Countries, Education And Status Attainment

The classical studies on education and status attainment originate from Blau-Duncan status attainment mode. Lin and Bian pointed out that the unit is similar to occupation of Blau-Duncan status attainment mode in status attainment of Chinese urban residents through an empirical analysis of survey data in Tianjin in 1985. Subsequent research focused on the rate of return to education in Market Transformation. These empirical studies are based on the modern theory that the end result of social transformation in China is consistent with the Western society, in other words, status attainment model in China will converge with the Western society.The dissertation has an empirical research on education and status at-tainment of China's urban resident which stressed the key constant of national political system by mainly making use of the data of "China General Social Survey (CGSS) on China's Urban and Rural Residents' Life accomplished by Department of Sociology, Renmin University of China in cooperation with Social Science Department of The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology in 2006 and by applying contingency table, multiple linear regression mode and event history analysis model.The dissertation includes seven chapters in total and the details of each chapter are as follows:Chapter one is introduction. The primary task in is to elaborate the origin and significance of the dissertation and a brief description of this research design and research innovation.Chapter two is literature review of the whole dissertation. The chapter mainly includes relevant domestic and foreign research theories on education and status attainment. On this basis, pointing out the deficiencies of existing research and propose an overall study of this proposition and sub-domains proposition.Chapter three to six is the main body of the empirical research of the dissertation. The purpose of chapter three is to test the overall proposition of the dissertation from two dimensions of education and status attainment which based on survey data. Chapter four is an empirical analysis of adult education and status attainment through survey data in which the main contents are the meaning of adult education and its and history in China and whether there are differences on status attainment between adult education and general education. Chapter five is an empirical analysis of key school and status attainment through survey data in which the contents are the meaning of key school and its history in China and whether there are differences on status attainment for people who had key schools. Chapter six is an empirical analysis of time sequence and status attainment through survey data which based on sponsored mobility and contest mobility which Turner distinguishes two ideal types of social mobility.Chapter seven is the conclusion of the research and discussion of the dissertation. The conclusion summarizes the full text of the empirical analysis. The discussion summarizes the general pattern of the Chinese people's status attainment and put forward that cultural traditions may be a moderating variable between education and status attainment.On the basis of a review of the main work and results of the dissertation, the author gives the following basic conclusions.First, stratification of the West is based on three constant which are liberal market economy, rule of law and democratic political traditions and the main concern is the technological progress, economic integration, as well as globalization, social policy and social interest groups and social reorganization of the relationship between interest groups. In Chinese society, liberal market economy, rule of law and democracy are variables, in consequence it does not make sense that Western hierarchical framework applied to the research of Chinese social classes.Second, the essence of status attainment is the possession of scarce resources and state power is to decide a key social resource allocation system. Though Chinese society has changed greatly since the reform and opening-up policy, China's political system has not fundamentally changed. So, advantaged social groups are able to achieve the reproduction of social status through sorts of design of the system at any historical period.Third, adult education and key school is the system design with which advantaged social groups achieve their own reproduction of social status to some extent. On the one hand, from the perspective of human capital adult education is lower than general education, but there is no significant difference for status attainment and key schools gather superior educational resources. On the other hand, advantaged social groups can always use its own advantages in terms of adult education and key school for more opportunities.Fourth, through the event history analysis for education and status attainment there is different meaning whether the highest degree is after the first job. The people who get the highest degree after the first job are the key person to be trained by the Communist Party of China, which can get more rate of return at the same level of education.There are two innovations in this essay, which are as follows. In terms of theory innovation, the author puts forward hierarchical theory for state based on the distinction between constant and variable and the inherent characteristics of Chinese society, which challenge and complement hierarchical theory for market. In terms of content innovation, this essay made some empirical analysis on the role of some special educational system, such as adult education and key school, in social stratification in Chinese society, which fill the gaps on research of education and social stratification.