1. Two different research perspectives
In the past nearly 40 years, scholars from various countries have conducted extensive exploration and research on social capital from different perspectives. The research perspective mainly focuses on two aspects. The first is to study the impact and role of social capital on individuals from a macro level, such as the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu mentioned above. (Pierre Bourdieu) , American sociologist James Coleman (Jamess. Coleman) , etc. The second is to discuss how individuals use social capital to increase individual effectiveness from a micro-level, such as American sociologist Ronald Bott / span>, Alessandro Potts (Alejandro Portes) , Lin Nan (Lin Nan) , Chinese social scholar Bian Yanjie, etc.
Based on the above perspectives, the concept of social capital is mainly focused on three types: (1) Social capital is regarded as a resource. Bourdieu (1980) clearly considers social capital as a collection of actual or potential resources acquired through the persistent possession of an institutionalized network of relationships (2001) believes that social capital is a resource obtained through social relationships occupying strategic network positions or important organizational positions, and is operationally defined as Resources embedded in social networks acquired and used by actors in action, it represents resources embedded in social relationships rather than individuals. The acquisition and use of these resources depends on the [2] . (2) Treat social capital as individual social capabilities. For example, Alessandro Potts (1987, 1998) believes that Duhui Capital is in the social network or the wider social structure. Personal ability to mobilize scarce resources [3] . (3) Treat social capital as a structural function that an individual has in society. For example, James Coleman (1988) believes that social capital is a club structure resource owned by individuals, which is embedded in the society between people. In Guan Guan, it is neither attached to independent individuals nor exists in the material production process. [4] .
According to the perspective of social capital’s attention in this research combined with the above-mentioned research perspectives of domestic and foreign scholars, this research tends to define social capital as resources, depending on the actual or potential resources acquired by individuals through the persistent possession of social relationship networks. Collectives mainly explore the impact and role of different social capital on individuals from a macro perspective.
2. The relationship between social capital and youth employment
Early scholars at home and abroad have noticed the impact of social capital on youth employment, focusing on the role of social capital in the job search process for young people, especially college graduates.influences. Potts has noticed that social capital is used more to explain relationships with employment, career choices, and so on. The more representative social capital theories are mainly weak relationship theory, strong relationship theory, and social resource theory. Famous American scholar Mark Granovetter (Mark Granovetter) In the 1970s, he found individuals’ weak social relations networks by investigating professional workers in suburban Boston, USA Because of its heterogeneity and looseness, it is more able to help its job search, that is, “the theory of weak joint advantage” (strength of weak ties) [5] . Bian Yanjie’s research found that due to the different national conditions in China, strong social relationships can effectively influence decision makers in the information decision-making stage, so that job seekers can obtain better professional status. Valid information, but without the care of decision makers in the decision-making stage, job seekers are also likely to be unable to achieve the goal [6] . Strong social relationship capital can be further differentiated into strong relationship capital first (that is, family-owned relationship capital) and post-strong relationship capital (that is, strong relationships established through individual social networks) .
According to Bian Yanjie’s theory, in the context of our society, social networks are no longer information bridges, but human networks. The stronger the relationship, the more likely it is to be taken care of, and the more likely it is to get a job. Big. Therefore, the impact of strong social capital relations on youth employment is unquestionable, so how does it affect employment and what aspects of employment, whether family strong relationship capital is more likely to affect youth employment or individual strong relationship capital is more likely to affect employment? We dig deeper.
Some studies have suggested that strong family relationship capital does not have much impact on the employment of college students. It is believed that the majority of college students’ employment depends on their own strong relationship capital and has nothing to do with strong family relationship capital. For example: Qiao Zhihong (2011) believes that in the employment process of college students, social capital, especially strong innate relationships, cannot basically change the decisive effect of human capital on employment results. . Zhang Wenyu et al. (2018) The use of strong family social capital has no significant effect on college students’ access to desired jobs. Other studies suggest that under the current social transition period and social culture in China, the strong influence of family relations on capital has a greater impact, for example: Guo Yanru et al. It is considered that from the perspective of the role of strong relations, the main performance is directly providing jobs.
This study recognizes Mark Granovetter’s and Bian Yanjie’s theory on the relationship between strong and weak social capital, and follows Bian Yanjie’s research on the strong relationship between social capital and youth employment. While exploring whether there is strong or weak relationship capital from the family or individual in the process of youth employment, the research focuses on whether this strong or weak relationship capital can affect employment and what aspects of employment. Focus on the strong relationship capital, first assign the strong relationship capital (ie family-owned relationship capital) and the post-strong relationship capital -remarks “label =” Remarks “> (ie strong relationships established through individual social networks) on youth employment. At the same time, we should pay attention to whether there is a difference in the use of the capital of strong social relations between the families of the young and ordinary families.
Second, research objects and research methods
Based on the above issues, this research identified the theme “The impact of strong social capital relations on youth employment”. At the beginning of the interview, the theme was refined into the following questions:
(1) Do you think that the social relationships that your family (parents, family and friends) have in your employment will affect you? If so, how is it affected?
(2) Do you think your personal social resources have an impact on you in employment? If so, how is it affected?
Quantitative methods are used in the current academic research to study the relationship between social capital and youth employment, focusing on measuring the impact of social capital stock and use on employment results. There are few researches on the difference between family social capital and individual social capital in social capital and how they affect employment in combination. At the same time, behavior-oriented research on inferring social capital influencing factors based on youth employment behavior results is also rare. Based on this, this research chooses the theory of grounding, which focuses on the research of employment behavior.The qualitative research method seeks to explore the impact of social capital use on youth employment.
According to the procedure of the classic grounded theory, after the research question is determined, the purposeful sampling is first performed (purposeful sampling) . In this study, a small town youth who left the company several times was selected for interviews. It was found that in the process of changing jobs many times, a strong relationship capital was first assigned. ( Hereinafter, the family social strong relationship capital) and post-strong relationship capital (hereinafter referred to as individual social strong relationship capital) Information sharing, employment opportunities, etc.
Based on the analysis of the interview results, the researcher changed the theoretical sampling perspective and interviewed a young female from an ordinary family in a second-tier city, and analyzed the interview data. In accordance with the method of interview and analysis described above, seven young people were interviewed in turn. In order to further enrich the conceptual density of the theory, the researchers used theoretical sampling and continued to interview 10 young people until the information reached saturation. The interviewees involved 9 cities from 7 provinces and cities nationwide. Most of the families were ordinary, a few families were poor, and some families had better conditions. Theoretical sampling refers to sampling based on concepts that have been proven to be relevant to the theory in the itinerary. The purpose is to find people, things, places, and things that are most likely to exhibit inter-conceptual variations to increase the category. [7] .
Before the interview, promise to keep confidential to the other party, record the interview after soliciting the opinions of the research subjects, and promise to copy all the recording materials to the other party after the interview. The time of each interview is 1 ~ In 1.5 hours, individual interviewees conducted a second interview as needed. Strictly abide by academic ethics after the interview, and use all interview recording materials (including recordings and written materials of recordings) for this study only. Research all research results (relevant paper publication or lecture report) Process the real information of all the research subjects, and use the numbers of the interview subjects according to the interview order Numbering. Organize all audio recordings into text materials after each interview, And use Mindjet Mindmanager Pro16.0 and Excel tables for analysis and organization.
3. Qualitative analysis of youth employment under the dual attributes of social capital
1. A qualitative analysis of the impact of family social strong relationship capital on employment actions
After the initial interview design was formed, the researcher continued to refine the research questions as the interviews progressed in order to explore the issues in depth. Therefore, according to the multiple departures of the first interviewee and the complex and diverse influencing factors, the interview topics were detailed into the following questions:
(1) What are the difficulties you encountered during the job search process?
(2) How do you overcome this difficulty? In the process, do you think your family or your personal social resources have a great influence on you?
(3) Final decision and behavior changes Which social resources do you think are related to your family or individual? why?
After conducting an interview with the first interviewee, the researcher analyzed the data of interviewee 1 according to the requirements of the three-level coding, and tried to find out whether there was a strength of family or individual social capital in his work process. Relationships are affecting employment and how. In the first-level open coding, researchers try to neutralize self-values based on the principle of presenting the unit of meaning in the original materials. They pay special attention to the capture and understanding of the interviewees’ personal concepts, forming “work itself” and “individual human capital.” “Social impact”, “family social strong relationship capital”, and “incidents” are five categories and their attributes and dimensions. Among them, the family social strong relationship capital is extracted as the core category and re-encoded.
On the basis of the first-level coding, the researchers carried out the second-level spindle coding according to the diagram. For the interviewee A’s handling of “the profit of flooring is getting thinner and thinner, the price of raw materials continues to rise, and he is not satisfied with the status quo” A career development difficulty further analyzes the causal conditions, phenomena, context, intermediary conditions, action strategies, and results of the phenomenon.
The interview materials of interviewees 2 to 6 were selected for analysis and coding, and the story line was written. It is found that family social strong relationship capital has a strong influence on youth employment information transmission, employment opportunity provision, employment concept, employment decision-making and other aspects, that is, family social strong relationship capital has a significant impact on its employment. At the same time, young people with better family conditions generally have weak social relations capital under the strong social relations capital of the family at the initial stage of job application. Most of the strong and weak relationships in the middle and later stages of the job search will develop in the opposite direction, that is, the family social strong relationship capital will become weaker and weaker, and the individual social strong relationship capital will become stronger and stronger. Like the interviewee 1, young people with a better family background will show the two situations B and C in the above relationship table, that is, the strong influence of the strong social relationship capital in the early family, and the strong influence of the strong social relationship capital in the later period.
2. Youth employment struggle under the dual attributes of social capital
If the family social capital and individual social capital are both strongly related, individuals are more likely to prefer individual social strong relationship capital. For example, in interviewee 6, both family social capital and individual social capital showed a strong relationship. Individual social strong relationship capital was the key to her employment decision. Interviewee 6 based on the first-level coding of “parents introduce high-paying jobs and boyfriends introduce high-paying jobs”. The researchers carried out the secondary spindle coding according to the diagram. This employment decision problem further analyzed this phenomenon. Causal conditions, phenomena, context, intermediary conditions, action strategies and results. In the end, individual social strong relationship capital directly affected the interviewee’s job search results: “I had a choice at the time that my dad contacted me with XX electrical appliances …. It was a very high salary at that time, but I did n’t go. I just talked to him (note: the boyfriend of interviewee 6 works in the company ××) I want to face A job demand in the society, he gave me some recruitment information of XX company, and also gave me some information about the personnel ……. at the level of excellence in my school, I can’t actually go. But I went very smoothly. “With the passage of time in the later period, the role of the strong relationship capital of the individual society has become greater and greater, and the strong relationship capital of the family society has become weaker and weaker, and it has hardly affected the interviewer.” By 2011, he (Interviewer 6’s husband) ‘s friends found me when XX introduced XX department store, and asked me if I would like to return to XX development, if Back to Chengdu for development, are you willing to continue to be your own studio or go to work in the unit. … Next, it was XXX that introduced XX again. X always (Friend) asked me if I would like to go .. …. “
So if the family ’s social capital is weak, that is, the family is ordinary or even poor, and the individual social capital is also weak, which one will be more affected by individual employment? While continuing to interview subjects Nos. 7-13, they focused on selecting young people from ordinary or even poor families, and found that when family social capital showed a weak relationship and individual society showed a strong relationship capital, individual employment decisions were significantly affected by personal social strong relationship capital. If the family social capital and individual social capital are in a weak relationship, individuals can only rely on personal human capital, that is, their ability to apply for jobs, but the results may not be ideal.
For example, interviewee 8 was confronted with two or more choice conflicts in the early stage of job application. It seems that the conflicts cannot be reconciled. At this time, the family and individual social capital are weakly related. What ultimately influences the decision is the parents’ employment and education concepts , But the results are not satisfactory. Interviewee 8 talked: “I have an XX car, and then the written test has passed …. Then I went to the interview, but the interview time that day conflicted with the postgraduate entrance examination. Although, in fact, there is no guarantee at all. …, but because this time conflicts, the family members said that you should still take the postgraduate entrance examination. Because of time conflicts, you did not go there for an interview, which turned out to be a good opportunity. “Interview Object 10 is also the same family social capital and individualSocial capital is weak, and job search can only rely on the weak social capital of individuals. “Family conditions are not good. Parents cannot give any help in finding a job, nor should they have the financial strength to buy a house, only on their own …. After graduating from college, they went home to find a job by themselves and collected information on their own. And find a job. “In the analysis of the interviewees 11-17, when young people with better families face the strong capital of family society and the strong capital of individual society at the same time, they also tend to the strong capital of family society. Both When all are weakly related capital, the employment outcome is completely affected by the individual weakly related capital.
A comprehensive analysis of the impact of the strong and weak relationship between family social capital and individual social capital on youth employment in the above social capital found that youth employment is significantly affected by social capital, which includes both family social capital and personal social capital. Each kind of social capital may exhibit two attributes of strong relationship and weak relationship, both of which always exist and affect the various stages of youth job hunting and employment. Strong relationship capital has a greater impact on employment information transmission, employment opportunity provision, employment outlook, and employment decisions. The study found that family social capital and individual social capital may change in the course of time development, that is, it may be strong first and then weak, or it may be weak and then strong. It has the dual attributes of strong and weak. When family social capital and individual social capital are strong and weak, young people tend to have strong social relations with capital. If both are strong or weak, youth employment is affected and struggling.
Fourth, research conclusions and suggestions
1. Strong relationship capital is the key to youth employment
Different from many foreign scholars’ recognition of weak personal social capital relations, for example, Arza and Carattoli’s research suggests that weak relations can broaden the field of employment choices.