Theories of Potential and the Creation of Inequality
1 like1,252 views
This document discusses theories of potential and how inequality is created. It touches on several topics: - How individual characteristics like looks, sex, height can affect snap judgments and influence potential but societal factors matter most. - Potential is influenced by many factors from early life through adulthood, including family circumstances, where one lives, and access to opportunities like internships. - While some argue only a few have great potential, the document argues potential is collective and not realizing everyone's potential perpetuates inequality. Genes may provide small advantages but no "super genes"; environment and society are larger influences on one's path in life.
Theories of Potential and the Creation of Inequality
- 1. Theories of Poten-al and the Crea-on of Inequality Danny Dorling King’s College London June 23rd 2015
- 2. Meet Toby Morris Toby is a illustrator I have never met, but his work increases my poten-al. You can see it at: h"p://thewireless.co.nz/ar3cles/the-‐pencilsword-‐on-‐a-‐plate
- 3. Meet Richard and Paula A huge range of factors will influence what happens to Richard and Paula, not least: chance. But how they look will also maQer – we could study iden-cal twins if we were interested in how much looks maQered.
- 4. Of course individual effects are of very small importance compared to the societal factors shown above – but people are obsessed by individuality. However, you cannot have a control group of iden-cal twins who do not look similar, so in these cases ‘twin studies’ cannot be made independent of ‘looks studies’.
- 5. Society maQers most – we did not have to work two jobs per person un-l recently. But if you want know why individualist aQributes (like looks) maQer as well as society, consider how o[en unarmed black Americans are shot by the police. hQp://www.theguardian.com/us-‐news/2015/jun/01/black-‐americans-‐killed-‐by-‐police-‐analysis
- 6. Of course, issues like school and family maQer most -‐ but individual factors do too. Skin colour is a special case, but what about sex, and height, and weight, and hair colour, and the prominence of cheekbones and chin, and distance between the eyes? They affect our snap judgments about how intelligent people are and what they might or might not be good at, but also affect our more considered judgments: See Study of June 8th 2015: hQp://www.ioe.ac.uk/newsEvents/ 113498.html or a John Hade video: hQps://www.youtube..com/watch?v=rzwJXUieD0U
- 7. Societal factors mater most. And history: grades are only a recent inven-on. There will also be numerous correla-ons between physical characteris-cs and expected performance. And expected performance will affect actual performance, see the Rosenthal–Jacobson study (telling teachers children are able then helps teaching) h"ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect
- 8. When it comes to people, the word poten&al has come to mean very different things to different readers. The UN Conven3on on the Rights of the Child states that “educa-onal establishments should be well funded and governments should take all necessary steps to create an environment where all children can grow and reach their full poten&al.” One reac-on to this use of that phrase at that point is to cast doubt on the idea that many children have much poten-al and to then suggest that just a few need to be sought out and specially nurtured.
- 9. Circumstances maQer and are influenced by where you live. More parents are more o[en sick in areas of depriva-on. They are no internships in other areas, whether you can afford to take an internship or not. From very early on in life, through to young adulthood all kinds of factors are at play that determine who wins and who loses monetarily. The most monied get most ‘educated’ and get the highest grades. But what kind of an educa-on is that really, and for what end?
- 10. However, more compelling evidence suggests that we have the poten-al to think, dream and become beQer than this. But that poten-al is collec-ve, not individualis-c, and will not be fully realized while we are so diverted by the search for the ‘golden child’ – the mythical individual with the greatest inherent poten-al of all. THE RICHEST 1% WOULD OWN THIS
- 11. Some genes might give you a slight edge over other people for something, but you’re likely to not be so good at something else. This is what you would expect from evolu-on. There are no super-‐genes. Some genes can cause gene-c disorders that result in handicaps, and that is why those genes are rela-vely rare. Advantageous genes are common precisely because they are advantageous. And: “Although the striking visual similarity of iden3cal twins reveals the gene3c penetrance of facial appearance, a comparison of gene3cally iden3cal irises reveals just the opposite for iris pa"erns: the iris sequence is an epigene3c phenotypic feature, not a genotypic feature.” hQp://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jgd1000/gene-cs.html
- 12. When you look at varia-on in how we behave and what we are capable of, you realize that our poten-al is frequently limited by our culture. In many cultures in Africa most people become fluent in several languages, in England it is an excep-onal ability – much less excep-onal in much of Europe. So to improve language skills, we shouldn't strive to iden-fy children with excep-onal language ability at an early age, but look at what we are doing that inhibits language ability. The same can be said for musical ability and mathema-cal ability.
- 13. Inequality is created, maintained and defended by the theory that different people are of greatly different worth; that their children have hugely varying poten&als; that inequality is inevitable; and that all is roughly for the best in the best of all possible worlds – we should not expect greater equality to be possible – just a liQle fairer, sor-ng out by merit. Those who think gene-c influences are very important know that geography maQers too. But, if you are interested in debunking myths see Figure 2 of this paper to see how liQle they really do know (they are not mapping what they think they map): “Visual analysis of geocoded twin data puts nature and nurture on the map: Molecular Psychiatry (2012) 17, 867 – 874.
- 14. Does this map have much to do with ‘ADHD’ at all, as implied by the highlight-‐ ed text, or is it showing some-‐ thing else?
- 15. Look at the equa-on in the paper, and then at a map of what geographers (ironically) call popula3on poten3al.
- 16. There is currently a huge gulf between cartoonists taking their readers on a tour of the current extremes of economic, social and educa-onal inequali-es; and researchers trying to measure inherent poten-al in case some level playing field were ever established and in case we are ever locked in individual boxes in future and can’t cooperate (the Matrix Movie nightmare) – in reality, rather than in The Matrix, you are truly more clever together…
- 17. Sparking debate about income gaps, the damage they do, and how to narrow them IS NZ FAIR COMPETITION?: MANUREWA INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL ENTRY It doesn’t take a great deal of imagina-on to beQer see what maQers, but a Cyril Burt inspired educa-on is not keen on imagina-on: See: h"p://www.inequality.org.nz/
- 18. Children aged 15/16 1993-‐99 by school type & GCSEs Charts are drawn in propor-on to total numbers of children aQending each type of school and shaded by the shares awarded par-cular grades -‐ Data source: Analysis of na-onal school league tables for Britain 1993-‐00 Figure 3.5 Educa-on…the sor-ng out of children (form the book ‘The Popula-on of the UK’) Selec-ve schools tell their pupils that they are more clever than other children. The children have no way of knowing, so believe it. They are trained in exam passing (a useless skill in later life), which is said to prove their extra cleverness.
- 19. A great deal of the differences between people is due to how they are treated. When people treat you as dumb, you feel dumb, you act dumb. When they smile at you as they serve you it is easy to begin to feel superior. There is a quote from Pygmalion (which became My Fair Lady): “the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated.” The 'Pygmalion effect' is an example of a self-‐fulfilling prophecy, as happens with selec-ve educa-on. This involves spending much more money on the supposedly more poten-ally clever. It turned out that the sor3ng hat lies… There's nothing hidden in your head The Sor3ng Hat can't see, So try me on and I will tell you Where you ought to be.
- 20. “the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated.” (George Bernard Shaw, 16th Nov. 1913)… “Children from poorer families perceived by teachers as less able, says study” The Guardian, June 9th 2015 There is also ‘a “voluminous” literature regarding differences in experiences between sexes’ in how people are treated and react. Sadly it is not know by those who write papers 3tled (see p.600): “Demonstra3ng the Validity of Twin Research in Criminology”, Criminology, 52, 4, 588-‐626, 2015, doi: 10.1111/1745-‐9125.12049 …these studies are ‘silly’ (not valid). By ‘silly’ I mean ‘fraught with problems ‘….
- 21. Children are labelled in ways that cause terrible damage both at the top and boQom of many socie-es 25%‘effective’ (down 1%) 20%‘barely adequate’ (down 1%) 28%‘simple’ (up 1%) 3%‘none’ (up 1%) 11%‘developed’ (unchanged) 2%‘advanced’ (unchanged) 11%‘limited’ (unchanged) Notes: ‘None’implies none as can be measured.‘Limited’implies possessing very limited Figure 1: Children in the Netherlands ranked by ability (%) according to the OECD, 2012 (showing changes since 2006) Children are damaged by -red stressed carers, by family rela-onship breakdowns and s-ll some-mes by illness, accident or tragedy. They can be disadvantaged by the month in which they are born, where there is a school system which is compe--ve at an age when a few months difference can be significant. A compe--ve school system is very destruc-ve. Repeatedly judging some children as failures is highly damaging.
- 22. Very difficult 6% Difficult to manage 15% Coping 48% Living comfortably 31% Source: Derived from ONS (2006) Social Trends (No 36), London: Palgrave Macmillan, table 5.15, p 78, mean of 1984, 1994 and 2004 surveys. Note: Respondents were asked‘Which of the (above) phrases comes closest to your feelings about your household’s income these days?’. Excludes those who did not answer. Figure 11: Households’ability to get by on their income in Britain, two decades before the crash, 1984–2004 The different likelihoods of being able to achieve different things depends on where you live, which country, which town and which part of that town. This is something that we can map and the maps show drama-c differences. There are also drama-c differences depending on whether children are being brought up in households that describe themselves as 'living comfortably', just 'coping', 'difficult to manage' or 'very difficult to manage’. What sort of upbringing can you give children if you are that stressed? How many rows and tensions occur just over money? What psychological damage does that do to children?
- 23. Income Standard of living High High Standard of living threshold Income threshold Asset wealthyAsset wealthyAsset wealthy Not poor Rising Vulnerable Poor Core poor Exclusively wealthy Low Low Not poor Poor Vulnerable Rising KEY Source: Adapted from David Gordon’s original and much replicated drawing. See publication details of various of the works (where earlier versions appear) at the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research, University of Bristol (www.bris.ac.uk/poverty/). Note: It is because a change in income usually precedes changes in standard of living, that we tend to spiral anti-cockwise within this figure, sometimes just in small eddies. Figure 8: Circling from exclusion to inclusion and back again (model) When you ask people who have achieved what they aQribute their success to; those that are not so conceited as to say “it must be my genes”, o[en men-on chance events they could not have planned.
- 24. Studies of depression in adolescent girls in North America, 1984–2010 (see table 7, -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 Source: Re-analysis of Costello, E.J. et al (2006)‘Is there an epidemic of child or adolescent depression?’, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol 47, no 12, pp 1263-71. The data shown above are for those studies where the children lived in the USA, the US territory of Puerto Rico, or Canada. The final study was published in 2012 by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and based on combined data from the 2008 to 2010 SAMHSA National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Note: Each circle represents a study; the area of the circle is drawn in proportion to study size. An additional very recent study has been added to the figure which was not included in the first edition of this book. Figure 21: Adolescent girls assessed as depressed (%) as reported in various studies in North America, 1984–2010 Achievement and failure have liQle to do with innate poten-al, but far more to do with circumstance, which is why it is, to a certain extent, predictable. Given this and that, the likelihood is so and so. But also there are the unpredictable events. The teacher that you happened to like, even if many children didn't.
- 25. Bell curves are fabricated Label 'None' 'Limited' 'Barely adequate' 'Simple' 1.0 0.9 1.1 -2.1 -0.6 -0.2 0.1 -2.1 -0.6 -1.4 1.2 1.7-0.2 0.7 1.8 -0.1 Nether- landsOECD UK USA 0.0 2.0 3.0 -1.0 1.0 -2.0 % change 2006–2012 (note, scale = 2x above) 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 OECD Nether- lands UK USA ‘None’ ‘Limited’ ‘Barely adequate’ ‘Simple’ ‘Effective’ ‘Developed’ ‘Advanced’ 2012 Source: Data originally given in OECD (2007) The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), OECD’s latest PISA study of learning skills among 15-year-olds, Paris: OECD, derived from figures in table 1, p20. Updated using http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014024_tables.pdf (see Figure 1 notes) Figure 2: Distribution of children by ability, according to the OECD, 2012 (%) There is no point in searching for supposedly brilliant children. Any group on which you spend more -me, money and effort is likely to do beQer. Look first at poverty and depriva-on and try to reduce inequality. Look next at educa-on and study what happens in other countries where they achieve beQer results. Should we start formal educa-on later and have less tes-ng, fewer exams and less selec-on? A much higher propor-on get into university now than ever got into grammar schools with the eleven plus exam. People are rarely handed great innate ability.
- 26. Rate of prescribing antidepressants by NHS Board: Defined Daily Doses per 1,000 population (aged 15+), Scotland, 1992–2014: 92- 93 94- 95 96- 97 98- 99 00- 01 02- 03 04- 05 06- 07 08- 09 10- 11 12- 13 13- 14 Scotland 19 26 37 48 62 76 84 88 97 112 123 130 Ayrshire & Arran 19 26 37 51 65 81 90 95 107 123 136 145 Borders 20 26 35 43 54 68 78 84 93 110 123 132 Dum. & Galloway 21 27 39 48 64 78 83 85 92 105 118 125 Fife 21 26 36 47 60 74 80 84 93 109 121 129 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 92-93 93-94 94-95 95-96 96-97 97-98 98-99 99-00 00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 Source: NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (2007) NHS quality improvement Scotland: Clinical indicators 2007, Glasgow: NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, Table 1.1, p. 12. Updated using: ISD Scotland (2015) Better Information, Better Decisions, Better Health: Data Tables, NHS Scotland (http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and- medicines/Publications/data-tables.asp?id=1309#1309) Note: The NHS uses financial years when reporting on prescribing rates. The measure shown is what is called standardised defined daily doses (the commonest amount prescribed in mg/day for each anti-depressant drug) per 1,000 people aged 15+. In the first edition of this book the latest data available was for 2005–6. Figure 25: The rate of prescribing anti-depressants by the NHS in Scotland, 1992–2014.People are becoming more and more anxious over -me, especially in the most unequal of countries where they are most o[en judged.
- 27. Selected measures of inequality and healthy behaviour – all countries for which data exists on all measures, latest comparable data: Proportionofthepopulationwhocycleorwalk toworkastheirmainformoftransport 0% 20% 40% 60% 10% 30% 50% 0 5 10 15 Inequality: Income share of the best-off one percent of the population (% all income taken by this group) 20 25 Netherlands Denmark Sweden Finland Germany Norway France UK Japan Canada IrelandAustralia US Source: Paris Top income dataset figures as accessed in January 2015, cycling and walking for Japan http://www.tokyobybike.com/2013/10/how-many-japanese-cycle-to-work.html Note: The figures for Japan are only for workers, not students, and are low because the train is the main means of transport for so many in Japan. Area proportional to population. Figure 26: Healthy behaviour and income inequality, walking and cycling 2006-2010, affluent countries. New possibili-es emerge when and where people work together and control the richest in their socie-es so that the rich take a smaller share of the cake. One possibility is not having a car-‐ bound culture. That is collec3ve cleverness. How did the Dutch manage it if they are really as portrayed by the “IQ” tests?
- 28. Poten-al is about Poli-cs “The idea that poverty is passed down from genera-on to genera-on in our genes is the last refuge of scoundrels. For a conserva-ve elite, it is clearly convenient to claim that welfare and educa-on spending make no difference because poor people are intrinsically feckless. It also allows them to imagine their own wealth and status is part of the natural order. No wonder, then, that Michael Gove and his adviser Dominic Cummings began cour-ng the gene-c determinists.” See more at “No genes for literacy Posted on February 28, 2015 by reclaimschools hQp://reclaimingschools.org/2015/02/28/no-‐genes-‐for-‐literacy/
- 29. Let’s end with Toby Morris again. Here we see Toby reaching the boQom of his ‘tower of inequality’, published worldwide in April 2015. Toby wants to know what to do: hQp://thewireless.co.nz/ar-cles/the-‐pencilsword-‐inequality-‐tower Here is what not to do: “Policymakers and educators don’t need gene-cs to help them make a beQer environment for all our children. What is lacking is the poli-cal will.” Steven Rose, TES, 24/1/,2014 hQps://www.tes.co.uk/ar-cle.aspx?storyCode=6395645 The word ‘genes’ features 26 &mes in The Second edi&on of ‘Injus&ce’
- 30. Much more can be achieved by co-‐opera-on than by compe--on. We all have skills and abili-es, and just being cheerful, pleasant and kind are some of the most valuable abili-es of all. We all need to help each other – because none of us are that special. And we can so easily get things so very wrong due to the fact that we do not vary greatly in ability (poten-al or realized)… and we can also get things right by repeatedly asking for help. Thank you for your pa-ence (and help!) The End