Subjective Social Class in the United States.

This dissertation examines the impact of two overlapping but analytically distinct systems of stratification on people's subjective class identification. The first system, the status system, is based on personal status attributes such as education, occupational prestige, and income, and it assumes a continuous scheme of differentiation. The second system, the class system, focuses on structural conditions and relational aspects of the organization of production. It assumes a discrete scheme of differences. In previous studies of subjective social class in the United States, the class system has been almost totally neglected while most emphasis has been given to the status system. In this dissertation, I examine the impact of both status system and class system variables on subjective social class in the United States. Using national survey data from the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Surveys, 1972-1982, I develop alternative models of class identification that represent the status system and class system approaches. After considering the separate effects of different kinds of factors, I suggest a synthesis that predicts class identification on the basis of personal status attributes and some aspects of objective class. Subjective class identification is best understood as a function of not only education, occupational prestige, and income, but also ownership of the means of production, control of the labor power of others, and manual versus nonmanual employment.PhDSocial workUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/159828/1/8402373.pd