ABSTRACT
This chapter is a substantial revision and extension of a paper coauthored with Atsushi Naoi, Carrie Schoenbach, Carmi Schooler, and Kazimierz Słomczynski and published in The American Journal of Sociology (AJS) (Kohn, Naoi, et al. 1990), with some text, tables, and two figures added from Kohn and Słomczynski (1990), other text added from Kohn (1987), and measurement models taken from several of the sources noted below. The AJS paper, and this chapter, build on prior published analyses: for the United States, from Kohn and Schoenbach (1983); for Poland, from Słomczynski, J. Miller, and Kohn (1981 and 1987), Słomczynski and Kohn (1988), and Kohn and Słomczynski (1990); and for Japan, from Naoi and Schooler (1985) and Schooler and Naoi (1988).
I developed the conceptualization of social class for the United States and other advanced capitalist societies; Schoenbach and I developed the criteria for differentiating the social classes for the United States; Naoi, Schooler, and Słomczynski developed the conceptualization of social class and the criteria for differentiating the social classes for Japan; and Słomczynski developed the conceptualization of social class and the criteria for differentiating the social classes for Poland. I did new causal analyses for all three countries, with considerable help from Schoenbach and with considerable reliance on earlier published analyses by all of my collaborators in the publications noted above. I also wrote most of the text, 2with valuable editing by Schoenbach and with critical commentaries by my collaborators in the research.
I am indebted also to Karl Alexander, Andrew Cherlin, William Form, Alejandro Portes, Erik Olin Wright, and the AJS referees for critical readings of earlier drafts of the AJS paper.
