NASP International and Interdisciplinary Seminars

Prof. Dominique Joye (University of Lausanne)
Social positions and social capitals in Switzerland

13 May 2016, 14.30
Room A
Graduate School in Social and Political Sciences
Via Pace, 10 - Milan

Abstract
One of the main challenges in the sociology of stratification is to define what to consider as differences in social positions and how to measures them. In this contribution, considering three types of capital, economic, cultural and social, we will come more specifically to two questions:
• Traditional measures based on prestige, socio-economic index, the CAMSIS approach as well as class models have been used in Switzerland in order to measure social position. Going back to how they are built and operationalized, one of the interest of this kind of measures is also the ability to discuss whether classifications or measurements are specific to a country, or they are able to display a structure which is comparable between countries and can form the basis of an international measurement systems. In the same vein, how far a measurement is linked to a specific time-frame, or could it be considered as time-independent? In the first case, classifications can also be considered as a way to measure social change.
• This first set of questions is mainly based on individual characteristics, including occupations. However occupation is far from being the only resource for individuals which are embedded in a complex sets of relations with others, referring to a social capital dimension. If measurement of social positions often relied on cultural and economic capital, how can we take into account and measure social capital defined as the resources linked to relations with others? And how such a type of capital is linked, and can even be exchanged with, other types of capitals?
The proposal for a new ISSP (International Social Survey Programme) survey module on social network will be an occasion to explore this last question in a comparative frame.