Showing papers in "American Sociological Review in 2017"
TL;DR: In this paper, the intersection of two structural developments: the growth of surveillance and the rise of big data is examined, drawing on observations and interviews conducted within the Los Angeles area.
Abstract: This article examines the intersection of two structural developments: the growth of surveillance and the rise of “big data.” Drawing on observations and interviews conducted within the Los Angeles...
384 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that persons acquire and use culture in two analytically and empirically distinct forms, which they label declarative and nondeclarative, depending on the dynamics of exposure and encoding and modulating the process of cultural accessibility, activation, and use.
Abstract: While influential across a wide variety of subfields, cultural analysis in sociology continues to be hampered by coarse-grained conceptualizations of the different modes in which culture becomes personal, as well as the process via which persons acquire and use different forms of culture. In this article, I argue that persons acquire and use culture in two analytically and empirically distinct forms, which I label declarative and nondeclarative. The mode of cultural acquisition depends on the dynamics of exposure and encoding, and modulates the process of cultural accessibility, activation, and use. Cultural knowledge about one domain may be redundantly represented in both declarative and nondeclarative forms, each linked via analytically separable pathways to corresponding public cultural forms and ultimately to substantive outcomes. I outline how the new theoretical vocabulary, theoretical model, and analytic distinctions that I propose can be used to resolve contradictions and improve our understanding...
253 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that U.S. Millennials comprise a new political generation with lived experiences and worldviews that set them apart from their elders, based on Karl Mannheim's theory of generations.
Abstract: Building on Karl Mannheim’s theory of generations, this address argues that U.S. Millennials comprise a new political generation with lived experiences and worldviews that set them apart from their...
213 citations
TL;DR: This article found that despite cultural differences, unfamiliarity with the educational system, and possible language difficulties, children of immigrations of immigrated adults perform well in school despite their cultural differences.
Abstract: Numerous studies have revealed a seemingly paradoxical pattern in which, despite cultural differences, unfamiliarity with the educational system, and possible language difficulties, children of imm...
195 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, two different theoretical approaches explain legitimate wage gaps: same-gender referent theory and reward expectations theory, and the authors analyze hypotheses contrasting the two theories using an experimental factorial survey design.
Abstract: Gender pay gaps likely persist in Western societies because both men and women consider somewhat lower earnings for female employees than for otherwise similar male employees to be fair. Two different theoretical approaches explain “legitimate” wage gaps: same-gender referent theory and reward expectations theory. The first approach states that women compare their lower earnings primarily with that of other underpaid women; the second approach argues that both men and women value gender as a status variable that yields lower expectations about how much each gender should be paid for otherwise equal work. This article is the first to analyze hypotheses contrasting the two theories using an experimental factorial survey design. In 2009, approximately 1,600 German residents rated more than 26,000 descriptions of fictitious employees. The labor market characteristics of each employee and the amount of information given about them were experimentally varied across all descriptions. The results primarily suppor...
167 citations
TL;DR: A growing literature documents deleterious consequences of incarceration for mental health as discussed by the authors. But, incarceration is only one form of criminal justice contact and, accordingly, focusing on focusing o...
Abstract: A growing literature documents deleterious consequences of incarceration for mental health. Although salient, incarceration is only one form of criminal justice contact and, accordingly, focusing o...
154 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a new explanation for why certain cultural products outperform their peers to achieve widespread success is proposed, arguing that products' position in feature space significantly contributes to their success.
Abstract: In this article, we propose a new explanation for why certain cultural products outperform their peers to achieve widespread success. We argue that products’ position in feature space significantly...
142 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a long tradition of research in criminology and urban sociology that considers how violence is regulated and how crime decline is overlooked in the theoretical and empirical literature is discussed.
Abstract: Largely overlooked in the theoretical and empirical literature on the crime decline is a long tradition of research in criminology and urban sociology that considers how violence is regulated throu...
139 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop and test a theory of status advantage in meritocratic settings, and they argue that decision-makers must often coordinate with others to make the best decision, and thus they focus on the third-order inference problem of discerning who or what "most people" think.
Abstract: A core claim of sociological theory is that modern institutions fall short of their meritocratic ideals, whereby rewards should be allocated based on achievement-related criteria. Instead, high-status actors often experience a “status advantage”: they are rewarded disproportionately to the quality of their performance. We develop and test a theory of status advantage in meritocratic settings. The most influential model in past research derives status advantage from decision-makers’ tendency to infer quality from status when quality is uncertain. The theory developed here integrates and extends this and other theories to explain the emergence of status advantage in the many meritocratic contexts where the decision-maker’s personal, first-order sense of quality is less important to the decision. We argue that in such contexts, decision-makers must often coordinate with others to make the “best” decision, and thus they focus on the “third-order inference” problem of discerning who or what “most people” think...
127 citations
TL;DR: Junior faculty search committees serve as gatekeepers to the professoriate and play vital roles in shaping the demographic composition of academic departments and disciplines, but how committees se... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Junior faculty search committees serve as gatekeepers to the professoriate and play vital roles in shaping the demographic composition of academic departments and disciplines, but how committees se...
122 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the degree of ethnic and gender segregation on Facebook among a representative survey of adolescents in the Netherlands (N = 2,810; ~1.1 million Facebook friends).
Abstract: Most research on segregation in social networks considers small circles of strong ties, and little is known about segregation among the much larger number of weaker ties. This article proposes a novel approach to the study of these more extended networks, through the use of data on personal ties in an online social network. We illustrate this method’s potential by describing and explaining the degree of ethnic and gender segregation on Facebook among a representative survey of adolescents in the Netherlands (N = 2,810; ~1.1 million Facebook friends). The results show that large online networks are more strongly segregated by ethnicity than by gender. Drawing on the same survey data, we find that core networks are more segregated in terms of ethnicity and gender than are extended networks. However, an exception to this pattern is personal networks of ethnic majority members, whose core networks are as segregated by ethnicity as their extended networks. Further analysis suggests this exception is due to the...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a conceptual framework for the study of intra-IGO script-writing, which is contingent on three normative struggles: among IGO staff, within an IGO's board of directors, and between the staff and the board.
Abstract: Sociologists have long examined how states, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), and professional groups interact in order to institutionalize their preferred norms at the transnational level. Yet, explanations of global norm-making that emphasize inter-organizational negotiations do not adequately explain the intra-organizational script-writing—that is, the codification of norms in prescriptive behavioral templates—that underpins this process. This article opens the black box of how scripts emerge and institutionalize within IGOs. Script-writing is a function of both world-cultural frames and material interests, held by different intra-organizational actors: scientific IGO staff and state representatives in governing bodies, respectively. The interplay between these frames and interests determines whether scripts will institutionalize. In this theoretical model, world-cultural and power-political explanations are pertinent to different, mutually informing, and coexisting aspects of the script-writing process. As a corollary of our approach, we present a conceptual framework for the study of intra-IGO script-writing, which is contingent on three normative struggles: among IGO staff, within an IGO’s board of directors, and between the staff and the board. To empirically substantiate our arguments, we examine scripts on taxation and capital controls by the International Monetary Fund. We conclude by discussing the broader implications of our model for the study of international organizations and the engines of global norm-making.
TL;DR: It is posit that the estimates of the long-term consequences of wealth inequality may be conservative for nations other than Sweden, like the United States, where family wealth—in addition to its insurance and normative functions—allows the direct purchase of educational quality and access.
Abstract: We study the role of family wealth for children's educational achievement using novel and unique Swedish register data. In particular, we focus on the relationship between grandparents' wealth and their grandchildren's educational achievement. Doing so allows us to reliably establish the independent role of wealth in contributing to long-term inequalities in opportunity. We use regression models with rich controls to account for observed socioeconomic characteristics of families, cousin fixed effects to net out potentially unobserved grandparental effects, and marginal structural models to account for endogenous selection. We find substantial associations between grandparents' wealth and their grandchildren's grade point averages (GPA) in the 9th grade that are only partly mediated by the socioeconomic characteristics and wealth of parents. Our findings indicate that family wealth inequality - even in a comparatively egalitarian context like Sweden - has profound consequences for the distribution of opportunity across multiple generations. We posit that our estimates of the long-term consequences of wealth inequality may be conservative for nations other than Sweden, like the United States, where family wealth - in addition to its insurance and normative functions - allows the direct purchase of educational quality and access.
TL;DR: One of the puzzles about the financial crisis of 2008 is why regulators, particularly the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), were so slow to recognize the impending collapse of the financial system as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: One of the puzzles about the financial crisis of 2008 is why regulators, particularly the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), were so slow to recognize the impending collapse of the financial sys...
TL;DR: In this paper, a set of in-depth life history interviews with 89 former U.S. white supremacists was used to examine how a rejected identity can persist despite a desire to change.
Abstract: The process of leaving deeply meaningful and embodied identities can be experienced as a struggle against addiction, with continuing cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses that are involuntary, unwanted, and triggered by environmental factors. Using data derived from a unique set of in-depth life history interviews with 89 former U.S. white supremacists, as well as theories derived from recent advances in cognitive sociology, we examine how a rejected identity can persist despite a desire to change. Disengagement from white supremacy is characterized by substantial lingering effects that subjects describe as addiction. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of identity residual for understanding how people leave and for theories of the self.
TL;DR: This article explored the changing relationship between elite schools and elite recruiters using 120 years of biographical data (N = 120,764) contained within Who's Who, a unique catalogue of the British elite.
Abstract: We draw on 120 years of biographical data (N = 120,764) contained within Who’s Who—a unique catalogue of the British elite—to explore the changing relationship between elite schools and elite recru...
TL;DR: This paper examined the gender division of elderly parent care in spousal couples, focusing on housework and childcare in couples with children, and found that elderly parents tended to be more likely to care for children.
Abstract: Research on the gender division of family labor largely focuses on housework and childcare in spousal couples. This article advances scholarship by examining the gender division of elderly parent c...
TL;DR: This mixed-methods case study extends theoretical insights of classic prison ethnographies, adds quantifiable results capable of future replication, and points to a growing population of older inmates as important for contemporary prison social organization.
Abstract: Research of inmate social order is a once-vibrant area that receded just as American incarceration rates climbed and the country's carceral contexts dramatically changed This study reengages inmate society with an abductive mixed methods investigation of informal status within a contemporary men's prison unit The authors collect narrative and social network data from 133 male inmates housed in a unit of a Pennsylvania medium-security prison Analyses of inmate narratives suggest that unit "old heads" provide collective goods in the form of mentoring and role modeling that foster a positive and stable peer environment This hypothesis is then tested with Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) of peer nomination data The ERGM results complement the qualitative analysis and suggest that older inmates and those who have been on the unit longer are perceived by their peers as powerful and influential Both analytical strategies point to the maturity of aging and the acquisition of local knowledge as important for attaining informal status in the unit In sum, this mixed methods case study extends theoretical insights of classic prison ethnographies, adds quantifiable results capable of future replication, and points to a growing population of older inmates as important for contemporary prison social organization
TL;DR: Hahl and Zuckerman as discussed by the authors developed and tested the idea that public appreciation for authentic lowbrow culture affords an effective way for certain elites to address feelings of authenticity-insecurity arising from high status denigration.
Abstract: We develop and test the idea that public appreciation for authentic lowbrow culture affords an effective way for certain elites to address feelings of authenticity-insecurity arising from “high status denigration” (Hahl and Zuckerman 2014). This argument, which builds on recent sociological research on the “search for authenticity” (e.g., Grazian 2005) and on Bourdieu’s (1993) notion of artistic “disinterestedness,” is validated through experiments with U.S. subjects in the context of “outsider” art (Fine 2004). The first study demonstrates that preference for lowbrow culture perceived to be authentic is higher when individuals feel insecure in their authenticity because they attained status in a context where extrinsic incentives are salient. The second study demonstrates that audiences perceive the members of erstwhile denigrated high-status categories to be more authentic if they consume lowbrow culture, but only if the cultural producer is perceived as authentic. We conclude by noting how this “authen...
TL;DR: Within seemingly weak states, exceptionally effective subunits lie hidden as discussed by the authors, and these highperforming niches exhibit organizational characteristics distinct from poor-performing peer organizations, but they are difficult to find.
Abstract: Within seemingly weak states, exceptionally effective subunits lie hidden. These high-performing niches exhibit organizational characteristics distinct from poor-performing peer organizations, but ...
TL;DR: In this article, parents play important roles in their children's lives, and parental involvement in elementary school in particular is meaningful for a range of child outcomes, given the increasing number of schoo...
Abstract: Parents play important roles in their children’s lives, and parental involvement in elementary school in particular is meaningful for a range of child outcomes. Given the increasing number of schoo...
TL;DR: Context effects, where a characteristic of an upper-level unit or cluster affects outcomes and relationships at a lower level (e.g., that of the individual), are a primary object.
Abstract: Context effects, where a characteristic of an upper-level unit or cluster (e.g., a country) affects outcomes and relationships at a lower level (e.g., that of the individual), are a primary object ...
TL;DR: In this paper, public opinion signals affect political representatives' opinion formation, and they have only limited knowledge about this essential representative process, but they have been shown to affect the formation of opinions.
Abstract: How do public opinion signals affect political representatives’ opinion formation? To date, we have only limited knowledge about this essential representative process. In this article, we theorize ...
TL;DR: The authors argue that rational and emotional styles of communicati cation can stimulate public conversation about social problems by engaging in rational debate, or by appealing to emotions, and argue that emotional and rational styles of communication are complementary.
Abstract: Do advocacy organizations stimulate public conversation about social problems by engaging in rational debate, or by appealing to emotions? We argue that rational and emotional styles of communicati...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reimagine poverty governance as a labor process, and suggest that the state manages the poor through a set of rules and regulations, based on theories of bureaucratic fields and street-level bureaucracies.
Abstract: This article reimagines poverty governance as a labor process. Extending theories of bureaucratic fields and street-level bureaucracies, the proposed model suggests that the state manages the poor ...
TL;DR: This article found that mothers receive lower wages than childless women across industrial countries and that the extent of mothers' wage disadvantage is not univocal, but not unquantifiable, compared to women who are childless.
Abstract: Mothers are shown to receive lower wages than childless women across industrial countries. Although research on mothers’ wage disadvantage has noted that the extent of this disadvantage is not univ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that licensure, instead of increasing wages, creates a set of institutional mechanisms that enhance entry into the occupation, particularly for historically disadvantaged groups, while simultaneously stagnating quality.
Abstract: During the past few decades, licensure, a state-enforced mechanism for regulating occupational entry, quickly became the most prevalent form of occupational closure. Broad consensus among researchers holds that licensure creates wage premiums by establishing economic monopolies. This article demonstrates that, contrary to established wisdom, licensure does not limit competition, nor does it increase wages. Results are based on a new occupational dataset, covering 30 years, that exploits interstate variability in licensure across the 300 census-identified occupations. I argue that licensure, instead of increasing wages, creates a set of institutional mechanisms that enhance entry into the occupation, particularly for historically disadvantaged groups, while simultaneously stagnating quality.
TL;DR: The molecularization of race thesis suggests geneticists are gaining greater authority to define human populations and differences, and they are doing so by increasingly defining them in terms of U... as mentioned in this paper,.
Abstract: The molecularization of race thesis suggests geneticists are gaining greater authority to define human populations and differences, and they are doing so by increasingly defining them in terms of U...
TL;DR: This analysis reveals new insights into how cultural understandings—and the various ways people respond to and enforce them—contribute to the demographic patterns the authors observe using survey data.
Abstract: How can cultural understandings simultaneously diverge from and contribute to aggregate patterns of action? On one hand, shared cognitive associations guide people’s everyday actions, and these act...
TL;DR: Evidence is presented of an increasing trend in intragenerational mobility in the United States from 1969 to 2011 and how increasing variability in occupational transitions within careers may counteract or mask trends in intergenerational mobility, across occupations and across more broadly construed social classes.
Abstract: Despite the theoretical importance of intragenerational mobility and its connection to intergenerational mobility, no study since the 1970s has documented trends in intragenerational occupational m ...