Maurice A. Garnier

Class Reproduction Among Men and Women in France: Reproduction Theory on Its Home Ground

Through an analysis of a large survey of employment men and women in France, this article shows that French reproduction theory has overstated the role of education in reproducing class advantage from generation to generation. Among men, reproduction of control over labor power (i.e., managerial/supervisory positions) is primarily direct instead of indirect through education. At the same time, education plays no role in reproducing ownership of businesses (i.e., capitalist and petty bourgeois positions), and there is little tendency for capitalist or petty bourgeois fathers to convert their economic capital into the educational capital for their sons so that the sons can secure managerial positions. Education serves less as a reproducer of class advantage than as a vehicle of mobility into managerial positions. Although reproduction theory has tended to ignore gender differences in class reproduction , these are found to be substantial. In the reproduction of ownership, women are less likely than men to inherit a business from their father. In the reproduction of control over labor power, the considerations that are important to mens chances of acquiring managerial/supervisory positions are generally much less important to womens chances. Thus reproduction strategis that are succesful in perpetuating class privilege for men do not work as well for women.

The Active State, Investment in Human Capital, and Economic Growth: France 1825-1975

Human capital theory postulates that school expansion should foster economic growth, but credentialing theory questions such a relationship. We hypothesize that some conditions must obtain before educational expansion can have an affect on economic growth. First, the curriculum must be standardized and a large proportion of the age cohort beyond grade six must be enrolled for a sufficient period of time. Second, education and the economy must be linked. Third, the state must ensure that the quality of educational offerings is maintained. We use France to test these hypotheses because, starting in the late 19th century, the state played an important role in linking education and the economy. The state also followed a number of specific policies to ensure quality. The analysis from 1825-1975 supports our hypotheses. We compare the French findings to the U.S. findings and find them consistent.

The Strong State, Social Class, and Controlled School Expansion in France, 1881-1975

Current theories argue that school expansion reflects demands that stem from changes in the occupational structure, from a ideological commitment to building an integrated nation-state, or from the processes of modernization. However, these theories have not been tested relative to different social classes. Since most of the evidence has accumulated in the United States, where demand is usually met by supply, the possibility that demand might not be met has been ignored. This article relies on the concept of controlled expansion, testing whether the policies and politics of the central French state influenced the expansion of secondary schooling between 1881 and 1975. The states policies regarding the supply of pupil spaces and the improvement of quality affected actual enrollment growth when the influence of labor structure and institutional values is controlled. Importantly, both economic demand and state supply exert differing levels of influence on the elite school system versus the mass system.

Scaling via Models for the Analysis of Association: Social Background and Educational Careers in France

Recent developments in the analysis of ordered, cross-classified data are used to model the relationship between family background ( father s occupation) and educational career for a sample of French men and women born in the 1920s and 1930s and working as of 1970. By extending the definition of educational attainment to the notion of an educational career, we are able to capture aspects of several dimensions of

Association between Background and Educational Attainment in France

Models for the analysis of association (ANOAS) are applied to cross-classifications of highest degree obtained by fathers occupation among a sample of French men and women born between 1920 and 1949. These models allow us to establish the relative orderings of backgrounds with respect to degree outcomes, and degree outcomes with respect to background. Tests for homogeneity in multiway tables are used to assess trends in the association of these variables over time, as well as similarities between the sexes. Results are instructive with respect to both substance—educational stratification in France—and method—practical issues in the use of ANOAS models in sociological research.

Euratlantica: changing perspectives of the European elites

with the theme of Nationalism and Social Communication. Nationalism and Its Alternatives is seriously marred by a confusing use of key terms. What Deutsch calls a people is what Ernest Barker, Rupert Emerson, Carlton Hayes, and others called a nation. Deutsch here reserves the term nation for a people who have control of a state or, at least, an important measure of self-government. A nation-state is defined in the traditional manner as one which has become largely identical with one people. Despite these definitions, nation is often used interchangeably with state, and nation-state and national state are often used to refer to what in fact are multinational states. Thus Spain (actually a multinational state) is referred to as a nation. The Belgians (that is, the Flemish and Walloons who uncomfortably share the territory of Belgium) are likewise referred to as a nation. Such multinational states as Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia are referred to as nationstates. Most surprising, however, is that the central subject, nationalism, is nowhere defined. Sometimes it refers to identification with a state and other times to identification with an ethnic group. There are two other aspects of the work that troubled this reviewer. One is Professor Deutschs treatment of the states of Westem Europe as fully assimilated entities, despite the fact that Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom have all been troubled by ethnic discord in recent years. The second objection is to Professor Deutschs emphasis upon the material rewards and services that groups receive from association with the state as a major element in determining whether the state will be troubled by separatist tendencies. This position is seriously questioned by the prevalence of separatist attitudes among ethnic groups even while they were rapidly closing the economic and benefit gap between themselves and the states leading ethnic group. Flemish and Slovaks are recent cases in point. Moreover, separatist desires have grown on the part of the Croats and Slovenes, despite the fact that both people are significantly better off than are the politically dominant Serbs. At least in some instances, then, it would appear that nothing secedes like success.

Power and Ideological Conformity: A Case Study

Most studies of professional socialization have traditionally focused on the resistance by those being socialized to the staffs goals. This paper presents data which suggest that conformity to the staffs goals is also achieved. The issues (central professional values) in which conformity is achieved are specified, and the mechanism through which the staff reaches its goals is outlined. Data for this paper were gathered in a British military academy.

Economic sector, public employment, and income attainment in France

Abstract The development of the structural approach to the study of social stratification suggests that economic, organizational, and personal characteristics may be defined as resources that workers can grasp in order to improve their relative position in the stratification system. Recent emphasis on the role of the state in influencing the environment where negotiations between employers and workers take place has led us to examine income attainment in a country where state intervention is fairly extensive (France). We examine the ability of the state to alter the effects of relevant individual and structural characteristics on income attainment using a sample of 16,066 employed adults surveyed by the French Census Bureau in 1970. Our empirical results support several conclusions. First, the intervention of the state in France is of particular benefit to women, though men continue to receive greater returns to managerial authority, especially in the service sector of the French economy where public sector jobs are most prevalent. Further, the intervention of the state does not eliminate the economic benefits men receive from social origins in France. We conclude that the state has benefited womens attempts to gain a greater share of the economic “pie,” but that the distinctiveness of French culture continues to play an important role in determining stratification outcomes.