Is Britain pulling apart? Analysis of generational change in social distances

英国正在分裂吗？

• 批准号: ES/K004379/1
• 负责人: Paul Lambert
• 金额: $ 20.11万
• 依托单位: University of Stirling
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FK004379%2F1
• 关键词: Britain; pulling; apart; Analysis; generational

Daily life in Britain has changed in many important ways over recent decades. There have been longer-running demographic trends such as longer life expectancy and increased participation in education. Concurrently, independent adult living has increased. Routinely, people will have had other cohabiting partners before settling with a long term partner; will marry later than they would have in earlier decades; and will divorce or remarry more often. Patterns of fertility have also changed, first births occur later, and families have fewer children than in previous generations. Coupled with these demographic changes there have been notable developments in long-distance travel and, more recently, increased long-distance communication through electronic means (especially the internet). Taken together these changes may have substantial influence on patterns of social interaction in contemporary social life.In this project we seek to paint a picture of social life in Britain through comprehensive empirical analyses of patterns in the 'social distance' between people. By social distance we mean the closeness (or distance) between different people who have connections to each other (such as family members or friends). We conjecture that changes in social distance are a useful barometer of social change. Trends in social distance have sometimes been neglected within empirical sociological enquiries. This has partially been due to the lack of suitable data or the complexities of analysing data on linked individuals. Britain's exceptional resources in large-scale, longitudinal surveys, along with recent methodological innovations for the analysis of data on social connections, mean that it is now plausible to propose systematic analyses of trends in social distance using large-scale representative survey data. In contemporary societies social connections are important because they provide essential economic, social and psychological support. Social connections also help to shape individual attitudes, values and expectations. In many areas of social science, there is growing recognition that to comprehensively understand an individual's circumstances, we need to know more about the circumstances of those in their networks (i.e. their 'nearest and dearest'). Understanding patterns of social distance can therefore offer major insights into the composition of contemporary social structures. In the proposed analyses we are interested in exploring a wide range of different domains that are indicative of changes (or stability) in social distance. This will be a unique departure from conventional approaches that concentrate on standard socio-economic outcomes. The wide spectrum of these domains includes the connections between the political values and opinions of related people, through to their patterns of health and use of support services. Social distance trends on certain socio-economic measures have been studied in sociology and economics. Typically the focus of empirical studies has been upon either educational or occupational similarity (or homophily), or upon intergenerational associations. Large-scale surveys have not been fully exploited to assess the diverse aspects of social distance in an integrated manner. Therefore the proposed project is intellectually innovative.Funding is requested to support one full time researcher and the three investigators in a coordinated set of analyses oriented towards at least four publication objectives. The research fellow has appropriate pre-existing expertise in working with data on social connections and applying advanced statistical methods to social connections data. The proposed project builds directly upon previous ESRC supported activities which focussed upon analysing social networks and occupational data. The research will provide a solid empirical platform upon which theoretical claims about changing social circumstances in Britain can be formally tested.

近几十年来，英国的日常生活在许多重要方面发生了变化。存在着更长期的人口趋势，例如预期寿命更长和教育参与度增加。与此同时，独立的成年人生活有所增加。通常，人们在与长期伴侣安定下来之前会有其他同居伴侣。结婚时间将比几十年前晚；并且会更频繁地离婚或再婚。生育模式也发生了变化，第一胎发生得更晚，家庭的孩子数量也比前几代人少。伴随着这些人口变化，长途旅行也取得了显着的发展，最近，通过电子手段（特别是互联网）进行的长途通信也有所增加。总的来说，这些变化可能会对当代社会生活中的社会互动模式产生重大影响。在这个项目中，我们试图通过对人与人之间“社会距离”模式的全面实证分析来描绘英国社会生活的图景。社交距离是指彼此有联系的不同人（例如家庭成员或朋友）之间的亲密程度（或距离）。我们推测，社交距离的变化是社会变革的有用晴雨表。在实证社会学调查中，社会距离的趋势有时被忽视。部分原因是缺乏合适的数据或分析相关个人数据的复杂性。英国在大规模纵向调查方面的特殊资源，以及最近用于分析社会联系数据的方法创新，意味着现在可以利用大规模代表性调查数据对社会距离趋势进行系统分析。在当代社会中，社会关系很重要，因为它们提供了必要的经济、社会和心理支持。社会关系也有助于塑造个人态度、价值观和期望。在社会科学的许多领域，人们越来越认识到，要全面了解个人的情况，我们需要更多地了解其网络中的人（即他们的“最亲近的人”）的情况。因此，了解社会距离的模式可以为了解当代社会结构的构成提供重要见解。在所提出的分析中，我们有兴趣探索表明社交距离变化（或稳定性）的各种不同领域。这将与专注于标准社会经济成果的传统方法截然不同。这些领域范围广泛，包括相关人员的政治价值观和观点之间的联系，直至他们的健康模式和支持服务的使用。社会学和经济学研究了某些社会经济措施的社会距离趋势。通常，实证研究的重点是教育或职业相似性（或同质性），或代际关联。大规模调查尚未得到充分利用，以综合方式评估社会距离的各个方面。因此，拟议的项目在智力上是创新的。需要资金支持一名全职研究人员和三名研究人员进行一套协调一致的分析，面向至少四个出版目标。该研究员在处理社交关系数据以及将先进的统计方法应用于社交关系数据方面拥有适当的现有专业知识。拟议的项目直接建立在 ESRC 之前支持的活动的基础上，这些活动侧重于分析社交网络和职业数据。这项研究将提供一个坚实的实证平台，可以在该平台上正式检验有关英国社会环境变化的理论主张。

项目成果

Exploring the influence of others: Modelling social connections in social surveys

探索他人的影响：在社会调查中建模社会关系

• 发表时间: 2015
• 作者: Griffiths D

Is Britain pulling apart? Evidence from the analysis of social distance

英国正在分裂吗？

• 发表时间: 2014
• 作者: Lambert PS

Insights: 2014 findings from the largest longitudinal study of UK households

见解：2014 年英国家庭最大的纵向研究结果

• 发表时间: 2014
• 作者: Lambert, P. S.;Griffiths, D.;Gayle, V.;Tranmer, M.
• 通讯作者: Tranmer, M.

The multilevel model framework for investigating variations in socio-economic status by occupational classification

通过职业分类调查社会经济地位变化的多层次模型框架

• 发表时间: 2015
• 作者: Tranmer M

Divergence or convergence: Social distance in contemporary lives

分歧还是趋同：当代生活中的社交距离

• 发表时间: 2015
• 作者: Griffiths D