Positional inconsistency: A new concept in social stratification

Based on empirical research involving some 100 semi-directive interviews with individuals from different social groups, this article introduces and discusses the use of a new concept for analysing the phenomenon of social stratification in contemporary Chilean society, namely “positional inconsistency”. This describes a more or less permanent and generalized feeling of positional anxiety in the vast majority of social strata, which has specific characteristics that distinguish it from other similar processes (status fear, vulnerability, exclusion, mobility, for example). It is an experience which, although expressed in similar ways, is nonetheless fostered by a plurality of factors giving rise to a significant structural phenomenon.