Mark Elchardus

The Persistence of the Standardized Life Cycle

This article investigates to what degree the standardized life cycle has been replaced by an individualized life course, characterized by the absence of a strict sequence and timing of lifes transitions. In order to measure the normative position of people, rather than the external conditions to which they are subject, the test is based on the ideal life course or life cycle as described by a purely random sample of 4666 inhabitants of Belgium, aged 18 to 36. The available evidence overwhelmingly points towards the persistence of a standardized ideal life cycle, characterized by a strict sequence and timing of the important transitions.

Rational Fear or Represented Malaise: A Crucial Test of Two Paradigms Explaining Fear of Crime

In explanations offered for fear of crime, two different paradigms can be distinguished. The first considers fear of crime as a rational reaction to crime and victimization; the other views such fear as a representation of more general feelings of malaise. The paradigms suggest different research strategies and offer different explanations for the same empirical observations. The choice of paradigm therefore determines the meaning of the empirical findings and hence the policy implications that can be drawn from them. In this article, the authors describe the paradigms, illustrate the way in which they offer different explanations for the same observations, and try to empirically discriminate between them on the basis of crucial tests. The tests are performed on data for the Flemish (Belgian) population aged nineteen to thirty-six. The results support the view that fear of crime or feelings of insecurity should be seen mainly as a consequence of, on one hand, general feelings of malaise, vulnerability, and helplessness that can have many origins and, on the other hand, exposure to processes of communication that highlight crime and the risk of victimization.

Are anti-Muslim feelings more widespread than anti-foreigner feelings? Evidence from two split-sample experiments

This article tests the claim that anti-Muslim feelings are more widespread than general anti-foreigner feelings. It reports on two split sample experiments, in which a randomly selected part of the respondents evaluated statements for which the target group was identified as ‘foreigners’ and the other part evaluated the identical statements but with the target group identified as ‘Muslims’. By using open-ended questions we are able to separate those respondents who had Muslims in mind when asked about foreigners from those who did not. We find that anti-Muslim feelings are more intense than anti-foreigner feelings along a wide range of attitude dimensions. Furthermore, those respondents who had Muslims in mind while judging statements about foreigners, turned out to be at least as hostile as those who were asked explicitly about Muslims.

The Search for the Invisible 8 Hours: The Gendered use of Time in a Society with a High Labour Force Participation of Women

This paper investigates to what extent, and how, the use of time differs between men and women in a society and an age-group in which the gender gap in labour force participation is rapidly closing. It is found that the gender differences come about primarily through the division of labour. However, this gendered division of work, which co-exists with a high labour market participation, does not lead to a double workload for women. Different mechanisms that are important in both limiting the total workload and maintaining the gendered division of labour are analysed.

The vanishing flexible: ambition, self-realization and flexibility in the career perspectives of young Belgian adults

The cultural interpretation of career models, that links a preference for the flexible career to the quest for self-realization, and a preference for the linear, stable to the traditional work ethic, turns out to be empirically correct for the population considered in this analysis (inhabitants of Belgium, 19 to 36 years old). In contrast to what is posited by many authors, the traditional work ethic is, however, still quite strong. Moreover the career model that is both flexible and ambitious appears as a projection of the quest for self-realization onto the future career, but does not withstand experience with work and family life. As a consequence, many of the young people with a flexible career model shift towards either a traditional linear perspective or an ambitionless flat and rigid perspective as more life transitions are completed.

INSTITUTIONALIZING THE NEW SELF

ABSTRACT This paper maps the unequal development of detraditionalization in rich societies. It views detraditionalization as a shift in the mode of social control from reliance on scarcity, belief and ideology, self evident tradition and obedience, to self-control. Self-control is based upon belief in an autonomously choosing subject (individualism) and a set of institutional conditions able to guide the choices of the individuals (such as education, mass media, the world of goods, and therapy). This paper investigates the relationship between detraditionalization and the rise of such an individualist conception of the self. It shows that such a development cannot be understood in terms of individual detraditionalization, i.e., as a shift in personal attitudes, but is related to specific institutional developments, in casu the development of the psi-disciplines and the therapeutization of society. The persistent influence of Protestant tradition on the individualist conception of the self in strongly secularized societies is explained by the same institutional development.

Social control and institutional trust: Reconsidering the effect of modernity on social malaise

Abstract This paper uses data from the European Social Survey regarding 18 European countries to test the relationship between modernization and malaise. Trust in government institutes (TGI) is used as a proxy measure of malaise. The explanatory power of three theories explaining trust is compared to that of the theory of symbolic society. This theory sees detraditionalization as a shift in the mode of social control. From a situation in which the conduct of conduct is based on tradition, threat of scarcity and belief, societies shift to social control on the basis of a set of new or expanded socializing institutions. Societies in which this shift occurs are called symbolic societies. We observe that TGI is higher the more highly developed symbolic society is and that individual characteristics that are adapted to the new mode of social control have a positive influence on TGI and have stronger effects the more symbolic society is developed.

First Names as Collective Identifiers: An Empirical Analysis of the Social Meanings of First Names

This article investigates the consequences of the detraditionalization of naming practices and the social meanings imputed to first names. It does so on the basis of an exploratory, qualitative study designed to investigate contemporary naming practices and the social meanings assigned to first names, as well as data taken from a representative quantitative study designed to test the relationships between social background and cultural practice and the choice of first names along with the consequences of the names’ social meanings. Strong relationships persist between social background (class) and choice of first name. Because the latter is strongly related to taste patterns and cultural dispositions, first names are strongly suggestive of the social characteristics and levels of cultural capital pertaining to the child’s parents. The results highlight a strong relationship between parents’ level of education and cultural tastes and practices, on the one hand, and the first names they select for their children, on the other. As a consequence, the first names and educational achievement of children are also strongly related. Further examination casts doubt over these findings, however, and the relationship is shown to be a spurious one due to the association between the selected first name, on the one hand and the cultural practices of the parents and their offspring, on the other.

Narrating linguistic conflict: a storytelling analysis of the language conflict in Belgium

Abstract Few studies have addressed the question how the two main linguistic groups in Belgium (French and Flemish speakers) code each other. The research reported in this article is based on a storytelling forum of 56 persons that gathered five times. The storytelling sessions yielded 91 different stories about living in a bilingual society. These were analysed by two independent analysts, using the actantial scheme of Greimas. Five common scenarios were uncovered. These are clearly marked by the history of linguistic politics in Belgium. The Flemish scenarios are marked by a romantic nationalism, which views a nation as an emanation of a cultural specificity of which language is an important, albeit not the sole, element. The stories provide a macro–micro link, bridging an historical trajectory and its view of nation building, to stories about encounters with the linguistically other. The French scenarios show a more individualistic approach, considering inter-linguistic encounters as a setting in which a merely practical problem arises that can easily be solved when the one who speaks the two languages is willing to use the language of the other. In this way, the historically grown political positions of the two groups are ‘scenariorized’ into stories that people experience as lived experiences.

Zolang ge maar gezond zijt en uwe man nog hebt

SummaryAs long as you’re healthy and have your husband”. An empirical analysis of the personal well-being of 75-year olds in Flanders.Using data from a 2002 representative survey of Flemish 75-year olds (N=1457), the aim of the present study is to identify the structures in and causes of subjective well-being. The analyses reveal the great importance of good health. Respondents with a good physical and mental condition, who have a great deal of functional mobility and independence, do feel much better. Secondly, findings indicate that respondents who faced the loss of their partner, experience lower well-being. This explains the found gender differences. Women have lower perceived quality of life, mainly because of their greater susceptibility to widowhood. Furthermore, missing the former job and work role also contributes to lower levels of well-being. Finally, respondents who can cope financially, who feel satisfied with their social contacts and who spend their time in an active way, have higher personal well-being.SamenvattingDit artikel onderscheidt empirisch verschillende dimensies in de welzijnsbeleving en bestudeert de oorzaken van één van die dimensies, met name de persoonlijke welzijnsbeleving, bij Vlaamse 75-jarigen (N=1456). De analyses brengen het grote belang van een goede gezondheid aan het licht. Naarmate 75-jarigen een goede fysieke en mentale gezondheid hebben, en over voldoende functionele mobiliteit en onafhankelijkheid beschikken, hebben ze een veel positievere welzijnservaring. Ten tweede hebben respondenten die een verliessituatie hebben meegemaakt (in casu hun partner) een veel lager welzijn. Dit verklaart zelfs het gendereffect weg. Vrouwen voelen zich minder goed, hoofdzakelijk omdat zij meer kans hebben om weduwe te zijn dan mannen. Verder vertonen 75-jarigen die hun werk en de arbeidsrol sterk missen lagere welzijnsscores. Respondenten die financieel goed rondkomen, die tevreden zijn met hun sociale contacten en die hun tijd actief doorbrengen, voelen zich tenslotte eveneens beter.