The collective perception of occupational inequalities in contemporary Italy: multidimensional evaluations and onedimensional scales

Popular images of occupational structure in contemporary Italy, derived from free sorts andsimilarity judgements, are multi-dimensional and do not show socially structured variation. Images of occupational stratification, obtained from rankings, collapse the spontaneous images onto a single dimension.Both constructs are based on the same descriptive criteria. The occupational orderings vary according to the regions respondents inhabit. This result may be attributed to the dualistic character of the Italian economy. The impact of economic structure on perceptions of occupational stratification render problematic the use of reputational scales.