Social mobility and social capital in China and Britain, a comparative study

Lead Research Organisation: University of Manchester
Department Name: Social Sciences

Abstract

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Description At the overall level, social inequalities in mobility are greater in China than in Britain but the key point is that China's household registration system prevented people of rural origins to achieve upward mobility. If we differentiate the mobility patterns within the rural and the urban sectors, then the mobility patterns within each sector are similar to those in Britain. Chinese women suffered the most in comparison to both Chinese men and British men and women. In terms of social capital, informal social capital is stronger in China and former social capital is stronger in Britain. This is due to both the relative lack for civic tradition and dense in formal networks in China and possibly to the government control of formal organised civic engagement in China.

The more recent research has also found that whilst the temporal change in terms of relative mobility shows trendless fluctuation, trends of change in terms of birth cohorts show significant signs of growing inequality: family origin effects for the younger cohorts are significantly stronger than for older people.
Exploitation Route Most of my research findings are academic but I have also done a lot of policy oriented research such as:

Li, Y. (2018) 'Persisting Ethnic Disadvantages in the UK', report submitted to the Women and Equalities Committee inquiry into the Government's Race Disparity Audit on 18/12/2017; published on 10/1/2018 http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/women-and-equalities-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/race-disparity-audit-17-19/publications/. Directly available at http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/women-and-equalities-committee/race-disparity-audit/written/75982.pdf

Heath, A., Li, Y., and Garratt, E. (2016) Evidence submitted to independent review into Issues Faced by Businesses in Developing Black and Minority Ethnic Talent, London: BIS.

Devine, F. and Li, Y. (2015/6) 'Submission to House of Lords Select Committee on Social Mobility', submitted to House of Lords on 14/9/2015, http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/social-mobility-committee/social-mobility/written/21433.pdf. Also incorporated in HOUSE OF LORDS, Select Committee on Social Mobility, Report of Session 2015-16, Overlooked and left behind: improving the transition from school to work for the majority of young people, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldselect/ldsocmob/120/120.pdf, London: The Stationery Office Limited, 8 April 2016, HL Paper 120.

Heath, A. and Li, Y. (2015) 'The social mobility of ethnic minorities' Centre for Social Investigation, Nuffield College, Oxford University, CSI briefing paper No. 14, published on 15 June 2015, http://csi.nuff.ox.ac.uk
Heath, A. and Li, Y. (2015) 'Review of the relationship between religion and poverty; an analysis for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation'. CSI Working paper 2015-01. http://csi.nuff.ox.ac.uk/
Li, Y. (2015) 'Ethnic education in Britain: how has the second generation fared?', Society Central, Essex University (published on 5/6/2015): https://societycentral.ac.uk/2015/04/07/ethnic-education-in-britain-how-has-the-second-generation-fared/.
Li, Y. (2015) 'Ethnic education and labour market position in Britain (1972-2013)', Runnymede Perspective, in The Runnymede School Report -- Race, Education and Inequality in Contemporary Britain, edited by Claire Alexander, Debbie Weekes-Bernard and Jason Arday, published on 15/9/2015.
Li, Y. (2015) 'Enduring disadvantages: When following in dad's footsteps is bad for the career', Society Central, Essex University https://societycentral.ac.uk/2015/03/31/enduring-disadvantages-when-following-in-dads-footsteps-is-bad-for-the-career/ (published on 31/3/2015).
Li, Y. and Heath, A. (2015) 'Are we becoming more or less ethnically-divided?' Centre for Social Investigation, Nuffield College, Oxford University, CSI briefing paper No. 10, http://csi.nuff.ox.ac.uk/?page_id=167 (published on 17/3/2015)
Li, Y. (2015) 'Ethnic minority unemployment in hard times', Runnymede Perspectives: Aiming Higher Race, Inequality and Diversity in the Academy, London: Runnymede: pp: 35-37. (published 10/2/2015).
Li, Y. (2015) 'Women's employment and class mobility in Britain', Society Central, Essex University. (https://societycentral.ac.uk/2015/02/12/ethnic-minority-women-getting-work/ published on 12/2/2015)
Li, Y. and Heath, A. (2015) 'Evidence of ethnic disadvantages in the British labour market', published on 21/5/2015 by APPG and DEMOS http://www.integrationhub.net/module/work-and-welfare/.

Breach, Anthony. and Li, Y. (2017) 'Gender Pay Gap by Ethnicity in Britain - Briefing', London: Fawcett. Pp 1-25. Published on 6/3/2017 https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Gender-Pay-Gap-by-Ethnicity-in-Britain-Final-Briefing.pdf ; https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=f31d6adc-9e0e-4bfe-a3df-3e85605ee4a9
Western, M., Huang, X., Bian, Y., Li, Y., & Huang, Y. (2016) National Survey on Social Networks and Subjective Wellbeing in Australia (AuSNet Survey), 2014. [Computer file]. Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland.
Li, Y. (2016) 'Persisting disadvantages: barriers to ethnic social mobility in the UK', in Omar Khan (ed.) Race and Class, London: Runnymede (submitted on 14/8/2016).
Li, Y. (2016) 'In search of an equal and happy society - a report of two forthcoming papers on social mobility and wellbeing in Britain', for CMIST newsletter (submitted on 30/5/2016, Contact person: Dr. Bram Vanhoutte).
Li, Y. (2016) 'BME progression in the labour market', for Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, with Ken Clark and Dharmi Kapadia (BIS contact: Joshua Leedale).
Li, Y. (2016) 'How likely is a second-generation black person to become primary minister in Britain?', research for BBC Current Affairs (BBC contact: Karlene Pinnock).
Li, Y. (2016) 'Muslim women's labour market position in Britain', for the Strategy Unit, Cabinet Office (Strategy Unit contact: Zamila Bunglawala)
Li, Y. (2016) 'Changing incomes of Bangladeshis', for New Statesman (contact: Tim Wigmore).
Li, Y. (2016) 'The social mobility of ethnic groups in Britain', for Policy Exchange (contact: Richard Norrie).
Li, Y. (2016) 'The class position of 2nd generational ethnic minority members in Britain', in Omar Khan (ed.) Ethnicity and Class, London: Runnymede.
Heath, A. and Li, Y. (2015/2016) 'The social mobility of ethnic minorities' Centre for Social Investigation, Nuffield College, Oxford University, CSI briefing paper No. 22, published March 2016, http://csi.nuff.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/CSI-22-social-mobility-of-ethnic-minorities.pdf

Li, Y. and Heath, A. (2014) 'The upward and downward social mobility of men in different ethnic groups in Britain', Society Central, Essex University, http://societycentral.ac.uk/2014/11/04/well-immigrants-fare-uk-society/ published on 4/11/2014
Li, Y. (2014) 'Racial inequality in employment worsened in recessions', CoDE, Manchester University, http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/featured/2014/09/racial-inequality-in-employment-worsened-in-recessions/ published on 1/9/2014
Li, Y. and Heath, A. (2014) 'Inheriting success?', in Shamit Saggar (ed.) Insight, ISER, Essex University, p28 at https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/insights2014
Li and Heath (2014) 'Ethnic social mobility in Britain', reported in the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/jun/12/ethnic-minorities-employment-and-social-mobility-see-the-research-findings
Li, Y. (2014) 'Ethnic unemployment in Britain (1972-2012)', London: Runnymede.
Li, Y. (2014) 'Social mobility and social capital in China and Britain, a comparative study', data deposited at data-archive, for the ESRC project http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=851037&type=Data%20catalogue http://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/851037/
Savage, M., Devine, F. Laurison, D., Cunningham, N., Taylor, M., Miles, A., Li, Y. and Wakeling, P. (2015) 'BBC Great British Class Survey, 2011-2013' (data deposit, Grant Number: RES-577-28-0001).
Heath, A. and Li, Y. (2014) 'What do we know about socio-economic integration, and what are the key emerging issues', London: DCLG.
Heath, A. and Li, Y. (2014) Review of the relationship between religion and poverty, in REDUCING POVERTY IN THE UK: A COLLECTION OF EVIDENCE REVIEWS, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, pp: 33-36. http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jrf.org.uk%2Fsites%2Ffiles%2Fjrf%2FReducing-poverty-reviews-FULL_0.pdf&ei=RqUZVYrLM-uO7AaQuYBo&usg=AFQjCNF6p9qqUMTPHVm-tO6hz-PK-zYBzw&bvm=bv.89381419,d.ZGU
Heath, A. and Li, Y. (2013) Projecting Mobility Trends, Confidential Report of the Government Office for Science, London: the Cabinet Office.
Li, Y. (2011) 'Evidence of linked-topics research in the GHS', research report for the ESDS/ONS, http://www.esds.ac.uk/government/ghs/consultation/li.pdf , pp: 1-9.
Li, Y. (2011) 'Ethnicity and public-sector employment during the current recession', research report for the Runnymede Trust.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice
URL http://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/Yaojun.Li
 
Description Yes, researchers in Understanding Society, Society Central, DCLG, COMPAS, DEMOS and Centre for Social Investigation at Nuffield, Oxford University have all come to use my findings which were also reported in the Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/jun/12/ethnic-minorities-employment-and-social-mobility-see-the-research-findings. In China, the City Government at Shenzhen and the Development and Reform Committee under the State Council have used some of the results in our findings, particularly concerning the migrant workers, in their decision-making. I have conducted more research and reported the findings in journal papers such as Zhao, Y. and Li, Y. (2019)'Differential acculturation: a study of intergenerational mobility and institutional effects on well-being in China', Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038518818405 Li, Y. and Heath, A. (2018) 'Persisting disadvantages: A study of labour market dynamics of ethnic unemployment and earnings in the UK (2009-2015)', Journal of Ethnic Minority Studies, 1-22. Zhang, M. and Li, Y.* (2018) 'Family fortunes: the persisting grandparents effects in contemporary British society', Social Science Research, 77: 179-192. I am doing more research on social and educational mobility in China and will report the findings in the book I am editing titled 'Social Inequality in China' to be published by World Science Publishing House.
First Year Of Impact 2018
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services