As political opportunities shift, social movement decline or mobilization may result. The first section of this intriguing volume examines this phenomenon in depth while also moving theory-building forward. Significant contributions are made to collective identity theory, stalemate theory, and political process theory. This volume's concentration on political opportunity and social movements is accomplished through a focused series of papers that include case studies of specific social movements, comparative case studies of social movements, and comparative case studies of transnational issue networks. They include movements including the U. S. anti-nuclear power movement, the Rastafarians, the alternative and complimentary medicine movement, indigenous rights movements in Panama and Brazil, the animal rights movement, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and the housing reform movements in post-Soviet Union Moscow and Budapest. A shorter, but no less important section closes this volume while taking up another historic focus of the series: social and political change. Here one paper documents democratization in Wales via the use of 'inclusive politics' by Plaid Cymru, another analyzes the use of 'political homicide' in Mexico during the 1990s, and a third explores campus unrest in the United States.

Many people seek to carve out a space for themselves independently of the existing social and political realities of which they are a part. Through a range of ethnographical cases, the book addresses the innovative and complex ways in which social groups show the ability to position themselves between cultures, states, moralities, or local communities and state authorities, thus creating new opportunities for agency in the modern world. As an analytical term, alternative spaces designate "in-between" spaces rather than oppositional structures and are as such both "inside" and "outside" their constituent elements.

For decades, the idea that more education will lead to greater individual and national prosperity has been a cornerstone of developed economies. Indeed, it is almost universally believed that college diplomas give Americans and Europeans a competitive advantage in the global knowledge wars.
Challenging this conventional wisdom, The Global Auction forces us to reconsider our deeply held and mistaken views about how the global economy really works and how to thrive in it. Drawing on cutting-edge research based on a major international study, the authors show that the competition for good, middle-class jobs is now a worldwide competition--an auction for cut-priced brainpower--fueled by an explosion of higher education across the world. They highlight a fundamental power shift in favor of corporate bosses and emerging economies such as China and India, a change that is driving the new global high-skill, low-wage workforce. Fighting for a dwindling supply of good jobs will compel the middle classes to devote more time, money, and effort to set themselves apart in a bare-knuckle competition that will leave many disappointed. The authors urge a new conversation about the kind of society we want to live in and about the kind of global economy that can benefit workers, but without condemning millions in emerging economies to a life of poverty.
The Global Auction is a radical rethinking of the ideas that stand at the heart of the American Dream. It offers a timely expose of the realities of the global struggle for middle class jobs, a competition that threatens the livelihoods of millions of American and European workers and their families."

Travelling intensively to and for work helps but also challenges people to find ways of balancing work and personal life. Drawing on a large European longitudinal study, Mobile Europe explores the diversity and ambivalence of mobility situations and the implications for family and career development.

The collapse of the state-controlled economies of the former Eastern Bloc will certainly change the way the global economy operates. Bringing together scholars from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives, different nations and different empirical research traditions, this title examines the ongoing transition and the implications of market transitions for individual life chances, state economic policy and social stratification systems. The volume includes scholarship that focuses on both single nation and cross-national research, plus research contributions that compare state socialist/former state socialist political economies with conditions elsewhere in the world.

The performing arts is one particular area of youth community practice can that can be effectively tapped to attract youth within schools and out-of-school settings, or what has been referred to as the "third area between school and family." These settings are non-stigmatizing, highly attractive community-based venues that serve youth and their respective communities. They can supplement or enhance formal education, providing a counter-narrative for youth to resist the labels placed on them by serving as a vehicle for reactivity and self-expression. Furthermore, the performing arts are a mechanism through which creative expression can transpire while concomitantly engaging youth in creative expression that is transformative at the individual and community level. Music, Song, Dance, Theater, and Social Work explores the innovative programs and interventions in youth community practice that draw on the performing arts as a way to reach and engage the target populations. The book draws from the rich literature bases in community development and positive youth development, as well as from performing arts therapy and group interventions, offering a meeting point where innovative programs have emerged. All in all, the text is an invaluable resource for graduate social work and performing arts students, practitioners, and scholars.

This volume explores how the city and the sea converse and converge in creating new forms of everyday urbanity in archipelagic and island Southeast Asia. Drawing inspiration from case studies spanning Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and New Caledonia, the volume rethinks the place of the sea in coastal cities, through a mobility-inspired understanding of urbanity itself. How might conceptualisations of contemporary coastal urbanisms be approached from the sea, in ways that complicate singularly terrestrial, fixed framings of the city? What connections, contradictions, and dissonances can be found between sea change and urban change? While addressing these questions, the authors re-centre more marginal voices of those who dwell and work in islanded metropoles, offering new insights on the futures and contested nature(s) of littoral urban transformation.

Drawing on case studies from the global South, this book explores the politics of mediated citizenship in which citizens are represented to the state through third party intermediaries. The studies show that mediation is both widely practiced and multi-directional and that it has an important role to play in deepening democracy in the global South.

What enables the few working-class people who enter higher education to achieve against the odds? This book offers answers by comparing social contexts, educational institutions and policies in Austria and England to demonstrate a surprising number of similarities behind those who succeed using Bourdieu's concept of habitus.

The economy's struggles to overcome the lingering effects of the Great Recession presented unique but essential questions. This book considers a full range of data which considers how this recent experience has impacted households, providing a thorough and contemporary treatment of how the assets perspective has prompted changes within social policy.

Disability and Inequality:Socioeconomic Imperatives and Public Policy in Jamaica explores the lived experiences of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Jamaica, examining measurable socioeconomic deficits that establish PWDs are more likely to experience inferior education, training, and labor market outcomes compared to persons without disabilities. The author provides an evidence-based, theoretically grounded, and implementable public policy framework, called Framework of Key Determinants for Political and Socioeconomic Inclusion of PWDs, which advances anti-discrimination legislation and a twin-track policy schema with interconnected enablers of human rights. Using this framework, Jamaica, the Caribbean, and other Southern countries looking for methods and strategies to fulfill commitments set out by the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will find approaches to sustain existing progress, and address structural systemic deficits which continue to deny PWDs long-term sustainable development.

A group of leading sociologists present a new and compelling analysis of social mobility, one of the central topics in contemporary sociology.

Israelis with a Russian accent have been part of Israel's social, cultural and economic landscape for over 20 years. They are found in all walks of life: as controversial politicians, senior physicians and scientists, kibbutz members and religious settlers. Despite lacking personal assets and below-average income, many of them managed to enter Israeli middle class, and some even became part of local elites - an achievement not to be taken for granted for the first-generation immigrants. This collection offers a multi-faceted portrait of the 'Great Russian Aliyah' of the 1990s with the emphasis on socio-political and cultural aspects of its insertion in Israel - based on social research conducted by the scholars most of whom are former-Soviet immigrants themselves. The issues covered include the exploration of Israel as an extension of the post-soviet space; the evolving political culture of Russian Israelis; the prospects for the ethnic media and Russian language continuity; visual tokens of 'domestication' of a major Israeli city by its 'Russian' residents, and mutual influences between Israeli and Russian cinematic traditions. Written in a lively and non-technical manner, most contributions will spark interest among both social scientists and broad readership interested in modern-day Israel and post-Soviet societies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Israel Affairs.

This book explores the gender issues associated with international migration in dual career households. Adopting a feminist approach, the author links research in economics, sociology, management and business and human geography to explore post-industrial managerial and professional careers. Particular emphasis is placed on the way in which social mobility and spatial mobility are entwined. The author explores the location and mobility decisions of dual career households, examining their personal and household biographies as well as published statistics. Of essential interest to scholars of human geography, sociology and gender studies, this book will also interest those working in organizational, migration and urban studies.

The primacy of education in development agendas is unquestioned. With the gradual acknowledgement of the potential benefits that migration can hold for development, the relationship between migration and education is a growing area of research. Migration, Education and Socio-Economic Mobility explores how the decisions people make in terms of both their migration choices and educational investments, mediated as they are by gender, class, caste and nationality, can potentially contribute to earning incomes, building social and symbolic capital, or reshaping gender relations, all elements contributing to the process of economic and social mobility. Much of the existing literature examining the links between migration and education focuses either on the investment of migrant remittances in the education of their children back home or on 'brain drain' that refers to the migration of skilled workers from the developing to the developed world. Most of these discussions are firmly rooted in materialist arguments and while undeniably important, tend to underplay the social processes through which migration and education interact to shape people's lives, identities and status in society. Along with economic security, people also aspire to social mobility and status enhancement. The ideas presented in this book take a more varied and nuanced view of the relationship between education and migration. This book was originally published as a special issue of Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education.

Katie Wright explores how human wellbeing is constructed and how it 'travels' across spatial boundaries. She draws on empirical research, undertaken with Peruvian migrants based in London and Madrid and their Peru-based relatives and close friends to explore how human wellbeing is constructed and how it 'travels' transnationally.

The postwar orthodoxy postulated that education is both a mechanism for upward social mobility and an engine for economic growth. This book challenges these mainstream conceptions. Using Greece and the Roma people in particular as a case study, Themelis examines qualitative and quantitative social mobility findings to explore the changes associated with education and to analyze their importance for individuals and society.

This book explores the gender issues associated with international migration in dual career households. Adopting a feminist approach, the author links research in economics, sociology, management and business and human geography to explore post-industrial managerial and professional careers. Particular emphasis is placed on the way in which social mobility and spatial mobility are entwined.
The author explores the location and mobility decisions of dual career households, examining their personal and household biographies as well as published statistics.
The chapters examine the following aspects of the subject:
Of essential interest to scholars of human geography, sociology and gender studies, this book will also interest those working in organizational, migration and urban studies.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203470753

In recent years China has experienced intense economic development. Previously a rapidly urbanising industrial economy, the country has become a post-industrial economy with a service sector that accounts for almost half the nation's GDP. This transformation has created many socio-political changes, but key among them is social mobilisation. This book provides a full and systematic analysis of social mobilisation in China, and how its use as part of state capacity has evolved. The first book on the topic written in English in recent decades, Social Mobilisation in Post-Industrial China provides readers with a thorough analysis covering all vertical administrative levels, as well as considering new participants. Bringing together interdisciplinary analyses of the current uses of social mobilisation in China, this book draws on empirically rich original research. It presents a clear picture of how boyi ('strategic game-playing') is acted out at different levels of society and within different sectors, and the social dynamics at work. This book is a unique resource, and will be invaluable for researchers and students of Asian and Chinese studies, Political Science, Public Policy and Management studies. Policy analysts, activists, strategists and educators will also find this book a useful tool for learning more about how social mobilisation mechanisms are utilised in China today.

The struggle to create and sustain meaning in our everyday lives is fought using cultural ingredients to spin the webs of meaning that keep us going. To help reveal the complexity and intricacy of the webs of meaning in which they are suspended, Tom Inglis interviewed one-hundred people in their native home of Ireland to discover what was most important and meaningful for them in their lives. Inglis believes language is a medium: there is never an exact correspondence between what is said and what is felt and understood. Using a variety of theoretical lenses developed within sociology and anthropology, Inglis places their lives within the context of Ireland's social and cultural transformations, and of longer-term processes of change such as increased globalisation, individualisation, and informalisation.

Deepening inequalities and wider processes of demographic, economic and social change are altering how people across the Global North move between homes and neighbourhoods over the lifespan. This book presents a life course framework for understanding how the changing dynamics of people's family, education, employment and health experiences are deeply intertwined with ongoing shifts in housing behaviour and residential pathways. Particular attention is paid to how these processes help to drive uneven patterns of population change within and across neighbourhoods and localities. Integrating the latest research from multiple disciplines, the author shows how housing and life course dynamics are together reshaping 21st-century inequalities in ways that demand greater attention from scholars and public policymakers.

For anyone studying childhood or families a consideration of the state may not always seem obvious, yet a good critical knowledge of politics, social policy and social theory is vital to understanding their impacts upon families' everyday lives. Accessibly written and assuming no prior understanding, it shows how key concepts, including vulnerability, risk, resilience, safeguarding and wellbeing are socially constructed. Carefully designed to support learning, it provides students with clear guidance on how to use what they have read when writing academic assignments alongside questions designed to support the develop of critical thinking skills. Covering issues from what the family is within a multicultural society, through issues around poverty, social mobility and life-chances, this book gives students an excellent grounding in matters relating to work with children and families. It features: * 'using this chapter' sections showing how the content can be used in assignments; * tips on applying critical thinking to books and articles - and how to make use of such thinking in essays; * further reading.

What are the challenges for the current generation of graduate millennials? The role of universities and the changing nature of the graduate labour market are constantly in the news, but less is known about the experiences of those going through it. This new book traces the transition to the graduate labour market of a cohort of middle-class and working-class young people who were tracked through seven years of their undergraduate and post-graduation lives. Using personal stories and voices, the book provides fascinating insights into the group's experience of graduate employment and how their life-course transitions are shaped by their social backgrounds and education. Critically evaluating current government and university policies, it shows the attitudes and values of this generation towards their hopes and aspirations on employment, political attitudes and cultural practices.

This book examines the emergence of the black middle classes in urban Brazil, after 30 years of black mobilization and against the backdrop of deep economic, cultural, and political transformations taking place in recent decades within the country. One of the consequences of such transformations is said to be the restructuring of gender, race, and class relations. Utilizing qualitative research techniques such as ethnography, interviews, life histories, and focus groups among Afro-descendant families in the Northeast region of the country, the book explores contemporary race, class, and gender inequalities and their impact on daily lived experience. It reveals the dynamics underlying upward mobility, the diverse modes and experiences of social ascent into the middle classes, and the everyday negotiations involved in establishing one's status in the socio-racial hierarchy, which are not captured by other, more "macro" lenses. While some of these patterns are not peculiar to black people, this book argues that "race" shaped the contours and possibilities of social mobility in particular ways. This book is critical reading for specialists in the fields of inequality and race, class, and gender relations.

When individuals from working-class backgrounds seek entry into the upper-middle-class world of academia, they often encounter difficulties. Examining the professional and personal lives of a group of sociologists from working class backgrounds, this extensive study finds that despite their successes as Ph.D. recipients, these scholars have suffered structural, interpersonal, and personal consequences that are linked to that class background. Many are uncomfortable with the academic role and the authority structure of the university, and see themselves as outsiders both within the academy and its larger cultural environment. The authors' conclusion, is that upward social mobility is never complete and that these upwardly mobile professionals appear to be caught in the middle between the world of their childhoods and the very different world that they must confront daily as members of the academy.