Social Composition (social + composition)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Social composition, social conflict and economic development,

THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 530 2008
Holger Strulik
This article investigates how the existence of non-cooperative social groups that appropriate resources either peacefully or through contest affects economic growth when property rights are unenforceable. For symmetric groups it shows that economic growth is generated only in peaceful societies. For the case of asymmetric groups rebel-equilibria are investigated in which a large majority behaves peacefully although challenged by an aggressive minority. The article explains how conflict intensity and the rate of economic growth depend on social fractionalisation, general productivity of the economy, power of social elites and the ease at which resources are appropriated. [source]


Social Fractionalization, Endogenous Appropriation Norms, and Economic Development

ECONOMICA, Issue 298 2008
INES LINDNER
We investigate how social composition affects competitive and cooperative behaviour in a linear growth model without secure property rights. If a society is homogeneous or highly fractionalized, it is in the self-interest of people to cooperate. The first-best allocation is enforced through trigger strategies, and growth is independent from social structure. If a society is polarized, i.e. if it consists of a small number of groups, the first-best solution can turn out to be unenforceable and groups will follow an exploitative strategy. In this case, the rate of growth is monotonously decreasing in the degree of fractionalization. [source]


,The pooreste and sympleste sorte of people'?

HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 208 2007
The selection of parish officers during the personal rule of Charles I
The successful implementation of Charles I's personal rule relied much on the co-operation of parish officers whose workload increased significantly in the sixteen-thirties. There is little evidence that the mounting pressure and conflicting loyalties Charles I's reform projects caused resulted in widespread unwillingness to serve as parish officer or led to a changing social composition among office-holders. Local customs continued to determine the appointments of officers. The frequent use of rotas in allocating parish offices, the fact that many parishioners served several terms of office, and the presence of men from all social strata of local communities among parish officers all suggest that Caroline parochial government was considerably inclusive and that the village élites continued to serve for crown and parish. Consequently, parish offices, including the demanding office of petty constable, did not experience a loss of prestige during the personal rule, but parishioners served because they accepted their turn or appreciated the status of the office. Many contemporaries may also have valued parish offices because they provided opportunities to adapt government policies to the political culture of the parish and to enforce only selectively some of the controversial schemes of the sixteen-thirties. [source]


The social identity and social networks of ethnic minority groups in organizations: a crucial test of distinctiveness theory,,

JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 5 2008
Ana Sierra Leonard
Distinctiveness theory posits that patterns of social identity and friendship are based on numeric rarity within specific contexts. In ethnically diverse organizations, the theory predicts that members of the smaller ethnic group (relative to members of the larger ethnic group) will: (a) tend to identify and form friendships within their own ethnic group, and (b) lack access to well-connected individuals in the network of friendship relations. Prior tests have supported these predictions, but they have been unable to rule out the possibility that it was chronic differences in social status and numeric representation in society at large (rather than numeric distinctiveness within specific contexts) that explained the observed patterns of social identity and friendship. In this field-based study, we examined an organization whose social composition effectively controlled for these confounds. We found that members of the smaller ethnic group tended to identify and form friendships within group, as predicted by distinctiveness theory. However, in contrast to previous work, we found that members of the smaller ethnic group were equally well connected to the center of the friendship network as were the members of the larger ethnic group. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Christianity, Gender, and the Working Class in Southern Dunedin, 1880,19401

JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, Issue 1 2006
JOHN STENHOUSE
This article is a study of the southern suburbs of Dunedin, which during the late nineteenth century became the most industrialized and working class urban area of New Zealand. Analyzing the social composition of fifteen southern Dunedin churches, I question the idea, widely held by New Zealand historians, that the working classes had largely turned their backs on organized religion. In keeping with recent scholarship in the social history of British and Irish religion, I show that unskilled workers were better represented in many southern Dunedin congregations that previous historians have acknowledged and that skilled workers numerically dominated most churches. When women are included in the analysis, working class predominance increases further. Signing the suffrage petition in remarkable proportions, working class Christian women turned the southern suburbs into a world-leading first wave feminist community. Moreover, varieties of popular Christianity flourished beyond the ranks of active churchgoers. I conclude by suggesting that New Zealand historians need to rethink the old "lapsed masses" and "secular New Zealand" assumptions and to investigate the diverse varieties of Christianity shaping the culture, and their sometimes conflicting this-worldly meanings. [source]


Are immigrants, ethnic and linguistic minorities over-represented in jobs with a high level of compensated risk?

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 9 2010
Canada study using census, Results from a montréal, workers' compensation data
Abstract Objectives Few Canadian data sources allow the examination of disparities by ethnicity, language, or immigrant status in occupational exposures or health outcomes. However, it is possible to document the mechanisms that can create disparities, such as the over-representation of population groups in high-risk jobs. We evaluated, in the Montréal context, the relationship between the social composition of jobs and their associated risk level. Methods We used data from the 2001 Statistics Canada census and from Québec's workers' compensation board for 2000,2002 to characterize job categories defined as major industrial groups crossed with three professional categories (manual, mixed, non-manual). Immigrant, visible, and linguistic minority status variables were used to describe job composition. The frequency rate of compensated health problems and the average duration of compensation determined job risk level. The relationship between the social composition and risk level of jobs was evaluated with Kendall correlations. Results The proportion of immigrants and minorities was positively and significantly linked to the risk level across job categories. Many relationships were significant for women only. In analyses done within manual jobs, relationships with the frequency rate reversed and were significant, except for the relationship with the proportion of individuals with knowledge of French only, which remained positive. Conclusions Immigrants, visible, and linguistic minorities in Montréal are more likely to work where there is an increased level of compensated risk. Reversed relationships within manual jobs may be explained by under-reporting and under-compensation in vulnerable populations compared to those with knowledge of the province's majority language. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:875,885, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Electoral behaviour behind the gates: partisanship and political participation among Canadian gated community residents

AREA, Issue 1 2010
R. Alan Walks
Gated communities have been characterised as representing processes of ,forting up' and ,civic secession', in which their residents use gating as a strategy for withdrawing from political life and from taking collective responsibility for others. The assumption is that the residents of private gated communities should be less likely to participate in political life, and/or be more likely to support political parties on the right who advocate privatisation, reduced government expenditures and lower taxes. If the act of living in a gated community is associated with either greater support for parties and policies on the right of the political spectrum, or limited political participation, then the growth of such forms of privatised communities has potential implications for the future of urban politics and even for national political systems. However, despite surveys that have dealt with social attitudes ,behind the gates', insufficient attention has been paid to the politics of gated community residents. This paper fills this gap through a comparative analysis of electoral behaviour during the 2006 federal election at the level of the polling station. Electoral participation and partisanship in 27 gated communities in three Canadian metropolitan areas is compared against that of non-gated residents. Regression analysis is conducted in order to determine whether gated community residents differ from their non-gated counterparts in the way they vote and their levels of electoral turnout, after controlling for social composition. The potential implications of this research are then discussed. [source]