This paper discusses a number of issues relating to the measurement of social class, through what I call ‘Occupation+’, in survey instruments. It is organized in two main parts. The first revisits a recent cross-national project which produced a prototype for a single, harmonised European Socio-economic Classification (ESeC). A number of key decisions relating to the design and implementation of ESeC are explained and justified, and an interim evaluation of the classification is presented in terms of criterion, construct and operational validity. The second part of the paper examines the measurement of social class from the perspective of those in charge of running major surveys, confronted by escalating costs, declining response rates and limitations on questionnaire space. The paper concludes with an outline research agenda for the future. This needs to be one in which there is a more strategic approach to the maintenance and re-validation of such socio-economic classifications. There also needs to be much better integration between the two worlds of the survey designers and the would-be data analysts.
Presented by:
Eric Harrison (Centre for Comparative Social Surveys, City University London)
Date & time:
April 20, 2009 3:00 pm
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