scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question

Showing papers in "Contemporary Sociology in 2013"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This chapter discusses social networks general psychology in terms of behavior opalfs social networks theory methods and applications soci 398 multimedia systems standards and networks signal islam as a web?
Abstract: understanding social networks theories concepts and findings understanding social networks theories concepts and understanding social networks theories concepts and findings understanding social networks theories concepts and free download understanding social networks: theories understanding social networks understanding social networks free download understanding theories and concepts in select ebook for download understanding social networks understanding social networks: theories, concepts, and topics in social network analysis stanford university class syllabus spring 2015 home: 252-258-4869 social network analysis (sna) abc signup login social network analysis in cultural anthropology ang5420 social network analysis icpsr sociology 150: social networks and the value of diversity research in education mcmillan imotec network analysis: a first course icpsr community health 188-15 social networks tufts university university of edinburgh graduate school of social and social network analysis ann mccranie 70/73-449: social, economic, and information networks library catalog department of political science an overview of social networks and economic applications answer key to pearson anatomy physiology hsandc soci 326 spring, 2016 classroom: ell 061 social networks general psychology in terms of behavior opalfs social networks theory methods and applications soci 398 multimedia systems standards and networks signal islam as a web? analyzing networks in muslim societies understanding and managing stakeholder networks bountiful blessings homegrown is where the heart flavor book of pasta foserv pat o nine tales and one over louduk the microsoft roadmap for enterprise social lightman v maryland engnr twentieth century collection eight extraordinary one act this jazz man askand adalet kureshi saflarynda khatire kitaby askand gingers first kiss boyfriend club 1 wlets artful creation kleid applied linear statistical models instructors solutions manual understanding interaction search behavior in professional social network analysis rutgers university

306 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Philip S. Gorski1
TL;DR: Critical realism (CR) is a philosophical system developed by the Indo-British philosopher, Roy Bhaskar, in collaboration with a number of British social theorists, including Margaret Archer, Mervyn Hartwig, Tony Lawson, Alan Norrie, and Andrew Sayer.
Abstract: Critical realism (CR) is a philosophical system developed by the Indo-British philosopher, Roy Bhaskar, in collaboration with a number of British social theorists, including Margaret Archer, Mervyn Hartwig, Tony Lawson, Alan Norrie, and Andrew Sayer. It has a journal, a book series, an association, an annual meeting and, in short, all the usual trappings of an intellectual movement. The movement is centered in the UK A Realist Theory of Science, by Roy Bhaskar. London, UK; Verso, 1975. 258pp.

204 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Erin A. Cech1
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the contours of the economics of science, paying particular attention to the costs of research as they relate to grants, equipment, faculty salaries, and the research and development workforce, as well as the "incentives" for both researchers and research-intensive universities.
Abstract: What does money have to do with science? Plenty more than lab gadgets and grants, it turns out. Paula Stephan’s book How Economics Shapes Science examines how economics informs the structure of techno-scientific inquiry, and in turn, how basic research impacts the U.S. economy. Her book traces the contours of the economics of science, paying particular attention to the costs of research as they relate to grants, equipment, faculty salaries, and the research and development (R&D) workforce, as well as the ‘‘incentives’’ for both researchers (their pay, promotion, and non-monetary rewards) and research-intensive universities. Given that the United States spends $55 billion a year on R&D (about $170 per citizen), Stephan’s underlying theoretical question is, are research funds from federal grants, internal university funding, and industry support allocated effectively? She speculates that the United States has not yet reached the point of diminishing returns on R&D investment and so should invest at higher rates and in a more diverse set of research ventures. How Economics Shapes Science is lush with descriptive information about historical trends in the employment of research personnel, federal grant allocation patterns, university-level practices of technology transfer and patenting, and the economics of lab equipment and space. The author herself notes the primarily descriptive nature of this work. As such, the book is an excellent primer on the economic aspects of natural and life sciences, as well as on the institutional structures of research more broadly. Stephan’s compilation of statistical trends on the financial dimensions of R&D—both from her own analysis and those of others—is the chief contribution of this book. The book’s other success is the provocative issues it raises about the ubiquitous role of money in the techno-science research enterprise. First, Stephan illustrates that the funding structure matters a great deal to the dayto-day production of science (e.g., whether male or female mice are used, whether postdoctoral researchers or graduate students are hired) and the pace of publication. The current funding environment in the United States, she argues, also leads researchers to avoid risky, uncertain research questions in favor of incremental ‘‘sure bets.’’ This is particularly characteristic of researchers funded by soft money. Furthermore, Stephan asks whether the increased opportunities for faculty to earn money through start-up companies, consulting, and patenting influence the sorts of research puzzles they pursue and how they disseminate findings. She illustrates that monetization is tightly linked with industry-driven questions, and faculty who engage with such questions are more likely than their peers to face restrictive publication arrangements or intellectual property protections. Stephan also raises novel concerns over the monopolies that research equipment manufacturers have over equipment markets, such as Illumina’s two-thirds share of the gene sequencer market. Finally, Stephan seriously examines the role of international populations in U.S. R&D—a role that the popular media often construes as an omen that the United States is losing its competitive edge in science and engineering. Over 60 percent of postdoctoral researchers in the United States are temporary residents and 48 percent of science and engineering PhDs from U.S. institutions are awarded to foreign-born students. Examining historical data on education and employment, however, Stephan concludes there is no evidence that foreign students displace U.S. citizens in PhD programs, postdocs, or tenure-track faculty positions. Rather, foreignborn scientists and engineers, as in many other industries, make up the reserve workforce required to navigate the fits and starts of federal research funding. These insights, while useful, are often interwoven with strong generalizations and misguided assumptions. In Chapter One, Stephan argues that government-funded research is ‘‘highly functional’’ because it produces a ‘‘public good’’ of scientific 424 Reviews

193 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
Rachelle J. Brunn1
TL;DR: The Cultural Wealth of Nations as mentioned in this paper explores the inseparability of economic and cultural domains and more specifically, the creation of economic value through symbolic representations, ritual, and narrative, and the social actors best positioned to recoup the resulting profits, difficulties encountered in attempts to turn culture to economic ends, and tactics used to surmount them.
Abstract: Alluding by its title to Adam Smith, The Cultural Wealth of Nations contributes to a field of cultural economics pioneered by scholars such as Viviana Zelizer, that explores the inseparability of economic and cultural domains and more specifically, the creation of economic value through symbolic representations, ritual, and narrative. The editors compiled a number of case studies that illumine the manner in which cultural resources (cultural ‘‘heritage,’’ narratives about artifacts and places, images shaping the perception of products and peoples) are transmuted into economic wealth. The book examines historical processes, institutions, and agents that have effected such transformations, the social actors best positioned to recoup the resulting profits, difficulties encountered in attempts to turn culture to economic ends, and tactics used to surmount them. The case studies, almost all of which usefully cross-reference one another, stress a common theme: nations, ethnic groups, and diverse economic actors may be advantaged or disadvantaged in efforts to marshal cultural resources to create economic value through ‘‘heritage’’ tourism, the ‘‘branding’’ of nations, peoples, and commodities, and the management of consumer perceptions of production processes. Several common theoretical perspectives on the transmutation of cultural resources into economic wealth underlie the specific subjects examined by each of the papers. One is that there are asymmetries and inequalities, whether between nations, ethnic and occupational groups, or producers of any marketed commodity, in the power to define cultural values and turn them to economic use. A paper on the history of heritage conservation and on the designation of UNESCO World Heritage sites offers a detailed account of the specific political history, as well as the institutionalized professional power and ethos that resulted in a clustering of designated heritage sites in wealthy nations. These nations are then better positioned than others to recoup the economic value to be culled from the exploitation of heritage sites for tourist and other commercial purposes. A transnational mobilization of conservation professionals, embedded in universities, scholarly disciplines, and cultural bureaucracies has resulted in the institutionalization of rules favoring ‘‘cultural heritage’’ production in some countries more than in others. Adopting a ‘‘global value chain perspective,’’ some papers demonstrate that in a long chain of production and marketing, in which goods are endowed with symbolic value through branding, design, and narratives targeting particular groups of consumers, the creators of added cultural value often recoup most of the economic value of the final product—for example, companies in the United Kingdom responsible for the branding of South African wine, or middlemen in Thailand selling silk cloth on the internet. Erving Goffman’s work on impression management, long turned to good use by scholars in the sociology of institutions, occupations, and tourism, is explicitly adopted here as a helpful perspective in the study of cultural economy. What are the options for a country heavily dependent upon international tourism whose image as an attractive destination is spoiled by war and widely circulated images of atrocities? Will it turn the death camps and killing fields into historical ‘‘attractions’’? Or will it attempt to erase all signs recalling its stigmatizing history, rebranding the nation as identical to that of other countries whose imagery and histories it hijacks as its own? One paper in this volume, analyzing Croatia’s tactics for managing a discreditable national identity in the interests of resuscitating its tourist industry, adopts Goffman’s theory of stigma, suggesting

141 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Judith Lorber1
TL;DR: In Sex Cells, Rene Almeling describes in detail the market in what are euphemistically called donated eggs and sperm, and found gender differences not only in pay, but in the framing of the donation as a ‘‘gift’’ or a‘job’, in the market for gametes.
Abstract: In Sex Cells, Rene Almeling describes in detail the market in what are euphemistically called donated eggs and sperm. She found gender differences not only in pay, but in the framing of the donation as a ‘‘gift’’ or a ‘‘job.’’ In the market for gametes, eggs are more highly valued than sperm; egg donation is considered a gift of life, while sperm donors are construed as doing a job for which they are paid. To Almeling, the frame is a gendered stereotype of women as ‘‘selfless, caring, and focused on relationships and family’’ (p. 131); they cannot be seen as selling babies, so their eggs are a ‘‘gift.’’ For sperm donors, the masculine oxymoron was in the juxtaposition of a pleasurable experience (masturbation) with a sometimes alienating job. Yet while sperm donors call themselves fathers and connect to the children born of their sperm, negating the female gestator and social parents, egg donors ‘‘are adamant that they are not mothers’’—the recipients are the mothers (p. 20). Almeling’s extensive, in-depth ethnographic research covers the economic, cultural, and structural organization of six donor programs through interviews with 45 staff members, observations of daily practices, and analysis of more than a thousand records. She also conducted 60to 90-minute interviews with 19 egg donors and 20 sperm donors ranging in age from 19 to 46. Sperm donation went from a medical service for infertile heterosexual married couples in the 1950s using fresh sperm, to a commercial enterprise where frozen sperm is sold increasingly to single women and lesbians. The AIDs epidemic in the 1980s increased the market for sperm that could be frozen and the donors tested for several months before it was used. With new in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques for male infertility, there are fewer heterosexual married couples seeking sperm donation, so the target buyers increasingly are single women and lesbians. The large commercial sperm banks sell donors with profiles and ID releases to meet these clients’ demands. The egg donation programs that began in IVF clinics in the 1980s originally were a search for altruistic ‘‘earth mothers.’’ Psychological evaluations were used on the premise that altruism predicted honesty about medical information and compliance with the regimen of hormonal injections. Anonymity was discouraged; some recipients even recruited their own donors. The proliferation of IVF clinics and new techniques has increased the demand for donated eggs for women whose uteruses are intact but whose eggs are defective. There are many applications to be egg donors, but there is a high attrition rate. The ideal egg donor, according to agency staffs, is either a physically attractive college graduate or a caring mother. The ideal sperm donor is a tall college student with consistently high sperm counts. Agencies also look for ethnic, racial, and religious diversity, and may pay these donors more. The extensive testing that potential egg donors go through and the attrition rate reduce actual donors to 20 percent of the original pool. Sperm banks reject more than 90 percent of applicants, most on the basis of their sperm count. In the course of profiling, the actual sex cells (sperm, eggs) that are being sold turn into gendered people, even though few of the donors’ personality characteristics are inheritable. Egg donation involves self-administered injections of fertility drugs to stimulate egg production and surgical egg retrieval. In addition, the donors are monitored with blood tests and ultrasounds. They may have to travel to the recipient’s city, but sometimes that is a bonus vacation. Side effects can be severe or at the least, discomforting—hyperstimulation, infection, bleeding, anesthetic complications, and pain—but donors prepare themselves with discussions with medical professionals and online or library research. The majority (80 percent) were willing to undergo at least one more cycle; many planned to donate several more times. The donors get paid thousands of dollars no matter how many eggs they produce, but they usually Reviews 379

130 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For example, the authors argues that because of the multiuse nature of most basic research and the long time lags between discovery and application, it is unlikely that any one individual, company, or industry would support a sufficient amount of basic research to advance innovation.
Abstract: tive to facilitate. ‘‘Because of the multiuse nature of most basic research as well as the long time lags between discovery and application, it is unlikely that any one individual, company, or industry would support a sufficient amount of basic research to advance innovation’’ (p. 8). But, calling the system ‘‘highly functional’’ tells us nothing about why research is structured in this way, and for whom this structure is more or less beneficial. Second, many of her arguments about researcher incentives hinge on assessments of the motivations of individual scientists and engineers that lack basis in empirical research. Assertions like ‘‘scientists are innately curious’’ (p. 17) or engineers patent for ‘‘intellectual challenge and advancement’’ (p. 50) while biomedical scientists patent to have an ‘‘impact on society’’ (p. 51) are mostly gleaned from anecdotal evidence, stories of famous scientists, or even colloquial references like Napoleon quotes and popular song lyrics. These anecdotes and colloquialisms make the book entertaining to read, but frustrating to learn from. Third, while Stephan refers to early work in Science and Technology Studies and attempts to situate her research in conversation with this literature, her book is decidedly not economics’ answer to the sociology of scientific knowledge. Disappointingly, Stephan’s policy suggestions lack the same critical teeth as the provocative questions she raises about the techno-scientific research enterprise. The reason for the weakness of her policy suggestions may rest in her stated belief that, fundamentally, basic research drives economic growth. For example, even though she highlights the astronomical profits that private corporations (especially pharmaceutical and oil companies) make from the ‘‘public good’’ knowledge produced by government-funded research, she is more concerned with how universities can better serve the profit-making endeavors of corporations than with why corporations are not contributing more to funding university research. Stephan does offer a few insightful solutions, such as making academic placement rates more accessible to potential graduate students and evening out the stop-andgo character of federal research funding. Any changes that would radically alter the structure of this ‘‘functional’’ system, however, seem off the table. On balance, Stephan exercises refreshing restraint in extrapolating from the data and literature she compiles. If the reader is willing to wade through truisms about scientists and rosy discussions of economic growth, there is much to be learned from this book.

129 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined to what extent working-class Chinese immigrants' class-related anger and complaints were directed against their co-ethnic employers and found that the majority of Chinese immigrants in the city of Bridgeport work for Chinese-owned businesses.
Abstract: Bridgeport work for Chinese-owned businesses (pp. 120–121). She even says that ‘‘the labor of undocumented immigrants in the city helps provide a comfortable life for the model minority, middle-class Chinese Americans in the suburbs’’ (p. 120). Surprisingly, the author has not examined to what extent working-class Chinese immigrants’ class-related anger and complaints were directed against their co-ethnic employers.

126 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Cultural Wealth of Nations as mentioned in this paper explores the inseparability of economic and cultural domains and more specifically, the creation of economic value through symbolic representations, ritual, and narrative, and the social actors best positioned to recoup the resulting profits, difficulties encountered in attempts to turn culture to economic ends, and tactics used to surmount them.
Abstract: Alluding by its title to Adam Smith, The Cultural Wealth of Nations contributes to a field of cultural economics pioneered by scholars such as Viviana Zelizer, that explores the inseparability of economic and cultural domains and more specifically, the creation of economic value through symbolic representations, ritual, and narrative. The editors compiled a number of case studies that illumine the manner in which cultural resources (cultural ‘‘heritage,’’ narratives about artifacts and places, images shaping the perception of products and peoples) are transmuted into economic wealth. The book examines historical processes, institutions, and agents that have effected such transformations, the social actors best positioned to recoup the resulting profits, difficulties encountered in attempts to turn culture to economic ends, and tactics used to surmount them. The case studies, almost all of which usefully cross-reference one another, stress a common theme: nations, ethnic groups, and diverse economic actors may be advantaged or disadvantaged in efforts to marshal cultural resources to create economic value through ‘‘heritage’’ tourism, the ‘‘branding’’ of nations, peoples, and commodities, and the management of consumer perceptions of production processes. Several common theoretical perspectives on the transmutation of cultural resources into economic wealth underlie the specific subjects examined by each of the papers. One is that there are asymmetries and inequalities, whether between nations, ethnic and occupational groups, or producers of any marketed commodity, in the power to define cultural values and turn them to economic use. A paper on the history of heritage conservation and on the designation of UNESCO World Heritage sites offers a detailed account of the specific political history, as well as the institutionalized professional power and ethos that resulted in a clustering of designated heritage sites in wealthy nations. These nations are then better positioned than others to recoup the economic value to be culled from the exploitation of heritage sites for tourist and other commercial purposes. A transnational mobilization of conservation professionals, embedded in universities, scholarly disciplines, and cultural bureaucracies has resulted in the institutionalization of rules favoring ‘‘cultural heritage’’ production in some countries more than in others. Adopting a ‘‘global value chain perspective,’’ some papers demonstrate that in a long chain of production and marketing, in which goods are endowed with symbolic value through branding, design, and narratives targeting particular groups of consumers, the creators of added cultural value often recoup most of the economic value of the final product—for example, companies in the United Kingdom responsible for the branding of South African wine, or middlemen in Thailand selling silk cloth on the internet. Erving Goffman’s work on impression management, long turned to good use by scholars in the sociology of institutions, occupations, and tourism, is explicitly adopted here as a helpful perspective in the study of cultural economy. What are the options for a country heavily dependent upon international tourism whose image as an attractive destination is spoiled by war and widely circulated images of atrocities? Will it turn the death camps and killing fields into historical ‘‘attractions’’? Or will it attempt to erase all signs recalling its stigmatizing history, rebranding the nation as identical to that of other countries whose imagery and histories it hijacks as its own? One paper in this volume, analyzing Croatia’s tactics for managing a discreditable national identity in the interests of resuscitating its tourist industry, adopts Goffman’s theory of stigma, suggesting

84 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Everyday World as Problematic (1987) is a sociological study of the world in which women are located physically and socially as mentioned in this paper, and it addresses the "puzzles" that are "latent" in that experienced world.
Abstract: In The Everyday World as Problematic (1987), Dorothy Smith outlined a sociology that would find its questions in everyday life—that is, ‘‘the world in which we are located physically and socially’’ (p. 89). Her sociology would address the ‘‘puzzles’’ that are ‘‘latent’’ in that experienced world (p. 91). Such puzzles included questions that feminists of the era had begun to ask (e.g., how do women’s troubles become ‘sickness’? how is their work obscured and devalued?). But Smith’s discussion made clear at the outset that the ‘‘sociology for women’’ she proposed could be a sociology for people, more generally, and that exploring the problematics of any group’s social standpoint would begin with narration. She presented the following example: ‘‘People who have lived for years in communities in the interior of British Columbia, in telling their lives and experiences, show us a typical layering sequence of change—the opening of the mine, the coming of the railroad, the market gardening enterprises established by local Indians to feed the miners, the closing of the mine, the decline of market gardening, the decline of the railroad, the dependence of the native people on the Indian Affairs Department, the building of a hydro plant, a brief period of employment for the native people while it is being built, the refurbishing of the railroad, the development of a small tourist trade, the transformation of the settlement into a retirement village for hydro engineers’’ (p. 94). People know and can tell of these changes, but ‘‘the logic of transformation is elsewhere’’ (p. 94)—that is, those living through the changes do not so easily see what drives them. As one teacher put it, in an institutional ethnographic study of curricular reform, ‘‘these things just happen’’ (Jackson 1995). Institutional ethnography was designed to open and explicate the extended social processes behind such changes. In the 1970s and 1980s, Smith and many other feminist scholars were exploring a distinctively gendered organization of work, in which women supported men, in varying racial and class locations, through Social Working: An Ethnography of FrontLine Practice, by Gerald A.J. de Montigny. Toronto, CAN: University of Toronto Press, 1995. 276pp. NPL. ISBN: 9780802077269.


Journal ArticleDOI
Nitsan Chorev1
TL;DR: The Cultural Wealth of Nations as discussed by the authors explores the inseparability of economic and cultural domains and more specifically, the creation of economic value through symbolic representations, ritual, and narrative, and the social actors best positioned to recoup the resulting profits, difficulties encountered in attempts to turn culture to economic ends, and tactics used to surmount them.
Abstract: Alluding by its title to Adam Smith, The Cultural Wealth of Nations contributes to a field of cultural economics pioneered by scholars such as Viviana Zelizer, that explores the inseparability of economic and cultural domains and more specifically, the creation of economic value through symbolic representations, ritual, and narrative. The editors compiled a number of case studies that illumine the manner in which cultural resources (cultural ‘‘heritage,’’ narratives about artifacts and places, images shaping the perception of products and peoples) are transmuted into economic wealth. The book examines historical processes, institutions, and agents that have effected such transformations, the social actors best positioned to recoup the resulting profits, difficulties encountered in attempts to turn culture to economic ends, and tactics used to surmount them. The case studies, almost all of which usefully cross-reference one another, stress a common theme: nations, ethnic groups, and diverse economic actors may be advantaged or disadvantaged in efforts to marshal cultural resources to create economic value through ‘‘heritage’’ tourism, the ‘‘branding’’ of nations, peoples, and commodities, and the management of consumer perceptions of production processes. Several common theoretical perspectives on the transmutation of cultural resources into economic wealth underlie the specific subjects examined by each of the papers. One is that there are asymmetries and inequalities, whether between nations, ethnic and occupational groups, or producers of any marketed commodity, in the power to define cultural values and turn them to economic use. A paper on the history of heritage conservation and on the designation of UNESCO World Heritage sites offers a detailed account of the specific political history, as well as the institutionalized professional power and ethos that resulted in a clustering of designated heritage sites in wealthy nations. These nations are then better positioned than others to recoup the economic value to be culled from the exploitation of heritage sites for tourist and other commercial purposes. A transnational mobilization of conservation professionals, embedded in universities, scholarly disciplines, and cultural bureaucracies has resulted in the institutionalization of rules favoring ‘‘cultural heritage’’ production in some countries more than in others. Adopting a ‘‘global value chain perspective,’’ some papers demonstrate that in a long chain of production and marketing, in which goods are endowed with symbolic value through branding, design, and narratives targeting particular groups of consumers, the creators of added cultural value often recoup most of the economic value of the final product—for example, companies in the United Kingdom responsible for the branding of South African wine, or middlemen in Thailand selling silk cloth on the internet. Erving Goffman’s work on impression management, long turned to good use by scholars in the sociology of institutions, occupations, and tourism, is explicitly adopted here as a helpful perspective in the study of cultural economy. What are the options for a country heavily dependent upon international tourism whose image as an attractive destination is spoiled by war and widely circulated images of atrocities? Will it turn the death camps and killing fields into historical ‘‘attractions’’? Or will it attempt to erase all signs recalling its stigmatizing history, rebranding the nation as identical to that of other countries whose imagery and histories it hijacks as its own? One paper in this volume, analyzing Croatia’s tactics for managing a discreditable national identity in the interests of resuscitating its tourist industry, adopts Goffman’s theory of stigma, suggesting

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Reed as mentioned in this paper argues that people's motives, both their goals and their desires are deeply shaped by landscapes of meaning, and the same is true, he argues, for mechanisms, which he takes to be the most successful contender for capturing the intersubjective force of social life.
Abstract: ces, and through a more reflexive sorting of emic and etic categories, it also enters into a strangely ambiguous if not ambivalent relationship with the material and cultural dynamics of social life. At worst, interpretivism becomes a sort of aesthetic quietism that satisfies itself with contemplation. And yet, the world still needs changing as much as reinterpreting. What is needed then, is a renewed hermeneutic social science which can pick up some of the advantages offered by the other two registers of theorizing. The bridge to realism is for Reed easy enough to build once it is understood: that peoples’ motives, both their goals and their desires are deeply shaped by landscapes of meaning. The same is true, he argues, for mechanisms, which he takes to be the most successful contender for capturing the intersubjective force of social life. But what about the normative? Here Reed points to the critical potential and relationship-building capacities that ongoing, never-ending efforts at understanding others can generate. Unfortunately, this is where the book ends. It may sound ungrateful given the enormous work Reed has accomplished in this short book, but I would have liked to hear more about how exactly he imagines that ‘‘landscapes of meaning’’ are assembled from heterogeneous bits and pieces, while exhibiting at least over parts of the terrain some practical coherence for interacting communities of interpretation; and then what is it that people do with the rift-valleys of their landscapes? In general, landscapes of meaning seems almost too pretty a metaphor to be analytically incisive. And then there are the really tough questions about how meanings shape desires and mechanisms. But of course there must always be room for another book, one that I am certainly looking forward to. Reed’s text is not only written in a refreshingly untechnical, essayistic language but it is also dotted with the thoroughly sympathetic discussion of iconic contributions as exemplars of various registers. Both of these characteristics, along with its brevity, make it an ideal text to introduce meta-theoretical discussions in the undergraduate and beginning graduate classroom. Complexity, Institutions and Public Policy: Agile Decision-Making in a Turbulent World, by Graham Room. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012. 383pp. $50.00 paper. ISBN: 9780857932655.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Cultural Wealth of Nations as mentioned in this paper explores the inseparability of economic and cultural domains and more specifically, the creation of economic value through symbolic representations, ritual, and narrative, and the social actors best positioned to recoup the resulting profits, difficulties encountered in attempts to turn culture to economic ends, and tactics used to surmount them.
Abstract: Alluding by its title to Adam Smith, The Cultural Wealth of Nations contributes to a field of cultural economics pioneered by scholars such as Viviana Zelizer, that explores the inseparability of economic and cultural domains and more specifically, the creation of economic value through symbolic representations, ritual, and narrative. The editors compiled a number of case studies that illumine the manner in which cultural resources (cultural ‘‘heritage,’’ narratives about artifacts and places, images shaping the perception of products and peoples) are transmuted into economic wealth. The book examines historical processes, institutions, and agents that have effected such transformations, the social actors best positioned to recoup the resulting profits, difficulties encountered in attempts to turn culture to economic ends, and tactics used to surmount them. The case studies, almost all of which usefully cross-reference one another, stress a common theme: nations, ethnic groups, and diverse economic actors may be advantaged or disadvantaged in efforts to marshal cultural resources to create economic value through ‘‘heritage’’ tourism, the ‘‘branding’’ of nations, peoples, and commodities, and the management of consumer perceptions of production processes. Several common theoretical perspectives on the transmutation of cultural resources into economic wealth underlie the specific subjects examined by each of the papers. One is that there are asymmetries and inequalities, whether between nations, ethnic and occupational groups, or producers of any marketed commodity, in the power to define cultural values and turn them to economic use. A paper on the history of heritage conservation and on the designation of UNESCO World Heritage sites offers a detailed account of the specific political history, as well as the institutionalized professional power and ethos that resulted in a clustering of designated heritage sites in wealthy nations. These nations are then better positioned than others to recoup the economic value to be culled from the exploitation of heritage sites for tourist and other commercial purposes. A transnational mobilization of conservation professionals, embedded in universities, scholarly disciplines, and cultural bureaucracies has resulted in the institutionalization of rules favoring ‘‘cultural heritage’’ production in some countries more than in others. Adopting a ‘‘global value chain perspective,’’ some papers demonstrate that in a long chain of production and marketing, in which goods are endowed with symbolic value through branding, design, and narratives targeting particular groups of consumers, the creators of added cultural value often recoup most of the economic value of the final product—for example, companies in the United Kingdom responsible for the branding of South African wine, or middlemen in Thailand selling silk cloth on the internet. Erving Goffman’s work on impression management, long turned to good use by scholars in the sociology of institutions, occupations, and tourism, is explicitly adopted here as a helpful perspective in the study of cultural economy. What are the options for a country heavily dependent upon international tourism whose image as an attractive destination is spoiled by war and widely circulated images of atrocities? Will it turn the death camps and killing fields into historical ‘‘attractions’’? Or will it attempt to erase all signs recalling its stigmatizing history, rebranding the nation as identical to that of other countries whose imagery and histories it hijacks as its own? One paper in this volume, analyzing Croatia’s tactics for managing a discreditable national identity in the interests of resuscitating its tourist industry, adopts Goffman’s theory of stigma, suggesting

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Cultural Wealth of Nations as mentioned in this paper explores the inseparability of economic and cultural domains and more specifically, the creation of economic value through symbolic representations, ritual, and narrative, and the social actors best positioned to recoup the resulting profits, difficulties encountered in attempts to turn culture to economic ends, and tactics used to surmount them.
Abstract: Alluding by its title to Adam Smith, The Cultural Wealth of Nations contributes to a field of cultural economics pioneered by scholars such as Viviana Zelizer, that explores the inseparability of economic and cultural domains and more specifically, the creation of economic value through symbolic representations, ritual, and narrative. The editors compiled a number of case studies that illumine the manner in which cultural resources (cultural ‘‘heritage,’’ narratives about artifacts and places, images shaping the perception of products and peoples) are transmuted into economic wealth. The book examines historical processes, institutions, and agents that have effected such transformations, the social actors best positioned to recoup the resulting profits, difficulties encountered in attempts to turn culture to economic ends, and tactics used to surmount them. The case studies, almost all of which usefully cross-reference one another, stress a common theme: nations, ethnic groups, and diverse economic actors may be advantaged or disadvantaged in efforts to marshal cultural resources to create economic value through ‘‘heritage’’ tourism, the ‘‘branding’’ of nations, peoples, and commodities, and the management of consumer perceptions of production processes. Several common theoretical perspectives on the transmutation of cultural resources into economic wealth underlie the specific subjects examined by each of the papers. One is that there are asymmetries and inequalities, whether between nations, ethnic and occupational groups, or producers of any marketed commodity, in the power to define cultural values and turn them to economic use. A paper on the history of heritage conservation and on the designation of UNESCO World Heritage sites offers a detailed account of the specific political history, as well as the institutionalized professional power and ethos that resulted in a clustering of designated heritage sites in wealthy nations. These nations are then better positioned than others to recoup the economic value to be culled from the exploitation of heritage sites for tourist and other commercial purposes. A transnational mobilization of conservation professionals, embedded in universities, scholarly disciplines, and cultural bureaucracies has resulted in the institutionalization of rules favoring ‘‘cultural heritage’’ production in some countries more than in others. Adopting a ‘‘global value chain perspective,’’ some papers demonstrate that in a long chain of production and marketing, in which goods are endowed with symbolic value through branding, design, and narratives targeting particular groups of consumers, the creators of added cultural value often recoup most of the economic value of the final product—for example, companies in the United Kingdom responsible for the branding of South African wine, or middlemen in Thailand selling silk cloth on the internet. Erving Goffman’s work on impression management, long turned to good use by scholars in the sociology of institutions, occupations, and tourism, is explicitly adopted here as a helpful perspective in the study of cultural economy. What are the options for a country heavily dependent upon international tourism whose image as an attractive destination is spoiled by war and widely circulated images of atrocities? Will it turn the death camps and killing fields into historical ‘‘attractions’’? Or will it attempt to erase all signs recalling its stigmatizing history, rebranding the nation as identical to that of other countries whose imagery and histories it hijacks as its own? One paper in this volume, analyzing Croatia’s tactics for managing a discreditable national identity in the interests of resuscitating its tourist industry, adopts Goffman’s theory of stigma, suggesting



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For instance, the authors argues that soccer fans feel about the (often hostile) take-over of their clubs, the tensions around place, personhood, and identity that usually coalesce in various forms of fan ‘resistance,’ and the capacity of the same fans (yes, those yobs) to articulate a sophisticated understanding of the global currents in which their clubs are enfolded.
Abstract: Giulianotti and Roland Robertson’s Globalization and Sport [2007] is a pioneering effort), or about soccer and transnational networks for that matter, his privileging of fan angst and disillusionment, and his discussions of transnational fandom and supporter mobilization are enough to validate the book’s claim to originality. The emergence of soccer as a global ‘‘product’’ and the role of television money in its circulation, eroticization, and consumption have become an analytic staple. What tends to be missing from most accounts is how ‘‘traditional’’ soccer fans feel about the (often hostile) take-over of their clubs, the tensions around place, personhood, and identity that usually coalesce in various forms of fan ‘‘resistance,’’ and the capacity of the same fans (yes, those yobs) to articulate a sophisticated understanding of the global currents in which their clubs are enfolded. In aggregating and valorizing these neglected strands, Millward makes a convincing case for treating them as subjects deserving of the most serious sociological scrutiny. But I am not completely pacified. Yes, Millward takes soccer fans seriously, and takes us as close as possible to the fire and clamor— not forgetting the humor—of the fierce debates taking place among fans in countless e-zines and blogs. But I wonder: does he go to games? Has he ever been to Old Trafford, that intimidating temple that Manchester United proudly calls home, for instance? Or the City of Manchester Stadium? Or Anfield? Because if he has, he is certainly not telling. The issue matters because it goes to the core of the first of my two critiques of this book, which is its methodological approach. Millward has clearly accumulated considerable data from virtual spaces and internet forums. But what about physical spaces? Regarding a subject such as the one under consideration, is it enough to visit and analyze fanzines and websites as he has, admittedly convincingly, done? What about the actual spaces in which fans congregate? Where are the joys and deliriums of fandom, the primordial roar that emits from the throats of soccer stadiums? Second, for a book that touts its focus on ‘‘the new media age’’ in its title, there is very little theorizing in the book about the new media. For the most part, knowledge of the typology and dimensions of the new media is simply assumed. None of this should be taken as a slight on an otherwise competently argued book on a subject of growing importance. As I sit in front of the television next Saturday morning, I will take comfort from the example of millions of fans analyzed here. I am not alone.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a group of sociologists have gathered a distinguished group of scholars who together make a strong case for sexual field theory as the first systematic theoretical innovation since queer theory in the sociology of sexuality.
Abstract: The rise of urbanization and mass communication and the decoupling of sexuality from reproduction and moral regulation have contributed to the late modern expansion of specialized erotic worlds catering to a variety of sexual tastes. Organized by appetites and dispositions related to race, ethnicity, class, gender, and age, these arenas of sexual exploration become sites of stratification and dominion wherein actors vie for partners, social significance, and esteem. These are what Adam Isaiah Green calls sexual fields, and to help us to navigate them, he offers a groundbreaking new framework. To build on the sexual fields framework, Green has gathered a distinguished group of scholars who together make a strong case for sexual field theory as the first systematic theoretical innovation since queer theory in the sociology of sexuality. Expanding on the work of Bourdieu, the contributors develop this distinctively sociological approach for analyzing collective sexual life, showing how these semiautonomous sites are where the sexual life of our society resides today. And by coupling field theory with the ethnographic and theoretical expertise of some of the most important scholars of sexual life at work today, Sexual Fields offers a game-changing approach that will revolutionize how sociologists will analyze and make sense of contemporary sexual life for years to come.


Journal ArticleDOI
Bob Russell1
TL;DR: In this article, the economic, political, and legal struggles of Filipinos in the United States are discussed, focusing on the economic and legal barriers that Filipinos confronted during the first three decades of the century.
Abstract: This book begins with the creation of the colony of the Philippines in 1898 and ends with national independence in 1946. However, the book does not center upon either; instead, it focuses on the economic, political, and legal struggles of Filipino immigrants in the United States. The book is organized chronologically, although there is some overlap of periods across chapters. The first chapter deals with the racial politics of empire and the establishment of the Philippines as a colony of the United States. This lays the groundwork for the analysis of the political economy of Filipino immigration (1900s–1920s) in the second chapter. The next chapter deals more specifically with social and legal barriers that Filipinos confronted during the first three decades of the century. Chapter Four is a study of violence directed against Filipinos in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Finally, last two chapters deal with the political negotiations for independence, the participation of Filipinos in the Second World War, and the consequences for immigrants in the United States. The colonization of the Philippines resulted in the creation of a new legal category: the U.S. national, that is, those persons owing allegiance to the United States because they were at the same time citizens of one of its colonies. However ‘‘nationals’’ were not full-fledged citizens of the United States, and this initially led to considerable confusion about their rights to entry and to work. This ambiguous political status set the stage for the immigration of Filipinos who came to work in agri-business, first in Hawaii and then to the western and southwestern states. Later, Filipinos would also find work in service and industrial sectors. The first generation of Filipino immigrants struggled for and soon (in 1906) attained the right, as U.S. nationals, to unlimited entry into the United States. The author skillfully shows how Filipinos were clearly agents, and not merely victims, in this process: they were active in both class struggles, to obtain better wages and conditions, and legal battles, to achieve right of entry into the United States. Even though they gained the right to unrestricted immigration, Filipinos confronted other legal barriers regarding interracial marriage, property rights, and naturalization as U.S. citizens. In addition, local governments also attempted to police the color line by passing laws enforcing social segregation. In general, the legal issues were complicated by two principal factors. First, the laws were not always created with Filipinos in mind and the existing racial categories did not easily apply. Indeed, part of the strategy of Filipinos was to argue that they were outside of the laws that were erected explicitly against Afro-Americans, Mexicans, and ‘‘Asiatics,’’ namely, Chinese and Japanese. Second, the interests of local ‘‘nativists’’ often conflicted with those in agribusiness or the federal government. On the one hand, the nativists sought to preserve white privilege, dominance, and the color line; they opposed Filipino immigration. On the other hand, agricultural enterprises were in favor of Filipino workers, although they also sought ways to divide and conquer them whenever workers organized and pressed for better working conditions. In addition, the federal government was obliged to concede some degree of legal and naturalization rights to Filipinos. In the international sphere, it was not good politics to simply exclude them as ‘‘aliens’’ in U.S. society. Especially interesting is the analysis of the diverse and often contradictory positions of the local nativists in towns, counties, and states, the economic interests of agribusiness in the region, and the laws and policies of the federal government. In addition, the full range of actions and strategies of Filipinos on different fronts is fully explained.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The UVA drama, played out on the neoliberal stage, had predictable external demands and equally predictable internal opposition as discussed by the authors, but the producers and disseminators of knowledge won, at least in the short run.
Abstract: The events of June 2012 at the University of Virginia—with the Board of Visitors removing and then re-instating President Terry Sullivan—can hardly be a better starting point for thinking about Neoliberalism and the Global Restructuring of Knowledge and Education. The UVA drama, played out on the neoliberal stage, had predictable external demands and equally predictable internal opposition. Perhaps the surprising part is that the producers and disseminators of knowledge won, at least in the short run. In the long run, there seems to be no way of escaping the brave new world of neoliberalism. However, Steven Ward predicts, as did Marx with respect to capitalism, that neoliberalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. Ward’s book provides a comprehensive description of neoliberal ideas and practices. He begins by taking the reader to the historical roots of neoliberalism and the relationship to its eighteenth and nineteenth century cousins. The first chapter also outlines the key tenets of neoliberalism and sets the stage for the discussion of ‘‘new public management (NPM)’’ in Chapter Two. In many ways, NPM provides the grease for the machinery of the neoliberal state: when the managed manage themselves and when professionals monitor and discipline themselves, the state can more easily fulfill its auditing and reporting role. After presenting the contours of the neoliberal landscape, Ward engages in an in-depth discussion of the neoliberalization of knowledge, which has affected not only who makes knowledge and how, but also what knowledge is. Chapters Three and Four contain discussions familiar to everyone in higher education, from the prominence of patents and grant funding, to the rise of the contingent workforce and the assault on the humanities. The book then expands the reach beyond the U.S. context by considering policies aimed at transforming educational institutions across different national contexts, from England and the EU, to Australia and New Zealand. The final chapter, which is theoretically most ambitious in its aim to link macro and micro, explores how the neoliberal project has altered the conception of citizens and the relationship between individuals and society. Ward writes in a very engaging style, which is no small accomplishment given the density of the material presented. The comprehensive overview of neoliberalism and its influence on many spheres of life make this book a perfect reading for sociology, education, and political science courses. One of the main strengths of the book is its breadth. Instead of focusing only on the economic sphere, Ward emphasizes the political and engages the social. Neoliberalism is an ‘‘economic, political and social system’’ that aims to ‘‘create an entirely new society and new social form where markets and minds would be increasingly aligned’’ (p. 10). This approach grasps the depth of the penetration of neoliberalism into not only public policies, but everyday operations of public institutions, and indeed our daily lives. The book also spans the local and the global, and adeptly moves between the two—understanding the broad contours of neoliberalism that shape activities across the globe while also being manifested differently in specific national contexts. A rich description of specific national policies, framed within a global neoliberal movement, provides new insights for both levels of analysis. The tensions in this book are symptomatic of other similar work and include questions about determinism and agency. Neoliberalism seems to be responsible for virtually all of the recent trends in our educational systems: from standardized tests and emphasis on science, to increasing numbers of both 880 Reviews

Journal ArticleDOI
Richard Reed1
TL;DR: In this article, Harms develops well his binary ideas about time, space, and how peasant migrants negotiate between different social systems, passing quickly over more broad sociological discussions about Hoc Mon's social history, Vietnamese national politics, and the place of HOC Mon in the modern world system, á la Wallerstein.
Abstract: approaches can be quite different. While Harms develops well his binary ideas about time, space, and how peasant migrants negotiate between different social systems, he passes quickly over more broad sociological discussions about Hoc Mon’s social history, Vietnamese national politics, and the place of Hoc Mon in the modern world system, á la Wallerstein. Also brief is the sociologically obligatory statistical description of the area, which is instead replaced with an emphasis on symbolic edginess and an implicit critique of modernist statistical measures. Missing were some tables and graphs of things like income growth, gender ratios, age structure, patterns of industrial production, family structure, and a statistical summary—while also appreciating that there are different ways to describe the social liminality on the edges of rapidly growing third world cities like Ho Chi Minh City. Perceptions of time and space are indeed important in understanding Hoc Mon, and Harms develops this point well. But as a crusty old sociologist, I still cannot help but wonder more about such traditional sociological variables.

Journal ArticleDOI
Angela Stroud1
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a collection of race, crime, and criminal justice data from nine countries in Latin America, including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Canada, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Abstract: ment. While some chapters provide compelling evidence, in others, claims seem out of proportion to the data they report. The chapters differ widely in the quality of the data relied upon to make claims. In large part this is simply a consequence of the fact that many countries do not collect racial or ethnic statistics on criminal offending and victimization. Canada, for instance, has an official ban on the collection of race-crime statistics. Thus, while chapters on the United States and Trinidad and Tobago are able to present official statistics, the chapter on Canada relies upon self-reports and other surveys, while that on Columbia reports data on a single municipality. Other chapters discuss the concentration of violence in particular communities (the Brazilian favela), particular incidents of violence against individuals (Mexico), the role of race in a particular institution (Argentina), or provide a general discussion of ideology (Cuba). Thus, while some chapters provide evidence that can be compared easily across countries, others are less useful for this purpose. The collection’s strength lies in the historical background each chapter provides. For instance, while many readers are aware of the concept of racial democracy in Brazilian society, fewer may be aware of the discourse present in Mexico represented by the slogan ‘‘todos somos mestizos’’ (we are all mestizo). This claim, that all Mexicans share a mix of Spanish and indigenous heritage, essentially leaves Afro-Mexicans out of the national discourse. Illuminating historical information, about the development of the concept of race and its intersections with class categories, is present in each of the chapters and provides an important foundational understanding of each country’s race relations and ideals. Thus, while this book has important limitations, it also represents a significant firststep in addressing an important but underresearched topic. Many chapters provide an interesting overview of the diverse historical role played by race and racism in the countries of study, while some chapters provide solid empirical evidence about race differences in criminal offending, victimization, and justice processing. A more uniform approach to a narrower topic, and chapters united by a stronger thesis would strengthen the collection, as would the availability of better data. Despite these limitations, the collection provides a useful guide for those interested in the research, data, and history of race, crime and criminal justice in the nine countries touched upon.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Osterman and Shulman as discussed by the authors make a smart and complex case that creating good jobs does not necessarily entail sacrificing other worthwhile goals such as low prices, a healthy economy, and global competitiveness, and when tradeoffs are necessary, the benefits ultimately outweigh the costs.
Abstract: Debates in which moral imperatives run up against finite economic resources and the pragmatics of policy-making are rarely productive. Each side arrives armed with studies and statistics to support their own position—this thing must be done at all costs; this thing costs too much to do; this thing cannot realistically be done—and each usually departs with those same beliefs intact. To move beyond this impasse requires careful analysis of the assumptions and evidence, in all their varied forms, each group brings to the table. With their book Good Jobs America, Paul Osterman and Beth Shulman hope to do just that for discussions around lowwage work. They make a smart and complex case that creating good jobs does not necessarily entail sacrificing other worthwhile goals such as low prices, a healthy economy, and global competitiveness, and that when tradeoffs are necessary, the benefits ultimately outweigh the costs. (Although Osterman and Shulman conceptualized the book together, Shulman unfortunately passed away before the writing began.) The book’s greatest contribution is its clear elucidation of the myths shaping most debates and policies around low-wage work (jobs paying below poverty wage or less than two-thirds of the median wage). Following an informative and wide-ranging first chapter on the state of low-wage work in America today, the authors spend Chapter Two debunking misconceptions around lowwage work: (1) low-wage jobs are temporary positions people move through as they progress up the career ladder; (2) most bad jobs disappear when the economy improves; (3) the low-wage labor market is populated by immigrants who push down wages; (4) better jobs lead to unmotivated workers who produce less; and (5) policies around lowwage work are ineffective if not detrimental. One by one, each contention is briefly disputed by an assortment of statistics, case studies, and international comparisons. For example, the authors note that the United States lags behind comparable countries in intergenerational mobility, and few adult low-wage workers ever escape into better-paid positions. Charts demonstrate that the percentage of low-wage positions remained relatively constant throughout the boom-and-bust 1990s, disproving the claim that a strong economy necessarily leads to better jobs. The link between immigration and lowwage work is challenged by evidence that increased immigration has not pushed down wages in any significant way, and even during periods of high immigration native workers hold the majority of lowwage jobs. To dispute the notion that raising wages decrease productivity, the United States is measured against European countries with much smaller fractions of low-wage jobs which nonetheless remain competitive in international markets. Finally, minimum wage laws, which contrary to predictions do not result in fewer jobs overall, are offered as examples of effective policy-making. Subsequent chapters continue the work of myth-busting. An especially strong chapter challenges the claim that better education and improved skills alone can prevent workers from falling into low-wage jobs. Another focuses on how employers themselves think about low-wage work, providing heartening evidence that most employers want to offer better jobs but are discouraged from doing so by a combination of fear, misinformation, and lack of managerial resources. Peppered throughout this chapter, and the rest of the book, are examples of firms that have managed, through a combination of dedication and innovation, to provide high-quality jobs in sectors dominated by low-wage work (e.g., healthcare, hotels, and manufacturing). These success stories offer tangible, tested strategies for turning bad jobs into good by providing fair wages, skills training, and opportunities for advancement without compromising— and sometimes even enhancing—profitability and competitiveness. Chapter Five laments the current system of inadequate and rarely-enforced employment standards, advocating for stronger regulations to be enforced by a coalition of 410 Reviews


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Social Influence Network Theory: A Sociological Examination of Small Group Dynamics is a must read for anyone interested in group dynamics, group processes, structural social psychology, social influence, attitudes, or any of the other subfields under the broader heading of social psychology as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: other member’s influence. Then, their final attitudes will be a function of those positions and the endogenous group processes that happen to change them. As the authors point out in Chapter Three, the model can be used the other way around—if given the initial and final attitude values, it can be used to infer from the outcome the relative influence of the group members. This makes SINT promising in its applicability, if not substantively edifying. Either way, Social Influence Network Theory: A Sociological Examination of Small Group Dynamics is a ‘‘must read’’ for anyone interested in group dynamics, group processes, structural social psychology, social influence, attitudes, or any of the other subfields under the broader heading ‘‘social psychology.’’