̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Jacqueline Scott

Home from home: minor moves make major differences

lw355 — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 13:39:41 +0000

It was no coincidence that house price rises, increased housing transactions and a surge in employment within the property industry were seen as signs of an upturn in the economy late last summer. One in four new jobs created in the previous 12 months, it emerged from data produced by the Office for National Statistics, were in the housing sector. Our homes are more than our castles: they are, in many ways, the lifeblood of the economy.

Behind the jibes branding Britain as a nation of estate agents is a highly significant fact. On average, more than half of the moves we make in our lifetimes are within roughly 5 km of our previous addresses. ̽��ֱ��term migration conjures up an image of large distances – crossing national boundaries or even continents – but the moves we undertake most frequently are much more local and are often motivated by the desire to make what might be seen as relatively minor adjustments to how we live.

At first glance there is nothing remarkable about moving just a few streets or to accommodation with three bedrooms rather than two – or to downsize from a house to an apartment. But the importance of this internal mobility should not, however, be underestimated, either in terms of what these moves mean to the people involved or how they contribute to the bigger picture of local and regional economies.

These aspects of internal migration – and others – are of great interest to Professor Jacqueline Scott and Dr Rory Coulter from the Department of Sociology. Together they are collaborating on research that explores the links between residential mobility (or immobility), life events and household changes, and exchanges of social support within families.

In the early 1990s Scott was responsible for the initial design and implementation of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) – a hugely important resource for the study of changing family and household structures that was begun while she was at the ̽��ֱ�� of Essex. Her research interests include inter-generational relations and shifting gender roles. Coulter, whose PhD focused on the links between moving desires and subsequent moving behaviour, describes his key interest as “the interactions between people and places – how people shape places, and conversely how places shape people”.

Their research into internal migration aims to get to the heart of why we move, when we move, and what those moves mean in terms of the small but vitally important details of our lives. Where we live, and how close (or distant) we are to the people and places most significant in our day-to-day lives, play a huge part in our well-being. A move closer to the station, to the catchment area of a particular school or to a preferred neighbourhood, for instance, may have important personal implications for opportunities for work, education and friendships. When taken with the moves made by others, this has wider implications for the provision of transport, schools and other businesses, services and facilities.

Data extrapolated from BHPS (1991–2008) and its successor survey, Understanding Society, which is run from the ̽��ֱ�� of Essex’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and funded primarily by the Economic and Social Research Council, can give us the much-needed human angle on internal migration. We know, for example, that moves peak early in young adulthood (18–30), and that the frequency of moving declines rapidly after age 35. We know too that changing family trajectories impact on household size and thus on housing demand. But much more remains to be discovered about the finer details of decision-making surrounding internal migration.

As Coulter explained: “Data from panel surveys like BHPS are an incredibly rich resource for studying residential mobility. For example, using BHPS we are able to model exactly when people move home. We can estimate how having a baby affects how likely a couple are to move, as well as the type of dwelling and neighbourhood they choose to move to.

“By enabling us to model the timing of job changes and residential moves, BHPS data also allow us to study how people use residential mobility to co-ordinate their work and family life. In addition, because many panel surveys like BHPS interview every member of selected households, we are able to get multiple people’s perspectives on each relocation event. This allows us to explore which partner’s preferences have the strongest effects on a couple’s moving behaviour, as well as how moves affect the social networks of adults and their children”.Scott is particularly interested in the relationship between residential mobility – or immobility – and family support networks. This includes looking at how gender affects household moving decisions and who benefits and gains most when a household makes (or does not make) a residential move.

̽��ֱ��past 30 years or so have seen families disperse across greater distances as a result of employment change (for example, the decline of traditional industries and the growth of service sector employment) and the expansion of higher education. However, falling levels of state support combined with the demands of an aging population and political aspirations to increase female employment mean that support from family remains a vital aspect of well-being for many people.

“Given that informal networks for supplying and receiving many forms of support (such as childcare from family members) require people to live nearby to each other, it’s surprising that relatively little is known about how support exchanges may influence and be configured by residential mobility behaviour in conjunction with changes in family structures,” said Scott.

One example might be the decisions that underlie elderly people moving to be closer to their children or, conversely, children moving to be closer to their elderly parents. Another might be to investigate how residential moves are prompted by other life events such as childbirth or union dissolution (divorce or relationship break-up).

“We hope that our work will throw light on the question of how residential mobility is linked to family transitions and the changing supply and receipt of social support over the course of people’s lives. ̽��ֱ��answer to this complex question is likely to be correspondingly complex. To tackle it we will draw on the rich longitudinal data collected by surveys such as BHPS over the last two decades,” said Scott.

“By providing evidence about the links between residential mobility and exchanges of social support within social and kin networks, we anticipate that our work could inform the planning and policy development decisions of a range of government bodies and non-governmental organisations.”

Most of the moves we make are within 5 km of our previous addresses, yet these short migrations are highly significant within individual lives. New research is looking at the links between residential mobility, life events and exchanges of social support within families.

By providing evidence about the links between residential mobility and exchanges of social support within social and kin networks, our work could inform planning and policy development decisions.

Jacqueline Scott

See Tatt Yeo

Housing estate

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Charting gender's "incomplete revolution"

bjb42 — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:01:14 +0000

A major survey of gender inequality in contemporary society has found lingering echoes of old-fashioned, “male breadwinner” values, but also evidence that men are happier when they do their fair share of household chores.

̽��ֱ��findings are among dozens of results that have emerged from a five-year research project investigating equality between the sexes, and which are now being published in a book, Gendered Lives.

It charts the causes, consequences and prospects for what the Danish sociologist, Gøsta Esping-Andersen, called an “incomplete revolution” in gender equality in Europe, and asks how greater equality between men and women can be achieved.

Optimistically, parts of the study found that even outside countries such as the Nordic states, where governments have actively promoted measures designed to promote greater equality, the gap between men in women in fields like the division of domestic labour is closing.

At the same time, however, the initiative also identified causes for deep concern. Many companies in the UK, for example, still see little incentive for altering the employment conditions of their staff to ensure that the work-life balance of men and women is equitable. Several of the researchers involved in the project also conclude that the only way to close certain aspects of the gulf between the sexes, such as the gender-pay gap, is through legal compulsion.

̽��ֱ��study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, was deliberately wide-ranging and complex. It covers attitudes and approaches towards gender equality over time, in different countries and at different levels - ranging from government policy to individual families. ̽��ֱ��researchers argue that this approach is important because we can only improve gender equality if we understand that it is the consequence of a network of multiple causes and effects.

Jacqueline Scott, Professor of Sociology at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and co-editor of the book, said: “There has been a lot of social theory about how people ‘do’ gender, in other words, how they behave in accordance with society’s expectations about what it means to be a man or a woman.”

“What we sometimes forget is that institutions are doing gender as well. Politicians, employers, schools and kindergartens, care homes and many other organisations all make decisions which impact directly on what is expected of families and these can challenge or reinforce traditional ideas about what men and women can or cannot do. If these decisions are not joined up, it can limit real gender equality overall.”

̽��ֱ��idea of an incomplete revolution refers to a mixed picture in terms of gender equality across Europe. Since the 1960s, society has witnessed the demise of the traditional “male breadwinner” family, in which men went out to work and women stayed at home. More women have gone into higher education, managerial jobs, or professional occupations. Many now earn a salary comparable with their male counterparts.

At the same time, however, it is widely acknowledge that the gap has not closed completely. Many women still struggle to strike a work-life balance, especially when it comes to having children. Some decide not to have children for the sake of their careers, while others “rein in” their careers to start a family. Often they do this by reducing their working hours; in the UK, for example, 40% of women work part time, compared with just 10% of men. And the gender gap has only narrowed in certain areas - women still shoulder far more unpaid housework, for example.

One surprising outcome of the research project was that some attitudes from the days of male-breadwinner dominance have not disappeared.

Researchers expected to find, for example, that both men and women will be more satisfied with their household income if they have earned the money themselves. In fact, a series of interviews with couples on low or moderate incomes revealed that both tend to prize the man’s income more.

̽��ֱ��authors suggest that this is really a modern version of the old idea that a man should eat well even when food for other family members is scarce, so that he has the strength to go out and earn a living. ̽��ֱ��authors reflect that: “ ̽��ֱ��saying, ‘the more things change, the more things stay the same’, springs to mind.”

Perhaps more surprising still, however, is that another study found that men are actually happier when they make an equal contribution to household chores. This research, which spanned Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Britain, set data from the European Social Survey on how much people experience work-life conflict alongside other measures of their well-being. ̽��ֱ��participants were then asked how much time they spent on tasks like cooking, washing, cleaning, shopping and property maintenance.

̽��ֱ��academics expected to find that men’s work-family conflict rose, and their well-being fell, when they did more housework. In practice, they found the opposite, with conflict falling, and well-being going up. ̽��ֱ��study suggests that this may be because more men support gender equality, so they feel uncomfortable if the woman does most of the housework, and because women are becoming more assertive and making their dissatisfaction with lazy partners plain!

Prospects for the future remain mixed. On the one hand, an investigation into the business case for closing the workplace gender gap was “not encouraging”. It found that many companies in the UK, at least, see little reason to relax their policy on matters such as paternity leave or improve gender equality in terms of work place conditions and pay. Many of the researchers involved in the project argue that government legislation is needed to force the hands of companies in both the public and private sectors.

At the same time, however, there are grounds for optimism. Regardless of policy regimes, researchers found evidence that across Europe, the gap between women and men in terms of how much paid and unpaid work both do, is closing. In the Nordic states, where far more has been done by governments to improve gender equality, the improvements have been more rapid - but even in southern Europe, where far less has been done, women live on an increasingly equal footing with men. “ ̽��ֱ��conclusion is that as far as gender roles are concerned, there is staggered adaptation, rather than a stalled revolution,” the book’s editors conclude.

A major investigation into gender equality across Europe expresses “deep concern” about the prospects for further closing the gender-pay gap, and finds evidence for the survival of “male breadwinner” ideals. At the same time, it also reveals that men are happier when doing their fair share of housework.

Many organisations make decisions which challenge or reinforce traditional ideas about what men and women can or cannot do. If these decisions are not joined up, it can limit real gender equality overall.

Jacqueline Scott

Open Democracy from Flickr.

Gender Equality symbol.

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Gender equality in modern times

bjb42 — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��Gender Equality Network (GeNet) links academics from eight UK institutions who are conducting empirical research on gender equality. Funded since 2004 with £3 million from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Network is coordinated by Professor Jackie Scott, from Cambridge’s Department of Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences.

"Society today is witnessing an ongoing paradigm shift in gender relations," said Professor Scott. "We have gone beyond the male breadwinner/ female homemaker post-war family. Dramatic changes have taken place in the workforce and enormous progress has been made in policy, but a gap remains in women’s attainment in the world of paid work, and this relates to the unequal division of unpaid work in the home."

Nine projects funded through the Network ask questions such as why has the gender wage gap proved so difficult to overcome? Do women who play an equal role in the workforce do so at the expense of family life? How have career paths for men and women changed across the generations? What are young people’s aspirations for gender equality? How do families trade off conflicts between time and money? What steps have corporations taken to support equity goals?

In Cambridge, Professor Simon Deakin, Programme Director in the Centre for Business Research at Judge Business School, is addressing gender inequality through progressive human resource management in the workplace. And Professor Scott is examining shifts in public opinion about women’s work–family balance.

"I’m a tremendous fan of Network grants," said Professor Scott. "From the very start, all members bought into the goal of talking to each other, informing each other’s work and contributing to joint outputs. ̽��ֱ��Network has given us the critical mass and diverse expertise needed to create a really strong factual understanding of gender equalities, what choices we make as adults, and how we might shape our children’s lives at the start of the 21st century."

For more information, please contact Professor Jackie Scott (jls1004@cam.ac.uk; www.genet.ac.uk).

̽��ֱ��largest multidisciplinary research network of its kind in the UK is investigating why gender equality is still a pressing social issue in the 21st century.

Society today is witnessing an ongoing paradigm shift in gender relations

Jackie Scott

State Library of South Australia from Flickr

Stacking practice bombs

Economic and Social Research Council

̽��ֱ��Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) supports research from across the social sciences, from sociology to anthropology, through to statistics, methods and computing.

̽��ֱ��ESRC’s aim is to equip the UK with the knowledge and evidence needed to prosper in a demanding and unpredictable world: whether it’s tackling economic and social problems, making the most of business opportunities, improving the impact of education strategies, or understanding global uncertainties.

A third of the ESRC budget (£56 million in 2007/2008) is allocated to postgraduate studentships, to strengthen future research by training the next generation of social scientists, and nearly two-thirds (£105 million in 2007/2008) is allocated to research.

̽��ֱ��Gender Equality Network (GeNet) is highlighted here. Other examples of some of the larger ESRC-funded projects in Cambridge include:

̽��ֱ��Electricity Policy Research Group (EPRG).
A three-year, £1.1 million project is exploring the potential of emerging semantic web technologies to support teaching and learning. Jointly funded by the ESRC and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the Technology Enhanced Learning Programme, the ‘Ensemble’ project is led by Dr Patrick Carmichael in the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET).
Issues of international collaboration, knowledge transfer and capacity building in biomedical science and bioethics are being addressed by a three-year study in the Department of Social Anthropology led by Professor Marilyn Strathern and Dr Monica Konrad. ̽��ֱ��ESRC has contributed £1.2 million to support the study.
̽��ֱ��Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study, led by Professor Per-Olof Wikström in the Institute of Criminology, has been awarded £2.6 million over five years to contribute to a better understanding of the causes of young people’s involvement in crime.
A £2.5 million, five-year grant ‘Conflict in Cities’ led by Dr Wendy Pullan in the Department of Architecture is investigating how cities that have been torn apart by ethnic unrest or war may regenerate.
̽��ֱ��Centre for Public Health Research Excellence in Diet and Physical Activity at the Institute of Public Health is providing the evidence base for improving diet and physical activity across the population. Funding was provided under the umbrella of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC), a partnership of funders administered by the ESRC, which together have invested £20 million over five years to establish five Centres of Excellence in the UK.
̽��ֱ��UK Innovation Research Centre (UK IRC) is a recently announced collaborative venture between the Centre for Business Research at Judge Business School and Imperial College Business School to research into how innovation can make businesses more competitive. ̽��ֱ��Centre is part of a wider initiative that will receive £5 million over the next five years from its partner funders, which includes the ESRC.

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