Social Status in the City presents a scientific method for measuring social status in urban settings--the Index of Urban Status (IUS). The authors show how the index and the concepts of status on which it is based were derived by describing the procedures used in studying the social structure of a particular Midwestern city. Richard P. Coleman modified the IUS when he was employed in commerce research studies of social class phenomena in American cities.

A social class is a group of people who are judged by members of the community as equal to one another in social prestige. They...