printFuzzy Classifications in the Typological Analysis of Workers by Employment Instability
Kuchenkova A.V.
Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Senior Researcher, Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS, Moscow, Russia. a.v.kuchenkova@gmail.com
Tatarova G.G.
Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Prof., Chief Researcher, Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS, Moscow, Russia. tatarova-gg@rambler.ru
For citation:
Kuchenkova A.V. , Tatarova G.G. Fuzzy Classifications in the Typological Analysis of Workers by Employment Instability. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2023. No 10. P. 27-40
Abstract
The article is devoted to the theoretical and methodological problems of identifying the typological structure of employees by the nature of employment stability / instability. It actualizes the issues of developing a technology for conducting typological analysis in those research situations when there is a need to apply special means of dividing the objects (respondents) into groups – methods of fuzzy classifications. These are situations when typological analysis is carried out based on mass surveys; it is possible to construct integral indices for measuring indicators of employment instability based on its features of both “objective” and “subjective” nature; there is a blurring of the structure of objects location in the space of classification variables and problems arise in assessing the degree of such fuzziness. The article presents the results of a search study that allows us to conclude that typological models based on the ideas of reconstruction of social types among workers can be interpreted as an instrumental tool for comparing typological structures of different social communities identified by the nature of employment instability. One group of results relates to reflection on the composition of typeforming features, the basic part of which consists of two indicators of employment instability, one of which represents “objective”, the other “subjective” features. Another group of results relates to the justification of the adequacy of fuzzy classification methods in our research situation, rather than clear classification methods (the case when an object unambiguously belongs to a certain class).
Keywords
typological analysis; typological characteristics; sources of employment instability; subjective indicators of unstable employment; objective indicators of unstable employment; classification algorithm; clear classification; fuzzy classification
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Content No 10, 2023