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3. The truth about class inequality

Creator:
Ringen, Stein
Format:
print
Type:
model:internalpart and TEXT
Subject:
social inequality, social justice, social reform, class analysis, and social stratification
Language:
Czech
Description:
A strongly recommended conclusion in sociology about trends in class inequality has been summarised by Goldthorpe as a high degree of 'temporal constancy and cross-national communality'. This conclusion, here called 'the stability thesis', was first challenged by Ringen in 1987 and again, on more methodological grounds, by Ringen and Hellevik in two papers published in 1997. These challenges resulted in a process of debate and reassessment. It is now possible to sum up and conclude. The stability thesis rests on empirical results from odds-ratio readings of mobility table data. The authority of this methodology is re-examined in terms of normative significance and statistical validity. Mobility table data which have generated stability thesis findings are reanalysed with the standard gini-index methodology in the study of inequality, then yielding different findings which contradict the stability thesis. The main conclusion is that the stability thesis can now be considered overturned. Keywords: social inequality, social justice, social reform, class analysis, social stratification.
Rights:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and policy:public

4. Volnost, svoboda a skutečná svoboda

Creator:
Ringen, Stein
Format:
print
Type:
model:internalpart and TEXT
Language:
Czech
Description:
Two schools of freedom are considered and compared, 'the liberty school' and 'the real freedom school'. For the liberty school, freedom is freedom of choice. In the classical understanding, that is seen as a matter of rights. In the modern, revised understanding, it is seen as depending on rights, resources and arenas. For the real freedom school, freedom is a matter of being one's own master. This is viewed not as 'rational choice' but as being in control of both the ends and the means in shaping one's life. Freedom is now a function of liberty and reason. The challenge the real freedom school puts to us is the psychological problem of self-control. The second part of the article considers and defies 'reason'. Reason is seen as a competence that must be learned. It consists of the application in life choices of values and norms. Values and norms are beliefs about what is good (or bad) and right (or wrong). Operational values and norms are grounded in evidence-based faith and are learnt in institutions, in particular in families, schools, and arenas of deliberation. The politics of freedom goes to the protection and nurturing of institutions. The method of analysis is individualistic, but the final conclusions social. It is argued that the real freedom school of freedom should be the preferred one for the advancement and protection of freedom in today's world.
Rights:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and policy:public