Like many countries around the world, China has been implementing policies aimed at improving parent-school relationships. However, unlike many developed countries, the historical context of family-school relationships has been limited and parents typically do not participate in the school context. Until now, there has been little research conducted in rural China on parental involvement in their children's education. This book investigates the nature of parental involvement in primary children's education in rural China by using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. It outlines the layered strategies of how rural parents are involved in their children's schooling, showing that rural parents strongly desire educational success for their children and view education as a means to their children gaining social mobility. It demonstrates that few rural parents engage in visible forms of parental involvement in their children's schools, such as attending parent-teacher meetings. Rather, they are more likely to engage strategies to support their children's education which are largely invisible to schools. It adds to the growing body of parental involvement research that suggests that culture, location, and socio-economic status influence different forms of parental involvement, and highlights nuances in invisible forms of parental involvement. Providing insights into how poor rural parents envision their role with their children, schools, and the larger society, and how these relationships can affect the social mobility of students and families, this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Asian education, comparative and international education, and Chinese society.

A method for measuring migration and occupational mobility in the community.

This book will be crucial reading for students across a variety of disciplines. A broadly socio-legal text, using a mixed-methods design combining grounded theory with an in-depth case study, this research explores a rarely-seen facet of the legal profession. Sociologists studying the practical effect of sociological concepts from theorists such as Bourdieu and Weber; those studying the legal profession from the sociological, law or psychological angles; anyone examining elite professions; management students examining the operation of professional associations and the ways in which these mobilise to take action on controversial topics; those studying the role and creation of outreach: all will find something of interest in this monograph. For those within the legal profession itself it also provides a look into an oft-hidden world: that of the English Bar. A notoriously secretiveprofession, traditional, elite and suspicious of research - the case study evaluatingan outreach programme sheds light on how this fascinating world operates when trying to engage in progressive steps. Through the eyes of a professional association seeking to improve socio-economic diversity in the profession through instituting an access programme focussed on work experience, it examines not just how professional association action may succeed or fail, but why. With foreword by Lord Neuberger, former President of the Supreme Court and Chair of the Working Party on Entry to the Bar.

Internally displaced persons are those who have been forced to flee their homes and who do not cross an internationally recognized border. There are an astounding 28 million people around the world who currently qualify as IDPs. Unlike refugees, they have no organisation to deal with their plight. Very little is known about how people respond to the experience of displacement. In economic terms, the presence of the internally displaced is obvious. What are less obvious are the informal protection mechanisms that enable people to cope with the experience of displacement: the information networks that warn them of impending danger, or of events in their home villages. This is the first book to put together information on the networks that people have evolved for coping in such situations. Examining those people who have become IDPs as the result of violence and war, it uses case studies from different countries, different settings and different phases of displacement. The authors identify cross-cultural patterns of coping strategies, examine whether these strategies are effective and highlight to what extent they are dependent upon culture or the experience of displacement. Ideal for use as a resource of information on IDPs, it is also a practical handbook that will help international organisations formulate their relief plans to support - rather than inadvertently damage - existing coping mechanisms. Case studies include Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Burma, Colombia, Georgia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Sudan and Uganda.

The Izhavas are an ex-untouchable community in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Politically and economically weak, stigmatised as 'toddy tappers' and 'devil dancers', and considered unapproachable by clean caste Hindus, a century ago Izhavas were associated with other manual-labouring untouchable castes. In recent decades they have sought to improve their position by accumulating economic, symbolic and cultural capital through employment, religion, politics, migration, marriage, education and have tried to assert their right to mobility, often in the face of opposition from their high status Christian and Nayar neighbours. This study examines how Izhavas, through repudiation of their nineteenth-century identity and search for mobility, have come into complex relationships with modernity, colonialism and globalisation. Filippo Osella and Caroline Osella highlight the complexities and contradictions of modern identity, both locally and globally. The authors' approach builds upon and goes beyond a south Asian focus, showing how the Izhavas represent the rise of formerly stigmatised groups who remain at the same time trapped by stereotype and material disadvantage. Absolute mobility, they argue, has not led to relative mobility within a society which remains stratified and prone to new forms of social exclusion.

Why is it getting harder to secure a job that matches our qualifications, buy a home of our own and achieve financial stability? Underprivileged people have always faced barriers, but people from middle-income families are increasingly more likely to slide down the social scale than climb up. Duncan Exley, former Director of the Equality Trust, draws on expert research and real life experiences - including from an actor, a politician, a billionaire entrepreneur and a surgeon - to issue a wake-up call to break through segregated opportunity. He offers a manifesto to reboot our prospects and benefit all.

This book compiles the proceedings of the International Symposium "Urban Dynamics: Global Perspectives for Socio-Cultural Urban Management", which took place in Paris in March 2016. Professors and (post-)graduate students from a consortium of five universities, together with urban specialists, discussed diverse topics regarding European and Latin American urban societies, their dynamic processes and future challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective. The selected articles in English, French and Spanish deal with public space, urban heritage production, urban social management, citizen re-appropriation of the city, cultural and artistic practices in urban space, migrations, imaginaries, identities as well as literary cartographies of urban spaces.

Economic inequality is at a record high in the United States, but public demand for redistribution is not rising with it. Meghan Condon and Amber Wichowsky show that this paradox and other mysteries about class and US politics can be solved through a focus on social comparison. Powerful currents compete to propel attention up or down--toward the rich or the poor--pulling politics along in the wake. Through an astute blend of experiments, surveys, and descriptions people offer in their own words, The Economic Other reveals that when less-advantaged Americans compare with the rich, they become more accurate about their own status and want more from government. But American society is structured to prevent upward comparison. In an increasingly divided, anxious nation, opportunities to interact with the country's richest are shrinking, and people prefer to compare to those below to feel secure. Even when comparison with the rich does occur, many lose confidence in their power to effect change. Laying bare how social comparisons drive political attitudes, The Economic Other is an essential look at the stubborn plight of inequality and the measures needed to solve it.

This unique and innovative text provides undergraduate students with tools to think sociologically through the lens of everyday life. Normative social organization and taken for granted beliefs and actions are exposed as key mechanisms of power and social inequality in western societies today. By "unpacking the centre" students are encouraged to turn their social worlds inside out and explore alternatives to the dominant social order. The text is divided into three parts. In Part One students learn how to use theory and methodology, which are blended seamlessly throughout the text. It shows how to position Michel Foucault as a companion to theorists such as Karl Marx and Stuart Hall, while signaling the importance of non-western and Indigenous knowledges, experiences, and rights. In Part Two, students explore - and challenge - normativity; the normal body, heterosexuality, whiteness, the two-gender system, aging, and the under-side of citizenship. In Part Three, shorter chapters critique everyday practices such as thinking scientifically, practicing self-help, going shopping, managing money, buying coffee, being a tourist, and marginalizing Indigeneity. Each chapter includes intriguing exercises, study questions, and key terms that link to the volume's comprehensive glossary. Instructors are provided PowerPoint slides, test banks, and multimodal supplementary resources that make the book adaptable to blended and online learning environments. Essay-style lectures are also available to accompany the textbook.

The study of education and social mobility has been a key area of sociological research since the 1950s. The importance of this research derives from the systematic analysis of functionalist theories of industrialism. Functionalist theories assume that the complementary demands of efficiency and justice result in more 'meritocratic' societies, characterized by high rates of social mobility. Much of the sociological evidence has cast doubt on this optimistic, if not utopian, claim that reform of the education system could eliminate the influence of class, gender and ethnicity on academic performance and occupational destinations. This book brings together sixteen cutting-edge articles on education and social mobility. It also includes an introductory essay offering a guide to the main issues and controversies addressed by authors from several countries. This comprehensive volume makes an important contribution to our theoretical and empirical understanding of the changing relationship between origins, education and destinations. This timely collection is also relevant to policy-makers as education and social mobility are firmly back on both national and global political agendas, viewed as key to creating fairer societies and more competitive economies. This book was originally published as a special issue of the British Journal of Sociology of Education.

The colonization of Spanish America resulted in the mixing of Natives, Europeans, and Africans and the subsequent creation of a "casta" system that discriminated against them. Members of mixed races could, however, free themselves from such burdensome restrictions through the purchase of a "gracias al sacar"--a royal exemption that provided the privileges of Whiteness. For more than a century, the whitening "gracias al sacar" has fascinated historians. Even while the documents remained elusive, scholars continually mentioned the potential to acquire Whiteness as a provocative marker of the historic differences between Anglo and Latin American treatments of race. "Purchasing Whiteness" explores the fascinating details of 40 cases of whitening petitions, tracking thousands of pages of ensuing conversations as petitioners, royal officials, and local elites disputed not only whether the state should grant full whiteness to deserving individuals, but whether selective prejudices against the "castas" should cease.
"Purchasing Whiteness" contextualizes the history of the "gracias al sacar" within the broader framework of three centuries of mixed race efforts to end discrimination. It identifies those historic variables that structured the potential for mobility as Africans moved from slavery to freedom, mixed with Natives and Whites, and transformed later generations into vassals worthy of royal favor. By examining this history of "pardo" and "mulatto" mobility, the author provides striking insight into those uniquely characteristic and deeply embedded pathways through which the Hispanic world negotiated processes of inclusion and exclusion.

Celebrity Culture and the American Dream, Second Edition considers how major economic and historical factors shaped the nature of celebrity culture as we know it today, retaining the first edition's examples from the first celebrity fan magazines of 1911 to the present and expanding to include updated examples and additional discussion on the role of the internet and social media in today's celebrity culture. Equally important, the book explains how and why the story of Hollywood celebrities matters, sociologically speaking, to an understanding of American society, to the changing nature of the American Dream, and to the relation between class and culture. This book is an ideal addition to courses on inequalities, celebrity culture, media, and cultural studies.

Despite the overwhelming evidence against them, many people still believe they can overcome the economic and racial constraints placed upon them at birth. In the first edition, Heather Beth Johnson explored this belief in the American Dream with over 200 in-depth interviews with black and white families, highlighting the ever-increasing racial wealth gap and the actual inequality in opportunities. This second edition has been updated to make it fully relevant to today's reader, with new data and illustrative examples, including twenty new interviews. Johnson asks not just what parents are thinking about inequality and the American Dream, but to what extent children believe in the American Dream and how they explain, justify, and understand the stratification of American society. This book is an ideal addition to courses on race and inequality.

When Dominic Sandbrook quoted Samuel Smiles extensively in his TV series on nineteenth-century work and leisure; when Ian Hislop flourished a copy of Smiles's Self-Help ("the book that launched the genre") in his programme on 'Workers or Shirkers?'; when Andy Burnham reflected publicly on "lack of aspiration" as a main cause of Britain's north-south divide - all were testifying to the intense topicality of the work and ideas of Samuel Smiles. This is the first full biography of the man who, in the industrial on-rush of the 19th century, gave the world the idea of self-help as a go-to strategy in an age of frenzied change. Using Smiles's unpublished correspondence with family, friends and publishers, and drawing extensively on his writing, The Spirit of Self-Help tells the very human story of how Samuel Smiles came from a small-town, small-time family in Scotland to become, by turn and sometimes together, medical doctor, campaigning journalist, railway executive, best-selling author, and global celebrity. This is both a biography and a reflection on themes of success and failure, the individual and society, moral and material worth, and the relationships between these sets of ideas. Driven by its subject, The Spirit of Self-Help revolves around the oldest idea of all - the possibility of happiness, for everyone, in all possible circumstances. In that sense, though set in the 19th century, this is an intensely topical book.

"A brilliantly clear and concise guide. Highly recommended." - Ben Chu Economic inequality in the UK is currently at historically high levels and the rise in income inequality over the last 30 years is one of the largest across developed nations. But what caused this sustained increase in inequality and what does it mean for modern society in the UK? In this book, Economist Mike Brewer discusses the causes and consequences of these high levels of economic inequality, outlining why the UK became so unequal in the 1980s and how this has developed further since the 2008 financial crash and the austerity that followed. Brewer then presents new analysis of the top 1% and 0.1%, before assessing the relevance of Thomas Piketty's landmark work and predictions around wealth inequalities. The author then outlines six key areas that need addressing to move the UK off its high-inequality path and towards a fairer society, including wealth redistribution, social mobility, and excessive pay at the top. ABOUT THE SERIES: The 'What Do We Know and What Should We Do About...?' series offers readers short, up-to-date overviews of key issues often misrepresented, simplified or misunderstood in modern society and the media. Each book is written by a leading social scientist with an established reputation in the relevant subject area. The Series Editor is Professor Chris Grey, Royal Holloway, University of London

In Langston Hughes' 'Mother to Son,' (1922), written at a time of dramatic disruption in the American economy and continued tyranny in the lives of Black people, urban and rural, the Mother pleads with the child not to give up. She tells the child that she has been 'a climbing on, reaching landings and turning corners.' Not only did the seven families chronicled in this unique study not give up, while both losing and gaining ground, they managed to sponsor a generation of children, several of whom reached the middle and upper-middle classes. Land, Promise, and Peril chronicles the actions, actors, and events that propelled legal racism and quelled it, showing how leadership and political institutions play a crucial role in shaping the pace and quality of exits from poverty. Despite great odds, some domestics, sharecroppers, tenants, and farmers and their children navigated pathways toward the middle class and beyond.

Economic inequality is a defining issue of our time, with a handful of individuals in the United States today owning more wealth than half the population in the country. What are the psychological consequences of living in a profoundly unequal society? This comprehensive textbook is among the first to examine poverty, wealth, and economic inequality from a psychological perspective. Written by two leading scholars in the field, it provides an intersectional analysis of the impact of economic inequality on cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, intergroup, physiological, and health outcomes. Students are introduced to the diverse methods used to study poverty, wealth, and economic inequality and the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches, while the text focuses on solutions at the individual, community, and national levels to restore optimism and encourage action. Chapter features include exercises and reflection questions that help students think critically about the implications of research findings for their own lives.

Populations across the world are becoming increasingly mobile for many different reasons. Some are searching for a better and safer life, others migrate for economic or environmental purposes, education, or identity formation. While mobility may bring better life-chances, this book shows that for some it means experiencing vulnerability. Vulnerability in a Mobile World considers the notion of vulnerability from various standpoints including intercultural relationships, homelessness, urbanisation, refugee and asylum seekers, and the use of YouTube by young girls. The diversity of the circumstances and characteristics of the vulnerable enable this book to uniquely show just how broad the notion of vulnerability can be. Presenting an international perspective to social problems in various settings, the chapters are brought together in a coherent argument that shows vulnerability has many forms and is often associated with mobile populations. Vulnerability in a Mobile World is based on a collection of studies by new and emerging scholars focussing on the impacts of migration and mobility in contemporary contexts. Within this framework, each chapter presents new findings that provides poignant examples of vulnerability involving diverse populations, geographical locations and circumstances.

The authors of this timely book, Who Gets What?, harness the expertise from across the social sciences to show how skyrocketing inequality and social dislocation are fracturing the stable political identities and alliances of the postwar era across advanced democracies. Drawing on extensive evidence from the United States and Europe, with a focus especially on the United States, the authors examine how economics and politics are closely entwined. Chapters demonstrate how the new divisions that separate people and places-and fragment political parties-hinder a fairer distribution of resources and opportunities. They show how employment, education, sex and gender, and race and ethnicity affect the way people experience and interpret inequality and economic anxieties. Populist politics have addressed these emerging insecurities by deepening social and political divisions, rather than promoting broad and inclusive policies.

This book examines the role of the family in intra and inter-generational social movement. The authors take a genealogical approach to researching social mobility, using a university chemistry department as a case study to explore participants' motives for pursuing a STEM undergraduate degree and the influences that have shaped them. Assessing the roles of genealogy, family and higher education in shaping their aspirations and careers, the authors examine the contributions of these variables to the students aspirations. With a wealth of empirically rich qualitative data, the authors identify areas where work is required to achieve greater equality of access to high performing chemistry departments and enhance career outcomes, which could be applied more widely. This book will appeal to scholars of educational inequalities and widening access, particularly in terms of STEM education.

A close look at the aftereffects of the Mount Laurel affordable housing decision Under the New Jersey State Constitution as interpreted by the State Supreme Court in 1975 and 1983, municipalities are required to use their zoning authority to create realistic opportunities for a fair share of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households. Mount Laurel was the town at the center of the court decisions. As a result, Mount Laurel has become synonymous with the debate over affordable housing policy designed to create economically integrated communities. What was the impact of the Mount Laurel decision on those most affected by it? What does the case tell us about economic inequality? Climbing Mount Laurel undertakes a systematic evaluation of the Ethel Lawrence Homes-a housing development produced as a result of the Mount Laurel decision. Douglas Massey and his colleagues assess the consequences for the surrounding neighborhoods and their inhabitants, the township of Mount Laurel, and the residents of the Ethel Lawrence Homes. Their analysis reveals what social scientists call neighborhood effects-the notion that neighborhoods can shape the life trajectories of their inhabitants. Climbing Mount Laurel proves that the building of affordable housing projects is an efficacious, cost-effective approach to integration and improving the lives of the poor, with reasonable cost and no drawbacks for the community at large.

This book offers a comprehensive look into issues and trends driving international student mobility as the phenomenon becomes increasingly prevalent worldwide. Chapters first present an expanded definition of student mobility in the context of internationalization and go on to discuss the underlying motivations, issues, and challenges students face in attaining successful outcomes. The authors employ marketing concepts to illustrate ideas and recommendations for better attracting and integrating international students into academic institutions abroad with the goal of greater satisfaction for students and improved profitability for the universities they attend.

Family mobility decisions reveal much about how the public and private realms of social life interact and change. This sociological study explores how contemporary families reconcile individual members' career and education projects within the family unit over time and space, and unpacks the intersubjective constraints on workforce mobility. This Australian mixed methods study sampled Defence Force families and middle class professional families to illustrate how families' educational projects are necessarily and deeply implicated in issues of workforce mobility and immobility, in complex ways. Defence families move frequently, often absorbing the stresses of moving through 'viscous' institutions as private troubles. In contrast, the selective mobility of middle class professional families and their 'no go zones' contribute to the public issue of poorly serviced rural communities. Families with different social, material and vocational resources at their disposal are shown to reflexively weigh the benefits and risks associated with moving differently. The book also explore how priorities shift as children move through educational phases. The families' narratives offer empirical windows on larger social processes, such as the mobility imperative, the gender imbalance in the family's intersubjective bargains, labour market credentialism, the social construction of place, and the family's role in the reproduction of class structure.

Under the New Jersey State Constitution as interpreted by the State Supreme Court in 1975 and 1983, municipalities are required to use their zoning authority to create realistic opportunities for a fair share of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households. Mount Laurel was the town at the center of the court decisions. As a result, Mount Laurel has become synonymous with the debate over affordable housing policy designed to create economically integrated communities. What was the impact of the Mount Laurel decision on those most affected by it? What does the case tell us about economic inequality?

"Climbing Mount Laurel" undertakes a systematic evaluation of the Ethel Lawrence Homes--a housing development produced as a result of the Mount Laurel decision. Douglas Massey and his colleagues assess the consequences for the surrounding neighborhoods and their inhabitants, the township of Mount Laurel, and the residents of the Ethel Lawrence Homes. Their analysis reveals what social scientists call neighborhood effects--the notion that neighborhoods can shape the life trajectories of their inhabitants. "Climbing Mount Laurel" proves that the building of affordable housing projects is an efficacious, cost-effective approach to integration and improving the lives of the poor, with reasonable cost and no drawbacks for the community at large.

Featured in the Financial Times Best Books of the Year 2020 The evidence is rigorously marshalled and the...solutions equally clearly illuminated. A definitive study. - Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, The Financial Times In this vital new book, Britain's first Professor of Social Mobility Lee Elliot Major and Stephen Machin, reveal the causes of the UK's low social mobility, explain why it's getting worse, and outline how we reverse this worrying trend, before it's too late. It covers the history of social mobility in the UK, explores international comparisons, analyses the recent 'dark age' of declining absolute mobility, and investigates issues such as how family traits affect inter-generational mobility. The authors then outline what it is we should do about this pressing issue. Calling for a fundamental shift in debates about social mobility and arguing that only by establishing general principles of fairness in society can we agree the major policy reforms that can make Britain a more mobile and just society for all.