The class scheme of Erickson, Goldthorpe and Portocarero (EGP) has become a standard measure for determining the class position of workers. However this class scheme does not deal adequately with the structural changes in the post-industrial economy. Esping-Andersen proposed a better-suited alternative. This article elaborates on this and focuses on two elements. Firstly, it presents a coding scheme for translating job-scores of the Dutch occupational classification (SBC-92) into scores of the Esping-Andersen scheme. Secondly, this scheme is applied to changes in the employment structure of the Netherlands and the two biggest cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam and Rotterdam) between 1992 and 1996. The article shows clearly the changing class structure of the Netherlands and the differences between the two cities. More important, however, is that the class structure of both cities evolves different. In Amsterdam the class structure of the traditional industrial sector ("the Fordist hierarchy") professionalised, while the class structure of the post-industrial sector ("the post-Fordist hierarchy") polarised. In Rotterdam the opposite holds true. These findings are highly relevant for recent discussions in urban sociology, and illustrate the relevance of the class-scheme of Esping-Andersen. The older EGP-scheme would not showed these diverging trends. Therefore it is necessary to use a class-scheme that accounts for the structural job changes related to the emerging post-industrial society.

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hdl.handle.net/1765/449
Department of Public Administration

Steijn, B., Snel, E., & van der Laan, L. (2000). Een postindustriele klassenstructuur? Het klassenschema van Esping-Andersen toegepast op Nederland, Amsterdam en Rotterdam. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/449