HIS-CAM - Leuven, Nov 20071 HIS-CAM - Presentation and evaluation of an historical occupational stratification scale based upon the analysis of social

HIS-CAM - Leuven, Nov 2007 1

HIS-CAM - Presentation and evaluation of an historical occupational stratification scale based

upon the analysis of social interaction

http://historyofwork.iisg.nl/http://www.camsis.stir.ac.uk/hiscam/

Presentation to: Historical Demography (section on ‘occupation’), workshop on ‘The occupation in historical research’, Leuven, November 30th 2007

Paul Lambert Stirling University

Richard Zijdeman, Ineke Maas Utrecht University

Ken Prandy Cardiff University

Marco van Leeuwen International Institute for Social History

http://historyofwork.iisg.nl/

http://www.camsis.stir.ac.uk/hiscam/


Occupations and social structure

‘Starting from the occupational titles themselves’ [HISCO – van Leeuwen, Maas & Miles 2002]

Comparative historical research

This talk: 1) HIS-CAM and the ‘CAMSIS’ approach2) Approaches to ‘universality’ and ‘specificity’


CAMSIS (www.camsis.stir.ac.uk)

Social Interaction Social Stratification Index of occupation’s positions

• Social interaction data (occupations of associates) – Partnership – Readily available in contemporary countries – Friendship; Intra-generational mobility; Inter-generational mobility; ...

• ‘Specific’ approach– Many scales - for countries, gender, time periods, using detailed occ. codes

CAMSIS – ‘Cambridge Social Interaction & Stratification Scales’– Stewart, A., Prandy, K. and Blackburn, R.M. (1980) Social Stratification and

Occupations. MacMillan.

Other related applications: – Laumann, E. O., & Guttman, L. (1966). The relative associational contiguity of

occupations in an urban setting. American Sociological Review, 31, 169-178.– Chan, T. W., & Goldthorpe, J. H. (2007). Class and Status: The Conceptual

Distinction and its Empirical Relevance. American Sociological Review, 72, 512-532.

http://www.camsis.stir.ac.uk/


CAMSIS scale derivationswww.camsis.stir.ac.uk

• Work on 27 countries so far, full derivations for 14 – Australia 1996; Slovakia 1995; Austria 1991/5; Slovenia ; Britain

2001, 1991, 1971, C19th; Spain 2002; Sweden 1990; Czech 1994; Switzerland 1990; Germany 1991/5; Turkey 1990; Hungary 1990/6; USA 1960, 1990, 2000; Ireland 1996

ISCO and national occupational unit schemes Downloaded as zip archives with ‘index file’ matching Further national derivations actively pursued

• Empirical perspective – scales ‘neutrally’ derived

http://www.camsis.stir.ac.uk/

5

CAMSIS scale construction methods

• We use Goodman’s RC-II Association models in lEM (Vermunt 1997); correspondence analysis also suitable

• RC-II allows us to separate out other influences on social interaction in

occupations through ‘pseudo-diagonals’ and ‘subsidiary dimensions’

Husband’s Job Units

Occ Units ↓ → 1 2 .. 407

Derived scores ↓ → 75.0 70.0 .. 10.0

Wife’s 1 72.0 30 15 .. 0

Job 2 72.5 13 170 .. 1

Units .. .. .. .. .. ..

407 11.0 0 2 .. 80


CAMSIS for historical comparative research?

• Preserve detailed occupational differences – Typically 300+ different scores in a dimension of

stratification

– Easy to add employment status dimension(s) if required

• Comparative properties– Tell us about relative positions of occupations within

their contexts {national / temporal / gendered / other}

• Inter-generational occupational links – Data on social interaction between occupations

marriage records for husband-wife and their parentshousehold census returns (within-household occups)


HIS-CAM in short• Version 0.1 (www.camsis.stir.ac.uk/hiscam/, May 2006)

• Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, UK, Canada

• Small range of scales linked to HISCO units & sub-groups

• One cross-national scale (universal), and 6 national scales (specific), for 1800-1938

• Version 0.2 (in process)

• Improved micro-data on 6 core countries (extended coding quality review; increased volume of cases)

• Consideration of US micro-data from IPUMS

• A larger range of universal and specific scales, using different permutations of countries, time periods, and gender

http://www.camsis.stir.ac.uk/hiscam/


HIS-CAM scales prove to have very similar properties to contemporary CAMSIS scales

• Clearly reflect an order of stratification advantage / disadvantage in occupations

• Jobs with educational requirements tend to be highest ranked (Univ. professors)

• Low skilled labouring jobs tend to be lowest ranked• Correlate around 0.7 with prestige scales, class schemes

• Some plausible differences between different specific scales

• Agricultural jobs show most variation in relative positions between countries

• Service sector jobs change positions over period


HIS-CAM at length

• We have numerous possible specific scales

• How do we decide between them..

=> 2) Approaches to Universality and

Specificity in historical data


Previous paper (May 2006)

• It is easy to justify attention to specificity

Statistically, specificity makes for a better model

Substantively, specific differences often make sense


Nested scale estimates using lEM (Vermunt 1997)

Universal scales Specific scales

(1) C,P,ass(CP) (5n) (5)+ass(CPN) (2) C; P; N; ass(C,P) (7n) (7)+ass(CPN) (3) C; P; M; ass(C,P) (11n) (11)+ass(CPN) (4) C; P; N; M; ass(C,P) (6m) (5)+ass(CPM) (5) C; P; N; CN; PN; ass(C,P) (7m) (7)+ass(CPM) (6) C; P; M; CM; PM; ass(C,P) (11m) (11)+ass(CPM) (7) C; P; N; M; CN; PN; CM; PM; ass(C,P) (8t) (8)+ass(CPT) (8) C; P; T; ass(C,P) (10t) (5)+ass(CPT) (9) C; P; N; M; T; ass(C,P) (11t) (7)+ass(CPT)

(10) C; P; T; CT; PT; ass(C,P) (11) C; P; N; M; T; CN; PN; CM; PM; CT; PT; ass(C,P) (7nm) (7)+ass(CPNM)

(11nt) (11)+ass(CPNT) (11mt) (11)+ass(CPMT) (11nm) (11)+ass(CPNM) (11nmt) (11)+ass(CPNMT)


0.8000

0.6000

0.4000

0.2000

0.0000

-0.2000

-0.4000

-0.6000

Female

Male

Late

Early

Canada

Britain

Sweden

France

Germany

Netherlands

Universal

Figure 3: Specific scale score for HISCO Major Groups

0/1 Professional,technical and related 2

Administrative& managerial

3. Clerical andrelated

4. Sales workers

5. Serviceworkers

6. Agriculture andrelated

7/8/9 Production, transport,labour and related

HIS-CAM - Leuven, Nov 2007 13Universal scale (disadvantage to advantage)

His

tori

cally

sp

ecif

ic s

cale

s

98420 Railway Brakeman (Freight Train)

56070 Presser (Hand)

39350 Insurance Clerk32140 Typist

32120 Stenographic Secretary

21300 Sales Managers

7210 Auxiliary Nurse

98420 Railway Brakeman (Freight Train)

56070 Presser (Hand)

39350 Insurance Clerk

32140 Typist32120 Stenographic Secretary

21300 Sales Managers

7210 Auxiliary Nurse

Later period

Earlier period

Figure 4: Universal to Historical-specific scale scores, HISCO unit groups


7/8/9Productionand relatedworkers,transport

equipment op

Agricultural,animal

husbandryand forestry

workers,fisherm

5 Serviceworkers

4 Salesworkers

3 Clerical andrelated

workers

2Administrative

andmanagerialworkers

0/1Professional,technical and

related

0.40

0.30

0.20

0.10

0.00

-0.10

-0.20

-0.30

Positive premium to femaleoccupations

Positive premium to later period

Figure 5: Time period and Gender differences by HISCO major group


v0.2: There are problems with specificity

i. It’s a great deal of work to produce specific scales…

ii. Users don’t want measures which are too complex

iii. There are possible measurement errors – Coding practices varying by countries

– Model estimates rely on data management / adaptations


Permutations and OccupationsC 9 national groupings (7 countries, plus all countries,

plus all countries excl. US)

L 5 levels of occupational detail (major groups, 1-digit, 2-digit, 3-digit, 5 digit)

S 4 gender groupings (all occupations combined; male occupations only; female occs based on daughter-father; female occs based on daughter-mother)

T 5 time periods (whole period; pre- and post- 1891; pre- and post national specific point of transition in agriculture/manufacturing balance)

9*5*4*5 = 900 different v0.2 HIS-CAM scales


Data used in v0.2 1800-1938 1800-90 1891-1938

# child-parent data points (% male-male)

Netherlands 664311 (47) 412732 (39) 251579 (61)

Germany 7710 (97) 5499 (99) 2211 (86)

France 65308 (45) 40931 (47) 24377 (44)

Sweden 19166 (75) 18079 (74) 1087 (88)

UK 45517 (78) 28848 (82) 16669 (72)

Canada (Quebec) 229134 (98) 91680 (99) 137454 (98)

US 194218 (43) 56310 (20) 137908 (53)



The impact of data• Distribution of cases into occupations on each of

the 900 samples is substantially different– (in v0.1, this was ignored by using common coding in a

nested model framework) Ideally, a principle of specificity would involve

national experts in occupational coding and statistical modelling, iteratively reviewing coding and categorisations whilst optimising statistical models

[=>relatively few contemporary CAMSIS scales…] In practice…


v0.2 strategies• Automated recoding of sparse occupations

– (to popular or generic subgroup codes)

• Standard model selection criteria – (2 dim model, excluding diagonals)

• Est. 2 hrs data management and 1 hour scale estimation processing time per scale


Example results so far…

Core Country; time with relatively..

Relatively… Highest Lowest

0/1 Professional / agricultural Canada; late Germany; early

2 Administrative / managerial Netherlands; early Canada; late

3 Clerical and related Sweden; early Germany; late

4 Sales workers Germany; early Netherlands; late

5 Service workers Canada; late Sweden; early

6 Agricultural Germany; early Netherlands; late

7/8/9 Production, etc Netherlands; late UK; early


Current conclusions

• Country patterns influence pooled patterns (e.g. Dutch structure dominates pooled models)Argues for specificity within countriesMay be better to use national scales

internationally, than derive pooled scales

• Universality / specificity is largely about practical concerns


Conclusions – HIS-CAM and other Occupation-based social classifications

• HIS-CAM is an effective measure of stratification inequality– ‘Concepts and measures’ debate in social classifications…

• HIS-CAM a fruitful approach for examining particular occupational circumstances within countries

• HIS-CAM is potentially sensitive to structural differences in occupational distributions between contexts

• Challenges of working with and communicating large volumes of occupational information..

Documents

HIS-CAM - Leuven, Nov 20071 HIS-CAM - Presentation and evaluation of an historical occupational stratification scale based upon the analysis of social