Lifestyle, status and occupational differentiation in Victorian accountancy
New insights are offered to the professionalization of accountants in Britain circa 1881 by
examining the private foundations of occupational status and identity as manifested by
domestic arrangements and residence patterns. Drawing on literature pertaining to the
relationship between consumption and socio-cultural differentiation the study deploys
empirical evidence from the British census to analyse status identifiers such as servant
keeping, household location and neighbourhood composition. These aspects of lifestyle
are taken as signifying practices of middle-class affiliation and narratives of the social identification
of professional accountants. The extent to which accountants achieved status
through consumption practices is illustrated by comparisons with a range of other occupational
groups and social classes in Victorian Britain.