Pub Date : 2022-12-28DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2022.2153302
Giammarco Alderotti, Eleonora Mussino, C. Comolli
ABSTRACT This study contributes to the empirical research on the fertility decline registered in Europe in the aftermath of the Great Recession adopting a comparative perspective. We explore childbearing behavior during the crisis across three dimensions of vulnerability: migration background (measured as: country of origin and length of stay in the destination country), labor market uncertainty, and country of residence. We compare childbearing behavior by parity among native and migrant women with different employment statuses in Sweden and Italy. Using the Swedish population registers and the Italian Labor Force Survey, we investigate the change in childbearing probabilities between the pre-crisis (2006–2009) and the years following the onset of the crisis (2010–2015). We find that the chances of motherhood in the aftermath of the Great Recession decreased substantially among recently arrived migrant women, but also among unemployed natives and women with unstable careers. The migration and labor market vulnerabilities, however, do not accumulate: unemployment and career instability negatively affect only native women’s probability of motherhood. Finally, the country comparison demonstrates that while the duration of stay and the weaker labor market attachment reduces the chances of motherhood in both contexts, the negative effect of unemployment is particularly strong in Italy.
{"title":"Natives’ and migrants’ employment uncertainty and childbearing during the great recession: a comparison between Italy and Sweden","authors":"Giammarco Alderotti, Eleonora Mussino, C. Comolli","doi":"10.1080/14616696.2022.2153302","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2153302","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study contributes to the empirical research on the fertility decline registered in Europe in the aftermath of the Great Recession adopting a comparative perspective. We explore childbearing behavior during the crisis across three dimensions of vulnerability: migration background (measured as: country of origin and length of stay in the destination country), labor market uncertainty, and country of residence. We compare childbearing behavior by parity among native and migrant women with different employment statuses in Sweden and Italy. Using the Swedish population registers and the Italian Labor Force Survey, we investigate the change in childbearing probabilities between the pre-crisis (2006–2009) and the years following the onset of the crisis (2010–2015). We find that the chances of motherhood in the aftermath of the Great Recession decreased substantially among recently arrived migrant women, but also among unemployed natives and women with unstable careers. The migration and labor market vulnerabilities, however, do not accumulate: unemployment and career instability negatively affect only native women’s probability of motherhood. Finally, the country comparison demonstrates that while the duration of stay and the weaker labor market attachment reduces the chances of motherhood in both contexts, the negative effect of unemployment is particularly strong in Italy.","PeriodicalId":47392,"journal":{"name":"European Societies","volume":"15 3 1","pages":"539 - 573"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74043806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-28DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2022.2156579
Taeyoung Yoo, Seoyeon Kim, W. Jho
ABSTRACT Regarding the variance of economic voting, the literature draws on various political institutions and individual-level contexts but pays little attention on how to comprehensively analyze political and economic spheres. Given that politics and economy are closely intertwined by resource acquisition and allocation, this study proposes state-business relations (SBR) to explain the variance across countries. The empirical analysis of 31 OECD countries from 1995 to 2019 confirms that the SBR’s explanatory power is significant as a coordination mechanism in a country and moderates political and economic contexts. This study highlights the importance of systematic integration of political and economic spheres and calls for additional efforts to elaborate the nuance of SBR in economic voting across countries.
{"title":"Economic voting and state-business relations in OECD countries","authors":"Taeyoung Yoo, Seoyeon Kim, W. Jho","doi":"10.1080/14616696.2022.2156579","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2156579","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Regarding the variance of economic voting, the literature draws on various political institutions and individual-level contexts but pays little attention on how to comprehensively analyze political and economic spheres. Given that politics and economy are closely intertwined by resource acquisition and allocation, this study proposes state-business relations (SBR) to explain the variance across countries. The empirical analysis of 31 OECD countries from 1995 to 2019 confirms that the SBR’s explanatory power is significant as a coordination mechanism in a country and moderates political and economic contexts. This study highlights the importance of systematic integration of political and economic spheres and calls for additional efforts to elaborate the nuance of SBR in economic voting across countries.","PeriodicalId":47392,"journal":{"name":"European Societies","volume":"81 1","pages":"657 - 690"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84210378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-19DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2022.2156578
Dominika Polkowska, Bartosz Mika
ABSTRACT Platform work in general requires workers to apply specific strategies to stay afloat. In Poland, platform work is a complex system of mutual relations and interdependencies between transnational corporations, national regulators, service providers, intermediaries and platform workers. Based on thirty-one in-depth interviews with Uber drivers in Poland and two expert interviews with fleet partners, this article presents the working strategies adopted by platform workers and looks at how the historical experience of communism may shape responses to twenty-first-century global capitalism. The analysis shows that an adequate remuneration can only be made by adopting the strategy called kombinowanie, a combination of small cheating, fiddling and exploiting loopholes in the law.
{"title":"Is it possible to outsmart Uber? Individual working tactics within platform work in Poland","authors":"Dominika Polkowska, Bartosz Mika","doi":"10.1080/14616696.2022.2156578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2156578","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Platform work in general requires workers to apply specific strategies to stay afloat. In Poland, platform work is a complex system of mutual relations and interdependencies between transnational corporations, national regulators, service providers, intermediaries and platform workers. Based on thirty-one in-depth interviews with Uber drivers in Poland and two expert interviews with fleet partners, this article presents the working strategies adopted by platform workers and looks at how the historical experience of communism may shape responses to twenty-first-century global capitalism. The analysis shows that an adequate remuneration can only be made by adopting the strategy called kombinowanie, a combination of small cheating, fiddling and exploiting loopholes in the law.","PeriodicalId":47392,"journal":{"name":"European Societies","volume":"28 1","pages":"606 - 626"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73434591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-12DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2022.2144638
Lorenzo Mosca, Davide Vittori
ABSTRACT One of the main ‘promises’ that populist parties seek to deliver is to bring politics closer to the ‘people’. While the literature focused mainly on the relationship between voters and those parties, less attention has been given to the role of members’ priorities in shaping parties’ legislative activity. In this paper, we focus on a paradigmatic technopopulist case, the Italian Five Star Movement (FSM): one of the founding trademarks of the party was the involvement of the members in the party activities via a digital platform. FSM’s digital platform included participative digital law-making features, which matched member priorities and élite policymaking. We built an original dataset which comprises the law-making activities of members and parliamentarians from 2013 to 2019. We analysed 2000 law proposals and found that FSM elected representatives’ agenda, albeit partly diverging from that of members, still changed in the direction of member priorities through time.
{"title":"A digital principal? Substantive representation in the case of the Italian Five Star Movement","authors":"Lorenzo Mosca, Davide Vittori","doi":"10.1080/14616696.2022.2144638","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2144638","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT One of the main ‘promises’ that populist parties seek to deliver is to bring politics closer to the ‘people’. While the literature focused mainly on the relationship between voters and those parties, less attention has been given to the role of members’ priorities in shaping parties’ legislative activity. In this paper, we focus on a paradigmatic technopopulist case, the Italian Five Star Movement (FSM): one of the founding trademarks of the party was the involvement of the members in the party activities via a digital platform. FSM’s digital platform included participative digital law-making features, which matched member priorities and élite policymaking. We built an original dataset which comprises the law-making activities of members and parliamentarians from 2013 to 2019. We analysed 2000 law proposals and found that FSM elected representatives’ agenda, albeit partly diverging from that of members, still changed in the direction of member priorities through time.","PeriodicalId":47392,"journal":{"name":"European Societies","volume":"4 1","pages":"627 - 656"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81138812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-26DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2022.2132524
Adam Gemar
ABSTRACT Scholarship on social class occupies a particular pedestal in British sociology. However, recent research into the connections between religion and social position is conspicuously absent. Using a UK-wide survey, I employ Bourdieu and various statistical methods to investigate the complex cultural capital compositions of various religious identities. The findings identify a four-group typology of cultural engagement. I also identify those holding multiple religious identities as a new and prominent religious identity in the UK today, one that is highly culturally active. I explain these results through neo-Bourdieusian theories of the reconfiguration of distinction in the forms of openness and cosmopolitanism, and through arguments for the importance of cultural and social variety in accumulating capital. The unique group that has these multiple religious identities is also a prime candidate for further research into how religious dispositions may operate as its own form of cultural capital.
{"title":"Religion and cultural capital in the UK today: identity, cultural engagement and the prevalence of multiple religious identities","authors":"Adam Gemar","doi":"10.1080/14616696.2022.2132524","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2132524","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Scholarship on social class occupies a particular pedestal in British sociology. However, recent research into the connections between religion and social position is conspicuously absent. Using a UK-wide survey, I employ Bourdieu and various statistical methods to investigate the complex cultural capital compositions of various religious identities. The findings identify a four-group typology of cultural engagement. I also identify those holding multiple religious identities as a new and prominent religious identity in the UK today, one that is highly culturally active. I explain these results through neo-Bourdieusian theories of the reconfiguration of distinction in the forms of openness and cosmopolitanism, and through arguments for the importance of cultural and social variety in accumulating capital. The unique group that has these multiple religious identities is also a prime candidate for further research into how religious dispositions may operate as its own form of cultural capital.","PeriodicalId":47392,"journal":{"name":"European Societies","volume":"32 1","pages":"392 - 412"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85800086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-23DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2022.2137553
Gemma Scalise
ABSTRACT This article assumes that the theory of social capital can contribute to explaining some of the processes behind decision-making independence and the informal aspects of relationship in the implementation of social policies. To support this theoretical proposition by means of case-based empirical evidence, the article focuses on the implementation of the principle of welfare conditionality, which links the access to income support benefits on the acceptance of job search activities and training. Three comparative cases show that its implementation varies significantly in the different contexts: conditionality embodies a very weak principle in Barcelona, which is not applied in practice; in Lyon it has a symbolic function representing a formality that provides access to an unconditional right; in Gothenburg it is implemented as a stringent and effective proof of activation. Among the many institutional and structural factors that help explain these differences, the article shows that there are also specific forms of trust, group identity and mutual recognition that motivate civil servants’ agency and discretionary choices.
{"title":"Between structure and agency: the use of conditional welfare through the lens of social capital","authors":"Gemma Scalise","doi":"10.1080/14616696.2022.2137553","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2137553","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article assumes that the theory of social capital can contribute to explaining some of the processes behind decision-making independence and the informal aspects of relationship in the implementation of social policies. To support this theoretical proposition by means of case-based empirical evidence, the article focuses on the implementation of the principle of welfare conditionality, which links the access to income support benefits on the acceptance of job search activities and training. Three comparative cases show that its implementation varies significantly in the different contexts: conditionality embodies a very weak principle in Barcelona, which is not applied in practice; in Lyon it has a symbolic function representing a formality that provides access to an unconditional right; in Gothenburg it is implemented as a stringent and effective proof of activation. Among the many institutional and structural factors that help explain these differences, the article shows that there are also specific forms of trust, group identity and mutual recognition that motivate civil servants’ agency and discretionary choices.","PeriodicalId":47392,"journal":{"name":"European Societies","volume":"2 1","pages":"242 - 267"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87432438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2022.2084558
S. Sprong, J. Skopek
ABSTRACT In today’s increasingly diverse societies, a key question is how to foster the structural integration of immigrants and their descendants. While research indicates that migrant educational underachievement is a serious issue, relatively little is known about achievement gaps at younger ages and in relatively new immigration countries. The current study sets out to estimate the size of disparities by migration background at age five (i.e. when they start school) and explores the causes of these gaps. It does so in a context that offers a compelling but under-researched case: the Republic of Ireland. It draws on the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) data, a national longitudinal study of children in Ireland. The results suggest that some disparities by migration background already existed at the start of primary school, but also that gaps were limited to verbal skills and differed widely across groups. Moreover, social background only played a relatively minor role in explaining the differences, whereas the child’s first language was a powerful predictor of disadvantages by migration background in verbal skills.
{"title":"Academic achievement gaps by migration background at school starting age in Ireland","authors":"S. Sprong, J. Skopek","doi":"10.1080/14616696.2022.2084558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2084558","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In today’s increasingly diverse societies, a key question is how to foster the structural integration of immigrants and their descendants. While research indicates that migrant educational underachievement is a serious issue, relatively little is known about achievement gaps at younger ages and in relatively new immigration countries. The current study sets out to estimate the size of disparities by migration background at age five (i.e. when they start school) and explores the causes of these gaps. It does so in a context that offers a compelling but under-researched case: the Republic of Ireland. It draws on the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) data, a national longitudinal study of children in Ireland. The results suggest that some disparities by migration background already existed at the start of primary school, but also that gaps were limited to verbal skills and differed widely across groups. Moreover, social background only played a relatively minor role in explaining the differences, whereas the child’s first language was a powerful predictor of disadvantages by migration background in verbal skills.","PeriodicalId":47392,"journal":{"name":"European Societies","volume":"388 1","pages":"580 - 604"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72448146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-17DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2022.2132525
Ainė Ramonaitė
ABSTRACT Why are people in Central and Eastern Europe more hesitant towards COVID-19 vaccination and more prone to believe in COVID-19 related conspiracy theories than other Europeans? The article claims that the spread of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs in the post-communist region might be fostered by communist nostalgia. Drawing on the survey data from Lithuania, I show that communist nostalgia is one of the best predictors of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, controlling for other related factors such as populist attitudes, trust in political institutions, confidence in media and scientists and pro-Western attitudes. The paper claims that communist nostalgia in Central and Eastern Europe is conducive to conspiracy beliefs in a similar vein as nostalgic narratives employed by populist radical right in Western countries.
{"title":"Does communist nostalgia lead to COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs?","authors":"Ainė Ramonaitė","doi":"10.1080/14616696.2022.2132525","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2132525","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Why are people in Central and Eastern Europe more hesitant towards COVID-19 vaccination and more prone to believe in COVID-19 related conspiracy theories than other Europeans? The article claims that the spread of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs in the post-communist region might be fostered by communist nostalgia. Drawing on the survey data from Lithuania, I show that communist nostalgia is one of the best predictors of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, controlling for other related factors such as populist attitudes, trust in political institutions, confidence in media and scientists and pro-Western attitudes. The paper claims that communist nostalgia in Central and Eastern Europe is conducive to conspiracy beliefs in a similar vein as nostalgic narratives employed by populist radical right in Western countries.","PeriodicalId":47392,"journal":{"name":"European Societies","volume":"23 1","pages":"489 - 508"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85827049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-04DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2022.2127830
Christian Fang, A. Poortman
ABSTRACT Despite the potential importance of kin to divorced parents in particular, prior research rarely studied how kinship patterns vary between married and divorced parents, nor within-group variations depending upon postdivorce residence arrangements and repartnering. We estimated mixed-effects logistic regression models using data from samples of Dutch married (N = 1,336) and divorced parents (N = 3,464) to predict the extent to which parents considered various blood relatives and (former) in-laws kin (i.e. parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, nieces/nephews, and cousins) and investigated differences within the divorced group per residence arrangements and repartnering. We found that married and divorced parents barely differed in the extent to which they considered blood relatives kin, but differences were large for (former) in-laws, and particularly great when parents did not reside with their biological child. Repartnered divorced parents were less likely to consider their former in-laws kin than single divorced parents but considered their new in-laws kin to high extents. For both blood relatives and (former) in-laws, parents were most often, and cousins least often considered kin. These results indicate that kinship patterns only differ for in-laws between married and divorced parents. Resident children may lead parents to consider former in-laws kin, whereas repartnering leads to exclusion of former in-laws.
{"title":"Whom do married and divorced parents consider kin?","authors":"Christian Fang, A. Poortman","doi":"10.1080/14616696.2022.2127830","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2127830","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Despite the potential importance of kin to divorced parents in particular, prior research rarely studied how kinship patterns vary between married and divorced parents, nor within-group variations depending upon postdivorce residence arrangements and repartnering. We estimated mixed-effects logistic regression models using data from samples of Dutch married (N = 1,336) and divorced parents (N = 3,464) to predict the extent to which parents considered various blood relatives and (former) in-laws kin (i.e. parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, nieces/nephews, and cousins) and investigated differences within the divorced group per residence arrangements and repartnering. We found that married and divorced parents barely differed in the extent to which they considered blood relatives kin, but differences were large for (former) in-laws, and particularly great when parents did not reside with their biological child. Repartnered divorced parents were less likely to consider their former in-laws kin than single divorced parents but considered their new in-laws kin to high extents. For both blood relatives and (former) in-laws, parents were most often, and cousins least often considered kin. These results indicate that kinship patterns only differ for in-laws between married and divorced parents. Resident children may lead parents to consider former in-laws kin, whereas repartnering leads to exclusion of former in-laws.","PeriodicalId":47392,"journal":{"name":"European Societies","volume":"69 1","pages":"511 - 538"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87233296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-04DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2022.2127828
Tamás Keller
ABSTRACT This paper investigates direct peer influence in upper-secondary track choice in the stratified and selective Hungarian educational system and makes two contributions to the literature. First, it tests both peer-contrasting and peer-conforming influences by considering peers’ GPA and endogenous educational choices. Second, the paper investigates mechanisms behind peer-conforming educational choices (such as peers’ normative pressure and information potential), with a focus on two structurally different peer relationships: self-selected friends and randomly assigned deskmates. The study uses a unique dataset that merges administrative data with randomized field experiment data. The results show no evidence of peer influence, after accounting for unobserved classroom homogeneity. Within the classroom, peers’ ability did not decrease, and peers’ ambitious endogenous educational choices did not increase students’ own choice of the academic upper-secondary track. Concerning the mechanisms of peer-conforming educational choices, the results reveal that peers’ informational potential (but not their normative pressure) might be the mechanism that drives students to conform to peers’ choices. Thus, the absence of peer influence may contribute to the reproduction of pre-existing social inequalities in upper-secondary track choices since peer influence cannot derail students’ socially determined educational choices in Hungary..
{"title":"No evidence of direct peer influence in upper-secondary track choice—evidence from Hungary","authors":"Tamás Keller","doi":"10.1080/14616696.2022.2127828","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2022.2127828","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper investigates direct peer influence in upper-secondary track choice in the stratified and selective Hungarian educational system and makes two contributions to the literature. First, it tests both peer-contrasting and peer-conforming influences by considering peers’ GPA and endogenous educational choices. Second, the paper investigates mechanisms behind peer-conforming educational choices (such as peers’ normative pressure and information potential), with a focus on two structurally different peer relationships: self-selected friends and randomly assigned deskmates. The study uses a unique dataset that merges administrative data with randomized field experiment data. The results show no evidence of peer influence, after accounting for unobserved classroom homogeneity. Within the classroom, peers’ ability did not decrease, and peers’ ambitious endogenous educational choices did not increase students’ own choice of the academic upper-secondary track. Concerning the mechanisms of peer-conforming educational choices, the results reveal that peers’ informational potential (but not their normative pressure) might be the mechanism that drives students to conform to peers’ choices. Thus, the absence of peer influence may contribute to the reproduction of pre-existing social inequalities in upper-secondary track choices since peer influence cannot derail students’ socially determined educational choices in Hungary..","PeriodicalId":47392,"journal":{"name":"European Societies","volume":"25 1","pages":"154 - 180"},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82247234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}