Convergences and divergences of a Bourdieusian and occupation-based approach to social class: evidence from Croatia

This article juxtaposes a Bourdieusian and an occupation-based approach to social class in order to explore how they converge or diverge when it comes to empirically identifying high-level class groups and exploring the relationship between ‘objective’ class position and class self-identification in Croatia. The data for this study comes from a survey conducted in 2017 on a nationally representative sample of adult citizens living in Croatia. Contrary to authors who focus on the tensions between the two approaches to class analysis, we highlight how class analysis focusing on occupation and a Bourdieusian approach focusing on capitals align when it comes to identifying the ‘big picture’ of class in Croatian society. Both point to an unequal society with a small dominant class at the top and the majority at the bottom of the social class hierarchy. Although our findings show a middle-class identity bias, there is also overlap between ‘objective’ class location and class self-identification, irrespective of the class approach one takes. However, when it comes to obtaining a more nuanced portrayal of social class differences, a Bourdieusian perspective identifies an underclass which largely consists of the elderly members of Croatian society, with only primary education and insufficient state pensions, living in rural areas, who struggle to make ends meet. The majority of this most vulnerable group are women.