The Shape of Social Inequality

This volume brings together former students, colleagues, and others influenced by the sociological scholarship of Archibald O. Haller to celebrate Haller's many contributions to theory and research on social stratification and mobility. All of the chapters respond to Haller's programmatic agenda for stratification research: "A full program aimed at understanding stratification requires: first, that we know what stratification structures consist of and how they may vary; second, that we identify the individual and collective consequences of the different states and rates of change of such structures; and third, seeing that some degree of stratification seems to be present everywhere, that we identify the factors that make stratification structures change." The contributors to this Festschrift address such topics as the changing nature of stratification regimes, the enduring significance of class analysis, the stratifying dimensions of race, ethnicity, and gender, and the interplay between educational systems and labor market outcomes. Many of the chapters adopt an explicitly cross-societal comparative perspective on processes and consequences of social stratification. The volume offers both conceptually and empirically important new analyses of the shape of social stratification.

Preface: Archibald Orben Haller, an Intellectual Portrait. (A. Portes). Introduction.
(D.B. Bills). Concepts for Social Stratification. Are There Any Big Classes at All?
(K.A. Weeden, D.B. Grusky). Spaces and Networks: Concepts for Social Stratification. (J. Woelfel, M. Murero). Some Demographic Aspects of Rurality. (G.V. Fuguitt). Applications in U.S. Society. Assimilation in American Society: Occupational Achievement and Earnings for Ethnic Minorities in the United States, 1970 to 1990. (C.M. Snipp, C. Hirschman). Changes in the Structure of Status Systems: Employment Shifts in the Wake of Deindustrialization. (W.J. Haller). Physical and Mental Health Status of Adolescent Girls: A Comparative Ethnic Perspective. (M. Kleykamp, M. Tienda). The Black-White Achievement Gap in the First College Year: Evidence from a New Longitudinal Case Study.
(K.I. Spenner, C. Buchmann, L.R. Landerman). Comparative Applications. Status Allocation in Village India. (B.D. Sharda). The Future of Gender in Mexico and the United states: Economic Transformation and Changing Definitions. (P. Fenandez-Kelly).
Do Ethnic Enclaves Benefit or Harm Linguistically Isolated Employees? (M.D.R. Evans).
Economic Change and the Legitimation of Inequality: The Transition from Socialism to the Free Market in Central-East Europe. (J. Kelley, K. Zagorski). Race, Socioeconomic Development and the Educational Stratification Process in Brazil. (D. Cireno Fernandes).
Labor Force Classes and the Earnings Determination of the Farm Population in Brazil: 1973, 1982, and 1988. (J.A Neves).