TY - JOUR
T1 - Occupations and Inequalities in the 21st Century
T2 - What's in your Wallet?
AU - Leicht, Kevin T.
N1 - Funding Information:
I had a direct experience with this during the mid-2000s (2005). I had a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to study the relationship between local educational and economic contexts and successful transitions to adulthood. The running hypothesis was that there were parts of the country that were facilitating the creation of functioning, productive adults and other parts of the country that weren’t, and that these differences had worsened over time. George W. Bush’s political appointees stopped the research, claiming the level of geographic detail (state-level data) “violated human subjects/confidentiality principles…” When legal counsel for my university became involved in negotiations, it was clear that the Bush administration was afraid of the results, not respondent confidentiality. As one political appointee stated, “…the Bush administration is not interested in geographic differences in economic opportunity…”. No agreement was reached on data releases and the research was permanently blocked.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - The study of occupations as a locus for social stratification research has a long and distinguished history in sociology. The authors in this issue present different perspectives on the current and future role of occupations as a foundation for inequalities research. This introduction provides a context for understanding how and why occupations became a focus of inequalities research, especially in the Post-World War II English-speaking world. I then discuss some of the economic changes that have led some to question where occupations stand as a vehicle for analyzing social inequality, and then turn to a summary of the contributions to this issue. This summary is framed as a friendly family debate between those who wish to “fix and refurbish” the old reliable occupational perspective and those who think that researchers should “trade in” the old perspective for one focusing on firms and jobs. My review of the contributions to this issue suggests several avenues for future research including (1) new efforts to improve the quality of occupational coding, (2) a renewed focus on local labor markets as a better representation of where most people find employment, (3) an examination of whether occupational structures mattered more for explaining social inequalities in prior historical periods compared to the present, (4) examinations of how and where occupations matter cross-nationally, and finally (5) a renewed focus on units of measurement that people actually carry around with them and spend (dollars, euros, etc.) as opposed to logged earnings and socioeconomic status points.
AB - The study of occupations as a locus for social stratification research has a long and distinguished history in sociology. The authors in this issue present different perspectives on the current and future role of occupations as a foundation for inequalities research. This introduction provides a context for understanding how and why occupations became a focus of inequalities research, especially in the Post-World War II English-speaking world. I then discuss some of the economic changes that have led some to question where occupations stand as a vehicle for analyzing social inequality, and then turn to a summary of the contributions to this issue. This summary is framed as a friendly family debate between those who wish to “fix and refurbish” the old reliable occupational perspective and those who think that researchers should “trade in” the old perspective for one focusing on firms and jobs. My review of the contributions to this issue suggests several avenues for future research including (1) new efforts to improve the quality of occupational coding, (2) a renewed focus on local labor markets as a better representation of where most people find employment, (3) an examination of whether occupational structures mattered more for explaining social inequalities in prior historical periods compared to the present, (4) examinations of how and where occupations matter cross-nationally, and finally (5) a renewed focus on units of measurement that people actually carry around with them and spend (dollars, euros, etc.) as opposed to logged earnings and socioeconomic status points.
KW - Economic Change
KW - Firms
KW - High Inequality
KW - Jobs
KW - Occupations
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U2 - 10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100550
DO - 10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100550
M3 - Article
C2 - 32895591
AN - SCOPUS:85091481106
SN - 0276-5624
VL - 70
JO - Research in Social Stratification and Mobility
JF - Research in Social Stratification and Mobility
M1 - 100550
ER -