Social Stratification

Trends and Processes

Roxanne Connelly, Vernon Gayle, Paul Lambert, Paul Lambert

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317053491
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Soziale Klassen & wirtschaftliche Ungleichheit

Research into social stratification and social divisions has always been a central component of sociological study. This volume brings together a range of thematically organised case-studies comprising empirical and methodological analyses addressing the challenges of studying trends and processes in social stratification. This collection has four themes. The first concerns the measurement of social stratification, since the problem of relating concepts, measurements and operationalizations continues to cause difficulties for sociological analysis. This book clarifies the appropriate deployment of existing measurement options, and presents new empirical strategies of measurement and interpretation. The conception of the life course and individual social biography is very popular in modern sociology. The second theme of this volume exploits the contemporary expansion of micro-level longitudinal data and the analytical approaches available to researchers to exploit such records. It comprises chapters which exemplify innovative empirical analysis of life-course processes in a longitudinal context, thus offering an advance on previous sociological accounts concerned with longitudinal trends and processes. The third theme of the book concerns the interrelationship between contemporary demographic, institutional and socioeconomic transformations and structures of social inequality. Although the role of wider social changes is rarely neglected in sociological reviews, such changes continue to raise analytical challenges for any assessment of empirical differences and trends. The fourth theme of the book discusses selected features of policy and political responses to social stratification. This volume will be of interest to students, academics and policy experts working in the field of social stratification.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Paul Lambert, Roxanne Connelly, Vernon Gayle and Robert M. Blackburn

Social stratification: Trends and processes

Social stratification is a mature area of study within sociology and has traditionally been of central concern to those interested in the structure of contemporary societies. This collection brings together a series of chapters themed around the study of social stratification and its trends and processes. Many of the chapters engage with substantial quantities of new empirical evidence concerning stratification structures, often demonstrating new or emerging techniques of analysis being brought to bear on complex specialist topics. The papers themselves are linked to a long-standing research seminar group, the ‘Social Stratification Research Seminars’, which has held annual meetings covering the broad remit and debates of social stratification since the late 1960s.1

The chapters in this volume are unified by a conception of social stratification as a system of social structures of consequential inequality that are enduring and reproduced (cf. Bottero 2005). The central thread that runs through the volume is the study of substantial social inequalities. These inequalities are usually economic in their nature and enduring in their character. The chapters in this volume explore the social mechanisms which lie behind these social inequities.

Most studies of social stratification feature either a comparative element, such as in asking how different are separate societies or time periods (questions about trends), and/or a causal element, in asking about the underlying social mechanisms that generate, or sustain, structures of inequality (questions about processes). These two types of question – about trends and processes – provide the theme of this book. Each chapter addresses a topic in social stratification and tackles issues of either a comparative or a causative nature as is relevant. Each study seeks to make a contribution in one of four theme areas – the volume covers issues in measuring and studying stratification in Part 1; life course analysis in Part 2; the impact of wider social structures in Part 3; and policy responses in Part 4.

The contributions to the current volume are all sociological in character. Whilst social stratification research has a rich and fruitful history, it has arguably declined in its relative prominence within sociological publications in recent decades. Moreover, in some domains, the input of sociological perspectives on social stratification is arguably being eclipsed by those originating from other social science disciplines. Goldthorpe (2010) has highlighted how two influential contemporary statements on social stratification and social inequality, which have come from economics and epidemiology respectively, provide inadequate perspectives precisely because their disciplines lack an extended tradition in the conceptualisation and measurement of social stratification and its trends and processes. We share this perspective, and seek with this volume to demonstrate the ways in which detailed sociological contributions can enhance our understanding of trends and processes of social stratification.

Theory and methodology in social stratification research

To help locate the contributions of this volume, we provide below brief comments on theoretical and methodological traditions and emergent approaches in studying trends and processes in social stratification. Popular alternative sources for extended reviews of the field include, amongst others, contributions from Platt (2011), Grusky et al. (2008), Crompton (2008), Bottero (2005), and Kerbo (2003). At a more specific level, Hout and Di Prete (2006), Goldthorpe (2005), Breen and Jonsson (2005) and Treiman and Ganzeboom (2000) have all provided useful recent summaries of research programmes and data and analytical issues impacting upon contemporary social stratification research.

The analysis of social stratification has long been a central activity of sociological research, but it can also be a challenging and sometimes contradictory field of study. It is possible to characterise (at least) four groups of long-standing debates, concerning the enduring empirical character of societies; the appropriate measurement of stratification and inequality; the relevance of alternative analytical methods; and the correct theoretical interpretations and conclusions to be drawn from empirical results. In addition, in recent years social stratification research has been increasingly characterised by the availability of large volumes of rich empirical data (see also Treiman and Ganzeboom 2000), balanced against the difficult tasks of interpretation which can arise from studying social processes which are often complex and inter-dependent.

Debates of the empirical character of societies are most readily linked to claims and counter-claims about social change. Social commentary is made easier when a story can be told of exciting transformations between societies (such as change in the same societies over time, or differences between societies). Accordingly, many social commentaries feature ‘grand’ and ‘middle range’ claims about social trends. ‘Grand’ claims involve statements about major transformations in social relations, popular recent examples being the description of social structures of stratification and inequality as ‘post-modern’ (e.g. Pakulski and Waters 1996), a ‘risk society’ (e.g. Beck 1992), or an ‘individualised society’ (Bauman 2001). ‘Middle range’ claims involve statements about trends in particular processes, influential recent examples being the claims of declining social mobility in the UK (Blanden et al. 2004), or of systematic relationships between levels of social inequality and other important social outcomes (Wilkinson and Pickett 2009), that Goldthorpe (2010) and Goldthorpe and Jackson (2007) have recently called into question. Perhaps the most overt feature of stratification research in sociology is that empirical analyses have been almost universal in dismissing ‘grand’ claims of major structural changes in social stratification relationships (esp. Goldthorpe 2007a); on the contrary, detailed empirical research consistently suggests stability and maintenance over time of long-established social structures, a view which was linked usefully by Penn (2006: 15) to the frameworks of the ‘Annales’ movement. Equally, sociological research is riven with disagreement over claims about middle-range processes with no easily summarised resolution in sight. Indeed the contribution by Payne to this volume addresses the large body of recent material, both academic and political, concerned with UK social mobility trends, pointing to further challenges likely to emerge before this particular middle range debate can be usefully resolved.

Debates of measurement focus on the tools through which social scientists measure social stratification inequality and its related epiphenomena. Most consistently, data on occupations is used, often simply because occupations make a convenient marker of social position rather than for any other reason (e.g. Stewart et al. 1980). An abundance of literature in social stratification research discussses approaches to measuring stratification through occupations (e.g. Rose et al. 2010, and the chapters in Part 1 of this volume). Materials also address other important measurement considerations linked to occupations (see for instance Blackburn et al. 2000 on gender segregation), and challenges in working with other measures of economic situations and social inequalities such as measured income, wealth and education (e.g. Grusky and Kanbur 2006; Schneider 2010). Of great significance are how opportunities for measurement have vastly increased with the extended availability in terms of range and scale of survey data resources over the last two decades in many nations. New analyses of stratification circumstances have become possible in societies which did not previously have suitably detailed data resources (for instance, the chapters by de Luca et al. and by Bessudnov in this volume offer such contributions for the cases of Italy and Russia respectively). Alternatively, new possibilities for measuring social positions which involve composite or longitudinal records on individuals have been advocated (e.g. Gershuny 2000a), and stratification researchers have often found ways to adapt their measurement approaches to better exploit richer data resources on individual circumstances (see for instance the contributions in Part 2 of this volume).

Debates over analytical methods have also been strongly influenced by recent transformations in the scope of those methods which have been technically feasible. An interest in representative empirical evidence has led most specialists in social stratification research – including all of the contributors to this volume – to engage with evidence from large scale quantitative data resources (indeed, when compared to many other domains of sociological interest, there is a relatively unusual concentration of advanced statistical expertise within social stratification research). Recent developments in stratification research have emerged on two fronts: through data expansions such as the growing availability of substantial longitudinal surveys (e.g. Laurie 2010); and through the steady diffusion of software and research capacity utilising emerging statistical analytical techniques (cf. Treiman 2009). The review by Treiman and Ganzeboom (2000) charts how these two factors interacted to define different ‘generations’ of social stratification research. Arguably, the current generation, as represented by the various contributing chapters of this volume, is characterised by eclectic opportunities for and approaches to statistical analysis. These can provide rich evidence on social structures but, as is itself evidenced by the different approaches used in the contributions below, we are a long way from consistency in the statistical methods deployed and the interpretations given to their results.

Debates on theoretical interpretations of empirical evidence typically involve claims about the mechanisms behind observed empirical patterns, and/or the implications which follow directly from evidence of empirical patterns as concern social policies and political claims. Examples of the former in the current volume include the challenges highlighted in the chapter by Lambert and Bihagen on the interpretation of associations with occupation-based measures which arise from competing claims about their properties, or in the discussion in the chapter by Li which reflects upon the options for interpreting evidence of ‘ethnic penalties’ in incomes in Britain and the United States. Examples of the latter include the extended discussions of policy responses included in the contributions below from Payne, Bolzonaro and Jarman.

The components of the current volume

The current volume is divided into four parts which focus on how sociological research responds to challenges in the measurement of social stratification (Part 1); the analysis of the life course and longitudinal micro-level processes related to social stratification (Part 2); the backdrop of wider demographic, institutional and socio-economic change (Part 3); and contemporary political and policy responses to stratification (Part 4).

Part 1: Measuring social stratification

Despite extended study, the problem of relating concepts, measurements and operationalisations in the analysis of social stratification continues to cause difficulties for sociological analysis. In Part 1 the contributions seek to clarify the appropriate deployment of existing measurement options, and to present new empirical strategies of measurement and interpretation.

The opening chapter by Lambert and Bihagen reviews practice in the use of occupational data as a means to indicate social stratification position. Lambert and Bihagen discuss a range of methodological issues associated with the interpretation of existing measures of social stratification, leading them to critique the assumed link between theoretical concepts in stratification, and the empirical properties of the scales and classifications that have been developed to measure them. After describing standard approaches and well known problems, Lambert and Bihagen highlight the advantages of using a range of suitable alternative measures, and of performing sensitivity analysis to compare different schemes.

De Luca, Meriviglia and Ganzeboom provide the first of two chapters which present case studies in the characterisation of the stratification order in contemporary nations. The authors focus their attention on Italy, an interesting example since few national studies on the nature of the Italian stratification structure have previously been undertaken. Drawing upon methods of analysis which have been applied to the construction of CAMSIS scales across other countries (e.g. www.camsis.stir.ac.uk), de Luca et al. construct a scale of occupational positions based upon social distance analysis of the occupational records of cohabiting couples. The authors describe their exercise in conducting this analysis and outline the features of the new scale (labelled ‘CAMSIS-IT’), and provide a descriptive analysis of the scale’s properties and correlations with other national and international measures. Broadly, this analysis provides a validation of the relation between social interactions and the social structure of stratification and inequality, and outlines a new nationally specific means of understanding the relation between social stratification and occupations in Italy.

Bessudnov’s chapter has many points of connection with that of de Luca et al. Bessudnov similarly constructs a relational scale based on an analysis of social interactions between the incumbents of occupations, in his case using data from cohabiting couples in the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. Bessudnov describes the procedures used in constructing this occupational scale (taking a similar approach to that used in the project summarised by Chan 2010), then documents empirical qualities of the scale and discusses what it tells us about the nature of social stratification in contemporary Russia.

Part 2: Stratification over the life course

The conception of the life course and the individual social biography is very popular in modern sociology. The second theme takes advantage of the exciting contemporary expansion of micro-level longitudinal data and the new analytical approaches available to researchers to exploit such records in social stratification research. It comprises chapters which exemplify innovative empirical analysis of life course processes in a longitudinal context. This empirical focus offers an advance upon what are often more speculative sociological accounts concerned with longitudinal trends and processes (cf. Bauman 2001).

Firstly, Hillmert examines cumulative inequalities through the life course in an examination of long-term trends in the German labour market. Using data from the West German Life History Study and German register data, Hillmert organises his analysis to facilitate comparisons of older and more recent birth cohorts, and motivates his analyses against the backdrop of understanding German institutional specificities. In general Hillmert’s results indicate that the accumulation of advantage in the German labour market follows the expected patterns, for instance being related to social origins, and may serve as a process which reinforces stratification inequalities. Hillmert shows how such a pattern is plausible in the German institutional context, which is based on a differentiated educational system and a qualification oriented labour market, and suggests that studying accumulation in a comparative cross-national context would be a potentially fruitful line for future research.

Erola utilises 40 years of data from the Finnish Census Panel to explore the relationship between father’s class and income as influences on the early adulthood class of offspring. Erola notes that sociological theory often makes assumptions regarding the contributions of monetary and non-monetary resources to intergenerational class mobility. While many argue that advantages accrue because of social or cultural capital, others consider parental income and wealth to be the main conduits of social reproduction. However, there is a scarcity of empirical analysis on this topic, and due to the lack of studies which analyse the impact of both parental class and income the relationship between these two remains unclear. Erola tests this relationship through his analysis of Finnish panel data and makes a significant contribution to our understanding of this issue with his conclusion that parental class can be considered a multidimensional indicator which encompasses the effects of income in analyses of intergenerational inequality.

Connelly is similarly able to take advantage of voluminous longitudinal datasets in order to explore individual stratification outcomes (based on occupational positions) and various measures of background influences upon them. In her case Connelly exploits secondary data from two important UK birth cohort studies (cohorts born in 1958 and 1970). Connelly seeks to re-energise the widely disseminated debate on the meritocratic character of contemporary Britain, by using new and improved measures of cognitive ability alongside traditional socio-economic markers of social background and educational attainment, all used as possible explanatory measures influencing the cohort members’ subsequent occupational outcomes. Significantly, Connelly analyses outcomes at more than one point in time, and finds that the effects of measured ability are substantial, but largely stable, over the life course. Connelly also finds apparent evidence of change between the cohorts in the effects of ability, education and background, but an important conclusion concerns the difficulty of conceptualising (and potentially separating) the sequence of influences that lead from ability to education, then from education to occupational outcomes.

Lastly, Tampubolon and Savage make an original contribution to the analysis of social mobility and inequality in Britain by seeking to integrate new methods for understanding within-career occupational change with the traditional approaches of inter-generational analysis. The potential value of a life course perspective has long been recognised in studies of intergenerational mobility (e.g. Erikson and Goldthorpe 1992: c8), but the authors’ contribution here is to take advantage of newly available detailed longitudinal survey data covering occupational careers and backgrounds (the same cohort studies as used by Connelly), and an under-used method for characterising career structures in the form of a latent class growth curve model, in order to construct summary profiles of career structures (in terms of social class position and labour market status) for men and women. Between the two cohorts Tamubolon and Savage consistently detect either three or four substantial latent classes (characterised by distinctive social class and employment status histories), then analyse the social origins and other features of the members of those classes. Their analysis provides a new contribution to a steadily expanding tradition using life course career data to understand social stratification.

Part 3: Demographic, institutional and socio-economic changes

The third section of the book concerns the inter-relationship between contemporary demographic, institutional and socio-economic transformations, and structures of social inequality. Although the role of wider social changes are rarely neglected in sociological reviews, social changes continue to raise analytical challenges for any assessment of empirical differences and trends in individuals’ experiences. The section comprises case studies which look at the circumstances of ethnic minority groups in labour markets, the relationships between stratification and family roles, and the impact of wider structural changes upon individual outcomes.

The first chapter in Part 3, by Penn, focuses upon the relationship between ethnicity and skilled work in the United States. Work is an essential component of the reproduction of structures of stratification, and skill...