Naslov
Class, Stratification and Women's Market Involment in Croatia

Autori
Sredl, Katherine ; Renko, Nataša ; Pecotich, Anthony

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u zbornicima skupova, cjeloviti rad (in extenso), znanstveni

Skup
32nd Macromarketing Conference

Mjesto i datum
Sjedinjene Američke Države, 06.2007

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
class stratification; social stratification; transition economy; gender; ethnography; Croatia

Sažetak
These preliminary findings opened with the proposition that just as Holt has argued cultural capital determines the replication of social stratification in the United States, so too might cultural capital influence the replication of class differences in Zagreb during state socialism and after (1984 ; 1998). Zagreb is an important site for this research as its context is counter to the case in the United States in many ways. Family prestige, education and employment rather than wealth would tend to determine status according to informants in Zagreb. In the United States, with its social and geographical mobility and generalized access to higher education, these would be less influential as determinants. Moreover, the overall affluence and availability of goods in the United States compared to Zagreb is significant. It is also important to note that in general it is not possible to say the government limits earnings in the United States, while in Zagreb during state socialism, this was the case. Regardless, informants participating in this research would describe class differences during state socialism. Many of these differences are related to forms of cultural capital: education and prestige of the parents and the informant. Thus, preliminary findings suggest that cultural capital is a factor in the replication of social stratification not only outside the United States but also outside the conditions of market capitalism. This research also added gender as a factor in exploring cultural capital and the replication of social stratification. This has largely been overlooked in the marketing literature. The implicit assumption is that status comes from the father or husband’ s position because women tend to face discrimination in promotions and wages. The official arrangement of state socialist gender equality, however, brought equality on all forms at work. The party also sought gender equality on a broad, social level, for example through education, as a means of ending patriarchy. It tended to be the case that patriarchy continued in practice, but the benefits of state socialism in bringing women into public life were significant. This research asks how those benefits might have influenced women’ s roles in replicating class differences through consumption. First, the goal was to determine women’ s cultural capital as part of social stratification and then how it influenced consumption. This research has so far determined education, education of parents (especially the father) and prestige of the family as determinants of a woman’ s status during state socialism. The process of the replication of these differences seems also to have been a part of the socialist experience. They influenced where she could afford to live and what job she could be qualified for. There also seems to be connected with whom she could marry. The informants married men with an equal educational and professional status. The education and employment of a spouse is often recognized by scholars as important in determining a woman’ s social status (Marshall et al. 1988). In this case, it is not clear if the husband’ s position enhanced the woman’ s because they tended to be more equal from the beginning. Perhaps the gender equality of state socialism came not so much from equal access or the so-called elimination of patriarchy, but the preliminary findings suggest something more was going on. The notion of equality came because social status continued to be important during state socialism and a woman’ s employment and education contributed to the family’ s status. Thus, it was the continuation of social stratification during state socialism and new ways for women to contribute to the family’ s status, or at least the decline in men as the sole determiners, that might have influenced the dynamics of gender equity during state socialism but not, as has been argued, the elimination of social stratification and its replication in patriarchy. It may even have been the status of women that replicates stratification. Their consumption and their ability to contribute the family’ s consumption of holidays and clothing as well as display of status at the table during holiday meals would have been influential. What they inherited from their parents would also contribute to the status of the family. The next step for this research is to explore that further through data collection and analysis.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Ekonomija

POVEZANOST RADA