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This paper is intended as a contribution to the formal theory of stratification systems. The paper has five sections. In Section I, a method for analytically inducing an order over a multi-dimensional status is discussed. It is believed that such a technique can aid in the specification of conceptual tasks within stratification theory, as well as serve as a baseline in actual measurements. It is subsequently employed in the axiomatic work of Sections 3 and 4. In Section 2, there is a brief discussion of the axiomatic method as a prelude to the system developed in the following two sections. In Section 3, the axioms are stated. In Section 4, various elementary consequences of the axioms are shown; most importantly, various concepts which are intuitively important in stratification theory are shown to be definable (e.g., a class system with a determinate number of classes). Finally, in Section s, there is a concluding discussion of the picture of stratification which emerges within this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IN A RECENT paper Mr. Runciman concludes by inviting replies to his argument that it is logically and conceptually useful to employ the tripartite distinction between `class' `status' and `power' in the analysis of social stratification. Mr. Runciman does not, of course, deny the existence of links between these three dimensions, but suggests that such links must be seen contingent empirical relationships and not necessary logical ones. I hope that the following paper will provide such a reply. It must be clear that the following criticism is directed, in the main, to those parts of the paper in which Mr. Runciman is concerned with the logical and conceptual problem. The essay in question also contains a clear and valuable assessment of the problems encountered in any attempt to measure the three types of inequality. In the first part of the paper I propose to give a critical assessment of certain central aspects of Mr. Runciman's argument and, in the second part, I will put forward a very brief formulation of what I consider to be a more meaningful alternative view of the relationships between class, status, and power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses about the issue of "Re-Placing Whiteness," which is an amalgam of two very different papers about immigrants' residential patterns. Assimilation theory anticipates progress toward the mainstream as immigrants and especially their children experience social mobility, including shifts in the kinds of neighborhoods where they live. Of course, assimilation is not the only possible trajectory. A longstanding counterclaim is that American society obstructs the mobility of some groups, and a more recent argument is that some groups may not value residential assimilation as a goal. But from any theoretical perspective, there are good reasons not to focus solely on residence in white suburban neighborhoods as indicators of advancement. It would be constructive to offer a theory to explain why some early arrivals turn out to be very highly concentrated.

The article presents abstracts of papers published in the July 2002 issue of the journal "Current Sociology." A discussion of Poor Chic, or an array of fads and fashions in popular culture that make recreational or stylish "fun" of poverty, or of traditional symbols of working class and underclass statuses, challenges the reductionism of the view that "lifestyle" consumption has displaced consumption as a means of expressing social status. It is argued that the multiplicity of symbols involved in Poor Chic collectively represent lower class status and have referents in the material realities of poverty. Using numerous examples of Poor Chic in the United States and internationally since the 1980s, this article shows how the rational consumption of poverty symbols distinguishes class boundaries between the wealthy and the poor. Quantitative cross-national analysis (CNA) is one of the most frequently used research methods in empirical sociology, particularly in research on developing countries. Its frequent application implies that CNA is a useful instrument that yields trustworthy result.

Despite its frequent use by sociologists there has been relatively little discussion of the practical difficulties involved in operationalizing the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) system of social class allocation. Using social class coding data from a national study of child development this paper examines one problem which occurs when using the OPCS scheme - illegal combinations of employment status and occupational codes. Attention is only focused on occupations falling into Social Class I and for these professional occupations it is shown that illegal combinations are the result of the OPCS conceptualization of the professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines certain aspects of the relationship between class structure and clientelistic politics by focusing on a specific case: that of modern Greece. In particular, by looking at the way in which functionalist sociology and anthropology, on the one hand, and certain brands of Marxism, on the other, deal with the problem of political clientelism (mainly in the Greek context but also more generally), an attempt will be made (a) to formulate some general metatheoretical[1] guidelines on the manner in which such a relationship should be conceptualised; and (b) to give a brief sketch of the way in which the class-clientelism relationship has changed with the historical development of Greek capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]