Spaces and Networks: Concepts for Social Stratification

While early stratification students were deeply categorical in their theory and methods, concerning themselves with discrete categories or “bins” such as status, strata, classes, layers and such, Haller already conceived of stratification as a continuous, comparative process. While older theory held that each individual occupied a discrete status to which were attached role expectations which guided the individual’s behavior, Haller conceived of status as a continuous hierarchy, through which individuals moved in a career trajectory over time. The Galileo System of measuring social objects as points in a multidimensional Riemannian continuum is a deliberate effort to realize Haller’s theoretical conception of a continuous array of statuses, occupations and positions through which individuals move in continuous arcs, impelled by the expectations of others and other forces. In this paper we describe the fundamental premises of the Galileo model and present data showing the utility of the model. The Shape of Social Inequality: Stratification and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Volume 22, 57–71 © 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd. ISSN: 0276-5624/doi:10.1016/S0276-5624(04)22002-9