Were They Pushed Or Did They Jump?: Individual Decision Mechanisms In Education (studies In Rationality And Social Change)

This book explores the factors which govern the range of educational decisions confronting individuals between compulsory school education and university. The data on which it draws come from two surveys conducted in north-west Italy, one of unemployed young people and one of high-school pupils. The author is in effect testing the two fundamental and opposed paradigms of explanation which are generally applied in the sociology of education; one which holds that the individual agents are essentially passive, being either constrained by lack of alternatives or pushed by causal factors of which they are unaware; and the other in which they are regarded as capable of purposive action, of weighing the available alternatives with respect to some future rewards.

Like few other decisions in life, educational choices must be made by virtually everyone growing up in industrial societies. The consequences of these choices for individual lives are momentous, yet decisions about schooling can be treacherous. They are made during the teen years, at a time when personal preferences are unstable and there is little past experience to draw upon; once made, they are not easy to change. Diego Gambetta offers a refined exploration of the mechanisms that influence educational decisions between compulsory school and college. Gambetta tests two fundamental and opposed explanations, which he applies to the study of educational and other personal choices. One approach holds that individuals are essentially passive, either constrained by a lack of alternatives or pushed by factors they are unaware of. The other approach regards individuals as capable of purposive action, able to weigh the available alternatives against the prospect of possible future rewards. Applying sophisticated statistical models to two surveys conducted in northwest Italy. Gambetta provides an integrated assessment of the specific effects of a variety of factors on educational decisionmaking: family economic and cultural capital, previous academic achievements, labor market prospects, and personal aspirations. From this analysis emerges a subtler, more realistic approach to individual decisionmaking that brushes aside either extreme. The author concludes that rational adaptation is the predominant operating mechanism in making choices, but that it generates different effects depending on class-related values and personal preferences.

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The review seeks to explain the discrepancies in statistical research from various fields of criminal justice, e.g. why complicated patterns yield information contrary to experience. The volume analyzes recent writings on penal communications, delinquency and academic performance, criminal justice literature, and drug use in the US. The essays explore both theories of criminology, and the consequences of crime. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Diego Gambetta. Published In Collaboration With Maison Des Sciences De L'homme, Paris. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 218-231.