Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

keywords: social stratification, social distance, social interaction, social class, symbolic social space, group identity, social categorization

Abstract

This volume pursues how the symbolic boundaries contribute to social hierarchies in the stratification space. First, relational notion of inequalities is introduced: a culturalistic approach to class analysis and concepts of social distance. The next three chapters study subjective distance, i.e. interactional willingness related to 22 occupations as researched through the population survey Social Distances 2007. The third chapter focuses on how the mechanisms of closeness (like-me) and looking up (prestige) work to form distance. Prestige is by far the more prevalent; the like-me mechanism only applies slightly among professionals and unskilled workers. Class feelings are expressed only minimally, mostly by the working class. Next chapter examines the existence of subjectively experienced classes. There is a dominant status continuum. Further, four clusters of subjectively perceived classes were found: high professionals, traditionally female lower professionals, semi-skilled manual and routine non-manual workers, and unskilled workers with low prestige. The fifth chapter deals with objective social distance in terms of actual patterns of association in egocentric networks (respondent’s three best friends). Here, the homophily (like-me) is very strong. Friendship associations among 25 occupational categories are ordered primarily along a status continuum, with a distinct gap between white and blue collar.

The volume next explores stratification beliefs and perceptions of inequalities. The sixth chapter is concerned with people’s images of social classes and the attribution of traits to various strata. People with lower status understand class in terms of economic factors, whereas those with higher status define it in terms of cultural factors. The following chapters pursue results from a qualitative study focused on the perception of inequalities. The seventh chapter introduces a description of what the concept of class evokes and what criteria people may employ in understanding social class. Narrators mostly reject the term ‘class’ as such, due to its strong Marxian overtones. The eighth chapter examines lay conceptions – ethno-theories of stratification focused on social categories understood as ‘those above’ and ‘those below’. In assigning a position in the symbolic space, two dimensions are decisive: the material and power hierarchy and a person’s symbolic position within society (recognition). In general terms, both studies reveal that corporate classconsciousness (i.e., closed-group solidarity) is not present. Contemporary Czech society may be better described in terms of competitive status feeling, with values of competitiveness on the basis of individual merit. Yet, this is cast into doubt by a widespread impression of undeserved wealth that emerged during the post-communist transition in some striking cases.