scholarly journals Understanding Society at 10 Years

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucinda Platt ◽  
Gundi Knies ◽  
Renee Luthra ◽  
Alita Nandi ◽  
Michaela Benzeval
Keyword(s):  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Future Potential ◽  
Direct Predecessor ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Biosocial Research

Abstract Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) has now been collecting a range of data from its nationally representative sample of participants for 10 years. This significant ‘birthday’ offers a moment to reflect on its contribution to sociological research, and on its current and future potential for fundamental and cutting-edge sociological analysis. While the study shares many features with other longer-standing household panel studies, including its direct predecessor the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), it incorporated from the outset distinctive features that make it particularly valuable for analysis in specific fields, including biosocial research, ethnicity and migration studies, and analyses of the interplay between environmental, social and institutional contexts and individual characteristics. Understanding Society has incorporated methodological development and innovation since its inception, which has facilitated more extensive forms of data collection.

Childhood Intelligence Predicts Adult Trait Openness

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Furnham ◽  
Helen Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation Modeling ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
Data Set ◽  
National Child Development Study ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Uk

Abstract. This study used a longitudinal data set of 5,672 adults followed for 50 years to determine the factors that influence adult trait Openness-to-Experience. In a large, nationally representative sample in the UK (the National Child Development Study), data were collected at birth, in childhood (age 11), adolescence (age 16), and adulthood (ages 33, 42, and 50) to examine the effects of family social background, childhood intelligence, school motivation during adolescence, education, and occupation on the personality trait Openness assessed at age 50 years. Structural equation modeling showed that parental social status, childhood intelligence, school motivation, education, and occupation all had modest, but direct, effects on trait Openness, among which childhood intelligence was the strongest predictor. Gender was not significantly associated with trait Openness. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.

Dowagers, Debs, Nuns and Babies: The Politics of Nostalgia and the Older Woman in the British Sunday Night Television Serial

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 769-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estella Tincknell
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Mature Female ◽  
Older Woman ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Position ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Popular Television

The extensive commercial success of two well-made popular television drama serials screened in the UK at prime time on Sunday evenings during the winter of 2011–12, Downton Abbey (ITV, 2010–) and Call the Midwife (BBC, 2012–), has appeared to consolidate the recent resurgence of the period drama during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as reassembling something like a mass audience for woman-centred realist narratives at a time when the fracturing and disassembling of such audiences seemed axiomatic. While ostensibly different in content, style and focus, the two programmes share a number of distinctive features, including a range of mature female characters who are sufficiently well drawn and socially diverse as to offer a profoundly pleasurable experience for the female viewer seeking representations of aging femininity that go beyond the sexualised body of the ‘successful ager’. Equally importantly, these two programmes present compelling examples of the ‘conjunctural text’, which appears at a moment of intense political polarisation, marking struggles over consent to a contemporary political position by re-presenting the past. Because both programmes foreground older women as crucial figures in their respective communities, but offer very different versions of the social role and ideological positioning that this entails, the underlying politics of such nostalgia becomes apparent. A critical analysis of these two versions of Britain's past thus highlights the ideological investments involved in period drama and the extent to which this ‘cosy’ genre may legitimate or challenge contemporary political claims.

Identity Politics and Migration

2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-158
Author(s):  
Vytis Čiubrinskas
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
The Us ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Uk ◽  
A Current ◽  
Respective Host

The Centre of Social Anthropology (CSA) at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) in Kaunas has coordinated projects on this, including a current project on 'Retention of Lithuanian Identity under Conditions of Europeanisation and Globalisation: Patterns of Lithuanian-ness in Response to Identity Politics in Ireland, Norway, Spain, the UK and the US'. This has been designed as a multidisciplinary project. The actual expressions of identity politics of migrant, 'diasporic' or displaced identity of Lithuanian immigrants in their respective host country are being examined alongside with the national identity politics of those countries.

Workplace “Digital Culture” and the Uptake of Digital Solutions

2020 ◽  
pp. 368-402
Author(s):  
Simeon J. Yates ◽  
Eleanor Lockley
Keyword(s):  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Company Culture ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Uk

This chapter reviews prior work on technology acceptance and then reports on a nationally representative survey of UK employees exploring both employee’s personal experiences of digital technologies at home and work and their evaluations of the effectiveness of the technologies and the “digital culture” in their organization. Presenting the results of 3040 UK workers, it seeks to explore the factors that influence digital roll-outs by focusing on the experiences and perceptions of the UK workforce as a whole, with the expectation that introducing new technology alone isn’t enough. This research explores how “digitally ready” organizations are in the UK in terms of people, processes, and company culture. It concludes that a large proportion of the UK workforce are not seeing the benefits of digital technologies. Importantly, there is a need for organizations to understand that making digital solutions a success is a process of cultural change in their organization.

Rising Stars and Underdogs: The Role Race and Parental Education Play in Predicting Mentorship

2021 ◽  
pp. 0044118X2110046
Author(s):  
Veronica Fruiht ◽  
Jordan Boeder ◽  
Thomas Chan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Conditional Inference ◽  
Youth Of Color ◽  
Social Success ◽  
Conditional Inference Tree ◽  
Tree Models ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Inference Tree

Research suggests that youth with more financial and social resources are more likely to have access to mentorship. Conversely, the rising star hypothesis posits that youth who show promise through their individual successes are more likely to be mentored. Utilizing a nationally representative sample ( N = 4,882), we tested whether demographic characteristics (e.g., race, SES) or personal resources (e.g., academic/social success) are better predictors of receiving mentorship. Regression analyses suggested that demographic, contextual, and individual characteristics all significantly predicted access to mentorship, specifically by non-familial mentors. However, conditional inference tree models that explored the interaction of mentorship predictors by race showed that individual characteristics mattered less for Black and Latino/a youth. Therefore, the rising star hypothesis may hold true for White youth, but the story of mentoring is more complicated for youth of color. Findings highlight the implications of Critical Race Theory for mentoring research and practice.

scholarly journals Quality improvement in general practice: what do GPs and practice managers think? Results from a nationally representative survey of UK GPs and practice managers

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e001309
Author(s):  
Jennifer Gosling ◽  
Nicholas Mays ◽  
Bob Erens ◽  
David Reid ◽  
Josephine Exley
Keyword(s):  
General Practice ◽  
Quality Improvement ◽  
General Practitioners ◽  
Service Improvement ◽  
Protected Time ◽  
Routine Work ◽  
Professional Interest ◽  
Quality And Outcomes ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Uk

BackgroundThis paper presents the results of the first UK-wide survey of National Health Service (NHS) general practitioners (GPs) and practice managers (PMs) designed to explore the service improvement activities being undertaken in practices, and the factors that facilitated or obstructed that work. The research was prompted by growing policy and professional interest in the quality of general practice and its improvement. The analysis compares GP and PM involvement in, and experience of, quality improvement activities.MethodsThis was a mixed-method study comprising 26 semistructured interviews, a focus group and two surveys. The qualitative data supported the design of the surveys, which were sent to all 46 238 GPs on the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) database and the PM at every practice across the UK (n=9153) in July 2017.ResultsResponses from 2377 GPs and 1424 PMs were received and were broadly representative of each group. Ninety-nine per cent reported having planned or undertaken improvement activities in the previous 12 months. The most frequent related to prescribing and access. Key facilitators of improvement included ‘good clinical leadership’. The two main barriers were ‘too many demands from external stakeholders’ and a lack of protected time. Audit and significant event audit were the most common improvement tools used, but respondents were interested in training on other quality improvement tools.ConclusionGPs and PMs are interested in improving service quality. As such, the new quality improvement domain in the Quality and Outcomes Framework used in the payment of practices is likely to be relatively easily accepted by GPs in England. However, if improving quality is to become routine work for practices, it will be important for the NHS in the four UK countries to work with practices to mitigate some of the barriers that they face, in particular the lack of protected time.

scholarly journals Welfare chauvinism across benefits and services

2021 ◽  
pp. 095892872110230
Author(s):  
Gianna Maria Eick ◽  
Christian Albrekt Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Cash Benefits ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
The Uk

The article theorises how covering social risks through cash transfers and in-kind services shapes public attitudes towards including/excluding immigrants from these programmes in Western European destination countries. The argument is that public attitudes are more restrictive of granting immigrants access to benefits than to services. This hypothesis is tested across ten social protection programmes using original survey data collected in Denmark, Germany and the UK in 2019. Across the three countries, representing respectively a social democratic, conservative and liberal welfare regime context, the article finds that the public does indeed have a preference for easier access for in-kind services than for cash benefits. The article also finds these results to be stable across programmes covering the same social risks; the examples are child benefits and childcare. The results are even stable across left-wing, mainstream and radical right-wing voters; with the partial exception of radical right-wing voters in the UK. Finally, the article finds only a moderate association between individual characteristics and attitudinal variation across cash benefits and in-kind services.

Dealing with austerity and migration in the northern European cleaning sector: Social partner strategies to strengthen wage floors

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sissel Trygstad ◽  
Trine P Larsen ◽  
Kristine Nergaard
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Eu Enlargement ◽  
Social Partner ◽  
National Differences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wage Regulation ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Industrial Cleaning ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Exerted Pressure

Industrial cleaning shares some common features across countries. Institutions for collective wage regulation are fragile, the market is highly price-sensitive and skewed competition has exerted pressure on wages and conditions. Increased cross-border mobility of labour and enterprises after EU enlargement brought new sources of competitive pressure, which was amplified by the subsequent economic crisis. We study changes in collective regulation in industrial cleaning in Denmark, Germany, Norway and the UK since the turn of the century, and find that the social partners have responded differently to the challenges. We discuss these responses in the light of national differences in industrial relations regimes and the regulatory tools available for the organized actors.

scholarly journals Two hearts and a loan? Mortgages, employment insecurity and earnings among young couples in six European countries

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (11) ◽  
pp. 2451-2469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia M Dotti Sani ◽  
Claudia Acciai
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Logistic Models ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Earned Income ◽  
Employment Insecurity ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Employment Instability

Homeownership is increasingly understood by policy makers and social scientists as a fundamental asset against poverty risks, especially in times of economic uncertainty. However, in several Western countries, homeownership among younger generations appears to be increasingly difficult to achieve, likely a result of growing employment instability and stringent criteria to access credit. This article uses multinomial logistic models and nationally representative EU-SILC data from six European countries to examine (a) to what extent precarious employment among young couples is linked to being a mortgage holder; (b) whether earned income can compensate for employment instability in being a mortgagee; (c) cross-national differences in the relationship between being a mortgage holder, earnings, and employment insecurity. Our results indicate that the higher the levels of employment insecurity, the lower the chances of being a mortgage holder in all countries. Moreover, we find that at a given level of employment insecurity, households with higher levels of earned income have higher chances of being mortgage holders than households with lower earned income. However, while earned income has a stronger effect in achieving a mortgage among couples who have secure employment in Italy, earnings are more important among couples with lower levels of employment security in France, the UK, Spain and Poland. These results suggest that the relationship between social inequalities and housing is partially mediated by the national context.

scholarly journals Polish Migration’s Socio-Cultural Impact on Wales in the Aftermath of 2004 – Preliminary Findings from Western Wales: An Aberystwyth Case Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Wróbel
Keyword(s):  
Eu Enlargement ◽  
Cultural Impact ◽  
Migration Patterns ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Polish Migration ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Adaptation Processes

AbstractThis papers looks at the societal and cultural impact of the post-2004 Polish migration to Wales. The history of Polish migration to the UK is introduced together with the relevant statistics and their rationale behind choosing cosmopolitan Wales as their new country of residence. Even though the focus of the paper is rather on the UK as a whole, it is Wales that is central to the investigation. Wales was particularly neglected in the study of migration in the aftermath of the 2004 European Union (EU) enlargement and surprisingly little attention was given to it. Focusing on Polish diaspora is important as it is the most numerous external migration wave to Wales (ONS 2011). The case study of Aberystwyth is introduced as a good example of a semi-urban area to which Poles migrated after 2004. Moreover, the paper elaborates on the characteristics of the Polish newcomers by analysing their distinctive features, migration patterns as well as adaptation processes. Mutual relations between post-1945 and post-2004 immigration waves are investigated, together with Poles’ own image and perception. This paper gives a deeper understanding and provides an insight into the nature of the Polish migrants’ impact on the cultural and societal life of Wales.

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