Class & occupational structure
Measure social positions through work, authority, income and employment relations rather than one ranking alone.
Side 247Side Studies / Research
Subject
Social Stratification
Purpose
Persistent inequality studied through class, status, wealth, occupation, education, race, gender and intergenerational mobility.
Structure
05 movesSystem mapV0
Components → constraints → flows → control → failure
Study inequality as positions reproduced through institutions.
Social stratification connects distributions of resources to mechanisms of closure, inheritance, sorting and cumulative advantage across generations.
Wealth & inheritance
Distinguish stocks from flows and study how assets, debt and transfers compound inequality over time.
Education & credentialing
Examine schooling as both skill formation and a sorting institution linked to family resources and labor markets.
Group boundaries & discrimination
Study how race, gender and other categories become linked to unequal treatment and opportunity through institutions.
Mobility & reproduction
Measure movement across generations while separating absolute structural change from relative chances of moving between positions.
Keep the boundaries visible.
income ≠ wealth
inequality ≠ poverty
mobility ≠ equal opportunity
Questions that organize the Side.
Which mechanisms reproduce advantage even when formal rules are equal?
How much mobility reflects economic restructuring versus changed relative opportunity?
When does education reduce inequality and when does it reproduce it?
What should carry weight here?
Administrative, longitudinal and intergenerational data are strongest; category definitions, attrition and selection can substantially alter inequality estimates.