2 - Social classification of occupations and the GRO in the nineteenth century

Summary

The GRO's nineteenth-century social classification of occupations

In searching for the origins of the professional model of social classes, it would seem most likely at first sight that Stevenson's model might have been in some way influenced by, or even have been a direct replacement for, the previous official classification of occupations. This had been nominally in use at the Office until 1900 and had originally been devised by Dr William Fan for the 1861 census. It consisted of six classes constituted out of eighteen industrial orders of occupations. Edward Higgs has helpfully clarified the predominantly medical rationale behind this scheme and shown that the highest level of aggregation of occupations and orders into six great classes was merely a fanciful rhetorical flourish (complete with classical Greek names), giving a superficial ‘economic’ gloss to a scheme that was in fact constructed primarily for medical purposes. The main aim was always to elucidate the nature of occupation-specific causes of death, explicitly following Bernardino Ramazzini's (1633–1714) views that the materials and activities involved in each distinct occupation entailed specific health risks. Farr's attempt to imbue this ambivalent overall scheme with a supposedly unifying scientific rationale rightly failed to impress his contemporaries. Farr himself was clearly never entirely happy with this effort at an occupational classification and never attempted to analyse demographic data using the six major classes.