Interpersonal Trust and Mutually Beneficial Exchanges: Measuring Social Capital for Comparative Analysis

There are at least two significantly different approaches to the conceptualisation of social capital. Advocates of the most influential stream define social capital primarily as an attribute of societies, as an innate characteristic of the social environment based on the high degree of interpersonal & institutional trust facilitating people's co-operation. Adherents of the other stream define social capital in terms of mutually beneficial exchanges based on social connections & informal networks allowing individuals to achieve their own particular goals. The former approach prevails in 'western' countries, while the latter one prevails in the study of social change in post-communist societies where social capital drawing from interpersonal trust seems to be rather low. The aim of this article is to contribute to the conceptualisation & measurement of social capital, with a special emphasis on its role in post-communist societies. The authors attempt to develop a measurement model for the two distinct dimensions of social capital mentioned above. The measurement model for the two dimensions of social capital is developed & tested by confirmatory factor analysis. The authors proceed by testing the hypothesis that social capital defined as trust is only weakly linked to social stratification, while social capital defined as a person's involvement in mutually beneficial exchanges shows significant variation between groups defined by relevant stratification variables. The analysis was performed on the data from the Social Networks survey carried out in the Czech Republic in 2001 under the International Social Survey Programme

Czech Higher Education Still at the Crossroads

The paper addresses the development of higher education in the Czech Republic after 1989, with special emphasis on the relevant legislation, institutional settings, financing, & enrollment. Czech higher education has changed profoundly since 1989. Universities were granted almost full autonomy as early as in 1990. They have reformed their curricula, expanded programs in the humanities & social sciences, & eliminated political criteria from admissions policies, both for faculty & students. However, the structural changes were not as quick & profound as obtaining & mastering the freedom was. The most significant structural changes in the Czech tertiary educational system addressed in the paper are decentralization & diversification. With regard to financing, the authors argue that universities have remained dependent on the state to a high degree. Several attempts to expand multi-source financing by introducing cost-sharing features (tuition fees, loans, student allowances) failed. The reliance on the public budget led to a severe financial crisis in public universities. As far as enrollment is concerned, the authors demonstrate that, although the number of students rose by almost 60% between 1989 & 2001, the offer of educational opportunities was too low to meet the steeply rising demand for tertiary education. The chance of being admitted hovered around 50%. Owing to the combined effect of a drop in the size of the relevant age cohort & the growing proportion of students admitted to bachelor programs, the chance of enrollment started to increase in 2001. In spite of this recent change, the transition from secondary to tertiary education still remains the most critical moment in an educational career

The Roots of the Sociopsychological Model of Social Stratification

This article, published in connection with the recent death of Otis Dudley Duncan (16 November 2004), sets out to provide a critical summary of the development - from its beginnings in the 1960s up to its final revision & modification in 1983 - of the socio-psychological model of the status attainment process. The article not only looks at the classic model of the social stratification process of Blau & Duncan, but also examines the influence of one of the founders of the socio-psychological branch of the study of social stratification, W. H. Sewell. Special attention is devoted to the development of the so-called Wisconsin model, primarily the work of William H. Sewell & his student, Robert M. Hauser, who, while as a student of Duncan also, considerably contributed to the use of structural modelling in sociology. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the main critical reactions to the socio-psychological model emphasising the 'allocational' paradigm of interpretation of the reproduction of social inequalities. The article should primarily help students of sociology gain an orientation in the massive amount of often poorly accessible literature on one of the most cited of sociology's 'products'

Who Has Gotten Ahead after the Fall of Communism? The Case of the Czech Republic

Pierre Bourdieu's concept of various forms of capital are employed in a study of patterns of individual mobility in the postcommunist Czech Republic, drawing on secondary empirical data from a longitudinal study conducted by P. Mateju, M. Tucek, & L. Rezler (1991) in which 2,891 eighth-grade student questionnaires & 2,709 parent interviews were completed in 1989 & again in 1992. It is found that the former nomenklatura class has retained its social position due to its conversion of human & social capital into economic capital. However, a change from pre- to postcommunist society is detected in the increase of education as a facilitator of upward mobility. Finally, while cultural capital does not appear to significantly influence stratification, a strong relationship is found between social capital & upward mobility

Transition to University under Communism and after Its Demise. The Role of Socio-Economic Background in the Transition between Secondary and Tertiary Education in the Czech Republic 1948-1998

The aim of this study is to assess the most recent trend in inequality in access to tertiary education in the Czech Republic. The authors put forward the hypothesis claiming that the period of stable inequalities in the years 1948-1989 was followed by a period of growing inequalities during the postcommunist transformation (1989-1999). The study focuses primarily on the cultural & socioeconomic (class) dimensions of social origin & gender & their net effect on success in the transition between secondary & tertiary education. Theoretically, the paper draws primarily on the work of Raftery & Hout (1996) & Hanley & McKeever (1997), who claim that the chances of attaining higher education among individuals from families with a low social status can only increase on the condition that the demand for the given level of education has first of all been satiated among all the strata disposing of social & cultural capital. Another important theory they build on is the theory of rational action proposed by John Goldthorpe & Richard Breen (Goldthorpe 1996; Breen & Goldthorpe 1997). The principal hypothesis (inequality has grown) is tested using log-linear analysis applied on the data from various surveys carried out during 1998-2000, merged into one data set. The authors construct several models of the influence of social origin on the chances of making a successful transition between secondary & tertiary education in the years 1948-1999. The initial hypothesis of the growing effect of class origin on this transition in the period after 1989 has been confirmed. One of the strongest explanations for this trend is the insufficient expansion of the tertiary sector of education, which is incapable of satisfying the continually growing aspiration & corresponding demand for higher education in circumstances where socioeconomic inequalities are on the rise

Determination of College Expectations in OECD Countries: The Role of Individual and Structural Factors

Renowned international experts in higher education financing have argued that, owing to large government deficits, tertiary education will not be able to open up and meet growing demand unless cost-sharing principles and efficient student financial aid programmes are introduced. Opponents of cost-sharing in higher education object that introducing tuition fees will raise inequality in access to higher education. Drawing on OECD data, and focusing on college expectations, the authors argue that the effects of ability, gender, and socio-economic background on college expectations are primarily shaped by the characteristics of secondary education systems, such as the degree of stratification and vocational specificity of secondary schools, while the principal characteristics of the tertiary education system, such as enrolment rates and the model of financing, play a much less important role. The results clearly show that, after controlling for the effects of secondary school system characteristics, cost-sharing, as such or by degree, does not affect the formation of college expectations by ability, gender, and socio-economic background as much as the selectivity of the secondary school system does

The Changing Influence of Social Background and Academic Ability on College Aspirations

Petr Mateju will share results from his recent work on educational aspirations among students in Eastern European countries. In particular, he will analyze how socioeconomic status and academic ability affect students? decisions to attend college. Mateju?s presentation will also include a closer look at how the role of these factors in determining educational aspirations changed during a deep political and socioeconomic transformation in the post-communist Czech Republic from 1989 ? 2003

International Social Survey Programme: Social Inequality II - ISSP 1992

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a continuous programme of cross-national collaboration running annual surveys on topics important for the social sciences. The programme started in 1984 with four founding members - Australia, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States – and has now grown to almost 50 member countries from all over the world. As the surveys are designed for replication, they can be used for both, cross-national and cross-time comparisons. Each ISSP module focuses on a specific topic, which is repeated in regular time intervals. Please, consult the documentation for details on how the national ISSP surveys are fielded. The present study focuses on questions about social inequality.Most important prerequisites for personal success in society (scale); attitude to the welfare state and social differences (scale); chances to increase personal standard of living; importance of differentiated payment; higher payment with acceptance of increased responsibility; higher payment as incentive for additional qualification of workers; avoidability of inequality of society; increased income expectation as motive for taking up studies; good profits for entrepreneurs as best prerequisite for increase in general standard of living; insufficient solidarity of the normal population as reason for the persistence of social inequalities; estimate of average annual income of selected occupational groups and information on a justified income for the members of these occupational groups from the point of view of the respondent; judgement on the income differences in the country; reduction of income differences, employment guarantee, guaranteed minimum income and equal opportunities for children of poorer families in university admission as government task; attitude to a reduction of government tasks for those of low income; approval of government support for unemployed; judgement on total taxation for recipients of high, middle and low income; perceived social conflicts in the country; self-classification on a top-bottom scale; social mobility; social origins; education status, responsibility accepted, span of control, family responsibility, good work performance or hard work as most important criteria for establishing work pay; income increase or income reduction of individual income in case of a hypothetical equalization of the total income of the population; personal self-employment and occupation at start of employment; description of current condition of social pyramid as well as assessment of the situation 30 years ago as well as in 30 years; self-classification on a social prestige scale as well as classification of selected occupations; hours worked each week; employment in private or public sector; span of control; company size; personal union membership and membership of spouse; religiousness; self-classification of social class affiliation; party preference; party inclination; residential status; self-classification on a left-right scale; regional origins.Das International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) ist ein länderübergreifendes, fortlaufendes Umfrageprogramm, das jährlich Erhebungen zu Themen durchführt, die für die Sozialwissenschaften wichtig sind. Das Programm begann 1984 mit vier Gründungsmitgliedern - Australien, Deutschland, Großbritannien und den Vereinigten Staaten - und ist inzwischen auf fast 50 Mitgliedsländer aus aller Welt angewachsen. Da die Umfragen auf Replikationen ausgelegt sind, können die Daten sowohl für länder- als auch für zeitübergreifende Vergleiche genutzt werden. Jedes ISSP-Modul konzentriert sich auf ein bestimmtes Thema, das in regelmäßigen Zeitabständen wiederholt wird. Details zur Durchführung der nationalen ISSP-Umfragen entnehmen Sie bitte der Dokumentation. Die vorliegende Studie konzentriert sich auf Fragen zu sozialer Ungleichheit.Wichtigste Voraussetzungen für persönlichen Erfolg der Gesellschaft (Skala); Einstellung zum Sozialstaat und zu sozialen Unterschieden (Skala); Chancen zur Erhöhung des eigenen Lebensstandards; Wichtigkeit differenzierter Bezahlung; höhere Bezahlung bei Übernahme erhöhter Verantwortung; Mehrbezahlung als Anreiz für zusätzliche Qualifikation von Arbeitern; Vermeidbarkeit von Ungleichheit der Gesellschaft; erhöhte Einkommenserwartung als Motiv für die Aufnahme eines Studiums; gute Gewinne der Unternehmer als beste Voraussetzung für die Erhöhung des allgemeinen Lebensstandards; mangelnder Zusammenhalt der normalen Bevölkerung als Grund für die Persistenz sozialer Ungleichheiten; Schätzung des durchschnittlichen Jahreseinkommens ausgewählter Berufsgruppen und Angabe eines aus Sicht des Befragten gerechtfertigten Einkommens für die Mitglieder dieser Berufsgruppen; Beurteilung der Einkommensdifferenzen im Lande; Reduktion von Einkommensunterschieden, Beschäftigungsgarantie, garantiertes Mindesteinkommen und Chancengleichheit für Kinder ärmerer Familien beim Universitätszugang als Staatsaufgabe; Einstellung zu einer Reduktion der staatlichen Aufgaben für Einkommensschwache; Befürwortung staatlicher Unterstützung für Arbeitslose; Beurteilung der Gesamtbesteuerung für Bezieher hoher, mittlerer und niedriger Einkommen; perzipierte soziale Konflikte im Lande; Selbsteinstufung auf einer Oben-Unten- Skala; soziale Mobilität; soziale Herkunft; Ausbildungsstand, übernommene Verantwortung, Kontrollspanne, Familienverantwortung, gute Arbeitsleistung oder harte Arbeit als wichtigste Kriterien für die Festlegung eines Beschäftigungsentgeltes; Einkommenserhöhung oder Einkommensreduktion des individuellen Einkommens im Falle einer angenommenen Egalisierung der Gesamteinkommen der Bevölkerung; eigene Selbständigkeit und Beruf bei Beschäftigungseinstieg; Beschreibung des derzeitigen Zustands der gesellschaftlichen Pyramide sowie Einschätzung der Situation vor 30 Jahren sowie in 30 Jahren; Selbsteinstufung auf einer gesellschaftlichen Prestigeskala sowie Einstufung ausgewählter Berufe; Wochenarbeitsstunden; Beschäftigung im privaten oder öffentlichen Sektor; Kontrollspanne; Betriebsgröße; eigene Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft und Mitgliedschaft des Ehepartners; Religiosität; Selbsteinstufung der sozialen Klassenzugehörigkeit; Parteipräferenz; Parteineigung; Wohnstatus; Selbsteinstufung auf einer Links-Rechts-Skala; regionale Herkunft

International Social Survey Programme: Work Orientations II - ISSP 1997

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a continuous programme of cross-national collaboration running annual surveys on topics important for the social sciences. The programme started in 1984 with four founding members - Australia, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States – and has now grown to almost 50 member countries from all over the world. As the surveys are designed for replication, they can be used for both, cross-national and cross-time comparisons. Each ISSP module focuses on a specific topic, which is repeated in regular time intervals. Please, consult the documentation for details on how the national ISSP surveys are fielded. The present study focuses on questions about work, employment and work orientations.Desired distribution of time for selected activities such as work, leisure time usw.; work orientation (scale); carrying out work in household; importance of selected demands of a job; most important criteria for determination of amount of salary; influence of new technologies on job offerings and on quality of job; preference for work in service area or industry as well as in private economy or public sector; preference for employee status or occupational self-employment as well as for working in a large concern or in a small company; part-time employment; interest in full-time work; expected difficulties in looking for a job; payment of work; description of personal commitment to work; preference for more work and more pay or for more leisure time; certainty of one´s own job; significance of career opportunities and structuring of flexible working hours; characterization of work as hard physical activity and description of the extent of stress on the job; physical exhaustion after work; dangerous and unhealthful job situations; personal opportunity to influence the structuring of the work day or work processes; general job description; benefit of skills learned during time in school or university; judgement on the relationship between management and employees; atmosphere at work; work satisfaction; absence in the last 6 months; search for new job in the next 12 months. Those not employed were asked: work for more than one year and time of end of last paid job; reasons for the end of employment; expected difficulties in the job search; current search for work; manner of search for work; primary income source. Demography: sex; age; marital status; living together with a partner; education and duration of education; current employment status; employment in private or public sector; self-employment or employee; personal employees; time worked each week; superior function and span of control; company size; income; religious denomination; religiousness; union member; self-assessment of social class; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; party preference; size of household and composition; city size; region; original country of origin or ethnic group affiliation.Das International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) ist ein länderübergreifendes, fortlaufendes Umfrageprogramm, das jährlich Erhebungen zu Themen durchführt, die für die Sozialwissenschaften wichtig sind. Das Programm begann 1984 mit vier Gründungsmitgliedern - Australien, Deutschland, Großbritannien und den Vereinigten Staaten - und ist inzwischen auf fast 50 Mitgliedsländer aus aller Welt angewachsen. Da die Umfragen auf Replikationen ausgelegt sind, können die Daten sowohl für länder- als auch für zeitübergreifende Vergleiche genutzt werden. Jedes ISSP-Modul konzentriert sich auf ein bestimmtes Thema, das in regelmäßigen Zeitabständen wiederholt wird. Details zur Durchführung der nationalen ISSP-Umfragen entnehmen Sie bitte der Dokumentation. Die vorliegende Studie konzentriert sich auf Fragen zur Arbeit, Beschäftigungsverhältnissen und Arbeitsorientierungen.Gewünschte Zeitaufteilung für ausgewählte Tätigkeiten wie Arbeit, Freizeit usw.; Arbeitsorientierung (Skala); Erledigung von Arbeiten im Haushalt; Wichtigkeit ausgewählter Ansprüche an einen Arbeitsplatz; wichtigste Kriterien für die Bestimmung der Gehaltshöhe; Einfluß neuer Technologien auf Arbeitsplatzangebot und auf Arbeitsplatzqualität; Präferenz für die Arbeit im Dienstleistungsbereich oder in der Industrie sowie in der Privatwirtschaft oder im öffentlichen Sektor; Präferenz für Arbeitsnehmerstatus oder berufliche Selbständigkeit sowie für das Arbeiten in einem Großunternehmen oder in einem kleinen Unternehmen; Teilzeitbeschäftigung; Interesse an einer Vollzeitbeschäftigung; erwartete Schwierigkeiten bei einer Jobsuche; Bezahlung der Arbeit; Beschreibung des eigenen Engagements bei der Arbeit; Präferenz für mehr Arbeit und mehr Lohn oder für mehr Freizeit; Sicherheit des eigenen Arbeitsplatzes; Bedeutung von Karrieremöglichkeiten und flexibler Arbeitszeitgestaltung; Charakterisierung der Arbeit als harte physische Tätigkeit und Beschreibung des Ausmaßes von Streß bei der Arbeit; physische Erschöpfung nach der Arbeit; gefährliche und ungesunde Arbeitsplatzsituationen; eigene Einflußmöglichkeit auf die Gestaltung des Arbeitstages bzw. der Arbeitsabläufe; allgemeine Arbeitsplatzbeschreibung; Nutzen der erlernten Fähigkeiten aus der Schul- oder Universitätszeit; Beurteilung des Verhältnisses zwischen Management und Mitarbeitern; Betriebsklima; Arbeitszufriedenheit; Abwesenheit in den letzten 6 Monaten; Suche nach neuer Arbeit in den nächsten 12 Monaten. Nichterwerbstätige wurden gefragt: Arbeit für mehr als ein Jahr und Zeitpunkt des Endes der letzten bezahlten Arbeit; Gründe für das Ende der Beschäftigung; erwartete Schwierigkeiten bei der Jobsuche; momentane Suche nach Arbeit; Art der Arbeitssuche; Haupteinkommensquelle. Demographie: Geschlecht; Alter; Familienstand; Zusammenleben mit einem Partner; Ausbildung und Ausbildungsdauer; momentaner Beschäftigungsstatus; Beschäftigung im privaten oder öffentlichen Sektor; Selbständigkeit bzw. Arbeitsverhältnis; eigene Angestellte; Wochenarbeitszeit; Vorgesetztenfunktion und Kontrollspanne; Betriebsgröße; Einkommen; Konfession; Religiosität; Gewerkschaftsmitglied; Selbsteinschätzung der Schichtzugehörigkeit; Selbsteinschätzung auf einem Links-Rechts-Kontinuum; Parteipräferenz; Haushaltsgröße und Zusammensetzung; Ortsgröße; Region; ursprüngliches Herkunftsland bzw. ethnische Gruppenzugehörigkeit