Comparative Intergenerational Stratification Research: Three Generations and Beyond

(1991) - Harry B. G. Ganzeboom, Donald J. Treiman, Wout C. Ultee

Journal: Annual Review of Sociology
Link:: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.so.17.080191.001425
DOI:: 10.1146/annurev.so.17.080191.001425
Links::
Tags:: #paper #SocialClass
Cite Key:: [@ganzeboomComparativeIntergenerationalStratification1991]

Abstract

In this article we review 40 years of cross-national comparative research on the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic advantage, with particular attention to developments over the past 15 years—that is, since the transition between (what have become known as) the second and third generations of social stratification and mobility research. We identify the generations by a set of core studies and categorize them with respect to data collection, measurement, analytical models, research problems, main hypotheses, and substantive results. We go on to discuss a number of new topics and approaches that have gained prominence in the research agenda in the last decade. We conclude that the field has progressed considerably with respect to data collection and measurement; that shifts across generations with respect to data analytic and modelling strategies do not unambiguously represent advances; and that with respect to problem development and theory formulation the field has become excessively narrow.

Notes

“This paper provides operational procedures for coding internationally comparable measures of occupational status from the recently published International Standard Classification of Occupation 1988 (ISCO88)” (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 1996, p. 201)

“Prestige measures are generated from the popular evaluation of occupational standing. They reflect the classical sociological hypothesis that occupational status constitutes the single most important dimension in social interaction.” (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 1996, p. 203)

“SEI scores are created by computing a weighted sum of socioeconomic characteristics of incumbents of each occupation, usually education and income, but occasionally other characteristics, e.g., father’s socioeconomic characteristics and wealth (Duncan-Jones, 1972).” (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 1996, p. 204)

“ISCO88 is a nested classification of four levels. The first digit distinguishes nine major groups4; within these there are three further levels: 28 sub major groups, 116 minor groups and 390 unit groups.” (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 1996, p. 205)

“the new ISCO differs from its predecessor (and, in particular, from the enhancements of ISCO68 we have used) by its failure to accommodate broad categories such as ‘‘foreman’’ and ‘‘skilled worker.’’ The authors of ISCO88 would argue rightly that such designations are too broad to classify properly and the survey researcher should seek additional information.” (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 1996, p. 209)

“Our adaptations of these guidelines as mapping rules are, in order of priority: a. Numerical dominance rule: in a one-to-many mapping, the more numerous group prevails. b. Skill level rule: if (about) equally large, the highest skill level prevails. c. Production rule: if (about) equally large and of the same skill level, production occupations prevail over sales and managerial occupations.” (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 1996, p. 210)

“The new SIOPS scores were generated in three steps. First, for unit groups for which there was a one-to-one correspondence in ISCO68 and ISCO88, the 1968 scores were simply assigned to the 1988 categories. Second, for the remaining ISCO88 categories the occupational titles reported by Treiman (1977, Appendix A) were matched to the ISCO88 unit groups, in the same way that Treiman had initially matched them to ISCO68 unit groups” (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 1996, p. 211)

“In order to construct a new version of the ISEI index we used the same computational procedures used in Ganzeboom et al. (1992; see pp. 10–19 and Appendix C for a full description).” (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 1996, p. 212)

“The coefficients estimated for ISCO88, respectively .582 and .465, are virtually identical to those found for ISCO68. As in many national studies, education outweighs income, which can be interpreted as meaning that occupations are somewhat more homogeneous with respect to education than with respect to income.” (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 1996, p. 212)

“Two kinds of occupations present particular difficulties: service occupations, many of which cannot be unambiguously classified as nonmanual vs manual; and occupations that similarly cannot be unambiguously classified as skilled vs semi- or unskilled (among manual jobs) or as professional vs semi-(‘‘associate’’) professional (among nonmanual jobs)” (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 1996, p. 214)

“The EGP Class Categories” (Ganzeboom and Treiman, 1996, p. 214)