Models of Social Space: A Study of a Statistical Coup

Abstract

The development of the concept of social space, from its use by Sorokin in his analysis of social mobility to present work on the judgment and evaluation of occupations, is described as an example of the substitution of statistical refinement for sociological understanding. It is argued that potentially valuable sociological approaches have been displaced by the methods which have been chosen, and suggestions are made as to how the concept might be sociologically rehabilitated.