Occupational-based social class positions: a critical review and some findings

Social class is a key concept for the analysis of social structure and the (re-)production of social inequalities. We review the main occupation based social class measures and delineate them from other concepts such as status (ceto, stand) and continuous measures of socio-economic positions. In particular, the theoretical foundations of the so-called EGP and ESeC schemes are presented. The alternative proposal by Oesch is described as well. We conclude the paper with empirical evidence on the class composition in Italy and the enduring relevance of the concept for the stratification of inequalities.