Generating Images of Stratification

"Generating Images of Stratification" is a self-contained presentation of a theoretical research programme that deals with a significant explanatory problem relating to social inequality and that constructs generative theoretical models in doing so. In more detail: self-contained presentation - in respect to the background sociological facts and theoretical ideas and also the formal methods the book provides clear and simple accounts accompanied by examples; a theoretical research programme - the emphasis is on theory development, involving a series of theoretical models constructed within a core framework of principles and methods. The book deals with a significant explanatory problem relating to social inequality - we know from research that how people perceive the stratification system of a society depends upon their position in that system. So the problem is: what process generates this regularity and thereby explains empirical generalizations about the social structuration of images? The text constructs generative theoretical models and is an extended presentation of "generative theory" in sociology, a formal method of producing effective theoretical explanations.