Abstract
Our study has explored how data on the social connections between people, insofar as they are linked to occupations, can shed light upon patterns of consequential social inequalities. There are many different ways of measuring and understanding long-term social inequalities, but we argued that the best understanding of all comes from a characterisation of social positions through empirical data on the social interaction patterns exhibited between detailed occupational categories. Specifically, in Chaps. 4, 5, and 6 we described in depth the ‘CAMSIS’ approach to constructing ‘Social Interaction Distance’ scales for occupations. We demonstrated how CAMSIS scales—that should be interpreted as measures of the average position in the stratification structure held by the incumbents of an occupation—provide useful, arguably optimal, measures of social stratification. The construction of CAMSIS scales raise complex issues, and results can be contingent upon low-level decisions made during the scale construction process, but these challenges are surmountable and they should not put us off from exploring and exploiting a very promising tool for understanding the social structure. The CAMSIS approach has been around for many decades, but the use of SID scales for occupations has recently enjoyed an upsurge in popularity, and this text incorporates some extended reference materials for people interested in the approach, and advice on the interpretation and exploitation of CAMSIS scales.
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Lambert, P., Griffiths, D. (2018). Conclusions. In: Social Inequalities and Occupational Stratification. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-02253-0_12
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