SOCIAL CLASS AND VISITING PATTERNS IN TWO FINNISH VILLAGES

Abstract

The study of social classes forms an important and topical branch of modern sociology. The choice of the most important characteristic of a class has, however, largely depended on the investigator's prejudices and research methods. Sometimes a class has denoted an occupational group, sometimes a set of individuals with the same socio-economic status, and sometimes a group of people who are treated in the same way or who have closer connections with each other than with outsiders. But it has been found that most of the variables used in defining social class are correlative. In the class sociology of our day there is a tendency towards a coherent theory of social stratification based on empirical investigations. An example of this is Kahl's system of six operationally established variables-a first approximation to a conceptual scheme.