Debates on whether microfinance remains an effective measure to eradicate poverty and empower women have continued with a bigger question of if an alternative model is available to outweigh the problems of group-based solidarity-based lending scheme. This dissertation aims to study if and how a Lembaga Perkreditan Desa (LPD) – a community owned microfinance – affects women's agency in household and society, and most importantly to observe if it has long term effects on the reconstruction of gendered roles and relations. This study employed participation observation and semi-structured interviews for data collection because each method allowed the exploration of multi layered information and tacit values that other data collection methods do not provide. I spent four months conducting participant observation with female LPD clients from four villages and eight semi-structured interviews around Bali. This study concludes that social capital affects LPD's performance. Impacts of social capital on LPD are posited to occur through the immersion of LPDs into the village governance system that renders members' loyalty, trust, and respect, and the adoption of shared customary laws to name a few. LPD is also proven to strengthen social capital by increasing interdependence among community members; boosting the members' sense of belonging, trust, and responsibility for community development. However, LPD does not necessarily foster women's social capital. This study also found that access to LPD corresponds to women's agency in the household decision-making process. Three features of cooperative decision-making in household are 1) the ability to switch roles in the loan application process, 2) any LPD related financial decisions will involve women's opinion or approval in it, and 3) women have the control over the allocation and repayment of the loans from LPD. Furthermore, I argue that LPD facilitates women's social mobility by ensuring that their access to LPD remains intact. Moreover, LPD causes intergenerational impacts when women are involved in the lending-saving mechanism. Lastly, this study argues that LPD has long-term effects on the reconstruction of gendered roles and relations in Balinese society. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation investigates the impacts of Lembaga Perkreditan Desa (LPD) – a community-owned village bank – to Balinese women from the perspective of four female LPD clients residing in various villages in Bali. In general, the study aims to gain understanding about rural Indonesian women in navigating their opportunities in male-oriented microfinance system. The study found that members of society – female and male – develop a shared understanding, norms, trust, and resources to strengthen their ties among each other called as community capital. My dissertation found that there exists a two-way relationship, instead of one way, between social capital and LPD. Derived from those reciprocal relationship, I argue that LPD may empower women in household and society, though it also may disempower them due to the LPD’s rules. Furthermore, LPD affects women’s capacity to make decisions in their households. These decisions including the ability to choose the right and most practical role when applying for loans and most importantly the capacity to manage the use of loans. LPD corresponds to women’s economic attainment and mobility across villages, yet, it does not correspond to the development of their professional networks. Moreover, LPD creates impacts across generation due to its lending mechanism, payment procedures, and financial benefits from allocating the loans for income generating activities. Lastly, if the LPD transforms the current and future relationships among men and women in household and society? my study found that LPD, through its immersion into the village system and customary values that guide the life of all community members, paves the way for women’s empowerment today and in the future.

The education of youth in the United States has become a highly contested subject over the past decades. This thesis argues that one of the earliest institutions American citizens encounter – the public school system – organizes the work of many teachers in ways that reproduce inequality of opportunity for students. Drawing on qualitative data from fourteen in-depth interviews with experienced elementary school teachers in Los Angeles, this thesis illustrates how teachers experience and navigate specific structural barriers to the pursuit of equity in the classroom. Applying social reproductive theory to teacher interviews, this research discovered how, despite rhetorical commitment to equality of opportunity in education student outcomes continue to vary according to the socioeconomic status of the student population. This will help us understand systemic barriers built into the structure of the education system. These barriers operate as obstacles that teachers and students must navigate, in order to achieve success. This thesis argues that teachers should begivenmore flexibility to assess the needs of each specific class and adapt their curriculum and strategies to meet those needs. Unfortunately, in the current test-score driven system, schools with the lowest performing students are the ones whose administrations are under the most pressure to improve the low scores rather than fix the problems associated with low scores. As such, the teachers that need this flexibility the most, are the ones whose administrations keep them on the tightest rein, further reducing their ability to utilize their knowledge and implement effective strategies in the classroom. The result is the self-perpetuating cycle of inequality reproduction that we can see across North America today. / Graduate / 2019-08-13

The quality of educational attainment measures lies at the heart of many cross-national micro-sociological research projects and international education statistics. This study aims at validating cross-nationally comparable measures of educational attainment, among which are the International Standard Classification of Education 1997 (ISCED 97), the CASMIN education scheme and years of education. Following a conceptual discussion of what educational attainment means, the most common ways of measuring educational attainment cross-nationally as well as previous evaluations thereof are reviewed. Then, the implementation of ISCED 97 in cross-national surveys is examined by looking at both the resulting educational attainment distributions in three European surveys as well as the data generation and harmonisation processes. Finally, a number of cross-national measures of educational attainment are compared with country-specific measures with respect to their information content by firstly examining the dispersion of educational attainment, and secondly the predictive power when explaining two core social stratification outcomes, occupational status and social class attainment, by educational attainment. The main results of the study are that the measurement of educational attainment in cross-national surveys is affected by a number of avoidable weaknesses which adversely affect the validity of claims based on analyses of these data: 1. Countries and surveys are inconsistent in the way they measure educational attainment and apply ISCED 97 to national data; and 2. actual years of education and the one-digit version of ISCED 97 distort measures of association to differing degrees in different countries. Both make cross-national comparisons using these measures highly problematic. Therefore, some amendments to the implementation of ISCED 97 in cross-national surveys and coding for statistical analyses are proposed. As part of the latter, an alternative simplification of ISCED 97, optimised for European survey research, is developed and validated. Moreover, suggestions for data collection procedures are made to improve the measurement of educational attainment nationally and cross-nationally.

The financial provisions of the HE Act (2004) were intended to introduce market forces into the relationship between higher education institutions in England and their full-time Home/EU undergraduates. The policies that underpinned that legislation were established by Parliamentarians during a period of intense public and political debate which accompanied the passage of the Act and now, as suppliers in a nascent quasi-market, universities are de facto responsible for their delivery. With that market beginning to stabilise, this research compares those political objectives with observed outcomes of the introduction of the Act. Primary data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with key decision-makers in six sample universities – chosen to reflect both the spread of institutions in the sector and the range of pricing policies in operation – and with those involved nationally in shaping the legislation. From this material, supported by secondary quantitative and qualitative evidence, university pricing strategies are considered, in the context of theories of marketing and of higher education management, to provide an understanding of how institutions have structured their financial offerings with the aim of targeting specific markets for applicants. Data from the sample institutions is then used to build a profile of the quasi-market that the suppliers within it are generating. Even though members of the sample have taken diverse approaches to price-setting, there are some clear consistencies that typify this emerging national market: prices are set through adjustments to bursaries, not fees; and complex financial offerings have created barriers to effective communication. Furthermore, as institutional managers analyse the effects of their own pricing strategies locally, they are observing these trends and thus, where any changes are being made, these tend towards simplification of bursary schemes and hence increasing homogeneity across the sector. However, with the (index-linked) £3000 cap which currently applies to fees, it is increasingly apparent that the current quasi-market for full-time Home/EU undergraduates at English universities has not reached its price-sensitivity point and hence, this research argues, the market is not operating fully. Therefore, while this study offers an understanding of motivations behind current institutional actions and the nature of the resulting quasi-market, it also explains why it is not feasible to extrapolate from this information to forecast how the market might work were regulatory parameters to be changed significantly.

This thesis investigates the pattern of parental educational homogamy and its implications for parenting practices and children’s early development in contemporary Britain. At the heart of the thesis lies an interest in the mechanisms behind the intergenerational transmission of educational success and, more specifically, the consequences for children of new patterns of parental resemblance in education. The thesis is composed of three empirical chapters, each of which is concerned with a different outcome: 1) trends in educational attainment and educational assortative mating amongst parental couples; 2) parents’ childrearing values and stimulation-oriented interactions with children; and 3) children’s early cognitive and behavioural skills. The first chapter combines data from four birth cohort studies from 1958, 1970, 1990 and 2000-01 while the second and third chapters rely exclusively on the latter study. The empirical analyses use Log-linear and Diagonal Reference models. With regard to trends in educational assortative mating, the thesis finds that the strength of homogamy increased between 1958 and 1970 to decrease thereafter and remain stable, at its lowest level, throughout the 1990s. Moreover, amongst recent cohorts of parental couples the percentage of unions where mothers are more educated than their male partners equalled that of unions exhibiting the opposite pattern. The findings concerning the dynamics of parenting in heterogamous couples suggest a pattern of female dominance in the attitudinal domain as fathers align with the views that can be expected on the basis of the mother’s level of education rather than their own; however, no significant adjustments between partners are observed in parenting behaviours. Lastly, the thesis finds a positive gradient in the association between parental education and children’s early cognitive and socio-emotional development but little or no support for the hypotheses of differential effects for sons and daughters or gender biases in parental preferences for children. That is, no significant interactions are observed between the gender of children and the impact of parents’ absolute and relative levels of education. Taken together, the findings of the thesis qualify concerns about the increase of educational assortative mating in industrialised societies and its potential consequences for the intergenerational reproduction of inequalities in education.

The dissertation is looking into the diagnostics of student's understanding of the principals of society organisation in relation to thecontentof sociologicalcivic curriculumeducation and socialbasisin secondary schools. The teoretical part delimits basic sociological terms, especially social stratification, social mobility and social status. Concept of didactical content knowledge and didactical theory of curricullum reconstruction is described to connect sociological approach to school education. Current research at this area are also presented. In the practical part was implementeda research inquiry, which used semistructured depth interview for data collection. The Gathered data wereprocessedqualitatively. The measure of hierarchy in society, the cause of social stratification and social mobility options, were primarily watched in the research inquiry. Where possible, student's answers were compared to previous research inquiry results.

A tese analisa a trajetória do Sistema de Profissões e os seus elos com o sistema de estratificação social no Brasil. Focaliza as configurações do estrato profissional e os movimentos de (i) mobilidade social que caracterizam o grupo de posições privilegiadas no topo da hierarquia ocupacional. Argumenta-se que o sistema de profissões deve ser visto como o resultado da interrelação histórica entre três sistemas institucionais autônomos: a divisão do trabalho, o sistema de ensino superior, e a regulamentação profissional. O Estado é tomado como um ator central não apenas porque regula a produção de credenciais e os monopólios, mas também porque o modo como organiza a atividade econômica e os serviços de bem-estar cria novos mercados, ao tempo em que demanda e legitima os serviços profissionais. A pesquisa empírica se valeu de fontes (legislação, documentos, microdados das pesquisas domiciliares do IBGE Censos e Pnads) e técnicas diversas (análise de conteúdo, técnicas de análise quantitativa, pesquisa historiográfica) e, como resultado, foram identificados três grandes períodos na história do sistema de profissões no Brasil. Um primeiro de formação e estabilização (até a década de 1940) quando foram se consolidando gradativamente as regras que associam o exercício profissional, os monopólios de mercado e o diploma de ensino superior; um segundo de expansão e diferenciação, quando o sistema de profissões se expande concomitantemente à extensão de privilégios às novas carreiras que surgiam da diferenciação da divisão do trabalho e do sistema de ensino superior (1950 a 1980); e um terceiro, inaugurado na década de 1990, marcado pela diminuição da associação entre a divisão especializada do trabalho, o sistema de ensino superior e a extensão dos monopólios de mercado, tornando o sistema de profissões mais instável e fragmentado. A configuração do sistema de profissões ao longo do tempo condiciona a mobilidade social na parte de cima do sistema de estratificação, por dois motivos em especial: i) o modo como diferentes tipos de diplomas de ensino superior proporciona a inserção no estrato profissional; ii) e a forma como Estado e mercado recrutam os profissionais. Sendo assim, reconfigura-se associação histórica entre o diploma de ensino superior e a mobilidade social ascendente, alterando o próprio significado da mobilidade social no Brasil. / This dissertation aims at analyzing the trajectory of the Brazilian system of professions and its linkages with the countrys social stratification system. It focuses on the changing configurations of the professional stratum, and the social mobility movements to and from this group of privileged positions at the top of the occupational hierarchy. My main argument is that the system of professions reflects the historical interplay between three autonomous institutional systems: the division of labor, the higher education system and professional regulation. The State is a central actor not just because it regulates the production of credentials and monopolies. But also, because the way it organizes the economic activity and the welfare services create new markets, constrain and legitimate the professional services. The empirical research builds on several sources (legislation, documents, microdata from IBGE\'s Census and household surveys) and different techniques (content analysis, quantitative analysis, historiographic research). As a result, three significant periods have been identified in the history of the system of professions in Brazil. A first one, of formation and stabilization (until the 1940s), when the rules that link professional practice, market monopolies and higher education diploma were consolidated; a second period of expansion and differentiation when the system of professions grew, sharing privileges with the new careers that arose in a moment of increasing division of labor and expansion of the higher education system (from the 1950s to the 1980s). A third period, inaugurated in the 1990s, marked by a decline in the association between the specialized division of labor, the higher education system and the extension of market monopolies, making the system of professions more unstable and fragmented. The configuration of the system of professions over time conditions social mobility at the top of the stratification system, for two particular reasons: i) the way different types of higher education diplomas provide the insertion in the professional stratum; ii) and the way the state and the market recruit professionals. Thus, it reconfigures a historical association between higher education diploma and upward social mobility, changing the very meaning of social mobility in Brazil.

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Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-04-27T12:39:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Flávia da Costa Parenti.pdf: 1182579 bytes, checksum: 13f2ab09d153732674b5efedf9b1ed97 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-27T12:39:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Flávia da Costa Parenti.pdf: 1182579 bytes, checksum: 13f2ab09d153732674b5efedf9b1ed97 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This work looks to investigate and analyse how much private Universities, hereafter designated as mass and profit-oriented Universities, can contribute for rising social, economic and cultural useful capital for its students. To do that, it´s been discussed the importance of those Universities for the National Education efforts, the evolution of the Brazilian Policies in this branch, the impact of the privatization process in the sector, and the influence of international financial groups migrating to this economic activity, by making acquisitions of Faculties and Universities, turning them into great organizations, precarianess Education by assuming a profit-oriented logic. The empirical data were based on surveys taked with students attending to the Course of Business Administration of an important private University in the East of São Paulo city. This course was chosen because it has the biggest number of students enrolled. It´s been picked up students at the beggining and at the end of the course. Teachers were also surveyed in search for informations about work conditions and the relationship with students in classroom / Este trabalho teve por objetivo investigar e analisar a contribuição das universidades particulares, aqui denominadas de universidades de massa, para a promoção da mobilidade social, econômica e cultural de seus alunos. Para isso, discutiu-se, não só a importância da Universidade na educação nacional e a evolução da educação brasileira nos últimos anos, como também o processo de privatização das universidades e o fenômeno dos grupos financeiros internacionais que “adquirem” faculdades e universidades, transformando-as em grandes conglomerados educacionais, contribuindo, assim, para a precarização da educação superior no país. O levantamento das informações que contribuíram para esse estudo foi realizado a partir da aplicação de questionários aos alunos do curso de Administração em uma Instituição de Ensino Superior privada, localizada na cidade de São Paulo. Também realizamos entrevistas semiestruturadas com os alunos ingressantes no curso (1º e 2º semestre do curso) e com os concluintes (7º e 8º semestres). Professores do curso também responderam um questionário direcionado a levantar informações complementares com relação às condições de trabalho e a forma como as IES particulares de massa tratam seus alunos e professores

Essa dissertação apresenta uma etnografia de caráter comparativo das relações entre empregadas domésticas e seus empregadores, no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos. Com foco no entendimento das maneiras específicas com que empregadores contratam, interagem, e discutem a respeito de suas empregadas domésticas, a obra almeja alcançar um maior entendimento da reprodução e legitimação da desigualdade e da influência da ideologia econômica neoliberal nos dois países. O estudo apresenta uma tipologia binacional de empregadas domésticas, uma análise histórica das transições históricas no emprego doméstico nos dois países e um estudo dos fatores econômicos influenciando o trabalho doméstico. A conclusão propõe que apenas um continuum recomeço, com relações \"tradicionais\" e afetivas, enraizado em relações sociais desenvolvidas em sociedades pré-capitalistas, e tendendo a relações mais \"racionalistas\" e impessoais pode explicar uma grande parte do desenvolvimento da profissão nos dois países. Porém, não é trabalhando para a evolução da ocupação profissional nesse sentido é que haverá melhorias para a empregada doméstica de forma duradoura. Para que mudanças fundamentais ocorram para melhorar a vida no emprego doméstico, é necessária ação coletiva que enfrente a racionalidade neoliberal hegemônica - uma força cultural e estrutural - que tem reconfigurado as paisagens socioeconômicas dos dois países e, nas últimas décadas, deixado cada vez mais mulheres sem outra opção que entrar para o emprego doméstico. O caso de emprego doméstico entre esses dois países demonstra bem como a racionalidade e as políticas neoliberais facilitam a reprodução continua de formas de desigualdade e servidão antes associadas com ordens sociais obsoletos. / This thesis presents a comparative ethnography of the relations of domestic employment in Brazil and the United States. With a focus on understanding the specific ways in which employers contract, interact with, and discuss their domestic workers, the work aims to develop a greater understanding of the reproduction and legitimation of social inequality and the influence of neoliberal economic ideology in the two countries. The study presents a proposed binational typology of domestic workers, a historical analysis of the transitions in domestic work in the two countries and a study of economic factors influencing domestic work. The conclusion proposes that a continuum beginning with \"traditional\", affective relations, rooted in social relations developed in pre-capitalist societies, and leading increasingly towards more \"rationalistic\" and impersonal relations can explain much of the development of the profession\'s relations in the two countries, but that working to simply push the occupation forward on this path will not in itself help the domestic worker. For fundamental change to occur to improve the lives of the women in domestic employment, collective action towards overall societal change is necessary, challenging the hegemonic neoliberal rationality - in itself both a cultural and structural force - that has reconfigured the socioeconomic landscapes of both countries and shifted increasing numbers of women into domestic employment in recent decades. The case of domestic employment across these two nations is an exceptional demonstration of the ways in which neoliberal rationality and policy make possible the continued reproduction of forms of inequality and servitude once associated with outmoded social orders.