What is it like, a Prestigious Job? Reconstruction of Social Representations Based Upon Pictorial Data

Abstract

A range of questions raised in the study are as follows: how young generation see a prestigious job; how it can be described; what differentiate it from other (non-prestigious) types of labor activity. How do all these representations look like if they are visualized? Representations of prestigious job described in the paper are constructed based upon pictorial technique. An advantage of non-verbal technique is that respondent is free to define semantic framework, as there are no limitations in form of predetermined response options or cognitive framework imposed by the interviewer. Consequently, the authors managed to figure out what symbols and characteristics of a prestigious job are regarded by young people as important/not important. The study reveals that representations of a prestigious job are elective: pictures show different symbols and narratives each with its own “star story”. Twelve settled patterns describing prestigious job representations were singled out based upon the drawing’s interpretations. The purpose of the study is not to set something against verbal techniques; the purpose is to show the cognitive opportunities of using non-verbal techniques in the field research, thus, to enlarge the horizons of empirical sociology.