Summary
Contents
This volume provides readers with a simple, non-technical introduction to correspondence analysis (CA), a technique for summarily describing the relationships among categorical variables in large tables. It begins with the history and logic of CA. The author shows readers the steps to the analysis: category profiles and masses are computed, the distances between these points calculated and the best-fitting space of n-dimensions located. There are glossaries on appropriate programs from SAS and SPSS for doing CA and the book concludes with a comparison of CA and log-linear models.
Analysis of Multiple Response Tables and Survey Data
Analysis of Multiple Response Tables and Survey Data
4.1. Bourdieu's Concept of Social Space
Correspondence analysis can be a very useful method to describe and visualize relationships between several variables and categories in survey data. One of the most famous applications of such analyses was presented by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in his book Distinction (1984). There he presented an analysis of a large quantity of survey material on consumption and preferences among different socio-occupational groups in France. With the help of correspondence analysis, he explored and visualized what he denotes as a social space. ...