This page lists recent events in the field of social stratification.
Time and date: 10.30 am - 12.00 pm, Thursday, December 7, 2006
Place: Arts Lecture Room 6, University of Western Australia, Crawley Campus, Crawley
Chair: Julie McMillan, Australian Council for Educational Research
Shaping the Will of Autonomous Entities: Reflections on School Choice and the Creation of Neo-liberal Subjects
Martin Forsey, University of Western Australia
In a world in which the private is favoured over the public, where the welfare state is disparaged and consumption is heralded as the great social force for change, it is useful to contemplate how people simultaneously become, and resist becoming, neo-liberal subjects. Larner (2005) argues that this line of questioning is rarely pursued by social researchers because they are primarily focused on neo-liberalism as a 'top-down impositional discourse'. As she suggests, neo-liberalism is a multi-layered, multi-vocal, and deeply social phenomenon. Schools offer a useful means for analysing neo-liberalism as a social practice. Adopting a cultural production approach and drawing upon Beck et al's (2003) portrait of second modernity, I use interviews conducted in 2005 among parents and their children about their choice of schooling to analyse the extent to which the prevailing social order shapes the power and the wills of autonomous entities (Rose 1992).
Life Chances: Education and Career Aspirations
Lucy Nelms and Janet Taylor, Brotherhood of St Laurence
Young people's education and work outcomes are key factors in the persistence of social inequality and disadvantage. Analysis of national longitudinal survey data has revealed that family socio-economic status has little effect on post-school plans, but a strong effect on the ability of young people to realise these plans (Beavis et al 2004).Using qualitative data from the Brotherhood of St Laurence's longitudinal Life Chances Study this paper explores the educational and employment aspirations of participants who have grown up in persistently low-income families. The study has followed the lives of 142 children and their families since the children's birth in inner Melbourne in 1990. This paper draws on 32 interviews with 15 year olds exploring the development of their education and employment aspirations, factors influencing this process and their perceptions of what might help them achieve their goals. Comparisons will be drawn with:
Implications for policy will be raised.
Rising Competition for University in Melbourne and its Impact on Disadvantaged Students
Daniel Edwards, Monash University
There are a wide variety of universities, university campuses and courses in Melbourne available to those with a desire for higher education. Applications for university are generally accepted on the basis of previous educational attainment. In the case of the majority of university applicants - current year 12 graduates - this is based on their year 12 final mark, or the ENTER. The allocation of the ENTER across all year 12 students at the end of year 12 essentially occurs on the assumption that all students compete on a level playing field. However, this is far from the reality of the education system.
This paper analyses university application data for Victorian year 12 completers between 2000 and 2003. It shows that the competition for entrance to university in Melbourne increased during this period and that this increase affected some groups of students more than others. This paper investigates the impact of this increased competition on two groups of students, those in the government sector, and those in the outer suburban areas of the city.
A short open discussion on possible future directions and activities for the group will follow these papers.
Time and date: 8.00 pm, Monday, December 4, 2006
Place: Lambretta Cucina Italiana, 45b Hampden Road, Nedlands
Members of the Thematic Group on Social Stratification will be meeting for dinner at the time and place mentioned above. The Lambretta Cucina Italiana is a nice, friendly place about a kilometre walk from the Crawley Campus of the University of Western Australia. Prices are reasonable and vegetarian options are available.
Some reviews can be found here, here, and here.
If you would like to come along, please RSVP as soon as possible by emailing Martin Forsey at:
All welcome.
Time and date: 9.30 - 11.00 am, Thursday, December 8, 2005
Place: Centenary Lecture Theatre, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay Campus, Sandy Bay
Chair: James Rice
Neoliberalism, Inequality and Politics: Public Policy and the Transformation of Australian Society
Mark Western, Janeen Baxter, Jan Pakulski, Bruce Tranter, John Western, Marcel van Egmond, Jenny Chesters, Amanda Hosking, Martin O'Flaherty, and Yolanda van Gellecum
The 1980s and 1990s saw the most profound transformation of Australian public policy since World War II and one that fundamentally reworked a framework in place since Federation. This transformation was underwritten by two principles: liberalism (the view that citizens are autonomous individual actors whose interests are best served when they are free from coercive government interventions into individual action) and marketisation (the belief that free markets are arenas which best enable individual autonomy and produce efficient economic outcomes). These principles define 'neoliberalism' or 'hard liberalism'. How have these policy changes affected Australian society. This paper introduces a new collaborative research project that will examine relationships between neoliberalism and social mobility and socioeconomic inequality, gender relations, and politics in Australia since the early 1980s.
Inequality, Welfare and Indigenous Australia
Maggie Walter
Indigenous Australia is differentially, as well as inequitably, positioned within the Australian social strata. The heavily disadvantaged position of Indigenous people across all social and economic inequality indicators is unambiguous, but this unrelenting inequality is inextricably entwined with the socio-political and material reality of Indigenous people's lives, as Indigenous people, in contemporary Australia. This paper develops this theme via an examination of the Indigenous relationship to, and inequitable position within, the Australian welfare system. At its base is the stark fact that Indigenous Australians are heavily over-represented among those in receipt of state-funded welfare programs, assistance or benefits. In contemporary Australia, however, the concept of 'Indigenous welfare' can never be an abstract discussion of rates or levels of payment: the concept is neither neutral nor apolitical. Political, moral and racial evaluations inevitably filtrate through any discussion and these dimensions intersect with the social positioning of Indigenous Australia. The impacts of current Indigenous specific and mainstream welfare reform are included in this discussion.
Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health in Early Childhood: The Platform for Later Lifecourse Health Inequalities
Jake M Najman, William Bor, Michael O'Callaghan, Gail Williams, Rosemary Aird, and Greg Shuttlewood
Socioeconomic inequalities in health are amongst the most consistent and pervasive of research findings. In recent years a great deal has been written about the factors which contribute to these inequalities, with lifestyle 'choices' the main accepted basis of these health inequalities.
Studies of health over the lifecourse have led to increased interest in early childhood as it constitutes a platform for adult occurring health inequalities. In early childhood the foundations of adult lifestyle and health are established. Skills related to future employment are developed while many adult lifestyle characteristics such as tobacco use, diet and physical activity patterns are established. Three characteristics of children are indicators of the adequacy of the platform for adult health. These are child cognitive development (IQ), child mental health and child aggressive/delinquent behaviour. In each of the above domains there are substantial socioeconomic inequalities in early childhood; inequalities which continue into adult life. There is a need to shift the policy focus to enabling children to have a more equal start to their lives.
Time and date: 7.45 for 8.00 pm, Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Place: The Spice, 16a Princes Street, Sandy Bay
Members of the Thematic Group on Social Stratification will be meeting for dinner at the time and place mentioned above. The Spice (licensed and BYO bottled wine) is a short stroll from the Sandy Bay Campus of the University of Tasmania. Entrees are about $10, mains are around $17, and vegetarian options are available.
If you would like to come along, please RSVP before 5.00 pm, Friday, December 2, by emailing Romy Winter at:
All welcome.