ABSTRACT
The occupational principle of work structuring has not been entirely overtaken by the organisational principle in modern societies. Especially significant is the close link that exists between occupational structures and inequalities of opportunity, reward, class, status, gender and ethnicity. This chapter concentrates on the social implications of the existence within society of groups of people regularly doing similar tasks. Membership of an occupation involves engagement on a regular basis in a part or the whole of a range of work tasks which are identified under a particular heading or title by both those carrying out these tasks and by a wider public. In contrast to the term 'organisational structure', which refers to the internal patterning in work organisations, the concept of occupational structure is used by sociologists not to look at the shape of occupations themselves but to look at patterns of occupational activity at a societal level.
