This paper discusses a number of issues relating to the measurement of social class, through what I call ‘Occupation+’, in (cross-national) survey instruments. It comprises two sections; one retrospective, the other prospective. The first reflects on a recent cross-national project which produced a prototype for a single harmonized European Socio-economic Classification (ESeC). It explains and justifies a number of key decisions relating to the design and implementation of ESeC, and it presents a provisional evaluation of the classification in terms of criterion, construct and operational validity. The second part of the paper looks forward, assessing the main challenges to doing high quality cross-national work on social stratification. In so doing it considers 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 some suggestions for future research in this field, primary among these being a more strategic approach to the maintenance and re-validation of such socio-economic classifications. This will in turn require much better integration between the ‘two worlds’ of the survey designer and the would-be data analyst.
Presented by:
Eric Harrison (City University London)
Date & time:
January 18, 2010 4:00 pm - May 18, 2009 4:30 pm
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