KLASA ROBOTNICZA W TLE INNYCH KLAS

Abstract

This is an empirical study aimed to pick up recent changes in social location of the workmg class in stratification ladder. I put it in the context of discussion on “death of social classes”, which revived in the 1990s in world sociology. Drawing on data from national random samples, which come from surveys carried out in 1982 - 1995, I attempt to determine to what extent economic distances and mobility barriers between workers and other basic socio-occupational strata persist over time, despite systemic transformations going on in Poland. Results show that in the Polish case the “manual - non-manual” dichotomy still exists. In hierarchy of incomes, the gap between workers and non-manual strata even widened. As regards mobility barriers, they remained basically intact. In conclusion, I draw certain analogies between Poland and capitalist societies, saying that in the 1990s social stratification in Polish society tends to approach patterns typical for contemporary capitalism.