Programme full

Friday 17 April 2015 09:00 - 10:30
ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS
The Overlooked ‘Working Class’ and the Imagined Middle Class: Subjective Understanding of Middle Class
Identity in China
Miao, Y.
(University of Cambridge)
This article focuses on the mismatch between the objective class positions of the Chinese middle class, and their
subjective class identities. Using fieldwork data from Ningbo, this article reports a strong tendency to identify oneself
as 'working class' among respondents who otherwise count among 'middle class' by commonly used objective criteria.
This set of 'working class' identities, far removed from its historical and political meanings, rests on the members'
belief that their lack of supplementary income outside of their 'working wage' separates them from the true 'middle
class', who are able to afford an anxiety-free lifestyle due their financial stability. This has led them to look toward
economic indicators as the primary determinants of class, whereas those who are consistent in their middle class
identities and positions typically place a heavier emphasis on the cultural indicators of class, arguing that it is the
initiative of adopting a cultured and mannered lifestyle that separates them from the bao'fa'hu. In constructing their
respective class identities, both classes use similar imaginings of the ideal 'middle class', whose cultured lifestyle rests
upon strong economic foundations. The point of contrast is usually made through definition of exclusion, rather than
inclusion, which suggests that while class-based social comparison is commonplace in China, class-based social
cohesion is still lacking. Thus, this article argues that the research on the Chinese middle class needs to pay more
attention to the intrinsic cognitive processes that affects their subjective beliefs, as well as the socioeconomic
processes that affects their objective positions.
Sociology of Education 1
ROUNDTABLE 24, CONFERENCE HALL, HAMISH WOOD BUILDING
Doing Sociology in the Universities of the 'Building Capitalism' Countries: Comparative Analysis
Dmitry, Z., Starikov, V., Tregubova, N.,Lisitsyn, P.
(London School of Economics and Political Science)
The paper presents data, materials and preliminary outcomes of the research project conducted in 2010-2014. The
project is oriented toward comparative analysis of 'doing sociology' and 'being a sociologist' in the former Soviet Union
countries (three Slavic countries: Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine and three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania).
First, the paper tries to develop a conceptual template for understanding what could be, what should be, and what is
sociology as a science and academic discipline after 25 years of its re-birth in the USSR in 1989. (There was no
sociology as a discipline in the universities during the time of the Soviet Union). Then, it addresses four questions
concerning 'real danger' for sociology in the time of capitalism building, new institutions/rules of the game during and
after 'Bologna process in higher education', 'capacities' and 'light-houses' for sociology in newly independent states.
Finally, on the methodological basis of New Institutional Economics and New Economic Sociology the paper will
analyze collected data with regards to development of new strategies and policies of shaping post-Bologna Era in
European Higher Education.
The principal instruments for the field research were: the questionnaire conducted in person and online, in-depth
interviews, case-studies, expert interviews, content analysis of the publications in professional journals.
British and Japanese Comparative Study of Ability and Learning in Post-Manufacturing Societies from
Interview Surveys
Aizawa, S.
(Chukyo University)
In the 21st century, developed countries, including the United Kingdom and Japan, are facing new social changes
caused by post-industrialisation. Education policymakers in each country are changing and updating national
examinations to measure the new skills needed in these societies. Our interview survey was taken by various
persons, including statesmen, local government officers, company managers, school leaders, and local educational
authorities in both the United Kingdom and Japan, over three years. From the results of this survey, we identified new
relationships between abilities and learning in these post-manufacturing societies. These new relationship have
emerged in part as a way of trying to cope with social polarization and construct new school systems that sustain
excellence and equality in society. In the present era, social polarization leads to a situation where that some people
BSA Annual Conference 2015 250
Glasgow Caledonian University