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Or Why a Sociological View of Social Inequality Should Be Reasserted

Bibliographic Data

ID4124624
AuthorsJohn H Goldthorpe (0000-0003-1131-2619, corresponding author)
Year2012
Publication date2012-01-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRevista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0210-5233 • E-ISSN: 1988-5903
PublisherCentro de Investigaciones Sociologicas (PUBLISHER • ES)
DOI10.5477/cis/reis.137.201
OpenAlexW2321950796
LanguageEN
Citations received23

Of late, issues of social inequality have assumed a new political centrality in many western societies. However, in much discussion of these issues, sociological approaches to the analysis of social inequality have been disregarded, especially in the work of economists and epidemiologists. The main features of the sociological approach are the emphasis given to inequality in a relational rather than a merely attributional sense, and to the distinction between social class and social status as two qualitatively different forms of social stratifi cation. Two cases serve to illustrate the limitations and dangers that result from neglecting the conceptual and empirical work undertaken by sociologists: the study of intergenerational social mobility by economists and the study of the consequences of social inequality for health and related social problems by epidemiologists

Class (philosophy · Epistemology · Inequality · Political science · Social class · Social inequality · Social mobility · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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