Social stratification: trends and processes

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.

Part I Measuring Social Stratification: -- Stratification research and occupation-based social classifications / Paul Lambert and Erik Bihagen -- Measures and dimensions of occupational stratification: the case of a relational scale for Italy / Deborah de Luca, Cinzia Meraviglia and Harry B.G. Ganzeboom -- A relational occupational scale for Russia / Alexey Bessudnov. -- Part II Social Stratification Over the Life Course: -- Cumulative inequalities along the life course: long-term trends in the German labour market / Steffen Hillmert -- Family background and the life cycle effects of father's class and income / Jani Erola -- Social stratification and cognitive ability: an assessment of the influence of childhood ability test scores and family background on occupational position across the lifespan / Roxanne Connelly -- Intergenerational and intragenerational social mobility in Britain / Gindo Tampubolon and Mike Savage. -- Part III Demographic, Institutional and Socio-Economic Changes: -- Ethnicity and skilled work in the United States / Roger Penn -- Occupation and pay across the generations: the labour market experience of four ethno-religious groups in Britain / Simonetta Longh…