The study of occupations as a locus for social stratification research has a long and distinguished history in sociology. The authors in this issue present different perspectives on the current and future role of occupations as a foundation for inequalities research. This introduction provides a context for understanding how and why occupations became a focus of inequalities research, especially in the Post-World War II English-speaking world. I then discuss some of the economic changes that have led some to question where occupations stand as a vehicle for analyzing social inequality, and then turn to a summary of the contributions to this issue. This summary is framed as a friendly family debate between those who wish to “fix and refurbish” the old reliable occupational perspective and those who think that researchers should “trade in” the old perspective for one focusing on firms and jobs. My review of the contributions to this issue suggests several avenues for future research including (1) new efforts to improve the quality of occupational coding, (2) a renewed focus on local labor markets as a better representation of where most people find employment, (3) an examination of whether occupational structures mattered more for explaining social inequalities in prior historical periods compared to the present, (4) examinations of how and where occupations matter cross-nationally, and finally (5) a renewed focus on units of measurement that people actually carry around with them and spend (dollars, euros, etc.) as opposed to logged earnings and socioeconomic status points. In an age of record high and rising inequality, the core question of social stratification research really comes down to “What’s in your Wallet”?

作为社会分层研究的场所，职业研究在社会学上有着悠久而杰出的历史。本期的作者对职业作为不平等研究基础的当前和未来角色提出了不同的观点。简介为理解职业如何以及为什么成为不平等研究的重点提供了背景，特别是在第二次世界大战后的英语世界中。然后，我讨论一些经济变化，这些变化引起了人们对职业在分析社会不平等方面的作用的质疑，然后总结了对这一问题的贡献。该摘要被安排为那些希望“修复和翻新”旧的可靠职业观点的人与认为研究人员应“以旧换新”观点专注于公司和工作的人之间的友好家庭辩论。我对这一问题的贡献的评论提出了未来研究的几种途径，其中包括：（1）提高职业编码质量的新努力，（2）重新关注本地劳动力市场，以更好地代表大多数人在哪里找到工作，（ 3）检查职业结构对于解释以前的历史时期与当前的社会不平等是否比现在更为重要；（4）检查职业如何和在哪里发生跨国影响，最后（5）重新关注人们实际携带并消费的度量单位（美元，欧元等），而不是已记录的收入和社会经济地位点。在不平等现象日趋严重的历史时代，社会分层研究的核心问题真的归结为“钱包中有什么”吗？