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Abstract: Social class is a central concept in sociology but sociologists have paid limited attention to its measurement. This study contrasts the traditional ‘big class’ approach of EGP/ESEC and E.O. Wright with more recent meso- and micro-class approaches to class analysis with respect to their capacity to explain inequalities in education, income and labor market outcomes, social attitudes and voting.

Different class theories suggest competing mechanisms behind social class stratification and assume primacy of different analythical levels of occupational aggregation. Assessing 10 class schemes across 13 outcomes using data from up to 66 countries and more than 650.000 individuals, we offer the most comprehensive multi-scheme, multi-country analysis of class stratification.

We measure scheme performance in terms of average effect strength and model fit and carry out both pooled analyses and cross-national comparisons to assess whether the construct validity of class schemes varies across countries.   

The Sociology Seminar Series for Trinity Term is convened by Juliana de Castro Galvao, Pablo Geraldo and David Kretschmer.  For more information about this or any of the seminars in the series, please contact sociology.secretary@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.