CIRCULATION AT THE TOP: ELITES, SOCIAL MOBILITY AND INTERGENERATIONAL CAPITAL CONVERSION

AbstractDespite calls for bridging the gap between the sociology of social class and the sociology of elites, there are few examples where this actually has been done. This article seeks to do so by applying approachesand statistical techniques commonly used in studies of social mobility in an analysis of circulation mobility in elite formations. Based on register data on the whole Norwegian population born 1955-1975, we analyze the educational and professional intergenerational mobility among “the successful inheritors”. In this way, and by focusing on mobility barriers and trajectories, we seek to uncover patterns of stability and change in family dynastic relations, i.e. relations that primarily are based on inheritedforms of capital. These patterns can also reveal what forms of intergenerational capital conversion have been the most common,and therefore also the most acceptable, in the upper and upper middle classes in postwar Norway, and what conversions have been less common. The results indicate that even in the supposedly egalitarian Norwegian elites, some inheritors prove to be “more equal than others”.Keywords: Elite. Intergerational capital conversion. Mobility. Circulation an the top.CIRCULAÇÃO NO TOPO: ELITES, MOBILIDADE SOCIAL E CONVERSÃO INTERGERACIONAL DE CAPITALResumoApesar dos apelos para suprir a lacuna entre a sociologia das classes sociais e a sociologia das elites, há poucos exemplos em que issotenha sido feito. Este artigo busca fazer isso aplicando abordagens e técnicas estatísticas comumente utilizadas em estudos de mobilidadesocial em nas análise da mobilidade de circulação em formações de elite. Com base em dados de registro de toda a população norueguesa nascida entre 1955 e 1975, analisamos a mobilidade educacional e profissionalintergeracional entre "os herdeiros bem-sucedidos". Desta forma, e focalizando as barreiras e as trajetórias de mobilidade, buscamos descobrir os padrões de estabilidade e de mudança nas relações dinásticas familiares, ou seja, relações que se baseiam principalmente em formas hereditárias de capital. Além disso, esses padrões podemrevelar quais formas de conversão intergeracional de capital têm sido as mais comuns e, portanto, também, as mais aceitáveis nas classes média-alta e na classe alta da Noruega do pós-guerra, e quais conversões têmsido menos comuns. Os resultados indicam que, mesmo nas elites norueguesas supostamente igualitárias, alguns herdeiros provamser "mais iguais do que outros".Palavras-chave: Elites. Conversão intergeracional de capital. Mobilidade. Circulação no topo.AbstractDespite calls for bridging the gap between the sociology of social class and the sociology of elites, there are few examples where this actually has been done. This article seeks to do so by applying approaches and statistical techniques commonly used in studies of social mobility in an analysis of circulation mobility in elite formations. Based on register data on the whole Norwegian population born 1955-1975, we analyze the educational and professional intergenerational mobility among “the successful inheritors”. In this way, and by focusing on mobility barriers and trajectories, we seek to uncover patterns of stability and change in family dynastic relations, i.e. relations that primarily are based on inherited forms of capital. These patterns can also reveal what forms of intergenerational capital conversion have been the most common,and therefore also the most acceptable, in the upper and upper middle classes in postwar Norway, and what conversions have been less common. The results indicate that even in the supposedly egalitarian Norwegian elites, some inheritors prove to be “more equal than others”.Keywords: Elite. Intergerational capital conversion. Mobility. Circulation an the top.CIRCULAÇÃO NO TOPO: ELITES, MOBILIDADE SOCIAL E CONVERSÃO INTERGERACIONAL DE CAPITALResumoApesar dos apelos para suprir a lacuna entre a sociologia das classes sociais e a sociologia das elites, há poucos exemplos em que isso tenha sido feito. Este artigo busca fazer isso aplicando abordagens e técnicas estatísticas comumente utilizadas em estudos de mobilidade social em nas análise da mobilidade de circulação em formações de elite. Com base em dados de registro de toda a população norueguesa nascida entre 1955 e 1975, analisamos a mobilidade educacional e profissional intergeracional entre "os herdeiros bem-sucedidos". Desta forma, e focalizando as barreiras e as trajetórias de mobilidade, buscamos descobrir os padrões de estabilidade e de mudança nas relações dinásticas familiares, ou seja, relações que se baseiam principalmente em formas hereditárias de capital. Além disso, esses padrões podem revelar quais formas de conversão intergeracional de capital têm sido as mais comuns e, portanto, também, as mais aceitáveis nas classes média-alta e na classe alta da Noruega do pós-guerra, e quais conversões têm sido menos comuns. Os resultados indicam que, mesmo nas elites norueguesas supostamente igualitárias, alguns herdeiros provam ser "mais iguais do que outros".Palavras-chave: Elites. Conversão intergeracional de capital. Mobilidade. Circulação no topo

På veg mot ei ny dansk maktutgreing; makt, hierarki og ulikskap i ein egalitær kontekst.

Maktutgreiingar har vore noko av eit sær-skandinavisk fenomen, med eigne utgreiingar i både Noreg (1972-82 og 1997-2003), Sverige (1985-1990) og Danmark (1997-2003).1 I alle desse prosjekta har koplinga mellom makt og demokrati stått sentralt. Korleis er vilkåra for demokratiet? På kva måtar vert demokratiet og demokratisk deltaking utfordra av t.d. asymmetriske maktrelasjonar, institusjonelle endringar, ny teknologi og globalisering? Kva er tilstanden for demokratiet i dag? Hovudfokuset i alle desse utgreiingane kan derfor seiast å ha vore på vilkåra for utøvinga av politisk makt.publishedVersio

Co-optimising Robot Morphology and Controller in a Simulated Open-Ended Environment

Designing robots by hand can be costly and time consuming, especially if the robots have to be created with novel materials, or be robust to internal or external changes. In order to create robots automatically, without the need for human intervention, it is necessary to optimise both the behaviour and the body design of the robot. However, when co-optimising the morphology and controller of a locomoting agent the morphology tends to converge prematurely, reaching a local optimum. Approaches such as explicit protection of morphological innovation have been used to reduce this problem, but it might also be possible to increase exploration of morphologies using a more indirect approach. We explore how changing the environment, where the agent locomotes, affects the convergence of morphologies. The agents' morphologies and controllers are co-optimised, while the environments the agents locomote in are evolved open-endedly with the Paired Open-Ended Trailblazer (POET). We compare the diversity, fitness and robustness of agents evolving in environments generated by POET to agents evolved in handcrafted curricula of environments. Our agents each contain of a population of individuals being evolved with a genetic algorithm. This population is called the agent-population. We show that agent-populations evolving in open-endedly evolving environments exhibit larger morphological diversity than agent-populations evolving in hand crafted curricula of environments. POET proved capable of creating a curriculum of environments which encouraged both diversity and quality in the populations. This suggests that POET may be capable of reducing premature convergence in co-optimisation of morphology and controllers.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

Who you know: the classed structure of social capital

This article focuses on the social structuring of social capital, understood as resources embedded in social networks. The analysis integrates key theoretical–methodological insights from two distinct approaches concerned with social capital and inequality: the position-generator approach associated with Nan Lin and the spatial approach associated with Pierre Bourdieu. Empirically, we exploit the possibilities of survey data containing detailed information about the social ties of a representative sample of the Norwegian adult population (N = 4007). By means of Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), we construct a space of social ties, a spatial representation of systematic similarities and differences between individuals' social ties to a set of 33 occupational positions. In this space, social capital is structured according to two primary dimensions: (i) the level of social ties, in terms of individuals' number of contacts; and (ii), the quality of social ties, in terms of a division between being connected to others in high-status positions and others in low-status positions. By means of Ascending Hierarchical Cluster analysis, five clusters are identified within the space of social ties: a homogenous working-class cluster, a well-connected working-class cluster, a cluster of high-status ties, a homogenous high-status cluster and a low-volume cluster. Moreover, the analysis clearly indicates that the structure of social capital is connected to respondents' class positions, their volumes of cultural and economic capital and their class origin. The analysis thus draws attention to the role of social capital in processes of social closure, regarding both resource monopolization and class formation.publishedVersio

Questionable Research Practices and Misconduct Among Norwegian Researchers

This article presents results from the national survey conducted in 2018 for the project Research Integrity in Norway (RINO). A total of 31,206 questionnaires were sent out to Norwegian researchers by e-mail, and 7291 responses were obtained. In this paper, we analyse the survey data to determine attitudes towards and the prevalence of fabrication, falsification and plagiarism (FFP) and contrast this with attitudes towards and the prevalence of the more questionable research practices (QRPs) surveyed. Our results show a relatively low percentage of self-reported FFPs (0.2–0.3%), while the number of researchers who report having committed one of the QRPs during the last three years reached a troublesome 40%. The article also presents a ranking of the perceived severity of FFP and QRPs among Norwegian researchers. Overall, there is a widespread normative consensus, where FFP is considered more troublesome than QRPs.publishedVersio

A New Model of Social Class: Findings from the BBC's Great British Class Survey Experiment

The social scientific analysis of social class is attracting renewed interest given the accentuation of economic and social inequalities throughout the world. The most widely validated measure of social class, the Nuffield class schema, developed in the 1970s, was codified in the UK’s National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) and places people in one of seven main classes according to their occupation and employment status. This principally distinguishes between people working in routine or semi-routine occupations employed on a ‘labour contract’ on the one hand, and those working in professional or managerial occupations employed on a ‘service contract’ on the other. However, this occupationally based class schema does not effectively capture the role of social and cultural processes in generating class divisions. We analyse the largest survey of social class ever conducted in the UK, the BBC’s 2011 Great British Class Survey, with 161,400 web respondents, as well as a nationally representative sample survey, which includes unusually detailed questions asked on social, cultural and economic capital. Using latent class analysis on these variables, we derive seven classes. We demonstrate the existence of an ‘elite’, whose wealth separates them from an established middle class, as well as a class of technical experts and a class of ‘new affluent’ workers. We also show that at the lower levels of the class structure, alongside an ageing traditional working class, there is a ‘precariat’ characterised by very low levels of capital, and a group of emergent service workers. We think that this new seven class model recognises both social polarisation in British society and class fragmentation in its middle layers, and will attract enormous interest from a wide social scientific community in offering an up-to-date multi-dimensional model of social class

Structure of the ALS Mutation Target Annexin A11 Reveals a Stabilising N-Terminal Segment

The functions of the annexin family of proteins involve binding to Ca2+, lipid membranes, other proteins, and RNA, and the annexins share a common folded core structure at the C terminus. Annexin A11 (AnxA11) has a long N-terminal region, which is predicted to be disordered, binds RNA, and forms membraneless organelles involved in neuronal transport. Mutations in AnxA11 have been linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We studied the structure and stability of AnxA11 and identified a short stabilising segment in the N-terminal end of the folded core, which links domains I and IV. The crystal structure of the AnxA11 core highlights main-chain hydrogen bonding interactions formed through this bridging segment, which are likely conserved in most annexins. The structure was also used to study the currently known ALS mutations in AnxA11. Three of these mutations correspond to buried Arg residues highly conserved in the annexin family, indicating central roles in annexin folding. The structural data provide starting points for detailed structure–function studies of both full-length AnxA11 and the disease variants being identified in ALS.publishedVersio

Something ‘Old’, Something ‘New’? The UK Space of Political Attitudes After the Brexit Referendum

This study focuses on the political attitudes of UK citizens in the aftermath of the ‘Brexit’ vote. It has been argued that differences within electorates across Europe are found in disputes over taxes, redistribution of wealth and social welfare, as much as in divergent ideas on how to deal with globalisation, migration, and climate change. This article uses the 2016–2017 round of the European Social Survey (N = 1959) to shed light on two important issues in regard to the relationship between ‘old’ and ‘new’ politics. By using multiple correspondence analysis, we first consider the structure, or dimensionality, of the space of political attitudes in contemporary UK society. Contrary to a prevailing discourse that forwards the argument that postmaterial values constitute an altogether separate political dimension in late modernity, we observe that such values collapse into traditional left/right standpoints. Second, we discuss the connection between class (economic capital, cultural capital, and occupational class) and position-takings in the space of political attitudes. We show that class retains a limited effect on political position-takings, where educational capital plays the most important role. The divisions between the politically interested–uninterested, old–young, men–women, and rural–urban are more clearly demarcated than differences between people of different social class positions. Furthermore, polarisation is most prevalent between a highly opinionated, relatively resourceful, small minority of the population

Global modeling of nitrate and ammonium: Interaction of aerosols and tropospheric chemistry

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95603/1/jgrd12466.pd