Standardized occupations
The Historical International Standard Classification of Occupations (HISCO) is a standard to make historical occupations comparable across time and space, similar to the contemporary ISCO codes. The HSNDB provides donated occupational titles in a multitude of languages via:
- as CSV files
- as Linked Open Data (RDF) including introductory data stories
For the Netherlands HSNDB has been releasing a standardized list of occupational titles and concomitant HISCO codes since 2013. All titles are standardized into a uniform spelling, and provided with a HISCO code.
These HISCO codes can be converted into social class and social status measures:
- HISCLASS: https://hdl.handle.net/10622/HEFSW2
- HISCAM: https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2012.715569
- OCC1950: https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-zap-qxmc
- SOCPO: https://journalbelgianhistory.be/nl/journal/belgisch-tijdschrift-voor-nieuwste-geschiedenis-2010-1-2/measuring-social-structure-rural
Standardization consists of two rounds. First, regular expressions are used to remove context-specific information from occupational titles, such as ‘Burgemeester van Besoyen’ [Mayor of Besoyen] or ‘Sappeur bij het 3e bataljon van de 13e afdeling nationale infanterie’ [‘Sapper in the 3rd batallion of the 13th regiment of the national infantery’]. The remaining unstandardized occupations are then standardized by hand to deal with spelling variations and previously unencountered occupations.
The next update is planned for Q1 2024, after which the database will be updated on a yearly basis.
