Is There a Status Order in Contemporary British Society? Evidence from the Occupational Structure of Friendship

This paper considers whether it is still possible to identify a status order in contemporary Britain. We analyse the occupational structure of friendship and present empirical results which show that there is one dimension of this structure that can be plausibly interpreted as reflecting a hierarchy of status. This status hierarchy is gender-neutral, and displays clear continuities with that depicted for the later nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries in historical and earlier sociological research. We examine the connection between status and both income and education and show that the status order we identify is distinct either from income or education or from ‘socioeconomic’ status as determined by income and education in combination. As regards status and class, we find that, while some classes show a rather high degree of status homogeneity, in other classes status stratification is quite extensive. Our results suggest that the Weberian distinction between status and class remains valid and potentially highly revealing. By retaining this distinction in social stratification research, a range of questions on the articulation of the class structure and the status order and of their effects on life chances and life choices is opened up.