Research on social stratification largely assumes that occupational status is the most important indicator of social position, an assumption often not borne out by empirical data on lifestyles & life chances. The effects of occupational status indicators persistently tend to diminish or vanish once such factors as age, education, & income are controlled for. Proposed here is a new quantification of occupational position, based on Pierre Bourdieu's (Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984 [see IRPS No. 30/85c00542]) hypothesis that SS can be partitioned in Western societies into cultural & economic dimensions. Measures are proposed for these two dimensions & are applied to the effects of occupation on a number of dependent variables. Results show several cases where cultural & economic dimensions of occupational status have divergent effects. 2 Tables, 1 Figure, 35 References. Modified HA
