Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (5): 193-216.

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Effects of Spouse's Family Background on Elite Status Attainment in Urban China

ZHU Bin   

  1. Center for Studies of Sociology Theory & Method, Renmin University of China
  • Online:2017-09-20 Published:2017-09-20

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Abstract:

The attainment of elite status has long been a major topic in the study of social stratification and mobility. Researchers, however, paid more attention to the influences of one's own family background, ignoring the effects of his/her spouse's. Using data of CGSS 2006, this research examines the effects of one's father-in-law on his/her elite status attainment in urban China. The results indicate that (1) father-in-law's culture capital has no effects on one's elite status attainment, because the transmission of culture capital takes a relatively long time, and father-in-law begins to exert influence only after the marriage. (2) Unlike what happened in Eastern Europe, China's market transformation is a gradual transformation under the control of the Chinese Communist Party, which makes the political capital is still in the dominant position, so it is more easily that political capital transforms into economic capital than the inverse. Therefore, father-in-law's political capital helps one become an economic elite while father-in-law's economic capital has little to do with one's attainment of political elite status. (3) Since the marginal benefits might be decreasing when capital is utilized, "fresh" capital from father-in-law, other than that from one's own father which has been used for many times, might be more powerful, thus having a stronger effects after he/she gets married. In contrast, one's own father mainly influences his/her current socio-economic status through the impact of the socio-economic status of marriage. (4) At last, father-in-law's effects are different for different sexes, although the elite transformation applies both to men and women, elite inheritance is more suitable for men.