European classification project : an assessment of national variations in the perception of social space
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2016
- handle: 10670/1.o2savt
- hal: hal-01512708
- doi: 10.1163/15691330-12341388
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1163/15691330-12341388
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Alexandra Filhon et al., « European classification project : an assessment of national variations in the perception of social space », HALSHS : archive ouverte en Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société, ID : 10.1163/15691330-12341388
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Résumé
This article examines the categorization of social space in five European countries,Germany, Belgium, Spain, France and Poland. It draws on analysis of reactions to theEuropean Socio-economic Classification (ESeC) prototype designed by social scienceresearchers for Eurostat. Looking beyond the logic underpinning the prototype, ourwork investigates how “ordinary” people understand the structuring of social spacein different national contexts. By studying how respondents react to ESeC categories,we were able to address how they develop their own categories that guide them insocial space. Through an experimental survey based on a list of occupations, classifiedaccording to the ESeC categories, we tested the self-consistency of the prototype bysubmitting it to ordinary individuals. Our results demonstrate that the respondentsfound it difficult to understand the main organizational principles of ESeC. We con-clude by questioning the ability of the European classification system in question totake into account the diverse national socio-economic realities that still characterizethe European Union.