Symbolic Boundaries and Subjective Approaches to Stratification An Empirical Investigation from a Mixed-Methods Perspective

Research on lifestyles and social milieus aims at identifying the markers of social identity which actors themselves deem relevant. This contribution argues that it does so only incompletely and proposes the concept of "symbolic boundaries" as an additional approach. Studying processes of social identification and demarcation with survey data and qualitative interviews, three kinds of symbolic boundaries - socioeconomic, cultural, and moral - emerge within German social structure. While higher social classes identify themselves on the basis of their economic and cultural resources, lower social classes stress solidaristic moral values. These self-definitions are also used to differentiate between groups, where one group denies others the positive attributes it ascribes to itself. Processes of social identifications are thus multi-dimensional and class-specific and can be explained by social psychological theories.