MIXED APPROACH TO MEASURING SOCIAL DISTANCE

ABSTRACT

The concept of social distance belongs to a sociological tradition starting back from Simmel, who identified the generative factors for specific society forms just in the distancing processes. In North-American sociology, the Chicago tradition and, specifically, the work of Bogardus, represent an important conceptual premise, but, moreover, the first methodological reference. Starting from the work of Bogardus, during XIX century, various measures of social distance have been elaborated, tested and used in social research. This article describes the operationalization process for the concept of social distance in an Italian research and the construction of a perceived social distance scale (pSD). The process of scale development is described.

KEYWORDS: social distance, social space, attitude measurement.

PAGES: 487-508