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“Broadcast your gender.”
(2022)
Social media platforms provide a large array of behavioral data relevant to social scientific research. However, key information such as sociodemographic characteristics of agents are often missing. This paper aims to compare four methods of classifying social attributes from text. Specifically, we are interested in estimating the gender of German social media creators. By using the example of a random sample of 200 YouTube channels, we compare several classification methods, namely (1) a survey among university staff, (2) a name dictionary method with the World Gender Name Dictionary as a reference list, (3) an algorithmic approach using the website gender-api.com, and (4) a Multinomial Naïve Bayes (MNB) machine learning technique. These different methods identify gender attributes based on YouTube channel names and descriptions in German but are adaptable to other languages. Our contribution will evaluate the share of identifiable channels, accuracy and meaningfulness of classification, as well as limits and benefits of each approach. We aim to address methodological challenges connected to classifying gender attributes for YouTube channels as well as related to reinforcing stereotypes and ethical implications.
“Broadcast your gender.”
(2022)
Social media platforms provide a large array of behavioral data relevant to social scientific research. However, key information such as sociodemographic characteristics of agents are often missing. This paper aims to compare four methods of classifying social attributes from text. Specifically, we are interested in estimating the gender of German social media creators. By using the example of a random sample of 200 YouTube channels, we compare several classification methods, namely (1) a survey among university staff, (2) a name dictionary method with the World Gender Name Dictionary as a reference list, (3) an algorithmic approach using the website gender-api.com, and (4) a Multinomial Naïve Bayes (MNB) machine learning technique. These different methods identify gender attributes based on YouTube channel names and descriptions in German but are adaptable to other languages. Our contribution will evaluate the share of identifiable channels, accuracy and meaningfulness of classification, as well as limits and benefits of each approach. We aim to address methodological challenges connected to classifying gender attributes for YouTube channels as well as related to reinforcing stereotypes and ethical implications.
Der abschließende Beitrag des multidisziplinären Sammelbands zielt darauf ab Perspektiven und Befunde zur Mittelschicht in Österreich aus der Soziologie, der Ökonomie, den Politikwissenschaften und der Zeitgeschichte zusammenzufassen und Verknüpfungen zwischen unterschiedlichen Analysen und Disziplinen zu benennen. Im Ergebnis liefert diese systematisierende Analyse der Beiträge einen umfassenden status quo der österreichischen Mitte in Hinblick auf Bildungserträge, Religionsausübung, Solidaritäts- und Abgrenzungsprozesse, Wahlverhalten, Vertrauen in Institutionen, psychische Gesundheit, Geschlechterungleichheit und vieles mehr. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Diskussion und werden neun Thesen zur jüngsten und zukünftigen Entwicklung der unter Druck stehenden gesellschaftlichen Mitte formulieren. Diese Thesen können als Beitrag zu einer laufenden gesellschaftspolitischen Debatte aber auch als Anregung für weitere sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung verstanden werden.
Vienna's resilience
(2022)
This chapter provides a synthesis of the volume, bringing together the aspects that characterise each of the single policy domains analysed throughout and highlighting their synergic effects on the output. In particular, it addresses the dualisation tendencies between ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in Vienna’s urban transformation in the changing dimensions of social stratification, on the one hand; and the mechanisms of institutional resilience, on the other hand. Despite the inclusive welfare system, emerging vulnerabilities currently pose new challenges for Vienna’s redistributive capacity in the key policy areas. Existing institutional arrangements and their regulatory capacities are a good starting point to answer the question: is Vienna still a just city?
This paper seeks to address the relationship between social capital and perceived social origin in contemporary Austria. While the concept of social capital has been widely adopted in social sciences, so far research on the (pre)structured shape of social capital by social origin is scarce. Our aim is to close this gap. Therefore, we use the network-as-capital approach by following the “position generator” and apply latent class analysis (LCA) and path modelling on the basis of the 2018 Austrian Social Survey. The dataset comprises a representative sample of the Austrian residential population aged 18 and older. Our findings show that the diversity of social capital, and access to networks of people in more highly ranked positions is strongly influenced by one’s social background. The higher respondents assess their social origin, the greater the probability of being in this type of network. Furthermore, education and occupation have effects on membership in a class-specific network.
This paper seeks to address the relationship between social capital and perceived social origin in contemporary Austria. While the concept of social capital has been widely adopted in social sciences, so far research on the (pre)structured shape of social capital by social origin is scarce. Our aim is to close this gap. Therefore, we use the network-as-capital approach by following the “position generator” and apply latent class analysis (LCA) and path modelling on the basis of the 2018 Austrian Social Survey. The dataset comprises a representative sample of the Austrian residential population aged 18 and older. Our findings show that the diversity of social capital, and access to networks of people in more highly ranked positions is strongly influenced by one’s social background. The higher respondents assess their social origin, the greater the probability of being in this type of network. Furthermore, education and occupation have effects on membership in a class-specific network.
Das E-Book enthält das 10. Kapitel »Soziale Ungleichheit und Sozialstruktur« von Steffen Mau und Roland Verwiebe, das in die Sozialstrukturanalyse sowie bedeutende soziologische Ungleichheitstheorien einführt. Es behandelt die historischen Bedingungen von Ungleichheit und stellt Grundkategorien der Sozialstrukturforschung wie Klasse, Schicht, Stand und Milieu vor. Zusätzlich enthalten sind das Gesamtinhaltsverzeichnis und Vorwort sowie der vollständige Anhang des »Lehrbuchs der Soziologie«, darunter ein Zusatzkapitel zum Verfassen sozialwissenschaftlicher Arbeiten sowie ein umfangreiches Gesamtglossar soziologischer Begriffe.
Social institutions
(2024)
Social institutions are a system of behavioral and relationship patterns that are densely interwoven and enduring and function across an entire society. They order and structure the behavior of individuals in core areas of society and thus have a strong impact on the quality of life of individuals. Institutions regulate the following: (a) family and relationship networks carry out social reproduction and socialization; (b) institutions in the realm of education and training ensure the transmission and cultivation of knowledge, abilities, and specialized skills; (c) institutions in the labor market and economy provide for the production and distribution of goods and services; (d) institutions in the realm of law, governance, and politics provide for the maintenance of the social order; (e) while cultural, media, and religious institutions further the development of contexts of meaning, value orientations, and symbolic codes.
The digitization process has triggered a profound transformation of modern societies. It encompasses a broad spectrum of technical, social, political, cultural and economic developments related to the mass use of computer- and internet-based technologies. It is now becoming increasingly clear that digitization is also changing existing structures of social inequality and that new structures of digital inequality are emerging. This is shown by a growing number of recent individual studies. In this paper, we set ourselves the task of systematizing this new research within the framework of an empirically supported literature review. To do so, we use the PRISMA model for literature reviews and focus on three central dimensions of inequality - ethnicity, gender, and age - and their relevance within the discourse on digitization and inequality. The empirical basis consists of journal articles published between 2000 and 2020 and listed on the Web of Science, as well as an additional Google Scholar search, through which we attempt to include important monographs and contributions to edited volumes in our analyses. Our text corpus thus comprises a total of 281 articles. Empirically, our literature review shows that unequal access to digital resources largely reproduces existing structures of inequality; in some cases, studies report a reduction in social inequalities as a result of the digitization process.
Im Zentrum dieser Forschungsnotiz steht die Frage nach der Bewertung von Einkommensungleichheit in der österreichischen Gegenwartsgesellschaft. Anhand von ISSP- und SSÖ-Daten können unsere Analysen diesbezüglich zeigen, dass Einkommensungleichheit von einer großen Mehrheit aktuell als zu hoch wahrgenommen wird. Zudem sehen die Menschen in Österreich sehr häufig den Staat in der Verantwortung Einkommensungleichheit abzubauen; viel häufiger als das in anderen europäischen Ländern der Fall ist. Während der Bereich Gesundheit und Pension seit Mitte der 1980er von der überwiegenden Mehrheit als staatliche Aufgabe gesehen wurde, liegt die Verantwortung für den Abbau von Einkommensungleichheit auf einem niedrigeren Zustimmungsniveau. Die Befürwortung der Absicherung von Arbeitslosen als Verantwortung des Staats nimmt aktuell eher ab, trotz der gestiegenen Arbeitslosigkeit zu Beginn der Pandemie. Schließlich zeigen unsere Regressionsanalysen, dass Unterschiede in der Beurteilung von Einkommensungleichheiten u. a. durch sozio-demographische Faktoren, die berufliche Stellung, das Haushaltseinkommen aber auch durch persönliche Einstellungen und Gerechtigkeitsüberzeugungen erklärt werden können.
Risk perceptions of individuals living in single-parent households during the COVID-19 crisis
(2023)
The COVID-19 crisis had severe social and economic impact on the life of most citizens around the globe. Individuals living in single-parent households were particularly at risk, revealing detrimental labour market outcomes and assessments of future perspectives marked by worries. As it has not been investigated yet, in this paper we study, how their perception about the future and their outlook on how the pandemic will affect them is related to their objective economic resources. Against this background, we examine the subjective risk perception of worsening living standards of individuals living in single-parent households compared to other household types, their objective economic situation based on the logarithmised equivalised disposable household incomes and analyse the relationship between those indicators. Using the German SOEP, including the SOEP-CoV survey from 2020, our findings based on regression modelling reveal that individuals living in single-parent households have been worse off during the pandemic, facing high economic insecurity. Path and interaction models support our assumption that the association between those indicators may not be that straightforward, as there are underlying mechanisms–such as mediation and moderation–of income affecting its direction and strength. With respect to our central hypotheses, our empirical findings point toward (1) a mediation effect, by demonstrating that the subjective risk perception of single-parent households can be partly explained by economic conditions. (2) The moderating effect suggests that the concrete position at the income distribution of households matters as well. While at the lower end of the income distribution, single-parent households reveal particularly worse risk perceptions during the pandemic, at the high end of the income spectrum, risk perceptions are similar for all household types. Thus, individuals living in single-parent households do not perceive higher risks of worsening living standards due to their household situation per se, but rather because they are worse off in terms of their economic situation compared to individuals living in other household types.
It is a relatively new phenomenon in the context of urban development in Buenos Aires that citizens from the middle class have been increasingly claiming empowerment in local decision making. In this paper, we analyze the spatial-political outcome of protests against high-rise construction and demolitions of the urban heritage in Buenos Aires. Based on a frame analysis, the results of the paper show that the citizens’ initiatives under study have been able to incorporate several key issues into the agenda of the public debate: the relevance of the urban heritage, the negative effects of market-oriented municipal politics, and deficient citizen participation. Moreover, the controversies surrounding high-rise constructions in the 2000s and early 2010s disclose a clear degree of politicization. A permanent struggle for primacy in municipal policy models has been sparked, in which victory and defeat alternate, and attention is drawn to more fundamental societal issues beyond urban development
Is Vienna still a just city?
(2022)
Value research has a long and extensive history of theoretical definitions and empirical investigations using large scale quantitative surveys. However, the way the general population understands, defines, and relates to the concept of values, and how these views vary across individuals is seldom addressed. The present study examined subjective interpretations of the term through focus group interviews, and reports on the development of a Value Conceptualisation Scale (VCS) that distinguishes six dimensions of different views on values: normativity, relevance, validity, stability, consistency, and awareness. Focus group interviews (n = 38) as well as several surveys (n = 100, n = 1519, n = 903, n = 94) were used to develop, refine, and test the scale in terms of response variety, temporal stability, as well as convergent and discriminant validity. These systematic results show that views on values do indeed vary significantly between participants. Correlations with dogmatism, preference for consistency, and metacognition were found for corresponding dimensions. The VCS provides an original measure, which enables future research to explore this variation on the conceptualisation of values.