedet og (4) individer kan godt på samme tid være bærere af både lønarbejder- og karriere-livsformen.

ENGELSK ABSTRACT:
Anders Holm & Mads Meier Jæger:
Life Modes in Denmark: Extent and Development Tendencies 1981-2005

This paper analyzes several hypotheses in Thomas Højrup's life mode analysis. First, we examine if the different life modes can be traced empirically in the Danish population. Second, we analyze trends in the quantitative size of the different life modes in the period 1981-2005. Third, we test Højrup's claim that individuals can belong to only one life mode. We find the following empirical results: (1) we identify a wage-earner and career-oriented life mode; (2) the wage-earner life mode has become less prevalent in the period 1981-2005, while the career-oriented life mode has become more prevalent; (3) there have been only minor changes in life mode orientations within different occupational groupings over time; and (4) individuals can belong to both life mode orientations at the same time.

Key words: Life mode analysis, work values, latent class analysis.

Mads Meier Jæger og Anders Holm: Money, education, connections or brains? Testing the meaning of four parent resources for youth choice of education in Denmark

The aim of this article is to analyse the effect of four types of social resources on young people's educational choice. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of "capital", we distinguish four types of capital: economic, cultural, social, and cognitive, which are hypothesised to affect intergenerational educational mobility in different ways. Data comes from a longitudinal study of young people carried out by the Danish National Institute of Social Research, in which persons born in 1954 were interviewed about their own situation and about the educational choices of their oldest child. The empirical analysis is divided into two parts. In the first part, using multiple indicators and confirmatory factor analysis, we find that the four types of capital are clearly identified in the data, and that the four types of capital are significantly and positively correlated. The second part of the empirical analysis evaluates the effect of the four types of parental capital on young people's educational choice, net of several control variables. For this analysis, we employ the multinomial logit model with a non-parametric estimator of random effects to capture individual heterogeneity. The analysis suggests that (especially) parental cultural capital is a strong predictor of selection to academically oriented tertiary education. Furthermore, we find that social capital is particularly important in selection of vocational education. Finally, parental economic capital and cognitive capital do not affect educational chances, but growing up with a single mother decreases the probability of obtaining university-level qualifications significantly.

Abstract Although contemporary comparative welfare state research has advanced our knowledge of how welfare states respond to exogenous and endogenous pressures, the nature and implications of these pressures themselves on post‐industrial societies remains somewhat unknown. In the research literature phenomena such as globalization, Europeanization, demographics, individualization and changing labour markets are often claimed to put considerable pressure on welfare states. We analyse which of the alleged pressures are real "crises" or "challenges" to welfare states and which pressures should only be considered as "controversies"—phenomena whose impacts are nonsignificant, ambiguous, or have not been asserted. We suggest that pressures on post‐industrial societies may not, as is commonly believed, be countered with retrenchment and restructuring of welfare states. In fact, some pressures seem to call for more rather than less welfare state.

AbstractWe propose a model of educational decision-making based on rational choice theory in which students use signals about academic ability to make inference about the costs and benefits of different educational options. Our model is simple, extends ideas from previous models, and has testable implications. We test our model using data on Danish monozygotic twins and find that (i) students who receive a positive signal about their academic ability have a higher likelihood of enrolling in and completing a college-bound track compared with those who do not; (ii) the effect of the signal is stronger for students from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds than for those from high-SES ones; and (iii) for low-SES students the effect is stronger on enrolment than on completion. Our results suggest that signals about academic ability affect educational decisions in general; they are more important for students who do not have a family 'push' to avoid downward social mobility; and they affect educational inequality by making low-SES students too optimistic about their likelihood of completing the college-bound track.

I denne artikel analyserer vi sammenhængen mellem økonomisk, kulturel og social kapital inden for og mellem to generationer af danskere født omkring 1930 og 1954. Vi analyserer data fra Ungdomsforløbsundersøgelsen og benytter konfirmativ faktoranalyse til at konstruere latente variable for de tre kapitalformer i begge generationer. Analysen viser, for det første, at der i begge generationer er en markant sammenhæng mellem respondenternes beholdning af økonomisk, kulturel og social kapital, og at dette mønster gælder for begge generationer. Med andre ord: Materielle og immaterielle ressourcer er stærkt sammenvævede i det danske samfund. For det andet viser analysen, at de relative beholdninger af de tre kapitalformer i høj grad "nedarves" fra forældre til børn. Med andre ord: Der er en stærk social arv af både materielle og immaterielle ressourcer.

Søgeord: Økonomisk kapital, kulturel kapital, social kapital, Bourdieu, social reproduktion, konfirmativ faktoranalyse.

ENGELSK ABSTRACT:

Kristian Bernt Karlson and Mads Meier Jæger: Coffers, Culture and Contacts: Economic, Cultural and Social Capital in Two Generations

This paper analyzes the distribution of economic, cultural, and social capital within and between two generations of Danes born around 1930 and 1954. We analyze data from the Danish Longitudinal Survey of Youth and use confirmatory factor analysis to construct latent variables which capture the different types of capital in both generations. Our analysis shows that, first, within each generation there is a strong correlation between the different types of capital. This result indicates a close relationship between economic and non-economic resources in Denmark. Second, we find high intergenerational correlations between the amount of economic, cultural, and social capital possessed by parents and children. This result indicates a surprisingly high degree of intergenerational capital transmission.

Key words: Economic capital, cultural capital, social capital, Bourdieu, social reproduction, confirmatory factor analysis.

AbstractResearch on cultural stratification often draws on Bourdieu's misrecognition model to interpret socioeconomic gradients in cultural tastes and participation. In this model, an assumed cultural hierarchy leads individuals to adopt cultural tastes and behaviours whose status is congruent with that of their socioeconomic position (SEP). Yet, this assumed cultural hierarchy remains opaque. In this paper, we derive and test three empirical implications of the cultural hierarchy: (1) cultural activities have different status (recognition); (2) individuals in high and low SEPs have similar perceptions of the status of cultural activities (necessary condition for misrecognition); and (3) individuals prefer and engage in cultural activities whose status matches that of their SEP (status congruence). We collected survey data in Denmark and find that cultural activities differ in terms of perceived status (e.g., opera has higher perceived status than flea market), status perceptions are similar in high‐ and low‐SEP groups and individuals prefer activities whose status matches that of their SEP. These results are consistent with the idea that a cultural hierarchy exists that sustains SEP gradients in cultural tastes and participation.