Introduction. -- Stratification research and occupation-based social classifications. -- Measures and dimensions of occupational stratification: the case of a relational scale for Italy. -- A relational occupational scale for Russia. -- Cumulative inequalities along the life course: long-term trends in the German labour market. -- Family backgraound and the life cycle effects of father's class and income. -- Social stratification and cognitive ability: an assessment of the influence of childhood ability test scores and family background on occupational position across the lifespan. -- Intergenerational and intragenerational social mobility in Britain. -- Ethnicity and skilled work in the United States. -- Occupation and pay across the generations: the labour market experience of four ethno-religiousgroups in Britain. -- The labour market earnings of minority ethnic groups in Great Britain and the USA (1900-2000). -- The relationship between social stratification and first birth in Scotland. -- Stratification, work and early parenthood. -- Labour market returns to tertiary education in Post-Socialist Countries. -- Labouring under a misapprehension: Politicians' perceptions and the realities of structural social mobility in Britain, 1995-2010. -- Security or equallity? The difficult reform of the Italian welfare state. -- Gender inequality, modernisation and development in South and Southeast Asia.

1. Social stratification