Homogamy in New Zealand?

This project was funded by FRST and part of FWWP. It was wholly PhD research work and investigated patterns in New Zealand family/whanau formation and household structure, and social stratification/social interaction. This was conducted using national level data (NZ Household censuses) covering a 20 year period (1981–2001).

The research was novel in that it examined the total population of New Zealand at the level of the household at five historical points and applied a relational and social distance model of stratification. Through this research we were able to see the characteristics of social stratification/interaction in NZ society, identifiable at the family/household level, as visualised through a social distance model.

Stratification theory examines structured social inequality in cultural, social and material formations. It provides a framework for analysing inequalities, including access to resources. The researcher investigated and contrasted a number of theoretical models of social stratification at the level of the family. This included the work of the classics such as Marx (1867), Weber (1978) and Talcot Parsons (1964), as well as contemporary work of Rytina (2000), Prandy (2004), Goldthorpe (1980), Bedggood (1981), Bourdieu (1994) and others. The researcher also investigated existing national scales of social differentiation/stratification in New Zealand such as the Elley-Irving scale, NZSES and NZDep.

Earlier ‘Class’ models of social stratification have been criticised for being overly economically deterministic and perhaps not inclusive enough in the areas of cultural identity, gender and ethnicity. It may also be the case that current 'poverty' based models of measuring social stratification (such as NZDep) preclude a necessary understanding of social relationships and the role they take in social formations and social outcomes. Therefore the principal theoretical approach to this work was that of social space/social distance theory, which offers an alternative explanation of social stratification and its reproduction.

This concept of stratification has elements of Bourdieu’s work on social space/social distance/social inequality. Rather than a static structuralist model, Bourdieu suggests a model of the reproduction of stratification based in social relationships and social associations (the ‘rules’ for which are held and reproduced within the individual habitus) (Bourdieu 1984). Bottero states: “Social distance approaches look at the way in which hierarchy and inequality are routinely reproduced through social interaction, and see such reproduction as the result of the indivisible influence of economic, cultural and social resources on everyday social life” (Bottero 2003: 188).

Analysis of the quantitative/census data involved the construction of a CAMSIS (Cambridge Social Interaction and Stratification) scale. This was essentially a standardised form of correspondence analysis. The theoretical basis of the CAMSIS scale is the idea that differential association is an essential feature of social stratification arrangements. This scale offers a ranking of degrees of social interaction based on certain social characteristics of family members in New Zealand. Essentially, differential association can be examined through the degree of homogamy between marriage/cohabitation partners using their occupations as proxies for position in the social status/stratification order. The empirical research used variables related to stratification/social interaction for families and whanau at a household level. The principal variables were those of cohabitation/marriage partners and their respective occupations.