Compare methods

	Position Generator Method	Duncan Socioeconomic Index
Field	Sociology	Sociology
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2001	1961
Originator	Nan Lin & colleagues	Otis Dudley Duncan
Type	Survey instrument for measuring accessed social capital	Composite occupational status score from education and income
Seminal source	Lin, N. (2001). Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-0-521-52167-3	Duncan, O. D. (1961). A socioeconomic index for all occupations. In A. J. Reiss Jr. (Ed.), Occupations and Social Status (pp. 109–138). Free Press of Glencoe.
Aliases	position generator, Lin position generator, accessed social capital instrument, occupational position generator	Duncan SEI, socioeconomic index for occupations, SEI score, Duncan's index
Related	5	5
Summary	The position generator, developed by Nan Lin and colleagues, is a survey instrument for measuring an individual's social capital — the resources embedded in their personal network. Respondents are presented with a sample of occupations spanning the prestige hierarchy and asked, for each, whether they know anyone in that job. From these answers, the method derives indicators such as the number of positions accessed (extensity), the highest-prestige position reachable (upper reachability), and the range of prestige spanned, summarizing the volume and diversity of resources a person can mobilize through their contacts.	The Duncan Socioeconomic Index (SEI), created by Otis Dudley Duncan in 1961, assigns each occupation a socioeconomic status score derived from the education and income of its incumbents. Duncan calibrated the score by regressing the prestige ratings of a limited set of occupations on the percentage of incumbents with high education and high income, then used that equation to predict a status score for every occupation in the census. The SEI thus extends a small number of prestige ratings to the entire occupational structure on a 0–100 scale.