TY - JOUR A1 - Gerhards, Jürgen A1 - Kohler, Ulrich A1 - Sawert, Tim T1 - Educational expansion, social class, and choosing latin as a strategy of distinction T1 - Bildungsexpansion, soziale Klasse und die Wahl von Latein als Strategie der Distinktion JF - Zeitschrift für Soziologie N2 - In times of educational expansion, privileged families are looking for new strategies of distinction. Referring to Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of distinction, we argue that choosing Latin at school – a language that is no longer spoken and therefore has no direct value – is one of the strategies of privileged families to set themselves apart from less privileged families. Based on two surveys we conducted at German schools, the paper analyzes the relationship between parents’ educational background and the probability that their child will learn Latin. Results indicate that historically academic families have the strongest tendency towards learning Latin, followed by new academic families, and leaving behind the non-academic families. We distinguish between four causal mechanisms that might help to explain these associations: cultural distinction, selecting a socially exclusive learning environment, beliefs in a secondary instrumental function of learning Latin, and spatial proximity between the location of humanist Gymnasiums and the residential areas of privileged families. The hypotheses are formalized by means of Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG). Findings show that the decision to learn Latin is predominately an unintended consequence of the selection of a socially exclusive learning environment. In addition, there is evidence that especially children from historically academic families learn Latin as a strategy of cultural distinction. N2 - In Zeiten der Bildungsexpansion sind sozial privilegierte Familien auf der Suche nach neuen Strategien der Distinktion, um ihre Kinder von denen bildungsferneren Elternhäusern abzugrenzen. Unter Bezugnahme auf Pierre Bourdieus Theorie der Distinktion argumentieren wir, dass die Wahl von Latein in der Schule – einer Sprache, die nicht mehr gesprochen wird und daher keinen direkten Nutzen hat – eine der Strategien privilegierter Familien ist, sich von weniger privilegierten Familien abzugrenzen. Auf der Grundlage von zwei an deutschen Schulen durchgeführten Umfragen analysieren wir den Zusammenhang zwischen dem Bildungshintergrund der Eltern und der Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass ihr Kind Latein lernt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Kinder aus historisch akademischen Elternhäusern am häufigsten Latein lernen, gefolgt von sogenannten neuen akademischen Familien und – mit großem Abstand – von den nicht-akademischen Familien. Wir unterscheiden vier kausale Mechanismen, die zur Erklärung der gefundenen Zusammenhänge beitragen könnten: Kulturelle Distinktion im engeren Sinne, die Wahl eines sozial exklusiven Lernumfelds, der Glaube an eine sekundäre instrumentelle Funktion des Lateinlernens und die räumliche Nähe zwischen dem Standort humanistischer Gymnasien und dem Wohnort der Familie. Die Hypothesen werden mit Hilfe von gerichteten azyklischen Graphen (DAG) formalisiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Wahl von Latein in erster Linie eine unbeabsichtigte Folge der Wahl eines sozial exklusiven Lernumfelds ist. Darüber hinaus zeigen die Analysen, dass insbesondere historisch akademische Familien die Wahl von Latein als Strategie der kulturellen Distinktion einsetzen. KW - Bourdieu KW - Distinction KW - Social Class KW - Educational Expansion KW - Latin KW - Foreign Language KW - Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) KW - Distinktion KW - soziale Klasse KW - Bildungsexpansion KW - Latein KW - Fremdsprache Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/zfsoz-2021-0021 SN - 2366-0325 SN - 0340-1804 VL - 50 IS - 5 SP - 306 EP - 321 PB - de Gruyter CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmidt-Wellenburg, Christian T1 - Struggling over crisis T1 - Umkämpfte Krise BT - Discoursive Positionings and Academic Positions in the Field of German-Speaking Economists BT - Diskursive Positionierungen und akademische Positionen im Feld deutschsprachiger Volkswirt*innen JF - Historical Social Research N2 - If you put two economists in a room, you get two opinions, unless one of them is Lord Keynes, in which case you get three opinions.” Following the premise of this quotation attributed to Winston Churchill, varying perceptions of the European crisis by academic economists and their structural homology to economists’ positions in the field of economics are examined. The dataset analysed using specific multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and hierarchical agglomerative clustering (HAC) comprises information on the careers of 480 German-speaking economists and on statements they made concerning crisis-related issues. It can be shown that the main structural differences in the composition and amount of scientific and academic capital held by economists as well as their age and degree of transnationalisation are linked to how they see the crisis: as a national sovereign debt crisis, as a European banking crisis, or as a crisis of European integration and institutions. KW - Economics KW - multiple correspondence analysis KW - Bourdieu KW - field KW - discourse KW - mixed methods KW - European Union KW - crisis Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.43.2018.3.147-188 SN - 0172-6404 VL - 43 IS - 3 SP - 147 EP - 188 PB - GESIS, Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences CY - Cologne ER - TY - GEN A1 - Schmidt-Wellenburg, Christian A1 - Lebaron, Frederic T1 - There is no such thing as "the Economy" BT - Economic phenomena analysed from a field-theoretical perspective BT - Zur Analyse ökonomischer Phänomene aus feldtheoretischer Perspektive T2 - Historical Social Research N2 - This introductory essay to the HSR Special Issue “Economists, Politics, and Society” argues for a strong field-theoretical programme inspired by Pierre Bourdieu to research economic life as an integral part of different social forms. Its main aim is threefold. First, we spell out the very distinct Durkheimian legacy in Bourdieu’s thinking and the way he applies it in researching economic phenomena. Without this background, much of what is actually part of how Bourdieu analysed economic aspects of social life would be overlooked or reduced to mere economic sociology. Second, we sketch the main theoretical concepts and heuristics used to analyse economic life from a field perspective. Third, we focus on practical methodological issues of field-analytical research into economic phenomena. We conclude with a short summary of the basic characteristics of this approach and discuss the main insights provided by the contributions to this special issue. T2 - 'Die Ökonomie‘ gibt es nicht! KW - Economic sociology KW - field KW - Bourdieu KW - methodology KW - discourse KW - domination KW - state KW - economy Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.43.2018.3.7-38 SN - 0172-6404 VL - 43 IS - 3 SP - 7 EP - 38 PB - GESIS, Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences CY - Cologne ER -