Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Two folded genealogical tables in pocket. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 425-436). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

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Drawing from cultural and social reproduction theory, this research studied the relationship between social class and parental involvement in education in modern China. The study paid particular attention to parents' educational background, professional occupation and socio-economic status, and how these factors contribute to their expectation and involvement in education. The research was an attempt to explore the importance of cultural and social capital in Chinese families, which has a decisive impact on children's educational experience. It also examined how class status were maintained and perpetuated from one generation to the next through parents' role in schooling, and through China's dual track school system. / A key school and a non-key school in Shanghai were chosen for the study. Forty eight families, including children and parents, participated in this research. Data collection was completed through interviews and observations. Interview protocols were prepared and used for parents and students respectively. / The findings of the research indicate that parental expectation is closely related with parents' educational level, while parental involvement in education is determined by more than one factor, and parent's socio-economic status is the most important.

The dual objectives of this thesis are to assess the merits of certain statistical methods as applied to sociological data and to use statistical methods to produce interesting and worthwhile substantive results. The main statistical focus of the thesis is the analysis of two-way tables, for which purpose association models and correspondence analysis are used. Some of the tables analysed require the application of quasi-association models and association models with more than one dimension. Elsewhere in the thesis a proportional hazards model and various log-linear models are fitted. The substantive focus of the thesis is the relationship between marital formation/dissolution and social stratification in modern Britain. Particular attention is paid to assortative marriage for social status, with the relationships between spouses' occupations, educational levels and social origins being considered in detail. Assortative marriage for religion and for party political identification/voting intention are also examined. The data analysed come from a variety of social surveys, including both government surveys (e.g. various General Household Surveys, and the Family Formation Survey) and academic surveys (e.g. the Oxford Mobility Survey and the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative survey). The thesis conclusively demonstrates the utility of association models, log-linear models and proportional hazards models as applied to data relating to marital formation/dissolution. Among the numerous substantive findings are that there was a significant post-war decline in the strength of the relationship between spouses' social origins, and that unemployment appears to cause an increase in the risk of marital dissolution.

The inability of the social sciences to contribute to the better understanding of the intraurban problems of contemporary society has provided the primary influence for an approach that is strongly grounded in the method and philosophy of social analysis. The underlying aim is to reinterpret the 'theory 1 of residential differentiation away from the classical ecology of the Chicago School and towards Neo-Marxism. The thesis divides into three main sections. The first discusses the theoretical formation of social science using, partially, the conceptual outline of Strasser with the aim of making the geographer not only.re cognise his own perspective (ideology) but also of locating this and competing perspectives in time and social structure. Metaphysical theories of society are examined and the myths of orthodox positivist social analysis, particularly the Chicago School and later factorial ecologists, are critically evaluated. The second section is an orthodox empirical analysis of the spatial extent and the concentration of deprivation utilising standard statistical techniques. The operationalising of this part of the research is based on data collected for Bradford County Borough. The main data source has been the 1971 Census Small Ward Library for 632 enumeration districts. Fifty-four variables have been selected to cover the complete range of demographic, ethnic, migratory, economic activity, social, commuting and housing characteristics likely to be relevant. A large range of single and multi-factor indices of deprivation have been computed in the positivist tradition to delineate Housing Action Areas and General Improvement Areas. For example, a multi-factor index has been computed using 14 census variables by transforming them into Z-scores with means of zero and unit variance; these have been used to give a composite . index of the spatial coincidence of areas with high levels of deprivation. The central tenets of ecological theory are derived from several factorial ecologies and cluster analyses (both R- and Q- mode). The technical and methodological problems of multifactor designs are discussed at length and concluded as providing serious 'negative 1 effects in which error compounding can further detract from the soundness of the corpus of ecological theory. The third and final section is a re-evaluation of the patterns of segregation observed in the factor ecological maps that attempts to consider the dialectics of post industrial capitalist society. The differentiating factor of social groups in space is seen to lie in the broader forces of class structuration. The primary force is the power relation between capital and labour, though it is also recognised that secondary (or, better, supportive) forces arise from the necessity of preserving the process of capital accumulation. The key theoretical link between the primary social relation and the role of space is made with the help of Lamarche's exposition on the concept of the circulation of capital. The aim of the thesis is to achieve higher levels of explanation for the segregation of different social groups throughout, and for the social networks of housing intermediaries within, urban spaceparticularly as this is revealed by the disadvantaged members of society.

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The centrist theory of the lower middle class is widely used to explain the Social Credit movement in Alberta. The theory assumes that members of this class are ultimately conservative, if not reactionary, in both outlook and behaviour. However, the application of the theory to the Alberta movement is shown to be problematic for several reasons. Those offering this explanation do not back up their claims with evidence. Empirical analyses of the provincial elections of 1935 and 1940 present findings which are at odds with the conventional interpretation. A review of the Social Credit philosophy and the party's first term of office also reveals that the standard class analysis has some serious shortcomings. An alternative interpretation is provided.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 249-264). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.