Unequal access to bridging social capital is found to be an important factor of social inequality. School is a social organization where individuals can make social connections and through whom, can accumulate social capital. Existing research on the relationship between school and social capital has mainly focused on the bonding function of social capital and its impact on academic outcomes. Access to bridging social capital through school peers is little understood. The present study aims to examine the relationship between school and access to bridging social capital through peers in urban China. Data come from a probability sample of 989 high school students in urban Nanjing. Respondents from better family backgrounds are found to be more likely to enter high-prestige schools than the less advantaged students. School peers are the most significant source of social capital for students in high-prestige schools. These findings suggest that school is an important channel through which family advantages in social capital can be transmitted to the younger generation and reinforced through school tracking, further exacerbating social capital inequality.
AlonS. (2009). The evolution of class inequality in higher education: Competition, exclusion, and adaptation. American Sociological Review, 74, 731-755.
2.
BallS. J. (2003). Class strategies and the education market: The middle classes and social advantage. London, England: RoutledgeFalmer.
3.
BianY. (1997). Bringing strong ties back in: Indirect ties, network bridges, and job searches in China. American Sociological Review, 62, 366-385.
4.
BianY. (2008). The formation of social capital among Chinese urbanites: Theoretical explanation and empirical evidence. In LinN.EricksonB. (Eds.), Social capital: An international research program (pp. 81-104). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
5.
BidartC.LavenuD. (2005). Evolutions of personal networks and life events. Social Networks, 27, 359-376.
6.
BruegelI.WarrenS. (2003). Family resources and community social capital as routes to valued employment in the UK?Social Policy and Society, 2, 319-328.
7.
BuekelK.GusevaA. (2002). What do you know, who do you know? School as a site for the production of social capital and its effects on income attainment in Poland and the Czech Republic. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 61, 657-680.
8.
BurtR. S. (1992). Structural holes: The social structure of competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
9.
ChuaV. (2013). Categorical sources of varieties of network inequalities. Social Science Research, 42, 1236-1253.
10.
ColemanJ. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 95-121.
11.
DavisD. S.SensenbrennerJ. S. (2000). Commercializing childhood: Parental purchases for Shanghai’s only child. In DavisD. S. (Ed.), The consumer revolution in urban China (pp. 54-79). Berkeley: University of California Press.
12.
EricksonB. H. (2004). The distribution of gendered social capital in Canada. In FlapH.VolkerB. (Eds.), Creation and returns of social capital: A new research program (pp. 27-50). London, England: Routledge.
13.
FongC. (2005). Family background and educational tracking. Society, 242, 105-117.
14.
GanzeboomH. B. G.TreimanD. J. (1996). Internationally comparable measures of occupational status for the 1988 International Standard Classification of Occupations. Social Science Research, 25, 201-239.
15.
GranovetterM. (1995). Getting a job. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1974)
16.
GrossettiM. (2005). Where do social relations come from? A study of personal networks in the Toulouse area of France. Social Networks, 27, 289-300.
17.
HannumE.AnX.CherngH. (2011). Examinations and educational opportunity in China: Mobility and bottlenecks for the rural poor. Oxford Review of Education, 37(2), 267-305.
KimD. H.KimJ. H. (2013). Emerging high-status track in South Korea: Social capital formation in the social contexts of foreign language and general high schools. Asia-Pacific Educational Research, 22, 33-44.
21.
KimD. H.SchneiderB. (2005). Social capital in action: Alignment of parental support in adolescents’ transition to postsecondary education. Social Forces, 84, 1181-1206.
22.
LeeS. L.BrintonM. C. (1996). Elite education and social capital: The case of South Korea. Sociology of Education, 69, 177-192.
23.
LiC. (2003). Socio-political changes and inequality of educational opportunity: Impact of family background and institutional factor for the education acquiring (1940-2001). Social Sciences in China, 3, 86-98.
24.
LiF.MorganW. J.DingX. (2008). The expansion of higher education, employment and over-education in China. International Journal of Educational Development, 28, 687-697.
25.
LiT.ZhangJ. (2010). What determines employment opportunity for college graduates in China after higher education reform. China Economic Review, 21, 38-50.
26.
LinN. (2001). Social capital: A theory of social structure and action. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
27.
LinN.DuminM. (1986). Access to occupations through social ties. Social Networks, 8, 365-385.
28.
LinN.EricksonB. H. (Eds.). (2008). Social capital: An international research program. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
29.
LinN.FuY. C.HsungR. M. (2001). The position generator: Measurement techniques for investigations of social capital. In LinN.CookK.BurtR. S. (Eds.), Social capital: Theory and research (pp. 57-81). New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
30.
MacLeodJ. (1995). Ain’t no makin’ it: Aspirations and attainment in a low income neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
31.
MartinJ. L.YeungK. T. (2006). Persistence of close personal ties over a 12-year period. Social Networks, 28, 331-362.
32.
McPhersonJ. M.Smith-LovinL.CookJ. M. (2001). Birds of a feather: Homophily in social networks. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 415-444.
33.
MarmarosD.SacerdoteB. (2002). Peer and social networks in job search. European Economic Review, 46, 870-879.
34.
MarsdenP. V.HurlbertJ. S. (1988). Social resources and mobility outcomes: A replication and extension. Social Forces, 66, 1038-1059.
35.
Nanjing Municipal Statistics Bureau. (2011). Statistical yearbook of Nanjing 2011. Nanjing, China: Phoenix.
36.
Nanjing Municipal Statistics Bureau. (2012). Statistical yearbook of Nanjing 2012. Nanjing, China: Phoenix.
37.
PutnamR. D. (1993). Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
38.
SewellW. H.HauserR. M. (1975). Education, occupation, and earnings: Achievement in the early career. New York, NY: Academic Press.
39.
SmallM. L. (2009). Unanticipated gains: Origins of network inequality in everyday life. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
40.
Stanton-SalazarR. D.DornbuschS. M. (1995). Social capital and the reproduction of inequality: Information networks among Mexican-origin high school students. Sociology of Education, 62, 116-135.
41.
VeeckA.FlurryL.JiangN. (2003). Equal dreams: The one child policy and the consumption of education in Urban China. Consumption Markets & Culture, 6, 81-94.
42.
WuY. (2008). Cultural capital, the state, and educational inequality in China, 1949-1996. Sociological Perspectives, 51, 201-227.
43.
YangD. (2005). A research into the senior high school students: Social-class-delamination and education acquisition. Tsinghua Journal of Education, 26(3), 52-59.
44.
ZhouM.BankstonC. L.III. (1998). Growing up American. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
