Summary of Readings Education & Work UvA (weekly readings + class ceiling)
7 views 0 purchase
Course
Education & Work (7332A005AY)
Institution
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
Book
The Class Ceiling
I GOT 8.5 FROM THE EXAM. Summary of readings for course Education & Work perfect for exam preparation. There are included weekly readings as well as Chapters from the book "The Class Ceiling"
just one disclaimer: this is not a complete summary as I didn't have time to make notes is last weeks, w...
FULL Summary of The Class Ceiling, Friedman & Laurison
Summary, UvA Education And Work (7332A005AY)
Complete summary of The Class Ceiling
All for this textbook (4)
Written for
Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
Sociologie
Education & Work (7332A005AY)
All documents for this subject (2)
Seller
Follow
juliaradzieta
Reviews received
Content preview
Readings
Week 1: Cultural capital or relative risk aversion?
● aim of article: confronting to theories in empirical study
● the rational choice perspective: relative risk aversion mechanism - most important
goal in educational decision-making is to avoid downward mobility, everyone is
equally concerned
○ people strive for an educational level and social position that is at least
equally as good as the position of their parents
○ there’s universal urge to maintain that class, and if it doesn’t work out it’s
really bad apparently
○ people take di erent decisions, as they have di erent ambitions
○ class maintenance → take educational decision → school performance
● cultural reproduction: focuses on the unequal distribution of power resources
(social, cultural and economical capital) between classes, transmitted over
generations
○ cultural capital: familiarity with the dominant culture in society (cultural
codes, modes of conduct, and use of language)
○ ‘habitus’; one’s system of predispositions, including values and motivations
○ children from disadvantaged social backgrounds perform worse in school as
they lack cultural capital
○ cultural capital of parents → children’s familiarity with dominant culture →
school performance
● primary e ect of social origin: all the influences of one’s social origin (whether
they are cultural, economic, genetic, biological, psychological or social) that form a
child’s ability to perform in school
○ primary e ects can be expected to be exerted mainly in terms of educational
performance
○ mostly infuelnces your school performance in primary school
○ explained through cultural capital
● secondary e ect of social origin: making choices and ambitions in the educational
system that are related to children social origin, independent of their ability
○ secondary e ects will be mainly expressed in terms of future ambitions in
schooling
○ explained through relative risk aversion
, ● To what extent do the two mechanisms of cultural capital in the home environment and
relative risk aversion explain educational performance and ambitions?
● Results:
○ Variation in cultural capital and relative risk aversion across social origin
■ children from various social origins report similar concerns about
class maintenance
○ The impact of social origin on school performance
■ parental cultural capital (which stands for cultural reproduction
theory) has an e ect on primary education performance, and relative
risk aversion has not
■ parents’ educational level and their occupational class position
positively a ects children’s schooling
■ cultural capital strongly a ects primary school performance
○ The impact of social origin on schooling ambitions
■ parents’ educational level a ects choice of secondary school type: the
odds for being enrolled in a higher-ability track versus a
lower-ability track are higher for children of parents with tertiary
qualifications (secondary e ect of social origin)
■ relative risk aversion strongly a ects the aspired level of continuing
education: children who are more concerned with downward mobility
more wish to follow an ambitious educational programme
■ The more concerned people are with reaching the same class position
as their parents, the higher the aspired level of schooling at the age of
30
● Conclusion: in order to fully understand educational inequality we need both
mechanisms
Main finding:
● parent’s participation in highbrow cultural activities (→cultural reproduction)
predicts higher test scores during primary school but is unrelated to ambitions for
schooling
● concern about downward mobility (→relative risk aversion) does not predict grades
but explains di erent ambitions for schooling outcomes
● both mechanisms are found but at di erent points in the educational career
, Week 2: The Forms of Capital
● Capital is accumulated labor which, when appropriated on a private, i.e., exclusive,
basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the
form of reified or living labor.
● Three types of capital:
○ economic capital - immediately and directly convertible into money and
may be institutionalized in the form of property rights
○ cultural capital- convertible, in certain conditions, into economic capital
and may be institutionalized in the form of educational qualifications
○ social capital - made up of social obligations (“connections”), which is
convertible, in certain conditions, into economic capital and may be
institutionalized in the form of a title of nobility
● Cultural capital:
○ exists in three forms:
■ embodied state - long-lasting dispositions of the mind and body
■ objectified state - in the form of cultural goods (pictures, books,
dictionaries, instruments, machines, etc.)
■ institutionalized state
○ where’s the idea from: “initially presented itself to me as a theoretical
hypothesis which made it possible to explain the unequal scholastic
achievement of children originating from the di erent social classes by
relating academic success”
○ domestic transmission of cultural capital - the best hidden and socially
most determinant educational investment
○ ability or talent is itself the product of an investment of time and cultural
capital
○ scholastic yield from educational action depends on the cultural capital
previously invested by the family
○ The embodied state:
■ The accumulation of cultural capital in the embodied state, i.e., in the
form of what is called culture, cultivation, presupposes a process of
embodiment, incorporation, which, insofar as it implies a labor of
inculcation and assimilation, costs time, time which must be
invested personally by the investor
■ The work of acquisition is work on oneself (self-improvement), an
e ort that presupposes a personal cost
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller juliaradzieta. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $3.78. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
