Cristian Pop | Babes-Bolyai University (original) (raw)

Papers by Cristian Pop

Journal of population studies, 2013

The current study is concerned with the Romanian social structure seen through a new conceptualiz... more The current study is concerned with the Romanian social structure seen through a new conceptualization of the Romanian social classes. Using the data from the STRATSOC 2010 research project, I introduce a new class schema, adapted to present post-communist social context. In other words, the purpose of this work is to understand which are the social classes that are best suited to present the current Romanian context and which the criteria that can be used in constructing these social classes. For these reasons, my research is a methodological contribution to the complex and dynamic field of social stratification studies. As an outcome, using a transparent set of criteria, I create a new analytical tool comparable to similar international tools: that is a class schema-based on occupations-calibrated to capture the differences between social classes and to present the stratification order in post-socialist Romania.

In this paper I discuss the socio-economic status attainment process in contemporary Romania. I l... more In this paper I discuss the socio-economic status attainment process in contemporary Romania. I link this process with a class analysis that reveals some mutations in the general model. This general model is based on Blau and Duncan’s work who rely on variables describing occupations end education for individuals and their fathers. My work is also a methodological contribution to the status attainment literature based on a new class schema fitted to explain the new realities from post-communist Romania. Using path analysis, I show that socio-economic background still has an important influence on the status attainment process of the individuals. Furthermore, the privileged and the middle classes follow a somehow different pattern from the deprived classes who reproduce their social status.

My work is a contribution to the social mobility literature by discussing the case of Romania in ... more My work is a contribution to the social mobility literature by discussing the case of Romania in a wider context. The article will present and explain the mobility patterns of five historical cohorts, with accents of men and women (dis)similarities, born in different socio-historical contexts. They are related to various social classes which influence their life trajectories and chances for social mobility (e.g. men tend to move upwards, the high status classes maintain their positions, the members of the younger cohorts are more mobile etc.). My intention is to describe the current intergenerational social mobility in Romania, and the differences related to the mobility rates between cohorts of individuals born in distinct periods. I will search after explanations for these differences, implied by complex methodologies (such as logistic regressions, dissimilarity index or origin-destination cross-tabulations). The analyses of the intergenerational mobility rates, both absolute and relative (odds ratios), will be done with a critical eye on the limitations impose by these rates.

Sociologie Româneasca = Romanian Sociology, 2008

This paper aims to capture the relationship between the social class and social inequalities, usi... more This paper aims to capture the relationship between the social class and social inequalities, using a subjective positioning, namely a respondent's perspective upon its own position in society, using data collected on a national dataset. A subjective approach offers a glance into the manner in which social inequalities are constructed and applied by and on different categories, also creating the context for a discussion related to the reasons and implications of these perceived societal positions. I guide my analysis on two assumptions: 1. that different individuals, belonging to different social classes – measured in an objective way – discern and comprehend in multiple forms the structure of the Romanian society; 2. these individuals self-position themselves according to their perception and to their objective position in the stratification order. The results did not support the first assumption because a large proportion of the individuals from our sample describe and understand the Romanian society as one characterized by important inequalities between people. However, I found evidence for the second, related assumption, as all classes seem to aspire to be part of the middle class and to report that they are closer to that middle class than the objective measures would suggest.

International Review of Social Research, 2011

I will discuss in this article the dynamics of business groups, using the case of architects from... more I will discuss in this article the dynamics of business groups, using the case of architects from three Transylvanian cities (Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Brasov with emphasis on Cluj-Napoca). The architecture companies successfully represent the current trends of company organization in dynamic contexts, generated by the market changes, where services become the most important products of large cities. Using a sample of 375 architectural companies from these cities that employ 616 persons, I outline a field model inspired by Bourdieu’s work. My argument is that the large number of actors in the architectural networks from Cluj-Napoca is explained by the different forms of educational, economic, social and politic capital mobilized to create competitive companies and to survive within an instable post-socialist economic environment. Moreover, the internal structure of network organization from Cluj-Napoca is based on the usage of different types of available capital.

The main interrogation addressed in this paper is related to the mechanisms that produce stratifi... more The main interrogation addressed in this paper is related to the mechanisms that produce stratification among individuals from different social classes. Following Domanski's et. al. (2009) work, in order to characterize an occupational position in the social structure, I use three dimensions: 1. skill requirements, 2. complexity of work and 3. material remuneration. All these measurable dimensions are used to create a stratification index useful in comparing the objective positions of individuals from different social classes and born in different socio-historical contexts. Also, I imply a critical perspective in order to open the discussion about the limitations of this approach. The results portray a highly unequal society with a few privileged categories at one end of the scale, and some severely deprived ones, at the other end of the stratification scale.

The purpose of this paper is to present a general frame for theoretical and methodological unders... more The purpose of this paper is to present a general frame for theoretical and methodological understanding, of the social structure from a given country. The social structure has two important components: social class and social stratification. Social class is the fundamental concept, defined in a relational manner, because it is related to the political and economical organization of the society. Throughout this paper I describe the criteria used in constructing social classes, and the importance of these classes in explaning social realities. The other important concept is the social stratification - the hierarchical ordering of the society in terms of power, privileges and prestige; the analysis of the distribution of commonly desired goods, shaped by questions related to who gets what, through what channels, and with what consequences. My approach is to consider both size of the phenomenon with a critical eye, which means questioning the classical construct of social classes in the light of a rather soft concept such as life style, habitus, well being and the other way around, having in mind that the Lebenswelt is always guided by macro-structural categories.

Education is regarded as an important vehicle of social mobility and status attainment, yet it ha... more Education is regarded as an important vehicle of social mobility and status attainment, yet it has different effects on individuals' occupational trajectories. The historical variation of these effects follows the social, economic and political changes taking place in the society. Using the empirical data provided by the STRATSOC 2010 research 3 , we analyze, in a longitudinal perspective, the changes in the correspondence between the respondents' education and their occupations in Romania, for five generations born between 1920-1985. Our study focuses on the variation in time of two variables: respondent's occupation and education. The first part of the paper consists of a descriptive analysis of the evolution in time of the maximum level of educational attainment and of the first occupational status held by individuals. In the second part, we perform a multivariate analysis in order to examine, in a historical, generational perspective, the changes in the correspondence between education and occupational status in Romania.

I will discuss in this article the dynamics of business groups, using the case of architects from... more I will discuss in this article the dynamics of business groups, using the case of architects from three Transylvanian cities (Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Brasov with emphasis on Cluj-Napoca). The architecture companies successfully represent the current trends of company organization in dynamic contexts, generated by the market changes, where services become the most important products of large cities. Using a sample of 375 architectural companies from these cities that employ 616 persons, I outline a field model inspired by Bourdieu's work. My argument is that the large number of actors in the architectural networks from Cluj-Napoca is explained by the different forms of educational, economic, social and politic capital mobilized to create competitive companies and to survive within an instable post-socialist economic environment. Moreover, the internal structure of network organization from Cluj-Napoca is based on the usage of different types of available capital.

The changes arised after the fall of the communism period from Central Eastern Europe were a good... more The changes arised after the fall of the communism period from Central Eastern Europe were a good source of reflection for the ones who were interested in the way in which the communism first appeared in these areas and it was a good chance of understanding the various forms that it can have. The writings about this field are numerous; there were approached different components of the society, either political, economical, cultural or social, but as a point of reference for this paper I chose the theory of embourgeoisment (Szelenyi, 1995), about which we know it has an important influence reported at the Hungarian space and we will try to adapt it to the Cluj space after 1989. Cluj-Napoca is a special case, because here the communism and the first business men networks followed a different path compared to the other Romanian places, precisely due to the different local context that was dominated in the first years of communism period by a nationalist party. Here appears that embourgeoisement phenomenon due to the different actual conditions that made more difficult to apply other theories, useful in the explanation of the Romanian general situation. The methodology I used is social network analysis, based on both public data processing and interviews in order to show that there is another kind of embourgeoisement in Cluj that is not based on a rural substrate inherited from communism, but on achieved and gained knowledge in order to build a local capital. The first part of the text will focus on the changes produced in Central Eastern Europe during the post-communism, the second part will rely on the changes produced in Romania during this transit period, followed by the third part that relies on the special context from Cluj sustained by examples and explanations of the local embourgeoisement phenomenon and by a conclusion where the results are presented and discussed.

Books by Cristian Pop

Conf. univ. dr. Cătălin Augustin Stoica © 2016 Autorul volumului. Toate drepturile rezervate. Rep... more Conf. univ. dr. Cătălin Augustin Stoica © 2016 Autorul volumului. Toate drepturile rezervate. Reproducerea integrală sau parţială a textului, prin orice mijloace, fără acordul autorului, este interzisă şi se pedepseşte conform legii.

Journal of population studies, 2013

Sociologie Româneasca = Romanian Sociology, 2008

International Review of Social Research, 2011

I will discuss in this article the dynamics of business groups, using the case of architects from... more I will discuss in this article the dynamics of business groups, using the case of architects from three Transylvanian cities (Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Brasov with emphasis on Cluj-Napoca). The architecture companies successfully represent the current trends of company organization in dynamic contexts, generated by the market changes, where services become the most important products of large cities. Using a sample of 375 architectural companies from these cities that employ 616 persons, I outline a field model inspired by Bourdieu's work. My argument is that the large number of actors in the architectural networks from Cluj-Napoca is explained by the different forms of educational, economic, social and politic capital mobilized to create competitive companies and to survive within an instable post-socialist economic environment. Moreover, the internal structure of network organization from Cluj-Napoca is based on the usage of different types of available capital.