Paul William Kingston

The Unfulfilled Promise of Cultural Capital Theory.

Bourdieus ideas about the role of cultural capital in schools enjoy great currency, but this acceptance proceeds without due scrutiny of the related empirical research. A review of this research indicates that (1) defined in terms of exclusionary class-related practices and dispositions, cultural capital does not substantially account for the relationship between social privilege and academic success, and (2) too many conceptually distinct variables have been labeled cultural capital, creating a distorted sense of what accounts for academic success

Why education matters

In this article, the authors assess why educational attainment is associated with many diverse social outcomes. Their multivariate models incorporate linear (years of schooling) and nonlinear (credentials) measures of schooling, socioeconomic status (origin and destination), and cognitive ability. The outcome variables include attitudes toward civil liberties and gender equality, social and cultural capital, and civic knowledge. The results indicate only modest evidence of credential effects. The mediating impacts of both cognitive ability and socioeconomic status (original and destination) are often substantial but even together do not account for all apparent educational effects

Time Together Among Dual-Earner Couples

This study examines the amount of time dual-earner couples spend together by analyzing time diaries (N= 177) from the 1981 Study of Time Use. We find that time together is substantially reduced by the number of hours couples work (combined) and how they schedule these hours. Sociocultural and life-cycle factors appear to have very limited net effects on time spent together. There is a theoretically predictable relationship between marital quality and time couples spend together: the more time together in certain activities, the more satisfactory the marriage. As the number of dual-earner families increases, more spouses may be less able to sustain each other emotionally.

Maternity Policies and Working Women.

PrefaceI. Past Times II. The Last Fat Year (1930) III. Lean Years (1931-1932) IV. The Leanest Year (1933) V. New Deal Baseball (1934-1935) VI. Toward Recovery (1936-1937) VII. Pathos and Progress (1938-1939) VIII. Baseball Lives IX. Shadowball X. Recovery and War (1940-1941)Postscript Notes Selected Bibliorgraphy Index

Homeownership and Social Attachment

A multivariate analysis of survey data collected by Claude Fischer (1982) in northern California is used to test whether or not homeownership is associated with attitudes and behaviors that seem supportive of the prevailing social order. Homeownership has a zero-order relationship with each of three indicators of “social attachment”: Attitudes indicative of traditionalism; participation in voluntary organizations; and informal interaction with neighbors. While the bivariate relationships between homeownership and each of the three social binds are reduced when socioeconomic status variables, life cycle variables, ecological variables, and length of residence are controlled, the partial coefficients for homeownership remain statistically significant.

The Family Work Day.

To understand the difficulties working couples face in balancing their work and family lives, we argue that it is essential to consider the family work day, the pattern of work-time commitment for a family as a unit that results from the combination of two individual workday schedules. Based on national survey data, we present estimates of three dimensions of the family work day for a large subpopulation of working couples. These dimensions are: (a) the total amount of time committed to work on a daily basis, (b) the amount of time at least one spouse is at work, and (c) the amount of time only one spouse is at work. We further indicate how the presence of children is associated with certain arrangements of the family work day.

Illusions and Ignorance About the Family-Responsive Workplace

After reviewing the operational meaning of the “family-responsive” workplace and assessing relevant data about its extent, it is concluded that American businesses have made modest headway in instituting such practices and that it is illusory to expect that market solutions will deliver good or equitable family policy in the forseeable future. The economic benefits of these policies for businesses have not been demonstrated, and impending labor shortages offer uncertain promise of basic change in business policy. Considering the political weakness of “profamily” forces and the organizational and ideological obstacles they face, halting, uneven realization of the responsive workplace is predicted.

The Politics of Homeownership

With multivariate analysis of national survey data from 1976 and 1980, we test the conventional wisdom that ownership has a conservatizing political effect and encourages political participation. Using measures of ideological identification, voting choice, and attitudes toward socioeconomic policy, we find that homeownership is associated to some extent with more conservative politics in the population as a whole, but its net effects are small or not significant. In terms of political participation, homeowners are somewhat more inclined to vote than renters, but not to participate more actively at the local or national level. We test also the proposition that homeownership has a conservatizing effect and promotes participation within the working class, in effect fragmenting it as a political force. Among workers, homeownership is associated modestly with a conservative orientation and participation in terms of voting.

Theory at Risk: Accounting for the Excellence Movement

Amidst widespread concern about educational crisis and the need for reform, the current “excellence movement” places a pronounced emphasis on “rigor,” “standards,” and a “core” curriculum of “basic” studies. At issue here is whether major macro-the-oretical perspectives can account for the emergence of this movement. Functional and Marxian theories do not meet this challenge well, especially insofar as they posit a tight, rational linkage between school and economy and downplay the institutional autonomy of the educational system. A status conflict approach, emphasizing middle class mobilization, offers greater insight, though it must be complemented with a recognition of constraints imposed by capitalist organization and the institutionalization of educational myths.

Economic and Social Aspects of the Literary Situation

SURVEYS of public opinion have repeatedly found that the occupation of author is held in comparatively high esteem by the American public, ranking among the top 10 percent of all occupations (Reiss, et al., 1961). Since the prestige of an occupation is notably associated with the typical income derived from it (Blau and Duncan, 1967; Featherman and Hauser, 1978; Treiman, 1977), the prestige accorded authors might therefore suggest that Americans believe that authors receive substantial income from their writing. But if Americans do make such an inference, it can scarcely be based on reliable information. There is little systematic data about the incomes earned by authors from their writing, nor is any more known