GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Handling Occupational Information GEODE – Presentation to Scottish Social Survey Network, Master Class on ‘Data Analysis using Stata’, 23 rd Jan 2008 [This talk is a minor adaptation of a paper given to the GEODE Project workshop, 16 th Jan 2007] Paul Lambert, Larry Tan, Ken Turner, & Vernon GayleUniversity of Stirling Ken PrandyCardiff University Richard SinnottUniversity of Glasgow

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Grid Enabled Occupational Data Environment Handling Occupational Information  some principles and problems GEODE activities and illustrations: 1. Occupational Information Depository 2. Access to occupational information

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Why occupational analyses? (Quotes as reproduced in Coxon and Jones 1978; Crompton 1998) “A man’s work is as good a clue as any to the course of his life and to his social being and identity” (Hughes, 1958) “The backbone of the class structure, and indeed of the entire reward system of modern Western society, is the occupational order” (Parkin, 1972) “Nothing stamps a man as much as his occupation. Daily work determines the mode of life.. It constrains our ideas, feelings and tastes” (Goblot, 1961)

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Context Occupational information crucial to social science investigation –Social class and social classifications –Employment statistics –Occupations and economics Most nations have facilities for collecting micro- data with occupational codes: –www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/publications/software/cascot/ We lack accessible and standardised facilities for dealing with occupational micro-data

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 CASCOT (University of Warwick)

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Occupational information resources: small electronic files… Index units# distinct files (average size kb) Updates? CAMSIS, Local OUG*(e.s.) 200 (100)y CAMSIS value labels Local OUG50 (50)n ISEI tools, home.fsw.vu.nl/~ganzeboom Int. OUG20 (50)y E-Sec matrices Int. OUG*(e.s.) 20 (200)n Hakim gender seg codes (Hakim 1998) Local OUG2 (paper)n

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 For example: ISCO-88 Skill levels classification

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 and: UK 1980 CAMSIS scales and CAMCOM classes

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Social scientists want to: 1) Produce and disseminate, and access other, Occupational Information Resources 2) Link together their (secure) micro-data with OIR’s External user (micro-social data) Occ info (index file) (aggregate) User’s output (micro-social data) idougsex.ougCS-MCS-FEGPidougCS I II VIIa

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 We are agreed on how to do this: Preservation of two levels of data  Index units: Occupational Unit groups, employment status  Social classifications and other outputs Use of transparent (published) methods [i.e. OIR’s]  for classifying index units  for translating index units into social classifications for instance..  Bechhofer, F 'Occupations' in Stacey, M. (ed.) Comparability in Social Research. London: Heinemann.  Jacoby, A 'The Measurement of Social Class' Proceedings from the Social Research Association seminar on "Measuring Employment Status and Social Class". London: Social Research Association.  Lambert, P.S 'Handling Occupational Information'. Building Research Capacity 4:  Rose, D. and Pevalin, D.J 'A Researcher's Guide to the National Statistics Socio- economic Classification'. London: Sage.

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 …but here come the buts... Inconsistent preservation of source data Alternative OUG schemes SOC-90; SOC-2000; ISCO; SOC-90 (my special version) Inconsistencies in other index factors ‘employment status’; supervisory status; number of employees Individual or household; current job or career Inconsistent exploitation of Occupational Information Resources Numerous alternative occupational information files (time; country; format) Substantive choices over social classifications Inconsistent translations to social classifications – ‘by file or by fiat’ Dynamic updates to occupational information resources Strict security constraints on users’ micro-social survey data Low uptake of existing occupational information resources

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Stata and handling occupational data Stata users have been much more consistent in occupational coding than other researchers.. ISKO: Stata module to recode 4-digit ISCO-68 occupational codes Stata is fairly well suited to manual occupational coding: Succinct file matching syntax “merge soc using “use “ Proprietary software is problematic: Many existing resources are SPSS format Stata format files don’t share well with other users Stata is too new for some occupational information resources

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Two reactions and a proposed solution 1. Enforce common standards –In data collection and classification –E.g. Bechhofer 1969; Ganzeboom; Eurostat; ONS …on academic researchers..??!! 2. Give up –No attempt at engaging with published standards  Support plural occupational information resources in an accessible and consistent manner:  Internet facility coordinating OIR’s  GEODE – Grid Enabled Occupational Data Environment

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 GEODE: Grid Enabled Occupational Data Environment Objectives:  Create an international Virtual Organization for occupational data community Sharing, indexing, & curating diverse occupational data  Operate as a user-friendly portal Facilitate non-specialist user’s access to occupational information −Search for and download occupational information −Support linkage from user’s micro-data to OIR’s …and do this by exploiting ‘e-Science’ technologies..

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 DAMES, GEODE and ‘The Grid’ ‘The Grid’ and ‘eScience’: 1. Online Coordination of electronic resources and collaborations  (Distributed computing)  Large scale  Collaborative  Heterogeneous 2. Standard protocols / information management systems UK eSocial Science: 1) Investment in assessing / implementing technology 2) Computationally demanding data analysis 3) Qualitative and quantitative data collection technologies 4) **Data sharing, processing and access** DAMES: project on Data Management through e-Social Science

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Approaches to analysing occupations - methodologies During data collection:  Efforts in input harmonisation in data collection [e.g. Hoffman 2000; van Leeuwen et al 2003]  Most data models are output harmonisation [e.g. ONS unit linkages; IPUMS; van Deth 2003] During Data analysis: Model of measurement equivalence Same codings from the same index units [Ganzeboom and Treiman 2003] Same codings for different index units [E-SEC; RGSC; EGP] Functional equivalence is rarely reviewed cf. CAMSIS,

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Rant: The importance of specificity in occupation-based social classifications [Lambert et al 2008] “Occupations are ranked in the same order in most nations and over time...Hout referred to the pattern of invariance as the “Treiman constant”...the Treiman constant may be the only universal sociologists have discovered.” (Hout and DiPrete, 2006:2-3) “the idea of indexing a person’s origin and destination by occupation is weakened if the meaning of being, say, a manual worker is not the same at origin and destination. Historical comparisons become unreliable” (Payne, 1992: 220, cited in Bottero, 2005:65)

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 In practical terms.. Specificity is very challenging: Different occupational information for different countries, time periods, genders Changing occupational information during a project  It is very rare to see social science publications which use a specific approach to occupational data  This is mostly due to computing / data management hurdles…

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 GEODE (1): Occupational information depository Storing occupational information resources Strategy: 1)‘Uncurated’ entry form, suits all formats, completed online 2)Curated entry (performed manually or automatically):  Translation to csv index file  Modify GEODE-M record for index file  Storage: OGSA-DAI framework to link index files

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 n Picture – uploading data file

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008

n Picture – searching / downloading – two types of resource

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan compare with current practices..

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 GEODE (2): Portal for accessing & linking occupational data Searching and retrieving data GEODE ‘search’ and ‘browse’ facilities Abstracts / descriptions Time periods / countries / occupational units Further developments.. –Improved search/browse algorithms –evaluative information ↔ GEODE data depositor’s VO?

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Searching – uncurated resources

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Searching – curated resources

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 GEODE portal access File linkage mechanisms Multiple occupational variables on (A) Strict security constraints on (A) Inconsistent OUG formats on (A)  JAVA application launched on users machine  Simple file matching procedure  Works on resources located at any URI  Continuing development Currently requires plain text input Multiple occ. variables require repeated matching exercises (e.g. husband’s occ.; wife’s occ.) Micro-social data (A) ↔ Occupational information resources (B)

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Java portal n picture

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 Summary – Handling Occupational Data (1) Text records → OUG data Currently: Text coding software (e.g. CASCOT) Manual look-up GEODE: Linkage to existing resources Further facilities possible but not planned (users typically have adequate resources) (2) OUG data → summary indicators Currently: Numerous aggregate occupational information resources **Bespoke data programming requirements** GEODE: Core provision: management and access of these data resources Service to large volumes of users

GEODE / SSSN, 23 Jan 2008 References: Occupations n Bechhofer, F 'Occupations' in Stacey, M. (ed.) Comparability in Social Research. London: Heinemann (in association with British Sociological Association / Social Science Research Council). n Ganzeboom, H.B.G 'On the Cost of Being Crude: A Comparison of Detailed and Coarse Occupational Coding' in Hoffmeyer-Zlotnick, J.H.P. and Harkness, J. (eds.) Methodological Aspects in Cross-National Research. Mannheim: ZUMA, Nachrichten Spezial. n Ganzeboom, H.B.G. and Treiman, D.J 'Three internationally standarised measures for comparative research on occupational status' in Hoffmeyer-Zlotnick, J.H.P. and Wolf, C. (eds.) Advances in Cross-National Comparison. A European Working Book for Demographic and Socio-Economic Variables. New York: Kluwer Academic Press. n Hoffman, E International statistical comparisons of occupations and social structures: problems, possibilities and the role of ISCO-88. Geneva: International Labour Office. n Hout, M. and DiPrete, T.A 'What we have learned: RC28s contributions to knowledge about social stratification' Research into Social Stratification and Mobility. n Lambert, P.S., Zijdeman, R.L., Maas, I., Prandy, K. and Van Leeuwen, M 'Testing the universality of historical occupational stratifcation structures across time and space' ISA RC-28 on Social Stratification and Mobility, Spring meeting. Nijmegen, Netherlands. n Lambert, P.S., Prandy, K. and Bottero, W 'By Slow Degrees: Two Centuries of Social Reproduction and Mobility in Britain'. Sociological Research Online 12. n Lambert, P.S., Tan, K.L.T., Gayle, V., Prandy, K. and Bergman, M.M forthcoming. 'The importance of specificity in occupation-based social classifications'. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. n Marsh, C 'Occupationally Based Measures' in Jacoby, A. (ed.) The Measurement of Social Class. London: Social Research Association. n Payne, G 'Competing views on contemporary social mobility and social divisions' in Burrows, R. and Marsh, C. (eds.) Consumption and Class. Basingstoke: Falmer Press. n Rose, D. and Pevalin, D.J 'A Researcher's Guide to the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification'. London: Sage. n Stewart, A., Prandy, K. and Blackburn, R.M Social Stratification and Occupations. London: MacMillan. n van Leeuwen, M.H.D., Maas, I. and Miles, A HISCO: Historical International Standard Classification of Occupations. Leuven: Leuven University Press.