Social space and class structure in Brazilian metropolitan regions

Abstract

This article presents an exploratory study about the relationship between attitudes and social classes in Brazil. It is sought to identify how social classes, defined on the basis of rights and powers over productive resources, are distributed in a social space defined by attitudes regarding work, family, community, cultural consumption, and politics. The data are from an original qualitative survey conducted by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), during the years of 2015 and 2016, with people residing in Brazilian metropolitan regions. The methodology applied in this analysis is based on Principal Component Analysis. The results show that three dimensions define a social space of attitudes in Brazil, and that the main dimension is related to productive self-confidence. The position of social classes across this dimension is closely related to the possession of productive resources.