HISCO

Occupational data are frequently used by historians and other social scientists to investigate past patterns and processes of economic and social life. Yet some of the most interesting and important questions, such as mobility research, demography, or the study of labour markets, are comparative ones. Up to now, such questions have been difficult to address on the basis of historical evidence because of the variations in meaning within occupational terminology across both time and space.
The HISCO classification scheme described in this book offers a common, cross-national, language-sensitive, coding scheme that can accommodate historical occupational titles found in documents ranging from state censuses to parish records. The HISCO scheme is based on the International Labour Organisation's ISCO68 classification, thereby also facilitating comparison between historical and contemporary datasets. The classification scheme itself is preceded by chapter which explains the principles underpinning HISCO and outlines the provenance, character and historical background of the international occupational data used to create it.
This publication can be ordered from Leuven University Press.