U.S.-China Cooperative Research (Sociology): Status Attain-ment in a Chinese Urban Area

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This is a two.year collaborative project between Nan Lin, Professor of Sociology, Duke University, and Pan Yunkang, Director of the Institute of Sociology of the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, Tianjin, China. It will build upon a preliminary study conducted in 1985 in Tianjin, China's third largest city. It is sponsored jointly by the NSF and the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences. The investigators will try to determine how Chinese search for and find jobs by conducting a sample survey of 2,000 presently employed males and females between the ages of 18 and 60 who have entered the labor force since 1949 (the founding of the People's Republic of China). The >investigators have assumed that it is more important for the Chinese to enter into the "right" work units than to find "good" jobs. The "right" work units tend to be in the state sector, under the direct jurisdiction of the central government. The work units under other, lower.level governments, called the collective sector, tend to be less prestigious because they pay less, have fewer promotions, have less fringe benefits, and have less authority relative to the state.owned work units. The investigators will test the following hypotheses: (1) males rather than females are more likely to enter into the state sector and work units, (2) males are more likely than females to be helped by their family (parents and relatives) than females in getting into the state sector, (3) males are more likely than females to find social connections through family ties to enter into the state sector. The study will increase our understanding of social connections in contemporary Chinese society, which is undergoing rapid economic and social change. It will also help make comparisons across different societies and cultures (e.g., comparing with North American and European countries) as to how people move ahead successfully in their careers. . U2.