Henryk Domański

EDUCATIONAL HOMOGAMY IN 22 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

ABSTRACT Research on socioeconomic homogamy was developed by stratification researchers who used marriage patterns to describe how open stratification systems are. In cross-national studies primary concern on marriage homogamy lies in examination of commonality and differences in their social structures. Following large-scale international studies we use the European Social Survey data 2004–2005 to examine the association between spouses’ educational levels. Loglinear analysis is applied to assess: (i) degree of association between education of spouses, (ii) patterns of barriers to intermarriage, (iii) variation in homogamy for partners with the same education for primary, uncompleted secondary, secondary, and university levels, and (iv) asymmetry in marriage patterns between women and men. The strongest association between spouses’ education is in Slovakia, followed by Czech Republic, Norway, Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Estonia, and Slowenia, whereas the lowest association displays in Luxembourg, France, Sweden, Finland and Belgium. In addition to previous research we found inter-country variation in division into post-communist and Western democracies. In line with all earlier studies we found – upon examination of parameters estimated for educational levels – a uniform tendency according to which the difficulties of intermarriage varies monotonically with differences between educational level of spouses. The tendency toward in-marriage proved to be the strongest in the lowest educational levels – such pattern takes place in the 14 countries. Finally, our analysis substantiated presence of net tendency to ‘marry up’ higher educated husbands by women but we find that it is by no means an universal rule and in seven, out of 22 countries examined, it is men who ‘marry up’ higher educated wives.

Is the East European “underclass” feminized?

Abstract Results of national surveys carried out in East-European countries convincingly showed that after the fall of communism the gender gap in earnings remained substantial. Following the same analytical framework here I explore a range of issues concerning the gender gap in membership in what I define as the “underclass” in 6 post-communist societies. The basic question is to determine whether or not such a gap exits. I find considerable cross-national variation in the odds of female/male membership in the underclass: women in Poland, Russia and Hungary appear to be most heavily over-represented in this category, while in Bulgaria and Slovakia, the effect of gender does not exist. In addition, the explanation for this gap cannot be found in the intergenerational transmission of poverty, in differences in marital status, and other social–demographic attributes commonly employed in quantitative studies. It is only the lower educational status of women, living in rural areas, and older age, which significantly interact with relatively higher representation of women in the underclass. After controlling for several characteristics of a person’s socio–economic position I found that in four countries, namely in Poland, Russia, Romania and Hungary, a statistically significant net effect of gender remains which provides solid evidence for the feminization of the underclass in these societies.

Housing Conditions, States, Markets and Households: A Pan-European Analysis

Abstract This article explores variations in housing outcomes in European Union member states that are measured in terms of the quality and affordability of accommodation. It reveals marked north/south and east/west inter-country variations in the outcomes considered. These variations are related to differences in housing inputs and outputs which are analyzed with reference to Esping-Andersens (1999) distinction between the three main societal institutions that provide welfare services – states, markets and households. This analysis indicates that poor housing outcomes are associated with reliance on a single driver, i.e. state, market or household. Reliance on multiple drivers – states and markets for instance – is associated with better housing outcomes. However, household-driven housing systems, whether associated with another driver or not, generally result in poor outcomes.

BETWEEN STATE SOCIALISM AND MARKETS

The main question raised here is whether new rules of income distribution in Eastern Europe resemble opportunity structures in developed market economies. Implicit in theory of modernisation is hypothesis that returns to education stood at the highest in most developed capitalist societies. In the long-standing debate on the transition of post-communist societies to the market economy nobody compared Eastern European countries with Western nations in the first decade of transition to capitalist system. In what follows I attempt to fill this gap. I focused on direct comparison of effect of education on incomes in a number of countries representing both capitalist and post communist societies. Data come from International Social Survey Program 1996 and 1999. The analysis provides evidence that in the end of the 1990s economic benefits to education were still less in countries undergoing transition than in capitalist societies. However such knowledge provides only guidelines for understanding the most interesting question: to what extent post communist societies approached market-based patterns distribution of incomes. Although the analysis went beyond former studies, it displays only static picture. Due to lack of comparative cross-systemic data, on education returns, going back to 1980s, one has to concede that we will never find unequivocal empirical arguments which prove that effect of education under the planned economy was really lower. Contrary to most theories, one cannot exclude that this association might have been higher or the same as in the Western societies at the time.

Distribution of incomes in Eastern Europe.

The data from national surveys carried out in six East European countries are employed to reveal patterns of distribution of incomes. The underlying assumption is that rules of distribution represent different stages of an exit from the command economy as well as advancement on their way to the market systems. Using the OLS regression models of incomes I attempt to determine which countries are where on the scale of the systemic transition. I refer to the three sets of determinants of incomes, which serve as reference points in searching for signs of transition, namely to: (i) variables affecting incomes in most universal way like family background, sex, place of residence and experience in the labour force, (ii) institutionally ingrained in the command economy sectoral and industrial divisions, and (iii) meritocratic rules of distribution, most representative of the market systems. The results show that there are three leading countries on the path to the market economy, i.e., Hungary, Czech Republic, and Poland. Russia locates on the opposite pole as most deeply ingrained in the communist past. ECONOMIC DIFFERENTIATION seems less vulnerable to the uniforming effect of what we call the logic of social stratification. Indeed, both the absolute level of incomes and rules of their distribution reflect economic crises, the destructive impact of wars, long-lasting welfare, interventionist policy of state, bargaining over wages between unions and employes, all in all-the historical, political and economic context which is unique to particular countries (Ruschmeyer and Evans, 1985; Heclo and Madsen, 1987; Layard and Nickell, 1989; Bean and Symons, 1990; EspingAndersen, 1990, 1993). I am referring to the Western democracies. However, politics encroached into distributive systems even more in communist societies although they strongly differed. Notwithstanding the pervasiveness of central planning, the communist administration was less rigid in regulation of incomes in Hungary and Poland than in Russia. Nowadays we are seeking for differences and similarities in economic stratification across East European countries-now, at the outset of transition to some new stratification system. My research questions concern patterns of this transition. * Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 00-330 Warsaw, Nowy Swiat 72, Poland.

Major social transformations and social mobility: the case of the transition to and from communism in Eastern Europe

This analysis compares the effects on social mobility of the political transformations in Eastern Europe which took place in the 1950s and the 1990s. The author examines absolute and relative mobility rates in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Slovakia based on data from national random samples taken in 1993 and 1994. Log-linear models are applied to mobility tables for four periods, 1948-52, 1952-63, 1983-88 and 1988-93, to determine change in the strength of association between occupational categories. Searching for the effect of the transition to communism the author compares occupational mobility between 1948 and 1952 with occupational mobility between 1952 and 1963. In order to assess the effect of the transition from communism, mobility between 1983 and 1988 is compared to mobility between 1988 and 1993. It was definitely the transition to communism in the late 1940s that released the more intensive flows between basic segments of the social structure compared to what occurred during the exit from communism in the 1990s. Using both the diagonals and the constant social fluidity models, the author finds no evidence of increasing openness in post-communist countries. Contrariwise, in the 1948-63 period some significant change occurred in relative mobility chances. The conclusion is that the “first transformation” gave rise to a turn in social fluidity on the “genotypical” level.

STABILITY OF PRESTIGE HIERARCHIES IN THE FACE OF SOCIAL CHANGES: POLAND, 1958-1987

Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies worldwide demonstrate that consensus and stability characterise prestige hierarchies. In Poland changes in values, and economic and political crises since 1975, provide the circumstances in which a 1987 survey of employed people re-examines this stability. Results indicate persisting stability with a correlation of 0.94 between the prestige scores of 1975 and 1987, but also show some changes in relative scores, including the downgrading of occupations connected with authority and of clerical jobs, and the upgrading of skilled workers (especially miners), farmers and small business people. These changes suggest that rationality and effectiveness are becoming more important in prestige ratings and the continuing high prestige of the intelligentsia in spite of low earnings, a Polish idiosyncracy, may show economic reality is being made to fit persistent norms.

Intergenerational mobility and omnivorism in eating

Drawing on three hypotheses concerned with cultural consequences of social mobility, we investigate whether intergenerational class mobility influences omnivorism in eating, regarded as a new dimension of lifestyle. Using data from a national survey carried out in Poland in 2013 and diagonal reference models, we find most support for the hypothesis of maximization saying that upward mobility encourages conformity to the habits of the class of destination. It shows that in Poland, as in other societies, the upwardly mobile tend to align their behaviour with that of their highest status reference group. Accordingly, the downwardly mobile representatives of the top category conform more to the norms of the class of origin than those of the destination class. At the same time, individuals who experience intergenerational inflow to the highest managerial and professional categories display higher levels of highbrow tastes than their non-mobile counterparts from the origin classes. Contrary to the thesis about replacement of traditional class barriers by omnivorism we see that the omnivore/univore divide does not obliterate the highbrow/lowbrow one.

Regional variation in the effect of schooling on people's incomes in Poland

Abstract The analysis, based on a Polish national sample from 2006, aims to cast light on the regional variation in the effect of education on incomes. Building on the conceptual framework developed in the theory of human capital we investigate to what extent pay-offs for human capital differ across detailed administrative districts in Poland. By incorporating contextual characteristics, we examine how micro- and macro-level factors shape labour market outcomes. Our findings provide further support for the hypothesis that there is much regional variation in the influence of education on incomes, which suggests that there are better and worse places for the development of a meritocratic distribution of incomes. It appears that education pays more highly in more economically-developed regions, marked by a higher rate of occupational activity.

Classification schemes and the study of social mobility: A detailed examination of the Blau-Duncan categories

The Blau-Duncan system of seventeen occuptational categories has frequently been used as the basis for the study of social mobility patterns in the contemporary United States. In this paper, we examine the validity of these categories by subdividing them in various ways and examining the mobility flows in this more detailed classification. Initial log-linear and cluster analyses using data from the Occupational Changes in a Generation II (OCG-II) survey suggest that the Blau-Duncan scheme hides certain patterns of social structuration, and we form new classification systems on the basis of these results. However, cross-validation analyses using the cumulative General Social Survey data set show that the improvements associated with our schemes do not generalize beyond the OCG-II data. Thus, we recommend continued use of the Blau-Duncan categories, given that they have been employed so often in previous work.