Abstract:

In recent years, many objections have been raised against existing conceptions and theoretical propositions in the field of social stratification. This paper does not attempt to add another appraisal in this respect, however scientifically warranted such an endeavour might prove to be. The purpose of this paper is to focus critically on some rather widely employed practices in sample surveys attempting to ascertain social strata. Reference to conceptual and theoretical categories is made only, insofar as such an examination is a prerequisite for the criticism directed at some common practices used in survey research. In short, after briefly examining some conceptual aspects and generally employed criteria of social stratification, and the so-called objective and subjective methods, we shall mainly be concerned with two of the most commonly applied devices for stratifying a population, i.e., interviewer rating and index construction or scaling.