本文主要探究靠己力購屋與接受父母的住宅代間移轉會不會催化某種社會階層的形成,以及住宅所有權如何影響社會階層主觀的認知。經由觀察1990年代普遍存在於台灣家庭的住宅代間移轉現象,進行經驗性的探索。借用Peter Saunders對住宅階級理論的修正,本文檢驗了以下的命題:獲得父母住宅移轉的人其社會階層認知可能高於自力購屋的人。根據1997年完成的社會變遷基本調查(三期三次)的結果,共篩選出1882個樣本進行分析,但是經驗研究的結果並不支持此命題。一般而言,靠己力購買房屋的人其認知的社會階層比住在父母親房屋的人為高。分析結果也顯示住宅所有權的狀態的確對社會階層有顯著的影響,不論是住宅屬於自己擁有與父母所有、自己擁有與租賃的對照比較皆是如此,此表示過去的研究者低估了住宅所有權對社會階層的影響。在住宅階級的理論演化方面,本文亦反對John Rex以房型作為某種社會階層分類的方式,Rex基本上犯了住宅決定論的謬誤。另外,Peter Saunders的「消費部門差距」(Consumption Sector Cleavages)之理論概念仍不足以解釋台灣家庭的住宅代間移轉對社會階層認知的影響。
The main purposes of this paper are whether intergenerational housing transfer causes some kind of social status and how housing ownership effects the subjective social class. The empirical case is based on the observation of the Taiwanese society in 1990s. The hypothesis, based on saunders's theory of the ”consumption sector cleavages”, is tested: the subjective social class of people who receive housing transfer from parents are higher than the ones who own their houses by themselves. By using 1882 samples from the Taiwan Social Change Survey (3rd time in the 3rd period), the empirical results do not support the hypothesis. Generally speaking, the Subjective social class of people who own their houses by themselves are higher than the ones who receive intergenerational housing transfer. The results also show that housing ownership partially represents the social status, and the effect of housing ownership on social status is underestimated by academies. In the aspect of evolution of the housing class theory, the empirical results do not support John Rex’s pioneering theory by identifying housing types. Obviously, Rex made the mistakes of housing determinism. Besides, Saunders's theory is not enough for the explanation of the subjective social class manner related to intergenerational housing transfer in the Taiwanese society.