Prestige examines whether social prestige is still an important axis of the stratification hierarchy. It appears that prestige has lost some of the close connection with social position it had in estates societies. Prestige distribution patterns have changed and individualized gradations emerged, while agreement in the occupational prestige in Poland is lower than in the West and still declining. However, low consensus in occupational prestige rankings does not entail a disintegration of respect norms as such: personal prestige is still a relevant factor in designing life strategies and people do care about respect. This volume presents empirical evidence that all social classes recognize the motivational, integrative and satisfying functions of prestige.

Henryk Doma?ski is Professor of Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Head of the Department of Social Structure and Head of the Department of Studies on Methods and Techniques of Sociological Research. His main interests are social stratification and mobility, labour market segmentation, inequality of sex and methodology of social research.