What’s worth a university? Changes in the lifestyle and status of post-2000 European graduates

CONTENT

List of tables

List of figures

1. Literature Focus on Lifestyle. A 2000-2007 Content Analysis
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Methodology
1.3. Results
1.4. Conclusions

2. Conceptual approach

3. Research design and methods
3.1. Data
3.2. Concept measurement
3.2.1 Dependent variables
3.2.2. Independent variables
3.3. Multiple regression model and data analysis
3.4. Variables validity

4. Results

5. Conclusions

6. References

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Main and Control Group of Journals Included in the Analysis

Table 2 Current research agenda

Table 3 The Ranking of the Analyzed Journals

Table 4 First Ten Research Themes in the Main Group

Table 5 First Ten Research Themes in the Control Group

Table 6 Values Reliability Analysis

Table 7 Values and Behaviours Correlations

Table 8 Probit analysis of values (life satisfaction = factor)

Table 9 Life satisfaction’s dependency on individual values

Table 10 Life satisfaction in the second group

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Frequency distribution by year

Figure 2 Research methods distribution

Figure 3 Lifestyle calibration

Figure 4 Pragmatic lifestyle clusters

Figure 5 Lifestyle clusters, according to values and behaviours calibration

1. Literature Focus on Lifestyle. A 2000-2007 Content Analysis

1.1. Introduction

The symbolic threshold of 2000 reshaped the attitudes people held towards work-life balance (Duxbury, Dyke and Lam, 2000), making them wish of quality time outside work, as the Workforce 2000 report of the Hudson Institute prophesised. Moreover, changes in socio-demographics, like the incremental number of lone-parent households (Duxbury and Higgins, 2001), contributed to the lifestyle transitions which became manifest in the late ’90s. A growing sensation of insecurity (Lowe, 2000), giving raise to the “safety utopia” (Boutellier, 2004), as well as an increasing need for a convenient life, for satisfaction, in a world where money earning conflicts with time consumption, dominate the new, emerging, lifestyle pattern. This ego-specific (Funk, 2006) lifestyle suits the individuals who exhibit a strong desire for freedom being, at the same time, prone to affiliation (Rifkin, 2000). In the particular case of Europe (which undergoes a process of gradual expansion), lifestyle changes, related to migration (Jolly and Reeves, 2005), and fluctuating life standards, within a short period, add to macroscopic lifestyle transformations.

1.2. Methodology

Under these conditions, we find it natural that lifestyle is a topic highly debated in literature. Still, given the all-roundness of the concept, some frequency disparities appear. The SCOPUS database includes 32,539 research articles on lifestyle, published between 1st of January 2000, and 31st of December 2007. But only 158 articles – approximately 0.48% – out of these refer to lifestyle in Europe, analyzed from the point of view of social sciences. The remaining majority discusses lifestyle from life sciences perspectives, with a particular focus on health acceptations of the concept, as a dietary parameter, and a means to assess health risks (Stürmer, Hasselback and Anelang, 2006; Manheim, 2007).

Starting from this finding, we analyzed the articles on lifestyle contained in seven major research databases (EBSCO, Emerald Management Extra, Oxford Journals Online, PROQUEST, Sage Journals Online, SCOPUS, SpringerLink), in the aforementioned period, 1st of January 2000 and 31st of December 2007, after having excluded the repeated results. The relative frequency of the articles discussing, socio-economically, lifestyle in Europe is:

- 4.27% for Oxford Journals Online
- 11.66% for PROQUEST
- 12% for Springerlink
- 24% for Sage Journals Online
- 25.1% for EBSCO
- 27.76% for Emerald Management Extra.

Based on these data, which reveal that examination of the European lifestyle from a social perspective forms less than one third – in the most socially specialized databases – of the total research papers dedicated to the topic, we set, from the 2010 publications included in the Social Sciences Citation Index, a main group of seventeen journals, and a control group of three journals, publishing in English, French and German. The main group includes leading journals in the fields of sociology and marketing, while the control group includes journals which were thought to be more specialized on behavioural, lifestyle aspects, in order for us to be able to contrast the general trends with the specific ones.

We examined exclusively research articles, leaving apart reviews, comments, viewpoints. The two groups of journals analysed are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Main and Control Group of Journals Included in the Analysis

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The conceptual map of the research areas and topics which are, very probably – to our previous knowledge – reflected in literature is illustrated by Table 2.

Table 2. Current research agenda

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Using content analysis software, we determined the frequencies of lifestyle topics, grouped on journals, years, research areas and research themes.

1.3. Results

After having examined the chosen groups of journals, a content hierarchy resulted, in both the main and the control sample. The ranking of journals in the main and control groups, according to the frequency of articles discussing lifestyle from a European, socio-economic perspective, is presented in Table 3:

Table 3. The Ranking of the Analyzed Journals

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It can be seen from here that, due to the large number of identified themes and to the multivariate perspective of approaching lifestyle, the thematic clusters are quite narrow in scope, as far as the main group of journals is concerned. Still, the prevalence of costumer orientation is visible, certifying the connection which is made, in literature, between lifestyle and marketing tools.

The corresponding leading ten research themes identified in the journals belonging to our control group are presented in Table 5:

Table 5. First Ten Research Themes in the Control Group

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In the control group the clusters are, again, narrow. Their ranking may account for the main directions in defining and theorizing lifestyle. The prevalence of the marketing perspective is maintained in the control group as well, like in the main group. With some exceptions, the proportion of the themes is similar, between the two groups. In the control group, the second position is held by family, and the third by age, illustrating the tendency which exists in literature to tie lifestyle, on the one hand, to social groups and, on the other, to generational groups. In order words, lifestyle is thought to vary following a relational and a time pattern.

The frequency distribution of the articles, both main group and control group, by year of publication, is presented in Figure 1:

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Figure 1. Frequency distribution by year

The chart shows that the interest for lifestyle, in literature, exhibits a peak in 2002 (if we think at the regular academic journals metabolism, the articles published in 2002 seized the transformations which began to take place in 2000), then a regression, between 2003 and 2005, followed by a growth tendency, starting with 2006. The interest in lifestyle being consistent with the interest in fashion, advertising, etc. it is expectable that its evolution has seasonal ups and downs, following the major trends of the considered year.

According to the research methods used in the articles, the distribution, comparatively, in the main and control groups, is presented in Figure 2:

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Figure 2. Research methods distribution

Articles in the journals forming the control group are less empirical and statistical then the ones in the control group, which may be explained by the tie existing, especially in the control group, between lifestyle and marketing. If lifestyle data are to be used in market research, then the articles’ orientation towards quantitative techniques is a normal consequence.

1.4. CONCLUSIONS

Between January 2000 and December 2007, lifestyle issues were debated in 352 articles, considered in our literature review. Out of these, 212 were found in a group of general sociology and marketing journals, which we designated as the main group, and 140 in a group of more specialized journals, which we designated as the control group. The pattern of distribution over years shows that the interest in lifestyle reached a peak value in 2002, when published literature actually reflected the matters which were in focus in 2000, and that the interest in this topic is currently growing. The mapping of the topics of interest shows a relative homogeneity between the main and the control group, with customer orientation in the leading position, echoed by sub-related topics as shopping and advertising, which certifies the influence of lifestyle studies on marketing studies. Another stream of research refers to family studies, regarding family as the closest social group which may shape a person’s way of living. Next, lifestyle is related to generations, to ageing patterns, which may affect it not only in terms of health capital, “hygiene” (eating, sleeping, etc.) behaviour, but also as far as changes in the social roles are involved. Here, educational cycles, in life’s evolution, may play a prominent part. This is precisely the research niche we endeavour to fill.

2. CONCEPTUAL APPROACH

Lifestyle was traditionally understood through the lenses of social classes, and perceived social status, as illustrated by the early works of Adler, Weber and Simmel (in Jensen, 2007), where lifestyle referred to a nexus of income, education, occupation and status. Also, for these “classics”, lifestyle was a matter of choice and chance, but only as they came, and were made available to the individual, due to social position (the idea that life hazard is, actually, socially programmed, and the distinction between way of life – nothing to choose, and lifestyle – conditioned choice, will come back in Shove, 2003). This addresses to an age of social stability, in which people were born and educated to occupy a position which was supposed to oscillate only between upper and lower control limits. Of course, it is not the case with post-modern economies (Knights and McCabe, 2003), with their flexible work (Dunn, 2004), just-in-time education (Slaughter and Rhoades, 2004) and importance granted not that much to material wealth, as to immaterial social relations (Poster, 2004), where lifestyles are rather “epidermic”, transgressing class borders – actually, as social classes are ill-defined and unstable, lifestyle is a mixture of the mainstream behaviour in the “departure” social class, and the mainstream behaviour in the “arrival” social class. Superficial social relationships (Groot, van der Brink and van Praag, 2007) and me-too approaches to lifestyle are characteristic to the post-2000 period. Hybridized social classes pressurize individuals to adopt easy changing lifestyles, in their rush to catch up with an ideal which is always changing.

Lifestyle is a concept, as proven by our previous content analysis, confiscated by healthcare specialists, who usually mean by it the diets which can assure the state of physical and psychical well-being that the WHO labels as health. In this acceptation, lifestyle nears life program, which is individual focused. We live in an individualistic age (Doost, 2004), no doubt, but lifestyle, unless life program – which may benefit, nevertheless, from the example of the group, is still collectively shaped (Frohlich, 2000). This can be asserted because lifestyle includes values and behaviours (Veal, 2000) which emerge at the individual level, and contribute to the individual self-esteem, but are performed in a social context. Lifestyle may be a matter of social dominance, if we were to adapt Bourdieu’s terms (Saucier, 2000), which explains the way in which it behaves as a luxury good – for instance, in the form of lifestyle shopping (Fox, 2006).

In an attempt to systematize the lifestyle iceberg, we can say that its social, extrovert component is made up of the components of the social position (Gershuny, 2002), like education, occupation, income, social status. In a classical paradigm, these components should emerge from one another – the level and type of education will influence the future occupation, which will determine the level of income which, in its turn, will decide the social status. Still, things are not that simple regarding post-2000 lifestyle, in which occupation has less and less to do with education, becoming more a contextual variable, nor does the social status have much in common with occupation and education and, in some cases which will be discussed, not even with income. The other component of lifestyle, individual, introvert refers to the chain values – beliefs – attitudes – time allocation – life satisfaction. We state that, for lifestyle, the negotiated values, beliefs and attitudes of the individual and of his maximum compatibility group (which we define as the most convenient for the individual intersection of all the groups he/ she is a part of) determine the individual’s life priorities, which turn into time allocation criteria, which influence life satisfaction levels.

The two lifestyle components, the social and the individual one, meet in the form of consumption behaviour. Of course, consumer behaviour is income-driven. Still, even when having a virtually unlimited income, and being able to buy virtually everything, consumers face choice (Steedman, 2001). This happens because their buying decision relies, as well, on their values, beliefs, and attitudes and, ultimately, on the life satisfaction which one or the other of their consumption choices may provide to them. So, if lifestyle research turns into an instrument for marketing studies, able to predict which purchases will be repeated and which consumption decisions are likely to be avoided, both sides of the iceberg have to be taken into account: the manifest, social peak – which proves that 20% of volume determines 80% of the effects, as consumer behaviours, needless to say, relay heavily on income, and the “under the waters”, individual set of life priorities emerging from a process of negotiation between the individual and his closest group. The correlation of the individual and group factors, with the individual trying to maximize his life satisfaction subject to personal constraints (values, beliefs) and group constraints (position, income) sets the niches of behaviour (Tomlinson, 2003), pressurized by the influences of the post-traditional social structures on lifestyle (Binkley, 2004; Aubert, 2003; Beck-Gernsheim, 2003). Education, being a factor which depends both on individual determination (OECD, 2006) and on individual multiple intelligence (Teele, 2000), but also on societal factors, as access to education, depending, in its turn, on social class (Oduaran and Bhola, 2006) and beliefs held by the group, appears to be the pivotal element in understanding the double bias of lifestyle. This is why we refer to the difference higher education background makes in lifestyle options, integrating this approach into a more general theory of elites and their choices. If, and why the lifestyle of the educated elite may constitute a model which may drive European people into the education process, will be the final answer of the research.

We take as a starting point the definition provided by Brunsø, Scholderer and Grunert (2004): „lifestyle is a system of individual differences in the habitual use of declarative and procedural knowledge structures that intervene between abstract goal states (personal values) and situation-specific product perception and behaviours.” The model we advance will, then, comprise three matrices: V, staying for the values that a) are education dependent and b) are likely to create social effects (Kragh and Bislev, 2005), P, staying for procedures – how do people use their values to shape their behaviours, and B, staying for behaviours, i.e., choices people make in life, according to their preset scenario named lifestyle.

Coming back to the lifestyle iceberg, there are two exteriorities to be assessed: behaviours, which are obviously placed in the public arena, although they originate in private choices (Munger, 2004), and claimed values. Each of them corresponds to a distinct lifestyle category. We term the two lifestyle categories values-in (that is, only behaviours, presumably values-based, are apparent), respectively values-out (also declared values are considered, together with behaviours). In other words, we speak about a pragmatic and a rhetoric lifestyle, which are going to be examined in turns.

The analysis, which is intended to lead to a model of current elite European lifestyle, is based on the fulfilment of the following objectives:

a) Constructing a lifestyle function, based on these three matrices, for two groups of European citizens, with similar characteristics, excluding education.
b) Identifying patterns of variance of the function, and finding sociological explanations for mathematical relationships.
c) Building an additional lifestyle function, across professional groups (for instance, the lifestyle function of medical doctors, technicians and nurses) and compare its homogeneity, considering different levels of training, but similar professional environments, with the resemblance in variation for a function whose input variables are considered once for doctors, and then, say, for engineers (same training level, different professional environments).
d) Considering all the preceding objectives, our overall is to assess the importance of the variable “training”, particularly university education, in influencing the values of the lifestyle function for the considered population.

3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

3.1. Data

The analysis uses population survey data from the European Social Survey, round 2 (fielded in 2002/2003), made available by the courtesy of IRISS/CEPS. The data were used to create a sub-database including the records meeting the conditions: postsecondary education, and age below 35, at the moment of the survey. The number of chosen respondents, for this analysis, was 1080, from the total sample of 47357 records in the database. These data were weighted, in order to make the sample more representative.

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