Nan Dirk de Graaf explained

Nan Dirk de Graaf (born 1958) is a Dutch sociologist working in Nuffield College, University of Oxford.[1] He is known for his work on social stratification, religion (with a focus on secularisation), political sociology, the impact of social mobility on a variety of social issues (e.g., health, cultural consumption, and political preferences), pro-social behaviour, as well as his books.

Biography

Nan Dirk de Graaf joined Nuffield College in 2007 and is an Official Fellow and a Professor in Sociology. He obtained his PhD at Utrecht University (1988) and was a post-doc researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Education and Human Development in Berlin (1988-1989). De Graaf was a research fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy (1990-1995) and a full Professor in Sociology at Nijmegen University (2001-2007). Between 2003 and 2007 he was the chair of the Inter-university Centre for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS).[2]

Research

Social Stratification

De Graaf’s work challenged some of the notions of the transmission of social capital as formulated by Pierre Bourdieu.[3] For Bourdieu, the effect of families’ social origin on educational attainment is dependent on economic capital and increasingly on cultural resources of privileged parents. De Graaf and colleagues, contrary to Bourdieu’s claims, demonstrate that it is not the elites that were successfully transmitting their cultural capital on their children’s educational attainment, but rather the cultivating behaviour (particularly in reading) of lower-educated parents that improved their children’s educational attainment.[4] [5] Furthermore, social stratification is determined by the degree of heterogamy displayed by the marriages within a society, and it is also the result of social capital.[6] People with more weak ties have access to more information, which leads to better life chances.

Consequences of Social Mobility

Social mobility, either intergenerational or intragenerational, is often assumed to have various important consequences, e.g. for health, cultural consumption, political preferences, and happiness. A problem with investigating mobility effects is that social mobility is the linear transformation (

X1-X2

) of any two status variables

X1

and

X2

. Therefore, any regression equation predicting social mobility cannot be identified as all three terms are included.[7] Michael Sobel had a theoretically elegant solution to this problem, the Diagonal Mobility Models (commonly known as Diagonal Reference Models, DRM).[8] [9] De Graaf and colleagues compared the DRM model with the conventional ones, and found it superior,[10] and had applied DRMs to estimate the impact of:

(1) intergenerational class mobility on political preferences;[11] [12] [13]

(2) intra- and inter-generational social mobility on happiness;[14]

(3) the education of husband and wife on cultural consumption;[15] [16]

(4) class of wife and husband on their political preference[17] and their class identity;[18]

(5) the impact of the education of husband and wife;[19]

(6) intergenerational educational mobility on health;[20]

Religion and Secularisation

De Graaf maintains that despite secularisation, religion is still a central element of modern life. It shapes world-views, family lives, moral standards, as well as political preferences. With Kelley, De Graaf discovered that in secular societies children are more likely to become secular, but in secular societies parental religiosity is stronger positively associated with one’s own religiosity than in devout nations.[21] [22] De Graaf and colleagues have also shown that the state can accelerate the secular transition[23] and, using Dutch event history data, that people are more likely to leave faith when they are in their late teens.[24]

Lim and De Graaf tested Peter Berger’s theory of secularisation, which claims that in a religious pluralist society, religions must compete with one another and with non-religious institutions, which undermines a religion’s plausibility structure and leads to secularisation.[25] For the first time, they tested its theoretical mechanisms by perceiving religious diversity from each religious group’s perspective. They did so because any specific local religious environment has different implications depending on one’s religion. Lim and De Graaf confirmed that religious diversity, especially the share of people of other religions, tends to reduce people’s religious involvement.[26]

Political Sociology

One of De Graaf’s earliest field of research has been the changing impact of social class on political preferences.[27] [28] [29] Consequently, he investigated the rise of new social classes, the social and cultural specialists within the old service class, and their political preferences.[30] De Graaf and colleagues had also found that with decline in class voting there is also a decline in religious based voting.[31] With Van Spanje, he investigated how established parties can reduce other (upcoming) parties’ electoral support (often Right-Wing Populist Parties). An analysis of 296 elections results in 28 countries show that parroting a party decreases its support only if that party is ostracised at the same time. A party can be seen as ostracised if its largest established competitor systematically rules out all political cooperation with it.[32]

Pro-social Behaviour

Volunteering is not only helpful for society, but is also pays off at the individual level. Ruiter and De Graaf show that members of volunteering organisations are more likely to start new jobs which are better in terms of status and earnings than those of non-members. Furthermore, volunteering is beneficial when entering the labour market for the first time. Members of associations with more high-status co-members are more likely to get a new job and these jobs are of higher status too. Hence, voluntary association involvement provides an important additional network and that pays off.[33] In another study, Ruiter and De Graaf confirmed that frequent churchgoers are more active in volunteer work and discovered that a devout national context has an additional positive effect. However, the difference between secular and religious people is substantially smaller in devout countries than in secular countries. Church attendance is not relevant for volunteering in devout countries. Furthermore, religious volunteering has a strong spillover effect, implying that religious citizens also volunteer more for secular organisations. This spillover effect is stronger for Catholics than for Protestants, non-Christians and non-religious individuals.[34]

Books

Handbook of Sociological Science (2022)

Edited together with Klarita Gërxhani and Werner Raub, the book aims at an integrative perspective on ongoing developments in sociological science.[35] These developments share key methodological features and can therefore be labelled ‘rigorous sociology’. There are, however, numerous research approaches within the discipline, but this pluralism may ultimately lead to the fragmentation of the discipline. The book makes the case for progress and cumulative growth in sociological knowledge by emphasising a common core of basic methodological standards for theoretical and empirical work. The handbook sketches basic features of rigorous sociology related to theory construction, empirical research, methods, and contributions to policy-making.

Societal Problems as Public Bads (2019)

Written together with Dingeman Wiertz, this textbook discusses many pressing problems facing societies today: corruption, crime, economic inequality, religious extremism, financial crises, global warming, population ageing, gender inequalities, and the challenges of large scale migration.[36] The book demonstrates that many similar social processes lie behind these seemingly disparate problems. The problems can often be traced back to actions that are perfectly rational or well-intended from an individual perspective, but that, taken together, give rise to undesirable societal outcomes. The book also explains why some problems rank higher on the public agenda than others. Moreover, it shows how government intervention may sometimes provide a cure, yet in other times exacerbate existing problems or create new problems of its own.

Political Choice Matters (2013)

In 2013, together with Geoffrey Evans, De Graaf edited "Political Choice Matters: Explaining the strength of class and religious cleavages in cross-national perspective".[37] The volume investigates the role of ideological positions adopted by political parties in shaping the extent of class and religious voting in contemporary democracies. The key question therefore is how are political cleavages formed and how do they change? Combining over-time, cross-national data and multi-level research designs, it demonstrates that parties' programmatic positions can provide voters with choice sets that accentuate or diminish political cleavages. It also simultaneously tests alternative, ‘bottom up’, approaches that attribute changes in class and religious voting to individualisation processes associated with socio-economic development and secularisation. There are detailed case studies of eleven European and Anglo-democracies examining, mostly, election studies ranging from the post-war period until the early 21st century. These studies are augmented by a pooled cross-national and overtime analysis of 15 Western democracies using an unprecedented dataset of 188 national pooled surveys.

References

  1. Web site: Nan Dirk de Graaf . 2022-10-16 . Nuffield College Oxford University . en.
  2. Web site: ORCID . 2022-10-16 . orcid.org.
  3. Book: Bourdieu, Pierre . Outline of a Theory of Practice . 1977-06-02 . Cambridge University Press . 978-0-521-29164-4 . 1 . Nice . Richard . 10.1017/cbo9780511812507.
  4. De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Graaf . Paul M. De . Kraaykamp . Gerbert . 2000 . Parental Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment in the Netherlands: A Refinement of the Cultural Capital Perspective . Sociology of Education . 73 . 2 . 92 . 10.2307/2673239. 2673239 .
  5. De Graaf . Nan Dirk . De Graaf . Paul M. . 2002 . Formal and popular dimensions of cultural capital: effects on children's educational attainment . The Netherlands' Journal of Social Sciences . 38 . 2.
  6. De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Flap . Hendrik Derk . 1988 . "With a Little Help from My Friends": Social Resources as an Explanation of Occupational Status and Income in West Germany, The Netherlands, and the United States . Social Forces . 67 . 2 . 452 . 10.2307/2579190. 2579190 .
  7. Hendrickx . John . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Lammers . Jan . Ultee . Wout . 1993 . Models for status inconsistency and mobility: A comparison of the approaches by Hope and Sobel with the mainstream square additive model . Quality and Quantity . en . 27 . 4 . 335–352 . 10.1007/BF01102497 . 0033-5177. 2066/141066 . 26309140 . free .
  8. Sobel . Michael E. . 1981 . Diagonal Mobility Models: A Substantively Motivated Class of Designs for the Analysis of Mobility Effects . American Sociological Review . 46 . 6 . 893–906 . 10.2307/2095086 . 2095086 . 0003-1224.
  9. Sobel . Michael E. . 1985 . Social Mobility and Fertility Revisited: Some New Models for the Analysis of the Mobility Effects Hypothesis . American Sociological Review . 50 . 5 . 699–712 . 10.2307/2095383 . 2095383 . 0003-1224.
  10. De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 1991 . Distinction by consumption in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the Netherlands . European Sociological Review . en . 7 . 3 . 267–290 . 10.1093/oxfordjournals.esr.a036605 . 1468-2672.
  11. De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Ultee . Wout . 1987 . Intergenerationele mobiliteit en politieke verhoudingen . Acta Politica . 22 . 3–37. 2066/140712 .
  12. De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Nieuwbeerta . Paul . Heath . Anthony . 1995 . Class Mobility and Political Preferences: Individual and Contextual Effects . American Journal of Sociology . en . 100 . 4 . 997–1027 . 10.1086/230607 . 0002-9602. 2066/29143 . 43703013 . free .
  13. Nieuwbeerta . Paul . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 1993 . Intergenerational Class Mobility and Political Preferences in the Netherlands between 1970 and 1986 . The Netherlands' Journal of Social Sciences.
  14. Zang . Emma . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 2016 . Frustrated Achievers or Satisfied Losers? Inter- and Intragenerational Social Mobility and Happiness in China . Sociological Science . 3 . 779–800 . 10.15195/v3.a33. free .
  15. Van Berkel . Michel . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 1999 . By Virtue of Pleasantness? Housework and the Effects of Education Revisited . Sociology . en . 33 . 4 . 785–808 . 10.1177/S0038038599000498 . 220676561 . 0038-0385.
  16. De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Ganzeboom . Harry . 1990 . Statusgroepen en cultuurdeelname . Mens en Maatschappij . 65 . 3 . 219–244.
  17. De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Heath . Anthony . 1992 . Husbands' and Wives' Voting Behaviour in Britain: Class-dependent Mutual Influence of Spouses* . Acta Sociologica . en . 35 . 4 . 311–322 . 10.1177/000169939203500404 . 143702874 . 0001-6993.
  18. Sobel . Michael E. . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Heath . Anthony . Zou . Ying . 2004 . Men matter more: the social class identity of married British women, 1985-1991 . Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A . en . 167 . 1 . 37–52 . 10.1046/j.0964-1998.2003.00710.x . 143787012 . 0964-1998. free .
  19. Monden . Christiaan W.S . van Lenthe . Frank . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Kraaykamp . Gerbert . 2003 . Partner's and own education: does who you live with matter for self-assessed health, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption? . Social Science & Medicine . en . 57 . 10 . 1901–1912 . 10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00055-8. 14499514 . 2066/62967 . free .
  20. Monden . Christiaan W.S. . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 2013 . The importance of father's and own education for self-assessed health across Europe: an East-West divide?: Father's and own education and health across Europe . Sociology of Health & Illness . en . 35 . 7 . 977–992 . 10.1111/1467-9566.12015. 23278247 . free .
  21. Kelley . Jonathan . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 1997 . National Context, Parental Socialization, and Religious Belief: Results from 15 Nations . American Sociological Review . 62 . 4 . 639 . 10.2307/2657431. 2657431 .
  22. Müller . Tim S. . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Schmidt . Peter . 2014 . Which Societies Provide a Strong Religious Socialization Context? Explanations Beyond the Effects of National Religiosity: RELIGIOUS SOCIALIZATION CONTEXT . Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion . en . 53 . 4 . 739–759 . 10.1111/jssr.12147. 10330553 .
  23. Stolz . Jörg . Pollack . Detlef . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 2020-08-01 . Can the State Accelerate the Secular Transition? Secularization in East and West Germany as a Natural Experiment . European Sociological Review . en . 36 . 4 . 626–642 . 10.1093/esr/jcaa014 . 0266-7215.
  24. Need . Ariana . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 1996-05-01 . 'Losing my religion'1: a dynamic analysis of leaving the church in the Netherlands . European Sociological Review . en . 12 . 1 . 87–99 . 10.1093/oxfordjournals.esr.a018179 . 0266-7215.
  25. Book: Berger, Peter L. . The sacred canopy : elements of a sociological theory of religion . 1967 . Anchor Books . 978-1-4532-1537-1 . Garden City, New York . 137 . 793115083.
  26. Lim . Chaeyoon . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 2021-02-08 . Religious Diversity Reconsidered: Local Religious Contexts and Individual Religiosity . Sociology of Religion . en . 82 . 1 . 31–62 . 10.1093/socrel/sraa027 . 1069-4404.
  27. Book: Nieuwbeerta . Paul . The end of class politics? : class voting in comparative context . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 1999 . Oxford University Press . Geoffrey Evans . 978-0-19-152121-8 . Oxford . 23–56 . Traditional class voting in twenty postwar societies . 309365706.
  28. Werfhorst . Herman G. Van de . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 2004 . The sources of political orientations in post‐industrial society: social class and education revisited . The British Journal of Sociology . en . 55 . 2 . 211–235 . 10.1111/j.1468-4446.2004.00016.x . 15233631 . 0007-1315.
  29. De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Heath . Anthony . Need . Ariana . 2001 . Declining cleavages and political choices: the interplay of social and political factors in the Netherlands . Electoral Studies . en . 20 . 1 . 1–15 . 10.1016/S0261-3794(99)00061-X.
  30. Güveli . Ayse . Need . Ariana . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 2007 . The Rise of 'New' Social Classes within the Service Class in The Netherlands: Political Orientation of Social and Cultural Specialists and Technocrats between 1970 and 2003 . Acta Sociologica . en . 50 . 2 . 129–146 . 10.1177/0001699307077655 . 55208701 . 0001-6993.
  31. Jansen . Giedo . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Need . Ariana . 2012 . Explaining the Breakdown of the Religion–Vote Relationship in The Netherlands, 1971–2006 . West European Politics . en . 35 . 4 . 756–783 . 10.1080/01402382.2012.682344 . 154810135 . 0140-2382.
  32. Van Spanje . Joost . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 2018-01-02 . How established parties reduce other parties' electoral support: the strategy of parroting the pariah . West European Politics . en . 41 . 1 . 1–27 . 10.1080/01402382.2017.1332328 . 0140-2382. free .
  33. Ruiter . Stijn . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 2009-08-01 . Socio-economic Payoffs of Voluntary Association Involvement: A Dutch Life Course Study . European Sociological Review . en . 25 . 4 . 425–442 . 10.1093/esr/jcn051 . 0266-7215.
  34. Ruiter . Stijn . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . 2006 . National Context, Religiosity, and Volunteering: Results from 53 Countries . American Sociological Review . en . 71 . 2 . 191–210 . 10.1177/000312240607100202 . 145704378 . 0003-1224.
  35. Book: Handbook of Sociological Science: Contributions to Rigorous Sociology . 2022-06-10 . Edward Elgar Publishing . 978-1-78990-943-2 . Gërxhani . Klarita . 10.4337/9781789909432 . 249683497 . De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Raub . Werner.
  36. Book: De Graaf . Nan Dirk . Societal Problems as Public Bads . Wiertz . Dingeman . 2019-05-10 . Routledge . 978-1-351-06346-3 . 1 . Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. . en . 10.4324/9781351063463. 187927546 .
  37. Book: Political Choice Matters: Explaining the Strength of Class and Religious Cleavages in Cross-National Perspective . 2013-03-28 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-966399-6 . Evans . Geoffrey . 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199663996.001.0001 . De Graaf . Nan Dirk.

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