The Relational Bases of Lifestyle Similarity and Clustering of Local Populations.

[摘要] Lifestyle clustering is explored as a form of stratification within local populations. The concept of lifestyle cluster is juxtaposed to concepts of lifestyle segment, class, status group, strata, and other models of social inequality, which are argued to be variants of the lifestyle cluster concept. A relational theory is outlined, explaining lifestyle clustering as a result of basic social and psychological processes operating on the distribution of various forms of capital. Marx’s locus of economic capital in relations of production is expanded to conceive of the locus of all forms of capital in social relations generally. Capital situation is thereby equated to network position, placing the network analytic concept of equivalence at the root of lifestyle clusters and class analysis. The resulting model focuses on lifestyle distinction and habitus, following Bourdieu, but welds this framework to an explicitly social network methodology and perspective of relationality. It is argued that relations with specific others serves as a proxy for relationality generally. A method is developed and undertaken for testing model expectations about the distribution of lifestyle in a local population and how that distribution correlates with positions in the local social network of a rural U.S. community. A Social Network Survey is designed and administered. Relation type equivalence is developed as a alternative to regular equivalence, which is computationally prohibitive for such a large network. Lifestyle data for N=1203 persons in a network that includes partial information for over 13,000 nodes were analyzed.Lifestyle profiles are offered for about 50 clusters. Evidence of lifestyle ;;clumpiness’ is found, but no evidence is found of cluster separation or boundedness. Relation Type Equivalence is found to have moderate predictive power with lifestyle cluster membership and dyadic lifestyle similarity. Occupation, age, and gender are also found to have an impact. Asset ownership variables are found to have very little impact. Methodological limitations of the project are discussed.

[发布机构] University of Michigan

[效力级别] Social Class

[关键词] Lifestyle Clusters;Social Class;Social Networks;Small Town;Sociology;Social Sciences;Sociology