Notes (Chapter 8)
- International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, The Macmillan Company
& The Free press, New York 1968; Stratification, social.
- Richards, A. and Waterbury, J. (op.cit, p. 9): A Political Economy of
the Middle East. State, Class, and Development. Westview Press, Boulder,
San Francisco and Oxford 1990.
- Zureik, E: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Palestinian Class Structure,
in Naklieh, K and Zureik, E: The Sociology of the Palestinians, Croom Helm
London, 1980.
- The analysis is limited to acknowledged household heads. That is, the
person being identified as the household head by the subjective opinion
of the household members. Further the sample is confined to HHs who have
also been interviewed as "randomly selected individual" (RSI,
38% of all HHs), the reason being that we need information on HH labour
activities, not available in the HH questionnaire. Comparison of the randomly
selected HHs (N=813) and the total sample of HHs (N=2479) reveals slight
over-representation of West Bankers in the age category 30-39 years, and
of Gazans in the age categories 50-60 years. As long as family size is heavily
determined by age, we lose some big families in Gaza. The net effect may
be the exclusion of some lower status Palestinian HHs from the analysis.
- Kuttab level education is an Islamic kindergarten.
- The educational categories are composed in the following way: Low (1)=
No education or apprenticeship level, up to five years of duration. Lower
medium (2)= Primary or secondary general level, up to five years of duration,
or primary/secondary level above six years of duration. Upper middle (3)=
Primary to post-secondary level, more than 6 years of duration. High (4)=
BA or MA, more than six years of duration.
- Although there are exceptions and uncertainties, the main type of occupation
held by the HH last year generally corresponds to the work he/she is trained
(educated) for.
- The development of "class divisions" is generally considered
a special case of composition of social layers in which the occupations
of the units of analysis play a dominant role. See e.g. Treiman, D.J; Occupational
Prestige in Comparative Perspective. Academic Press, New York, 1977. A discussion
of the class structure in Gaza is found in Roy, S.M.: The Gaza Strip: A
Demographic, Economic, Social and Legal Survey. The West Bank Data Base
Project, Jerusalem, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1986. See also Zureik,
E: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Palestinian Class Structure, in Nakleh,
K and Zureik, E (eds.): The Sociology of the Palestinians, Croom Helm, London
1980.
- This indicator is perhaps the most troublesome to construct as it implies
a difficult evaluation of housing density set against the possession of
housing amenities. The "main weight" is put on amenities, which
is "supplied" with density. We suggest the following categorization
(percentages of total, N=813):
AMENITIES (Number of)
0 1 2 3 4
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DENSITY 3+ 3- 4- 13- 3* 1*
(Persons per room) 2-2.99 3- 5- 16* 6* 2*
0-1.99 4> 6> 20> 10# 4#
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status categories: - = Low
> = Lower medium
* = Upper medium
# = High
- Central Bureau of Statistics of Norway: Social Survey 1989, Oslo/Kongsvinger
1989, pp. 17-20.
- Øyen, E 1983 (ed.); Sosiologi og ulikhet. Universitetsforlaget,
Bergen, pp. 16-18. Norges Offentlige Utredninger 1979:51 (NOU) Levekårsundersøkelsen,
Oslo.
- A factor analysis demonstrates that the four elements empirically speaking
constitute one single dimension. (The eigenvalue is 1.97, explaining 49%
of the total variance).
- The final distribution will thus reflect the categorization of good and
bad situations presented in table 8.1. Numerous categorizations have, however,
been tested during the development of the index, and it is our impression
that the index is quite rugged.
- International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. The Macmillan Company
& the Free press, New York 1968, Stratification, social p. 295.
- The socioeconomic index is here regrouped into the four status categories.
The categorization is as follows, transforming old scores into new: 4-6
= Low, 7-9 = Lower middle, 10-12 = Upper middle, 13-16 = High. Please be
aware of the general arbitrariness of age categorizations.
- Se chapter 6 on household economy.
- The distribution along each indicator over the different regions show
the following mean scores (each indicator ranges from 1 to 4)
Education Occupation Consumer Housing Total score
durables
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Arab Jerusalem 2,7 2,1 3,1 2,9 10,8
W.B towns 2,8 2,3 2,4 2,5 10,0
Gaza City 2,4 2,1 1,9 2,3 8,7
Gaza villages 2,7 2,1 1,8 2,2 8,7
W.B. villages 2,6 2,1 1,8 2,1 8,6
W.B camps 2,5 2,3 1,9 1,9 8,6
Gaza camps 2,3 1,9 1,4 1,6 7,3
Eta .16 .13 .46 .32 .36
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- Migdal J, Palestinian Society and Politics, Princeton University Press,
Princeton 1986. Glavanis 1990. Ibid.
- The consumer durables indicator measures more or less the same phenomenon
as the indicator of economic wealth, as described in chapter 6, on household
economy. The covariation between them is very high (Pearson's r=.73).
- The Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) is a statistical technique
of analysis for examining interrelationships between a set of independent
(predictor) variables and a dependent variable within the context of an
additive model. It provides us with three vital pieces of information. The
eta statistic indicates the strength of covariation between the economic
wealth indicator and each of the various background characteristics, considered
individually. The beta statistic indicates the effect of each background
indicator when we simultaneously take the effect of the other background
characteristics into consideration. The R2 statistic tells us to what degree
variations in economic wealth are determined (explained by) the entire set
of background characteristics. All coefficients theoretically vary between
0,0 and 1,0, the bigger the size the better the explanation.
By applying a step-by-step method, introducing one background characteristic
at the time, we can observe how the beta coefficients change with the inclusion
of new background characteristics. We assume that the age and the sex of
the HH are not influenced by the other characteristics. But age and sex
may influence the educational status, which again may be vital in determining
the occupational status, and, in the end, economic wealth. The size of the
beta coefficient the first time a given factor is included in the analysis,
indicates the "total causal effect" of this characteristic. By
watching the changes in the beta coefficients at each step we have an indication
of how much of the effect of the respective background characteristics is
attributable to this factor itself, and how much is "transmitted"
through the other characteristics. The difference between the eta coefficient
and the relevant beta coefficient at the first step indicates the "spuriousness".
For further reading see Andrews, F.M et al. 1973: Multiple Classification
Analysis, The Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor.
Economic wealth (the consumer durables index) by social background variables.
Stepwise MCA-analysis. N=813
Eta B1 B2 B3 B4 B5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Age .20 .20 .18 .18 .12 .12
Sex .16 .14 .1 .10 .10
Region/refugee status .46 .47 .43 .42
Education .34 .26 .20
Occupation .29 .17
----------------------------------------------------------------------
R2 .04 .06 .27 .32 .33
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B1-B5=Beta at step 1 to 5.
- Due to low numbers of respondents, complete charting of the interaction
is impossible.
- Lutfiyyeh, A: Baytin: A Jordan Village. Mouton, 1964.
- That is, we do not know the actual status of any HH as measured by the
opinion of his own community.
- The questions were posed as follows: 1. "Do you feel that you can
affect important decisions inside your neighborhood?" 2. "Do you
feel that you can affect important decisions inside your village/town?"
- The perception of influence varies among localities where West Bank HHs
score higher than Gazans and Arab Jerusalemites -also when comparing urban-rural-camp
differences. The perception of influence may be interpreted as a reflection
of Israeli presence, rather than a result of the cultural status of the
HH.
- Farsoun, S.K: Family Structure in Modern Lebanon (p 292), in Sweet L.E
(ed.) Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East, New York 1970.
- L. Ammons (op.cit., 1978) notes that emigration has resulted in the strengthening
of the extended family. While emigrants have tended to leave their wives
and children in the care of their parents (i.e. the wife's in-laws) for
extended periods, remittances have contributed to the preservation and strengthening
of the patriarchal household.
- For a discussion of assumptions by Western social scientists about "urban
decay" in the developing countries, see Elizabeth Wilson, The Sphinx
in the City: Urban Life, the Control of Disorder, and Women (University
of California Press, 1991) pp. 121-135.
- The question reads: "In all countries there are contradictions or
conflicts between different social groups. In your opinion, in our country,
how much conflict is there between: ......(the different groups)?"
- Converse, P.E: The Nature of Belief Systems, in Apter, D.: Ideology and
Discontent, New York Free Press 1964.
- The index is constructed by giving a score of 1 for "There are no
conflicts" and a score of 5 for "Very strong conflict". Likewise
"strong" and "not very strong conflicts" are rated as
2 and 4. Those who "cannot choose" are given the medium value
of 3. The final score thus ranges from 4 to 20. The distribution is further
divided into three categories: consensus oriented = scores 4-8, moderate
= scores 9-14 and conflict oriented = scores 15-20.
- This picture also holds true when relating the different conflict issues
to relevant background characteristics individually (conflict between rich
and poor along the stratification index, urban-rural conflict between HHs
in urban and rural areas, conflict between managers and workers between
different occupational categories etc.).
- See chapter 1, section of conditions of daily life, for a discussion
of this factor.
- The fact that Jerusalem has an active and legal trade union movement,
especially in the service sector which dominates the city's employment facilities,
reinforces the hypothesis that social inequalities and social tensions are
not only felt, but also disclosed.
Finally we should add a methodological observation. It is quite possible
that the higher security experienced by Jerusalemites in their daily life,
allow them to express feelings of hostility more freely than Gazans and
West bankers, in which case the higher scores on conflict noted here would
be spurious rather than real.
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