Showing papers in "American Journal of Sociology in 2010"
TL;DR: The authors unpack racial homogeneity using a theoretical framework that distinguishes between various tie formation mechanisms and their effects on the racial composition of networks, exponential random graph modeling that can disentangle these mechanisms empirically, and a rich new data set based on the Facebook pages of a cohort of college students.
Abstract: A notable feature of U.S. social networks is their high degree of racial homogeneity, which is often attributed to racial homophily—the preference for associating with individuals of the same racial background. The authors unpack racial homogeneity using a theoretical framework that distinguishes between various tie formation mechanisms and their effects on the racial composition of networks, exponential random graph modeling that can disentangle these mechanisms empirically, and a rich new data set based on the Facebook pages of a cohort of college students. They first show that racial homogeneity results not only from racial homophily proper but also from homophily among coethnics of the same racial background and from balancing mechanisms such as the tendency to reciprocate friendships or to befriend the friends of friends, which both amplify the homogeneity effects of homophily. Then, they put the importance of racial homophily further into perspective by comparing its effects to those of other mechan...
544 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an ensemble of articles fait part de recherches ethnographiques concernant l'etat actuel des comportements sociaux des quartiers pauvres des Etats-Unis.
Abstract: Cet ensemble d'articles fait part de recherches ethnographiques concernant l'etat actuel des comportements sociaux des quartiers pauvres des Etats-Unis. Les AA. debattent et critiquent vivement le point de vue de L. Wacquant et defendent l'objectivite et la validite de leurs recherches respectives
413 citations
TL;DR: Analysis of time use surveys from 19 countries combined with original national‐level data in multilevel models reveal that men do less and women do more time‐inflexible housework in nations where work hours and parental leave are long.
Abstract: National context may influence sex segregation of household tasks through both pragmatic decision making and the normative context in which decision making is embedded. This study utilizes 36 time use surveys from 19 countries (spanning 1965–2003) combined with original national‐level data in multilevel models to examine household task segregation. Analyses reveal that men do less and women do more time‐inflexible housework in nations where work hours and parental leave are long. Women do less of this work where there is more public child care and men are eligible to take parental leave. National context affects the character of gender inequality in the home through individual‐ and national‐level pathways.
409 citations
TL;DR: This article analyzed national and state-level court data to assess monetary sanctions and interview data to identify their social and legal consequences, finding that monetary sanctions are imposed on a substantial majority of the millions of people convicted of crimes in the United States annually and that legal debt is substantial relative to expected earnings.
Abstract: The expansion of the U.S. penal system has important consequences for poverty and inequality, yet little is known about the imposition of monetary sanctions. This study analyzes national and state‐level court data to assess their imposition and interview data to identify their social and legal consequences. Findings indicate that monetary sanctions are imposed on a substantial majority of the millions of people convicted of crimes in the United States annually and that legal debt is substantial relative to expected earnings. This indebtedness reproduces disadvantage by reducing family income, by limiting access to opportunities and resources, and by increasing the likelihood of ongoing criminal justice involvement.
285 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical moment at the academic-commercial boundary was analyzed, where the enforcement of patents to a key technology on academic geneticists was discussed. And the authors provided an alternative interpretation: hybrids can maintain a distinctive boundary and can emerge from contestation, not coexistence, and they must be reconsidered as emerging from conflict and produced through boundary work to maintain the distinction and resilience of logics.
Abstract: Conventional wisdom suggests that when institutional logics overlap, the production of hybrids signifies collapse, blending, or easy coexistence. The author provides an alternative interpretation: hybrids can maintain a distinctive boundary and can emerge from contestation, not coexistence. This alternative interpretation is grounded in an analysis of a critical moment at the academic‐commercial boundary: the enforcement of patents to a key technology on academic geneticists. In their reaction to commercial encroachment, skilled actors (scientists) took the resources of the commercial logic and transformed their meaning to establish hybrid strategies that preserved the distinctive institutions. Thus, hybrids must be reconsidered as emerging from conflict and produced through boundary work to maintain the distinction and resilience of logics.
272 citations
TL;DR: The results indicate that increases in earnings inequality would have been about 25%–30% lower than observed in the absence of changes in the association, depending on the inequality measure used.
Abstract: Increases in the association between spouses' earnings have the potential to increase inequality as marriages increasingly consist of two high‐earning or two low‐earning partners. This article uses log‐linear models and data from the March Current Population Survey to describe trends in the association between spouses' earnings and estimate their contribution to growing earnings inequality among married couples from 1967 to 2005. The results indicate that increases in earnings inequality would have been about 25%–30% lower than observed in the absence of changes in the association, depending on the inequality measure used. Three components of these changes and how they vary across the earnings distribution are explored.
259 citations
TL;DR: Examination of underlying migration patterns reveals that black and Latino householders move into neighborhoods with significantly higher hazard levels than do comparable whites and that racial differences in proximity to neighborhood pollution are maintained more by these disparate mobility destinations than by differential effects of pollution on the decision to move.
Abstract: This study combines longitudinal individual‐level data with neighborhood‐level industrial hazard data to examine the extent and sources of environmental inequality. Results indicate that profound racial and ethnic differences in proximity to industrial pollution persist when differences in individual education, household income, and other microlevel characteristics are controlled. Examination of underlying migration patterns further reveals that black and Latino householders move into neighborhoods with significantly higher hazard levels than do comparable whites and that racial differences in proximity to neighborhood pollution are maintained more by these disparate mobility destinations than by differential effects of pollution on the decision to move.
240 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the structural fold is identified as a distinctive network topology that facilitates familiar access to diverse resources, and it is shown that coherence is a property of interwoven lineages of cohesion.
Abstract: Entrepreneurial groups face a twinned challenge: recognizing and implementing new ideas. We argue that entrepreneurship is less about importing ideas than about generating new knowledge by recombining resources. In contrast to the brokerage-plus-closure perspective, we address the overlapping of cohesive group structures. In analyzing the network processes of intercohesion, we identify a distinctive network topology: the structural fold. Actors at the structural fold are multiple insiders, facilitating familiar access to diverse resources. Our data set records personnel ties among the largest 1,696 Hungarian enterprises from 1987 to 2001. First, we test whether structural folding contributes to group performance. Second, because entrepreneurship is a process of generative disruption, we test the contribution of structural folds to group instability. Third, we move from dynamic methods to historical network analysis and demonstrate that coherence is a property of interwoven lineages of cohesion, built up t...
235 citations
TL;DR: Analyses of neighborhood racial composition in 1980–2000 demonstrate that in multiethnic metropolitan regions there is an emerging pathway of change that leads to relatively stable integration and “global neighborhoods” where Hispanics and Asians are the pioneer integrators of previously all‐white zones, later followed by blacks.
Abstract: Analyses of neighborhood racial composition in 1980-2000 demonstrate that in multiethnic metropolitan regions there is an emerging pathway of change that leads to relatively stable integration These are "global neighborhoods" where Hispanics and Asians are the pioneer integrators of previously all-white zones, later followed by blacks. However, region-wide segregation is maintained at high levels by whites' avoidance of all-minority areas and by their continued exodus (albeit at reduced levels) from mixed settings. Globalization of neighborhoods adds a positive new element of diversity that alters but does not erase the traditional dynamic of minority invasion succession.
224 citations
TL;DR: Using California data, this study shows that children living very close to a child previously diagnosed with autism are more likely to be diagnosed with Autism, and an underlying social influence mechanism involving information diffusion drives this result.
Abstract: Despite a plethora of studies, we do not know why autism incidence has increased rapidly over the past two decades. Using California data, this study shows that children living very close to a child previously diagnosed with autism are more likely to be diagnosed with autism. An underlying social influence mechanism involving information diffusion drives this result, contributing to 16% of the increase in prevalence over 2000–2005. We eliminate competing explanations (i.e., residential sorting, environmental toxicants, and viral transmission) through seven tests and show that information diffusion simultaneously contributed to the increased prevalence, spatial clustering, and decreasing age of diagnosis.
221 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that governance failure must be conceptualized at the market rather than the firm level because excessive pay increases for even relatively few CEOs a year spread to other firms through the cognitively and rhetorically constructed compensation networks of "peer groups", which are used in the benchmarking process to negotiate the compensation of CEOs.
Abstract: Scholars frequently argue whether the sharp rise in chief executive officer (CEO) pay in recent years is “efficient” or is a consequence of “rent extraction” because of the failure of corporate governance in individual firms. This article argues that governance failure must be conceptualized at the market rather than the firm level because excessive pay increases for even relatively few CEOs a year spread to other firms through the cognitively and rhetorically constructed compensation networks of “peer groups,” which are used in the benchmarking process to negotiate the compensation of CEOs. Counterfactual simulation based on Standard and Poor’s ExecuComp data demonstrates that the effects of CEO “leapfrogging” potentially explain a considerable fraction of the overall upward movement of executive compensation since the early 1990s.
TL;DR: The empirical analysis supports the proposition that people who persist in delinquency will be less likely to make timely adult transitions, with both arrest and self‐reported crime blocking the passage to adult status.
Abstract: Conceptions of adulthood have changed dramatically in recent decades. Despite such changes, however, the notion that young people will eventually “settle down” and desist from delinquent behaviors is remarkably persistent. This article unites criminology with classic work on age norms and role behavior to contend that people who persist in delinquency will be less likely to make timely adult transitions. The empirical analysis supports this proposition, with both arrest and self‐reported crime blocking the passage to adult status. The authors conclude that desisting from delinquency is an important part of the package of role behaviors that define adulthood.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider how uncertainty over protest occurrence shapes the strategic interaction between companies and activists and find support for their theory that companies respond to this uncertainty through a "test for protest" approach.
Abstract: The authors consider how uncertainty over protest occurrence shapes the strategic interaction between companies and activists. Analyzing Wal‐Mart, the authors find support for their theory that companies respond to this uncertainty through a “test for protest” approach. In Wal‐Mart’s case, this consists of low‐cost probes in the form of new store proposals. They then withdraw if they face protests, especially when those protests signal future problems. Wal‐Mart is more likely to open stores that are particularly profitable, even if they are protested. This uncertainty‐based account stands in sharp contrast to full‐information models that characterize protests as rare miscalculations.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the social structure of the world polity, using network analysis of the complete population of intergovernmental organizations as it has evolved since 1820, revealing growing fragmentation, driven by exclusive rather than universalist intergovernmental organisations.
Abstract: World polity research argues that modern states are shaped by embeddedness in a network of international organizations, and yet the structure of that network is rarely examined. This is surprising, given that world polity theory implies that the world polity should be an increasingly dense, even, flat field of association. This article describes the social structure of the world polity, using network analysis of the complete population of intergovernmental organizations as it has evolved since 1820. Analysis of the world polity's structure reveals growing fragmentation, driven by exclusive rather than universalist intergovernmental organizations. The world polity has thus grown less cohesive, more fragmented, more heterogeneous, and less “small worldly” in its structure. This structure reflects a recent rise in the regionalization of the world polity.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors introduce a multidimensional framework for analyzing the effectiveness of civic associations in terms of public recognition, member engagement, and leader development using original surveys of local Sierra Club organizations and leaders.
Abstract: Why are some civic associations more effective than others? The authors introduce a multidimensional framework for analyzing the effectiveness of civic associations in terms of public recognition, member engagement, and leader development Using original surveys of local Sierra Club organizations and leaders, the authors assess prevailing explanations in organization and movement studies alongside a model highlighting leadership and internal organizational practices Although available resources and favorable contexts matter, the core findings show that associations with more committed activists, that build organizational capacity, that carry out strong programmatic activity, and whose leaders work independently, generate greater effectiveness across outcomes
TL;DR: Ethnographic observation of AIDS media in situ and interview data reveal how the materiality of objects and places shapes the availability of AIDS knowledge in Accra, Ghana.
Abstract: AIDS media lead unexpected lives once distributed through urban space: billboards fade, posters go missing, bumper stickers travel to other cities. The materiality of AIDS campaign objects and of the urban settings in which they are displayed structures how the public interprets their messages. Ethnographic observation of AIDS media in situ and interview data reveal how the materiality of objects and places shapes the availability of AIDS knowledge in Accra, Ghana. Significantly for AIDS organizations, these material conditions often systematically obstruct access to AIDS knowledge for particular groups. Attending to materiality rethinks how scholars assess the cultural power of media.
TL;DR: In this article, a theoretical and methodological system for a sociological analysis of the restless nature of historical events is proposed, which is able to identify and assess the performative speech acts, the demonstrative orientational specifications, and the mimetic representations required to advance historical transformations.
Abstract: This article offers a theoretical and methodological system for a sociological analysis of the restless nature of historical events. This system, political semiosis, is able to identify and assess the performative speech acts, the demonstrative orientational specifications, and the mimetic representations required to advance historical transformations. The features of political semiosis structure the flow of historical events by managing the specific media and generic forms that are the vehicles through which events take shape. Political semiosis provides a method for analyzing both the circulation and the materialization of events. The exemplary case of September 11 illuminates this approach's capabilities.
TL;DR: This paper replicated Sampson's multilevel version of Kasarda and Janowitz's systemic model of community using data from a survey of nearly 10,000 people residing in 99 small Iowa communities.
Abstract: To what extent does community context affect individuals’ social ties and levels of community attachment? The authors replicate Sampson’s multilevel version of Kasarda and Janowitz’s systemic model of community using data from a survey of nearly 10,000 people residing in 99 small Iowa communities. They improve on Sampson’s work by using multilevel statistical tools, better measurement of community attachment, and data from 99 actual communities. While the authors find general support for the systemic model, their results suggest that the community one lives in actually has little effect on one’s level of community attachment, calling into question many of the basic assumptions and findings of past community research.
TL;DR: The authors examines Colombia's adoption of policies for black Colombians in 1993 and argues that Afro-Colombian activists were able to seize upon changes in global policy norms around multiculturalism and state disequilibrium both by deploying traditional social movement strategies and by framing their demands in terms of ethnic difference.
Abstract: Drawing on archival analysis and in-depth interviews, this article examines Colombia’s adoption of policies for black Colombians in 1993. It argues that Afro-Colombian activists were able to seize upon changes in global policy norms around multiculturalism and state disequilibrium both by deploying traditional social movement strategies and by framing their demands in terms of ethnic difference. This case extends our understanding of how social movements make strategic use of political openings and also illustrates the circumstances under which an ethnic difference framing can be a more effective political strategy for achieving rights for black populations than a racial equality framing.
TL;DR: The authors argue that companies' relative indifference to theory nudges their academic partners toward novel, theoretically unanticipated experiments, and evaluate this proposition using fieldwork, archival materials, and panel models of all academic research using the popular plant model Arabidopsis thaliana.
Abstract: How does collaboration between academic research and industry shape science? This article argues that companies' relative indifference to theory nudges their academic partners toward novel, theoretically unanticipated experiments. The article then evaluates this proposition using fieldwork, archival materials, and panel models of all academic research using the popular plant model Arabidopsis thaliana and the companies that support that research. Findings suggest that industry partnerships draw high-status academics away from confirming theories and toward speculation. For the network of scientific ideas surrounding Arabidopsis, industry sponsorship weaves discoveries around the periphery into looser, more expansive knowledge. Government funding plays a complementary role, sponsoring focused scientific activity in dense hubs that facilitate scientific community and understanding.
TL;DR: This article analyzed U.S. strikes from 1984 to 2002 and revealed the importance of such intramovement cleavages for strike activity and for the prospects of organized labor in the contemporary United States.
Abstract: Much of what we know about strikes is grounded in the context of postwar Fordism, a unique historical moment of relatively institutionalized labor‐management relations. Yet the resurgence of corporate resistance over the past quarter century, coupled with an increasingly hostile political and economic climate, has fundamentally transformed the American industrial landscape. Drawing from this research and insights on social movements and formal organizations, we expect unions will vary considerably in their response to threats. Our analysis, based on a comprehensive data set of U.S. strikes from 1984 to 2002, reveals the importance of such intramovement cleavages for strike activity and for the prospects of organized labor in the contemporary United States. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for scholarship on threat and social movement challenges more generally.
TL;DR: “A Critique of Exchange Theory in Mate Selection” by Michael J. Rosenfeld is one of the more serious and well-thought-out attempts to criticize the hypothesis, presenting a new loglinear model that yields negative evidence for the hypothesis.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors introduce a network model that pictures occupants of robust positions as recipients of diversified support from durably located others and portrays occupants of fragile positions as dependents on tenuously situated others.
Abstract: This article introduces a network model that pictures occupants of robust positions as recipients of diversified support from durably located others and portrays occupants of fragile positions as dependents on tenuously situated others. The model extends Herfindahl's index of concentration by bringing in the recursiveness of Bonacich's method. Using Newcomb's study of a college fraternity, we find empirical support for the contention that fragility reduces future growth in status. Applications of the model to input-output networks among industries in the U.S. economy and to hiring networks among academic departments are also presented. Implications for future research are discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, a unique Swedish population-level database of university applications and individuals' ranking of different programs is used to analyze class differences in preferences for different program characteristics, which lead to substantial differences in expected earnings levels and expected unemployment risks.
Abstract: Class differences in educational decision making are important for inequality. A unique Swedish population-level database of university applications and individuals’ ranking of different programs is used to analyze class differences in preferences for different program characteristics. Compared to individuals from service class backgrounds, individuals from manual labor class backgrounds choose programs of shorter duration with lower grade point requirements located closer to their parents’ home. Children from the service class instead prefer programs with higher earnings risk and avoid nontraditional institutions. Taken together, the differences in degree choice lead to substantial differences in expected earnings levels and expected unemployment risks.
TL;DR: A general framework is developed for analyzing the roles of social networks in four ideal-typical juxtapositions of formal and informal institutions: normativism, legalism, congruence, and conflict.
Abstract: Ancestor worship and bloodline continuation are the core norms of lineage in China. Beginning in the late 1970s, these cultural norms came into direct confrontation with the state birth control policy. Pitched against each other are the antinatalist laws backed by the powerful and unyielding state apparatus on the one side and the ancient pronatalist norms backed by revived lineage networks on the other. Even though the draconian state policies did succeed in dramatically reducing the overall birthrates, data analyses show that villages with strong kinship networks tend to have higher birthrates. The findings demonstrate the normative capacity of social networks to bend the iron bars of formal institutions. A general framework is developed for analyzing the roles of social networks in four ideal-typical juxtapositions of formal and informal institutions: normativism, legalism, congruence, and conflict.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used employment histories from survey data to examine personal network use and stratification in the Russian labor market from 1985 to 2001 and found that networks positively affect job quality, whether measured by occupation, current earnings, or wage arrears.
Abstract: The authors use employment histories from survey data to examine personal network use and stratification in the Russian labor market from 1985 to 2001. Institutional changes associated with the Soviet collapse increased the use of networks and shaped their prevalence and benefits in theoretically coherent ways. In Russia, networks positively affect job quality, whether measured by occupation, current earnings, or wage arrears. These findings relate to recent debates over whether job contacts provide advantages and how social capital relates to postsocialist inequalities involving gender, Communist Party membership, and education. Russia also exhibits a previously overlooked relationship between network use and locality type.
TL;DR: Results show a panethnic effect—greater residential proximity within panethnic boundaries than between, net of ethnic group size and metropolitan area—that is dependent on immigration.
Abstract: The theoretical and empirical implications of the structural basis of panethnicity and of the layering of ethnic boundaries in residential patterns are considered while simultaneously evaluating the “panethnic hypothesis,” the extent to which homogeneity within panethnic categories can be assumed. Results show a panethnic effect—greater residential proximity within panethnic boundaries than between, net of ethnic group size and metropolitan area—that is dependent on immigration. A lower degree of social distance between panethnic subgroups is observed for blacks, whites, and Latinos, and less for Asians, yet ethnonational groups continue to maintain some degree of distinctiveness within a racialized context.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on Erving Goffman's work in Frame Analysis to conceptualize experience in social situations as grounded in multilayered cognitive frames and demonstrate how such a framework helps illuminate historical changes in situated interaction.
Abstract: In recent years there has been a growing call to historicize sociology by paying more attention to the contextual importance of time and place as well as to issues of process and contingency. Meeting this goal requires bringing historical sociology and interactionism into greater conversation via a historical theory of social situations. Toward this end, the authors of this article draw on Erving Goffman's work in Frame Analysis to conceptualize experience in social situations as grounded in multilayered cognitive frames and to demonstrate how such a framework helps illuminate historical changes in situated interaction.
TL;DR: Using a data set of public and private relief spending for 295 cities, this article examines the racial and ethnic patterning of social welfare provision in the United States in 1929 to find cities with more blacks or Mexicans spent the least and relied more heavily on private money to fund their programs.
Abstract: Using a data set of public and private relief spending for 295 cities, this article examines the racial and ethnic patterning of social welfare provision in the United States in 1929 On the eve of the Depression, cities with more blacks or Mexicans spent the least on social assistance and relied more heavily on private money to fund their programs Cities with more European immigrants spent the most on relief and relied more heavily on public funding Distinct political systems, labor market relations, and racial ideologies about each group’s proclivity to use relief best explain relief spending differences across cities