D. John Grove

On Measuring Intergroup Inequality

This article develops an alternative measure for use in comparing two income distributions. The measure builds on the argument that under certain conditions inequality and dissimilarity are not the same thing, and this difference can be used to develop a measure of “crossover.” As far as we know, no analyst has developed a statistical measure that can determine the size of crossover (overlap) between two cumulative distribution functions. The measure is then applied to racial income distribution data in the United States. The results show some of the “styles” of crossover that vary from bottom-up to top-down patterns. We argue that the overlap information generated by this measure can provide insight into who benefits by trends in intergroup convergence that is not gained when using existing intergroup inequality measures.

Have the post‐reform ethnic gains eroded? A seven‐nation study

Abstract This study explores the question of whether there is a match between past need and present beneficiaries in reform‐minded multi‐ethnic societies. The results show that in all seven countries ethnic inequalities have declined but that in some cases the gains made had already begun to erode in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Upper‐income disadvantaged groups have benefited the most from reform and likewise have been the major sufferers from the erosion of ethnic progress. However, there is only partial support for the thesis of relationship between past needs and present gains. What is also still unclear is whether the divergent phase in the 1980s is an outcome of redressing imbalances. We know only that the re‐emergence of ethnic inequalities has wiped out some of the previous gains.

A Cross-National Examination of Cross-Cutting and Reinforcing Cultural Cleavages

non, unfortunately, is not well understood by social scientists. The concept of cross-cutting cleavages is well established in political science where it has been analyzed in the study of voting behavior, conflict and its resolution and democratic stability. Marxists have drawn a causal link between social and political cleavages, arguing that social classes become political movements but have tended to treat cultural cleavages as &dquo;epiphenomenon&dquo; of class. Comparative sociologists have begun to delineate the pattern of relationships between social and structural cleavages in the analysis of rank order inequalities in plural societies but really have not explored the different types of cultural cleavages. Lastly, cross-national studies are still measuring relatively simple measures of cultural heterogeneity. Most of these approaches, however, have not begun to delineate systematically the intra-relationships between the different components of cultural (i.e. race, ethnicity, language and religion) cleavages. The concept and measurement of cultural cleavages needs a far greater specificity in terms of the range of cultural configurations. This paper, therefore, will go beyond measures of cultural heterogeneity and examine the different types of cleavage configurations in all the major multi-ethnic and multi-racial societies. The terms &dquo;cross-cutting&dquo; and &dquo;reinforcing cleavages&dquo; identify two poles of a continuum along which cleavage types can be placed. Cross-cutting cultural cleavages refer to different affiliations or multiple loyalties which groups belong

Global Cultural Fragmentation: A Bourdieuan Perspective

We examine the contention that global cultural fragmentation persists because it is anchored in increasingly autonomous cultural fields, which produces both challenges to the state and maintains parallel global cultural zones. Instead of a diverse world slowly culturally homogenizing under the onslaught of economic globalization, the emerging autonomous cultural fields creates both intense nationalist struggles over alternative modes of cultural authority, and sustains distinctive worldviews, which are shaped by the cultural heritages of past practices. Economic development appears to push these global zones in a common modernity direction, but rather than converging, they move on parallel path dependent trajectories. This parallelism is maintained by the differing structures of capital, which are embedded in each zone. Analizamos la controversia de que existe la fragmentación cultural porque se aferra en campos culturales autónomos que van en aumento, lo cual produce desafíos al estado y mantiene zonas culturales globales paralelas. En vez de un mundo diverso lentamente homogenizado en el aspecto cultural bajo el asalto de la globalización económica, tanto los campos culturales emergentes autónomos crean luchas nacionalistas intensas sobre métodos alternativos de autoridad cultural como mantienen panoramas mundiales distintos que se forjan mediante los patrimonios culturales de costumbres anteriores. El desarrollo económico parece que impulsa a estas zonas globales en una dirección de modernidad común, pero en vez de converger, se mueven sobre trayectorias paralelas dependientes. Este paralelismo se mantiene mediante las diferentes estructuras de capital que están reintegradas en cada zona.

Who benefits from ethnic income redistribution?: A Cross-Cultural Analysis☆

Abstract We know very little about who benefits from the distribution of ethnic income in different parts of the world. Although neoclassical and Marxian theories have come to opposite conclusions concerning who will gain from ethnic income changes, comparativists have largely ignored the question. This cross-cultural study examines the relative gains and losses among 10 pair-wise comparisons in five multiethnic countries. The results show some encouraging signs of interethnic equalization for 7 out of the 10 comparisons, but there are some disturbing reversals in the 1980s. In most cases the dispersion of gains within the upwardly mobile groups are skewed in favor of the richest income groups; however, there are cases where the dispersion of gains is relatively even between top and bottom income groups. Upper-income groups also prospered within the downwardly mobile groups. Thus, the evidence does not support either the Marxian contention that group progress is due to workers usurping the economic privileges of the rich, or the neoclassical position that ethnic equalization is inversely related to within group inequalities.

Cultural Participation and Educational Achievement: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

This cross-cultural study examines the sociolinguistic contention that schools reward ethnic groups on the basis of their participation in cultural capital. Although the results of this study show that educational differentials have diminished over time, the considerable variation in educational improvement in different parts of the world is unrelated to the inculcation of cultural capital. Ethnic groups that have maintained their separate culture are just as likely to succeed as those groups that have acquired status culture. Numerous studies in different parts of the world have reported the relationship between privileged family background and educational achievement. But it is only recently that sociologists have begun to explore the mediating role of culture in the educational process. One of the questions that has emerged concerns the cultural prerequisites for educational success. Is primary socialization into the dominant culture a necessary first step in achieving greater levels of educational attainment? This paper will look more closely at this question of culture mediating in the relationship between group membership and educational achievement. We will begin by reviewing the theory of cultural reproducation, the most explicit statement on the transmission of culture through autonomous eductional institutions, and then discuss some of the criticisms. We will then examine a cross-cultural sample of ethnic groups at varying levels of cultural assimilation and educational attainment. Recently, sociolinguistic theorists have argued that schools play a critical role in legitimating and transmitting differentials between status cultures. Their contention is that the cultural transmission of social inequality in education is passed on through class-based cultural codes which are understood by those who have acquired the appropriate linguistic and cultural competences, but which put those groups who have not mastered the dominant culture at a distinct disadvantage (Bernstein, 1971; Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977; Collins, 1979). In order for those aspiring groups to obtain higher levels of educational achievement, they must, it is argued, acquire the appropriate cultural currency of national educational systems. Theories of cultural reproduction, as they are called, argue that social inequality is processed through what Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) describe as ’cultural capital’ and which is defined as &dquo;the instruments for the appropriation of symbolic wealth socially designated as worthy of being sought and possessed&dquo; (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977; Dimaggio, 1982). Cultural capital is rewarded by schools and can later be exchanged for economic capital in the labor market. Acquisition of cultural capital is necessary to decipher school knowledge which either reinforces or competes with those sets of meanings, qualities of style, modes of International,Journal of Comparative Sociology XXVI, 3-4 (1985)

Education and the Ethnic Division of Labor in Reform-Minded Societies

Has the expansion of secondary and higher education during the period from 1950 to 1970 restructured the ethnic division of labor? This seven-nation cross-cultural study examines the extent to which changes in education have transformed the ethnic occupational structure in reform-oriented societies. The results show that in five out of the seven countries, the ethnic division of labor became less hierarchically specialized. In the remaining two countries, the New Zealand Maoris have become increasingly overrepresented in secondary jobs during the 1970s, and South African Coloureds, Asians, and Africans have not regained their pre-apartheid occupational position. These subsequent changes in occupational segregation across 19 pairwise comparisons are, surprisingly, not due to the initial spread of education. This finding lends support to the radical thesis that education in societies that have implemented different types of social reforms have had little impact on the likely trajectories of the ethnic division of labor.

Ethnic Social, Political, and Economic Progress A Cross-Cultural Analysis

This article examines the thesis that a reduction in occupational and educational differentials across cross-cutting lines of differentiation, and a more representative government, will have a redistributive effect on ethnic income distribution. This thesis emerges out of the liberal theory of development which implicitly assumes that equalizing opportunity structures across cultural divisions, and increasing political participation, will eventually affect income disparities between groups. The extent to which ethnic income redistribution is a function of educational reform and a broader political participation is a question that has not been systematically examined cross-culturally. In fact, we know very little about the relative progress of ethnic groups in different parts of the world.