PRIVATE ENTERPRISE AND PUBLIC VALUES The Symbolic Evocation of Occupational Prestige Linda Burzotta Nilson and Murray Edelman T he di~overy that people rank occupations according to their 'social standing" in a roughly uniform way has intrigued sociologists for more than three decades. Explana- tions of occupational prestige have focused largely upon educational and skill requirements, the setting in which role occupants perform, and the "functional necessity" of the occupation. In this article we consider the contribution to occupational prestige of language and gestures which con- dense widespread fears and hopes in a particular culture. Whatever their other functions may be, the special language of particular occupations, the dramaturgy of those who prac- tice them, and the terms in which the communications media and the general public refer to them evoke problematic cogni- tions about the functions of occupations and the traits of their practitioners that rationalize their high or low social standing. Because it appears that symbolic evocations are espe- cially influential in establishing the prestige levels of the occupations that rank highest and lowest, symbols are par- ticularly important in explaining such indirect effects of occupational status as wide inequalities in social power and privilege and in quality of life. Our analysis also suggests that some nonobvious ways in which high- and low-level occupations reinforce each other's presige rankings and jointly legitimate the authoritative allocation of unequal values. The prestige scale has customarily been explained in terms of other scales or dimensions of occupations which correlate with prestige. These correlates include such social and economic factors as income, intrinsic rewards, educa- tional requirements, special skills, scarcity of talent, the formality of training, the cleanliness of the work, office of factory setting, and the "functional necessity" of different occupatior 5. When presented with the various justifica- tions, respondents say that their prestige ratings are based on their perceptions of an occupation's relative responsibil- ity, service to community, training and skill, and autonomy. Social psychologists Joseph Veroff and Sheila Feld explain prestige as the publicly recognized achievement potential of occupations, while psychologist J.W. Atkinson argues that it is directly related to the difficulty and risk associated with various jobs. All of these proposed explanations are subject to question and are sometimes unable to accommodate inconsistent find- ings. Correlates in themselves are not descriptive of the process of value formation which is at the heart of prestige evaluations. It is not clear whether most people have a sound grasp of income and educational statistics regarding occupa- tions. This is especially doubtful for high school students, who already have a good grasp of the prestige scale; and the trades, which require long years of training, are not particu- larly prestigious. While functional necessity has always been a fuzzy concept, it fails to explain why agriculture, certainly the most necessary work in a community, is accorded such low prestige. Louis Kriesberg found that the prestige evalua- tions of dentists are unrelated to raters' perceptions of the quality of dental work, the scarcity of required skills, or the social characteristics of dentists. The only relationship worth noting was between people's ratings of dentists and their ratings of other professional occupations. Nor is risk to clients the key factor either, for a bus driver can easily kill his or her riders. A realistic explanation of occupational prestige must ac- count for the ambivalence which often appears prominently in survey responses and in behavior. While high prestige entails respect, it seems also to arouse feelings of resentment and disrespect. Richard Centers found that almost half of his large sample of working class and rural white-collar workers thought doctors and lawyers make too much money. Accord- ing to William Gamson and Howard Schuman, those who accorded physicians the highest prestige ratings also express the greatest hostility toward them. Critiquing the functionalist viewpoint, Wemer Cohn proposed an ambiva- lence hypothesis respecting the prestige of physicians; their high status comes not only from their charismatic role of helping people but from the lucrative business aspect of the profession, which evokes both respect and resentment. Here we see the utility of Hyman Rodman's conception of the "lower class value stretch" and of Frank Parkin's subordi- March/April 1979 0147-2011/79/0315-0011502.50/1 57 9 1979 Transaction, Inc.