Amossé, Thomas <br/><br/>
Hierarchical ordering or grouping by field of activity? The double asymmetry of ordinary representations on occupations 

 -  2019.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 15 
<br/><br/> Based on a digital tablet survey system, this article investigates the ordinary representations of social space. How do individuals delimit two social groups among a closed set of 11 occupations to a limited fraction of the social space? The respondents’ classifications, carried out successively on occupations classically considered as belonging to the “top” and “bottom” of the social space, demonstrate first of all the ever-present strength of the opposition between the occupations of “employés” (clerical or public) and of “ouvriers” (manual): they function as salient points that delimit the main internal cleavage between the working classes. For the executives and business managers occupations, three representations (positional, statutory and functional) emerge of the classifications, the first of which is clearly hierarchical. The opposition between the public and private sector plays a transversal role in both games. The article concludes that there is a double asymmetry in ordinary representations: professional and social hierarchies are more often mentioned for and by individuals occupying a higher position in society, while transversal oppositions (statutory or functional) are more often used for and by those who are at a lower level in the scale of occupations and social positions.