"Who is at the bottom and who is in higher places" according to Prague elementary school teachers : social inequalities in symbolic meaning"
Abstract
In this study, we present preliminary results of research on the social construction of inequality. Our analysis deals with vertical social distances in terms of defining (boundary work) those social groups which are 'at the top' and 'at the bottom' in the Czech society.
Eight in-depth interviews with Prague elementary school teachers as middleclass representatives were oriented on topics such as how interviewees understand (in)equality in their everyday life and how they understand and judge social inequalities in whole society. We explore which groups are regarded at the bottom / in higher places and which characteristics are used to describe them.
Interviewees mention characteristics of being at the bottom such as an inability to take responsibility for self e.g. homelessness, not willingness or inability to work and drug addiction. In the case of the top rung of society, they point to fame or wealth which allows absolute freedom, but also being unscrupulous.
In the analysis, we utilize the principle of purity and pollution, physical as well as moral. The results point to the relevance of the moral aspect of pollution in the lay conceptualisation of stratification space.