Showing papers in "Contemporary Sociology in 2017"

Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics

Abstract: In this original, erudite book, Jens Beckert examines the ways in which market participants confront market contingencies in modern capitalism. What sets Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics apart from most previous accounts is Beckert’s privileging of ‘‘imagined futures’’ and ‘‘fictional expectations’’ rather than the dominant practice of using past market patterns to explain future markets. In doing so, Beckert not only introduces a different framing for understanding how market participants confront market contingencies but provides a richer sociological framing of how markets function. A central theme running through this account is the temporal character of modern capitalism. Capitalism, according to Beckert, not only assumes an open future full of contingencies but embraces this future. In this ever-changing world, the ability to predict what the future will produce is of vital importance. You may not be able to be right all the time, but you need to be able to make ‘‘reasonable’’ predictions. Though numerous different means for doing this have been generated over the years, most, as noted above, have relied heavily on trying to discover patterns in the way past markets have behaved. Beckert reviews these methods in great detail. In doing so, he reveals their limitations. More importantly, he makes his own case that market participants actually rely to a greater extent on what he labels as ‘‘imagined futures’’ and ‘‘fictional expectations’’ to deal with the contingencies they confront. Beckert shows that the unpredictability of the market is due in large measure to the fact that modern markets are embedded in a wide range of multi-faceted socially grounded narratives. Different narratives generate different predictions. While this is an original argument, Beckert draws on a wide range of sociological, economic, and philosophical theorists, including Dewey, Durkheim, and Keynes, to make his case. Beckert realizes that these expectations can in no way actually predict the future for the simple reason that there always exists a multitude of these expectations. He nevertheless makes an extremely strong case that the dynamics of modern capitalism and market behavior rely on them, given that they are embedded in sociologically grounded narratives. Beckert provides a detailed account of how the four major ‘‘building blocks’’ of capitalism—money and credit, investments, innovation, and consumption—embody and utilize ‘‘imagined futures’’ and ‘‘fictional expectations.’’ He expands on this overview by showing how both economic forecasting and economic theory formalize their own range of narratives that rely on ‘‘imagined futures’’ and ‘‘fictional expectations.’’ Analysis and past behavioral patterns clearly play a role, but when it comes to grasping the dynamics of modern capitalism, ‘‘imagined futures’’ dominate. Though Beckert’s argument is focused on modern capitalism, he ends his book by suggesting that the power of ‘‘imagined futures’’ and ‘‘fictional expectations’’ is not limited to economics and modern capitalism. They function in a wide range of political and social activities. This perspective underscores another theme that deserves wider attention, namely the extent to which economic events and models continue to seep into other sectors of our society. Taken together, the central themes of this book more than qualify it as a significant contribution not only to economic sociology but to the social sciences in general. It does leave us, however, with an unacknowledged elephant in the room, namely, the contingencies of future events. Put somewhat differently, the contingencies of future events may necessitate ‘‘imagined futures,’’ but it is a stretch to credit them with generating these contingencies. They very well might contribute in the manner of ‘‘self-fulfilling prophecies,’’ but they can’t be held responsible for all contingencies. The physical world we live in is itself pervaded by all sorts of natural or physical contingencies. Keynes, who privileged 538 Reviews

$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America:

Abstract: important to analysis of historical social movements, Ian Roxborough looks at the British military’s response to the armed struggle of Irish nationalists in his chapter, ‘‘The Mutual Determination of Strategy in Ireland, 1912–1921.’’ Right away we learn that in Ireland many organizations constituted the British military presence: the British army, the Royal Irish Constabulary, the Dublin Metropolitan Police, the ‘‘Black and Tans’’ and Auxiliaries, and the intelligence service. How could a comparatively small group of Irish rebels confronting British power in the form of these military groups finally bring an end to British domination in 1921? By examining ‘‘the different cognitive frames and strategies of the various police and military organizations of the British state’’ (p. 133), Roxborough fleshes out the organizational incoherence and inability to coordinate strategy that contributed to the failure of British counterinsurgency in Ireland. It’s a fascinating exposition of how the state is not a unified, and sometimes not even a rational, actor. Whether one accepts the model of the state proposed by Duyvendak and Jasper and the contributors to this volume, Breaking Down the State is a welcome and timely challenge for social movement theorists and analysts. Most of the individual chapters are so well written that they will be useful in both undergraduate and graduate social movement courses. I will be turning to it often.

Unequal City: Race, Schools, and Perceptions of Injustice:

Abstract: highlight their struggles, without glossing the unsympathetic realities of these men’s lives and their crimes. For many Americans, the sex offender is but a shadow of a thought—a looming, terrifying figure that is largely unknown. He is understood to be dangerous and in need of special control. He is cast as different—deviant, even—and deserving of social exclusion. For this reason, many readers may be shocked to find that some of the stories of these men are rather unremarkable or even pedestrian. Readers hoping for salacious stories ripped from the headlines will be woefully disappointed. That fact, in and of itself, is a credit to Rickard’s scholarship. The case study method employed in the book is best leveraged in its exploration of the men’s struggles to reintegrate after registration, facing new restrictions on housing and employment and requirements that they regularly attend counseling, treatment, and other programs. In many cases, their stories echo those of convicted felons more broadly, in that they struggle to find a path forward through a tangled web of stigma, legal restrictions, and social sanctions. The sex offender often faces all of the obstacles faced by felons generally, but added on to those restrictions is an entirely additional set of requirements reserved for those convicted of sexual offenses. In many cases, those required to register as sex offenders face the further complication of sensationalized media coverage that serves to amplify the negative social effects of their registration. Although the book does much to humanize these men and their struggles, the structure of the book in some ways seems to give in to readers’ more prurient interests. The first substantive chapter, ‘‘Constructing the Offense,’’ dives straight into accounts of the crimes that led to the men’s entanglements with sex offender registries. This was somewhat jarring to a reader expecting a more contextual approach, which might have better prepared the reader to understand the stories to be presented. Although no book can do everything, a more engaged historical context for placing these men’s accounts might have helped to situate their experiences. Moreover, because of the case study method employed, the most interesting material in the book is the analysis of how these men build narratives about their own experiences. The linguistic and rhetorical strategies they use in interviews is compelling and reveals a great deal about their social-psychological struggles to make sense of themselves, their identities, and their communities. Despite an introduction steeped in a critical sociology of these registries, the book is never truly able to see past these men’s experiences and to engage critically with their institutional contexts. For these reasons, the book will be most appealing to psychologists, psychotherapists, and social workers who work directly with registered sex offenders. That the book retains the look and feel of an academic dissertation will also do little to help expand its reach. These limitations aside, the book is a welcome addition to the growing critical literature on sex offender registries in the United States. With over 800,000 Americans currently living the experiences described in Rickard’s book, it is extremely urgent for academics and policymakers to better understand these policies and the lives they affect.

From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America:

Abstract: knowledge. Methods That Matter reflects the now widespread recognition that forward movement in the social sciences will happen when scholars take an ecumenical standpoint visà-vis the choice of methodological tools for answering questions about social patterns and behaviors. However, the volume’s collective motivation—that mixed methods yield integration across the social sciences and have proved valuable in the careers of important social scientists—seems like a point whose arrival is late to the party. Halfway through my reading, I wanted a volume that more tightly cohered around how the state of knowledge in human development science, especially that related to ecocultural theory, was advanced through mixed methods approaches. Instead, when reading this volume, a reader who is not steeped in the debates within the human development science field is left to read between the lines about the nature of the ruptures or bridges in that field and at a loss to draw meaningful comparisons to other social science fields where there have been more or less significant moves towards methodological pluralism.

The Enigma of Diversity: The Language of Race and the Limits of Racial Justice:

Abstract: tras deemed worthy of funding average $25,000, a small fraction of a typical budget. Grants to writers are more generous, at $25,000 for the Literature Fellowship program, but those go to fewer than one hundred writers each year and are tremendously competitive. There are places in the government procurement process where someone might see a chance to make it rich, but it is hard to see the arts as one of those places. It is not that there are no interesting topics worth writing about. What does analysis rooted in political economy have to say about whether arts councils can ever truly be ‘‘arm’s length’’? If there is to be direct public funding, should there be considerations of ‘‘public decency’’ in the grants process? Is the post-1995 NEA policy of granting to arts organizations, but not individual artists (except for writers) a good one? Should the generous tax treatment of charitable deductions to the arts be subject to greater scrutiny? What should we make of former NEA chair Bill Ivey’s contention that arts policy has been too focused on nonprofits at the expense of the commercial creative sector? What does it mean for arts funding to support diversity? And, is the current fixation on ‘‘creative placemaking’’ at the NEA a worthwhile turn, or the promotion of the flavor-of-the-month with no obvious lasting public benefit? In general there is too little critical thinking about arts policy in the United States (I would suggest that the UK maintains much more lively debate in this particular field), and rigorous analysis unafraid to identify poor program design and/or execution in the cultural world would be welcome. This analysis might even provide support to the case James Bennett wishes to advance: that it is practically impossible to have public support of the arts that does not lead to corruption of the art by politics, or that what potential public good there is in arts support will be captured by private interests. But Subsidizing Culture stays in the shallows, rehashing the many histories already written, and leaves to others the task of exploring the depths of American arts policy. The Enigma of Diversity: The Language of Race and the Limits of Racial Justice, by Ellen Berrey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. 352 pp. $27.50 paper. ISBN: 9780226246239.

Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines:

Abstract: Pugh interviewed expected much more of themselves: that they would stay positive, continue giving their full effort, and ‘‘move on’’ without a fuss so that they could find the next position. As Pugh says, the expectations-as-coloring books means workers ‘‘invoke those prefabricated shapes that demand narratives of personal accountability and fill them in with their own stories’’ (p. 30). Those interviewed convey acceptance, resignation, and a privatized responsibility for making the best, working hard, and not expecting too much. This ‘‘one-way honor system’’ names a key feature of U.S. employment that stretches from the top to the bottom of the labor market. Pugh considers how these expectations and emotional experiences vary by gender and by class, with recognition of the specific experiences of African American women and other women of color as well. The interview sample deliberately includes three groups: 1) professionals and managers who have faced relocation or job disruptions but are highly paid and seem confident in their opportunities, 2) people who work intermittently and insecurely in low-wage jobs and face all the stresses of barely making ends meet, and, in between those groups, 3) a moderate-income group who have steadier jobs, often in the public sector or helping professions such as social work or teaching. Pugh also acknowledges variation among women and among men, reflecting ‘‘gender innovations’’ rather than portraying simplified gender differences. Some mothers are fiercely committed to all their family members and engage in intensive caring and self-sacrifice. Other women carefully manage how much time or emotional intimacy or how many resources or second chances they will give to other adults they love (including spouses or partners), though these women still prioritize the practical and emotional needs of their children. Some men respond to felt betrayals by leaving their family members or cutting emotional ties while staying around, but other men have a ‘‘care work ethic’’ and dive into primary caregiver roles deeply. All of this variation feels accurate and important to acknowledge, but it also makes the middle chapters somewhat complicated. For that reason, instructors will want to guide students (with a schematic or orienting questions) to help them see the big picture of who responds to insecurity in what ways. Still, this is an important analysis of insecurity today and so well worth that effort. Instructors can also use the book to illustrate what thoughtful interview analysis looks like. I was inspired by Pugh’s interviews and what she helps us see from a close reading of those exchanges. Pugh has recent articles on interviews and cultural analysis that might be paired with the book in a methods course as well. Pugh has provided a gripping, if depressing, portrayal of the ways the realities of work today affect our emotional lives and our family commitments. The book is only more relevant now that we are in the Trump era, where we are engaged in debates every day about who owes whom what, what we can expect of U.S. companies and of each other, and how social solidarity can be supported in the face of economic insecurity. The Tumbleweed Society foregrounds the intimate—the work and family lives of women and men navigating this landscape—but Pugh’s thoughtful analysis connects their stories and discourse to these broader concerns.

Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy:

Abstract: Legacy are minor. Because the oral histories were collected from residents of the southwest and southeast, the perspective of those who fled the South during the Great Migration is not represented in this book. Would their stories have differed in any significant ways? Similarly, many of Jim Crow’s oppressive conditions also existed in the North and West, albeit in a somewhat moderated form. Their perspective, too, is absent from this book. Let me end on a positive note because Jim Crow’s Legacy deserves such a conclusion. The authors have brought to life the horrors, past and present, of the Jim Crow era by drawing on stories told by its survivors. They have blended those stories with information from the vast literature on the troubled history of race in America. The result is an important contribution to our understanding of the historical forces that still haunt the African American population and thereby continue to vex our nation’s chances of achieving a more just and harmonious racial status quo.

Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity

Abstract: In Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity, Hartmut Rosa offers a new and systematic theory of modernity focusing on the ‘‘dynamization’’ of the world through social acceleration rather than through such usual suspects as rationalization, the division of labor, and the nature of capitalism. While many other theories touch on social acceleration, at least obliquely, no theory has made it its centerpiece; and, more damningly, there is an ‘‘almost total absence of thinking on social acceleration’’ in social theory (p. 55). Rosa seeks to correct this by reflecting deeply on social acceleration and making it the heart of his theory of modernity. To Rosa, acceleration is the real driving force of (modern) history and not, among other things, the unfolding of the forces of production as is the case in Marxian theory. However, Rosa acknowledges that acceleration is, itself, driven by external forces— economic, cultural and socio-structural (e.g., functional differentiation). Acceleration is treated generally, as well as in terms of three sub-types: technological acceleration, the pace of social change, and the pace of life. While these sub-types are distinguished from one another, they are dialectically related in a self-propelling process (see Figure 6.1 for a depiction of this ‘‘circle of acceleration’’). While Rosa’s theory ostensibly centers on social acceleration, it in fact evolves into a more nuanced and satisfying theory of the interrelationship of acceleration and rigidity or inertia. The five types of inertia are natural limits to speed (e.g., the ability of, and speed by which, ecosystems are able to deal with toxic substances; although like all such natural speed limits these can be, and are being, pushed back); ‘‘islands of deceleration’’ (e.g., traditional communities such as the Amish existing partly or entirely outside the processes of acceleration); slowdown as an unintended consequence of acceleration (e.g., more cars in cities leading to more traffic jams); two forms of intentional deceleration: deceleration as ideology (critiques of, and principled protests against, further acceleration as exemplified by the Slow Food and Voluntary Simplicity Movements) and slowdown as an acceleration strategy (slowdowns in one domain in order to enhance acceleration in other domains); and, finally, structural and cultural rigidity. Beyond a discussion of inertia, Rosa also deals with the various ‘‘brakes’’ on acceleration in late modernity. He traces these to the central institutions of society, which can be both accelerators and brakes. For example, the military can be an accelerator, through technical innovation, but it can also be an impediment when its structure becomes too cumbersome and slow. The problem is that in late modernity, many one-time accelerators have become brakes. Having delineated the types of acceleration and their impediments (especially inertia), Rosa turns to the question of the two types of interrelationships possible between them. The first is an equilibrium of acceleration and inertia where both exist but there is no long-term trend in one direction or the other. The second possibility is a shift in the direction of acceleration or ‘‘progressive dynamization.’’ (It is not clear why it is not also possible to shift in the other direction to ‘‘progressive inertia,’’ but this is what he might mean by ‘‘frenetic standstill’’ [see below].) It is Rosa’s view that progressive dynamization characterizes modern society as long as there are no other forms of inertia and that ‘‘none of them embody a structural and/cultural countertrend that could equal the acceleration dynamic of modernity’’ (p. 90). This is a crucial caveat that in many ways undercuts much of Rosa’s thesis. We are an acceleration society as long as strong countertrends do not stop acceleration in its tracks. In fact, the focus of this book—and what defines the current status of modernity— might be more accurately described as ‘‘frenetic standstill’’ (or ‘‘dynamic stabilization’’) rather than acceleration. Rosa derives this term from the work of Paul Virilio, and it describes a state ‘‘of the simultaneous acceleration of social change and halting of social 470 Reviews

Black Silent Majority: The Rockefeller Drug Laws and the Politics of Punishment

Abstract: Anderson, Margo J. 1988. The American Census: A Social History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Cork, Daniel L., and Paul R. Voss, eds. 2006. Once, Only Once, and in the Right Place: Residence Rules in the Decennial Census. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Edmonston, Barry. 2001. ‘‘The Case for Modernizing the U.S. Census.’’ Society 39(1):42–53. El-Badry, Samia, and David A. Swanson. 2007. ‘‘Providing Special Census Tabulations to Government Security Agencies: The Case of Arab-Americans. Government Information Quarterly 24(2):470–487. Statistics Finland. 2004. Use of Register and Administrative Data Sources for Statistical Purposes: Best Practices of Statistics Finland. Statistics Finland: Helsinki, Finland. Swanson, David A. 2013. ‘‘Consumer Demographics: Welcome to the Dark Side of Statistics.’’ Radical Statistics 108:38–46. Swanson, David A., and Paula Walashek. 2011. CEMAF as a Census Method: A Proposal for a Re-Designed Census and an Independent Census Bureau. Springer Briefs in Population Studies, Volume 1. New York: Springer, B.V. Press. Walashek, Paula, and David A. Swanson. 2006. ‘‘The Roots of Conflict over U.S. Census Counts in the Late 20 Century and Prospects for the 21 Century.’’ Journal of Economic and Social Measurement 31(3/4):185–205.

Breaking the WTO: How Emerging Powers Disrupted the Neoliberal Project:

Abstract: (arguably, purposively and cynically) echoing the history documented by Hinton. Immigration enforcement was the linchpin of Trump’s campaign, based off racist premises of Mexican immigrants as criminals. If the trends of Hinton’s history are any indication, it’s likely that any currently existing fragile consensus regarding the necessity of decarceration will be cast aside in favor of both aggressive policing and punitive sentencing. Moreover, as sociologists know, these types of measures will disproportionately affect the urban black and brown poor, likely exacerbating social inequality and social conflict.

The China Boom: Why China Will Not Rule the World:

Abstract: frightening applications of networked technologies notwithstanding, Howard asserts that ‘‘the civic use of digital media almost always outpaces that of governments’’ (p. 156) and that we can expect the same to be true for the internet of things. The greatest threat to the pax technica comes not from nefarious uses of these technologies by powerful actors, he argues, but from ‘‘rival information infrastructures,’’ such as China’s, that seek to prevent the open and free exchange of information. Technology companies and western governments obviously are not perfectly aligned (Google’s opposition to Europe’s ‘‘right to be forgotten’’ law and Apple’s dispute with the FBI over iPhone encryption are two prominent examples of friction), but Howard is right to point out that the broader pattern is one in which they work to advance each other’s interests. The political and economic power of large technology firms will only continue to grow as the internet of things develops; this will have profound implications for civic, economic, and cultural life. Two outcomes in particular seem likely: first, the data streams generated from networked objects, if accessible, could help users become more conscientious in their consumption patterns. Second, the internet of things will provide unprecedented opportunities for surveillance of civilian populations by governments and business; indeed, highranking U.S. intelligence officials have openly acknowledged this potentiality (Timm 2016). Howard gestures toward both of these possibilities and concludes with recommendations for how consumers can attempt to gain relatively greater control over their data. A question that lingers upon finishing the book, however, is whether or how networked refrigerators, shirts, and cars can empower the kind of civic engagement that serves as a meaningful counterweight to corporate and state power. To what extent do the lessons about civic engagement on digital communication platforms, as Howard outlines them, apply to a future in which homes, workplaces, and recreational settings will be wired with devices that ‘‘many of us no longer even notice as being part of the internet’’ (p. 35)? Pax Technica demonstrates that people have used mobile phones and computers to purposively coordinate effective—sometimes even revolutionary— collective action. But nearly all of this has hinged on the kind of ‘‘original, humanmade content’’ that Howard acknowledges soon will be only a ‘‘fractional amount of the information that is exchanged’’ (p. 233) over online networks. It remains to be seen, then, how the internet of things may differ in systematic ways from the internet of phones, computers, and tablets that we have come to know—and what these differences mean for civic and political life.

The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of RaceThe Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race, by OcampoAnthony Christian. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2016. 256 pp. $22.95 paper. ISBN: 9780804797542.

Abstract: talism, are in the background. As other writers have shown, organic labeling helped to create new consumers, paired or competing with low-fat, natural, and low-calorie foods that flooded the market during the 1990s. Yet the benefits that large companies such as Wal-Mart have reaped from organics are not, in Obach’s view, the result of Big Agriculture’s early influence on organic policy. Instead, he sees those policies as a result of the failure of the ‘‘spreaders’’ and ‘‘tillers’’ to work effectively to create a strong coalition, which then allowed Big Agriculture, via the USDA, and international trade considerations to dominate the policy agenda. The USDA and international trade interests come in as deus ex machinis, however; they are not central foci of the policy-setting process that Obach describes, but they take advantage of the weak tiller/spreader organizational matrix. The remainder of the book traces the streams into which the organic river has now moved. Obach sees the turn toward ‘‘sustainable’’ agriculture as a product of the organic movement, now crediting the small farmers and their local networks and certification systems with providing the infrastructure for these heterogeneous projects. The capaciousness of the term ‘‘sustainable’’ means that many different actors claim its mantle, from anti-GMO activists to smallscale growers who cannot meet the documentation standards that the organic label demands. The race and class issues related to the problem of what to eat and what to grow are mentioned, with some attention to the work of other scholars who have documented the way that labor and racial-justice struggles have shaped the foodscape, including the demand for less toxic forms of food production. The book’s major contribution remains its attention to the efforts by domestic reformers to form a coalition to promote the federal regulation of organic farming methods and the policy formations and reformations that have resulted.

Making Immigrant Rights Real: Nonprofits and the Politics of Integration in San Francisco:

Abstract: ships beneficial to profit-generation, but ones that are at odds with the egalitarian principles of the punk subculture. Conversely, institutional DIY spaces and marginal mainstream venues (for slightly different reasons) facilitate the Durkheimian ritual of the punk show through minimal segmentation. Surprisingly, while marginal DIY spaces are more ideologically aligned with punk principles (e.g., they are less profitoriented than marginal mainstream venues), the built environment often inadvertently dampens the collective effervescence of the show (e.g., VFW halls may be too large for the small crowds at a performance, making the space feel empty). As already mentioned, it is the second half of the book’s dual focus that makes Punk Rock and the Politics of Place a thoroughly enlightening read. Debies-Carl’s thoughtprovoking analysis of this one subculture’s dialectic relationship with the built environment should encourage other researchers to more seriously consider space and place in their own work. Beyond its obvious relevance to subcultural studies, scholars interested in culture more broadly as well as social movements and community should also find this book of interest. It is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and researchers alike.

Debt to Society: Accounting for Life under CapitalismDebt to Society: Accounting for Life under Capitalism, by JosephMiranda. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. 218 pp. $25.00 paper. ISBN: 9780816687442.

Abstract: tion to other ones, or attribute any remaining features to specific patterns of development of disciplines. Following him, we can certainly expect that sociology will both be more and more integrated into the global space of the discipline, as show recent trends of exchanges and influences at the European and international levels, and remain at least partly shaped by a particular national historical path.

Food and Femininity

Abstract: nities, it suggests that any racial progress that is occurring as a result of diversity programs and other factors is all the more remarkable. Similarly, at a social level, the entrance of millions more women into the workforce over the last fifty years has not been sufficient to undercut the growing size of the black middle class, small though this may be. And, demographically, a wealth of available research also indicates that the arrival of millions of immigrants starting shortly after 1965 has increased the country’s broader ethnoracial diversity in ways that have begun to break down barriers dividing groups, even to some extent the black/nonblack divide. What does consideration of such trends imply? In the case of the black population, it suggests that economic bipolarity continues to characterize the group, with those benefitting from diversity programs and other trends increasing their relative numbers somewhat in recent decades but with the gap between this group and the rest of the black population growing ever larger. The same seems true for other ethnoracial groups, including whites, as the presidential election of 2016 has so powerfully reminded us. In short, the broader context within which diversity programs seek to advance racial justice is one of growing economic inequality. Race-targeted diversity programs, even those that are expanding their coverage to include other identity groups, may arguably have been successful to a degree in the recent past. But these may lose societal and political support unless they can be redirected to deal with general inequality.

The Value of Homelessness: Managing Surplus Life in the United States:

Abstract: clear prose and incisive analysis. In particular, Williams demonstrates beautifully the progressive power of intersectionality as a lens through which to understand a crucial issue about which there continues to be heated debate. The stakes are indeed high: the question of same-sex schooling is, after all, about our children. And Williams shows us that our children’s future depends on our learning to confront the simultaneity of race, class, and gender inequalities.

Policing Immigrants: Local Law Enforcement on the Front Lines:

Abstract: social problems/experiences, but also the real potential to either enact or reinforce specific types of (neuro)governance. Rather than increasing the capacity to understand the relationships between the biological and social, such research in its current form normalizes a particular standard of the neurobiological body, which silences and/or erases socially marginalized and stratified bodies, identities, and experiences. Meaning, if the epistemology of neural plasticity is bounded by rigid understandings of the brain-social relationship or evolutionary prefigured social bodies and subjectivities, then brain-based biosocial explanations are vulnerable to biological determinism and reductionism and may potentially naturalize the very social inequalities they seek to avoid and/or address. The way forward, as Pitts-Taylor outlines, is a queering of brain plasticity and/or biosociality to help avoid limiting what the social brain can and should be. That means developing a multiplicity of embodiment: ‘‘a way of looking at the neurobiological body that neither presupposes universality nor overlooks the pitfalls of addressing difference’’ (p. 15). This more complex understanding of embodiment accounts for the multiple and entangled ways that subjectivity, life, and health are brought to experience, modified, and/or made meaningful (or not) through our explorations of biosociality. In exploring the neuroscientific approaches to biosocial research, Pitts-Taylor refuses to settle for what she sees as a limiting (neuro)biological framing of biosocial entanglements. Her plea for multiplicity of embodiment opens up a space to understand better biosocial potentialities and what it means for our social experiences to be truly embodied or ‘‘complexly embrained’’ (p. 10). She shows convincingly that if a new science of biosociality is needed, social scientists must have input in its conceptualization, design, and execution and not simply be users or ethical endorsers of such neuroscientific practices and technologies. In conclusion, as we continue to wrestle with how the brain informs our sociological awareness and investigation, we will look to The Brain’s Body as a blueprint to help us untangle fully the sociological usefulness, uncertainties, and risks in exploring the relationships between our brains and sociality.

Harmful Societies: Understanding Social Harm:

Abstract: erate new conceptual innovations. Adrià closed the restaurant and is now working in the ivory tower of basic research. Opazo notes with fascination the similarities between the institute and the world of academia from which she comes: they were ‘‘doing something quite similar to what I was doing as a researcher.’’ The book ends optimistically. Opazo seems struck by the possibilities of endless innovation with such a model. It’s hard not to feel the same as a reader, especially since their world of conceptual innovation shares such strong overlap with our own as sociologists who value theory. But at the same time, I wondered if the institute could survive without Adrià in the middle of it. The chef is clearly brilliant, and it remains to be seen if he has sufficiently passed on his knowledge-creation process to his colleagues and pupils. Adrià is not the first to try this. Steve Jobs created Apple University with a similar ambition. And every charismatic leader seeks ways to institutionalize their personas in structure. Like most readers will be, I found myself hoping that Adrià had indeed found a way to routinize the creativity process and that were he to step away completely from the institute tomorrow, his colleagues would continue to innovate and push the boundaries of cuisine without him. But I remain skeptical. It’s impossible to know how much of elBulli’s creativity is the result of the routines, rules, and processes of his organization versus the outcome of his genius and ambition. The wonder of this book, I believe, is that it lays bare the creative process in more detail than almost anything I’ve read and enriches the debate about where true creativity comes from. For this Opazo should be applauded. Harmful Societies: Understanding Social Harm, by Simon Pemberton. Chicago: Policy Press, 2016. 183 pp. $39.95 paper. ISBN: 9781847427953.

Practical Authority: Agency and Institutional Change in Brazilian Water Politics:

Abstract: Institutional reform is a complex process that requires the introduction of new elements designed to expand public participation and ensure policy implementation. How do new actors build institutions, implement reforms, and develop the authority needed to carry out their mandates? Most research on institutional change focuses on structural outcomes, examining whether or not institutions succeed or fail within certain contexts, ignoring the role of agency in institution-building. In their book Practical Authority: Agency and Institutional Change in Brazilian Water Politics, Rebecca Neaera Abers and Margaret E. Keck move beyond a static approach to examine the microprocesses of institution-building. In doing so, they develop a new theory of institutions where ideas, resources, and relationships play a central role. By exploring institutional change in Brazilian water policy, Abers and Keck underscore the complex and dynamic process of institutional becoming or how organizations and actors build power and influence policy. The case of water policy reforms is even more complex not only because Brazil has ‘‘the largest endowment of freshwater resources’’ globally (p. 42), but also because water has multiple uses, encompasses a diverse range of stakeholders— dominated by the energy, irrigation, and sanitation policy sectors—and is regulated by a wide array of often competing agencies. Social scientists are increasingly interested in delving into the black box of institutionbuilding to understand the complex processes that shape institutional reform. Abers and Keck take up this task in their exploration of institution-building and policy changes in Brazilian water resource management. Specifically, the authors seek to understand how actors build practical authority to influence policy arenas by generating new ideas, mobilizing resources, and building relationships. Drawing on twelve years of in-depth field work examining the creation of river basin committees in Brazil, they provide a micro-analysis of the processes and mechanisms that shape how actors build new forms of institutional power within a complex and entangled policy arena. In Chapter One, Abers and Keck stress the interplay between ‘‘ideational and material realms’’ and expand their focus beyond the way actors think to include ‘‘the material side of structuration’’ (p. 9). In other words, they examine not just how actors create new ideas, but how they draw on resources to build new institutional arrangements. They argue that institutional change involves a complex process of creating new ideas, assembling resources, and building relationships. Actors who begin with small-scale experimentation and build up to and engage with multiple scales of action and governance are more likely to build the kind of practical authority to carry out their mandate and create change. Chapter Two provides an overview of the historical context of institutional and policy reforms that shaped the transformation of Brazilian politics and the creation of new regulatory institutions, specifically in the realm of water policy. Abers and Keck trace the current state of water policy reforms in Brazil from the 1930s, when the control of water rights was transferred to the federal government. Subsequently, large-scale hydroelectric dam projects were built, beginning in 1940 and continuing to the 1990s, when the push for integrated water management emerged on the policy scene. The authors discuss the role of two powerful narratives that shaped the development of new institutions and emerged during this latter period of increasing foreign debt, inflation, and economic

Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia:

Abstract: dered beauty rhetoric, spaces, and experiences . . . can be folded into the statusenhancing narratives and experiences of class-privileged men’’ (pp. 161–162). But such a world ‘‘is built on the backs of women beauty workers’’ (p. 165). In the end, Styling Masculinity left me feeling only slightly nostalgic for that lost world of Sal’s. The barbershop of my youth may have been a haven for Italian, Irish, and Jewish working-class men, but I never saw a black man enter the shop; class did not so neatly map onto race. And while the unproblematic casual homosocial intimacy of my first shave—leaning back in the chair, having Sal place a hot towel and then buckets of lather on my face and so expertly shave my peach fuzz with a straight-edged razor—may be lost, so too is the unproblematic male entitlement that was its hidden accoutrement. That today’s men need so much more reassurance that they’re still men may mean that, in some ways, that edifice of unexamined entitlement is eroding. But at least we’ll be manicured.

Beneath the Surface of White Supremacy: Denaturalizing U.S. Racisms Past and Present:

Abstract: probably ponder, as it portends changes that may in some ways revolutionize scholarly and disciplinary identities. Feminists will take pleasure in her heavy reliance on works in that tradition, and others will enjoy seeing reference to well-known books and articles in popular outlets that they have probably read themselves. And over time she will likely be forgiven for twice (pp. 64, 173) citing Rey Chow’s 2002 book as The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, a title already claimed by another writer some time ago. One wonders how Joseph will account for that.

Organic Struggle: The Movement for Sustainable Agriculture in the United States

Abstract: Organic food production isn’t the food movement of the moment, but, as Brian Obach argues, it has structured the hopes and dreams of many kinds of activists, from environmentalists to health advocates to small farmers and, more recently, Big Agriculture growers and sellers. Organic Struggle: The Movement for Sustainable Agriculture in the United States documents some ideological conflicts among these actors and some of the policy failures and successes—depending on who you ask—that have resulted from efforts to create national, state, and industry standards. The conceptual and empirical puzzle on which the book hangs is why organic coalitions have not been able to form or win new benefits from the state—a problem that Obach sees as critical to the spread of organic farming. The theoretical home of the book is in the traditional understanding of U.S. and European social movements: a pluralist society with multiple competing groups that, via social movements, occasionally petition a relatively autonomous state to make legal changes that ensure a collective good. For Obach, coalitions, not single actors, are expected to be stronger players in these struggles. Although organic agriculture is more widespread in the United States than it has been in the past, and although there is higher consumer demand, the puzzle that motivates the study is why there is no unified coalition or movement around organics that would, presumably, ensure their spread. Obach reviews the now-familiar origins of organic gardening as a home-based practice that first took root in the 1930s and 1940s among rural families who were influenced by religious beliefs and its spread to the small-scale farming movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He gives welcome emphasis to the less well-known advocate Rudolph Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, a movement that promoted spiritual approaches to the land and humans’ relation to it and specifically rejected the use of synthetic fertilizers. Steiner’s work influenced other popularizers, but particularly the founder and editor of Organic Gardening, Jerome Rodale. Rodale’s magazine served as how-to guide and means of communication for the organic small-farm movement that came later, and it played a key role in generating the now-familiar interest in organic food as a means to good health. Obach neatly divides proponents of organic agriculture into two groups, ‘‘tillers’’ and ‘‘spreaders,’’ drawing on Julie Guthman’s analysis of the values underlying organic agriculture laid out in Agrarian Dreams. Tillers, in Obach’s view, see organic production as a component of small-scale farming and communitarianism and tend to work at the local and state level; reformist ‘‘spreaders’’ want organic agriculture to be widespread and to have standards largely governed by the state, no matter who grows the food. The perspectives of the spreaders is foregrounded in the book; even when Obach offers up an analysis of tillers’ perspectives, it is usually given through the voice of the spreaders. Obach is sympathetic to the work of the reformers in Washington, D.C. whose work has resulted in the creation of national standards. These standards require stringent bookkeeping and also allow a wide range of soil and animal inputs, such as animal waste. Larger growers have the resources to comply with the labeling and bookkeeping standards, and many are more interested in market share than in the environmental consequences of various inputs. The iterations of federal policy that form the backbone of current federal standards, and their relationship to the many state and third-party standards that existed before and after the 1990s, are the central focus of much of the book. Readers seeking high levels of detail about debates among tillers and spreaders around the passage of regulations, such as the National Organic Program, will find much to appreciate here. Obach’s pluralist assumptions mean that international trade concerns and standards, and a government that, during the 1990s, was being reconfigured as a vehicle with 344 Reviews

Men at Risk: Masculinity, Heterosexuality, and HIV Prevention

Abstract: The history of the global AIDS epidemic is filled with moments when social biases blinded us to the true nature of the pandemic. In the first decade of the crisis, homosexual men in the United States and western Europe were portrayed as the face of AIDS. Homophobia made gay men especially easy targets for displacing fears of a fatal new disease, even though we now know HIV emerged eight decades earlier in southeastern Cameroon. By the turn of the millennium, the AIDS crisis in Africa was part of global consciousness, and the heterosexual African woman became the new face of AIDS. This was an important shift, but this framing was intertwined with a longstanding liberal tendency to portray African women as victims in need of saving by white women and men. What do these dominant framings of who is most at risk and vulnerable reveal and obscure? And what are the implications for our efforts to mitigate the AIDS crisis and prevent HIV transmission? These questions are at the heart of Shari Dworkin’s timely and provocative book Men at Risk. Dworkin argues that the risks heterosexual men face of HIV infection, both domestically and globally, have been dramatically neglected and that little effort has been made to devise programs that address their specific vulnerabilities. As Dworkin persuasively argues, heterosexual men (she prefers the more inclusive phrase heterosexually active men) have been framed almost exclusively as victimizers who draw on their privilege and power to pursue their own sexual desires at the expense of women’s, and some men’s, sexual health and safety. The result: much effort and money spent on HIV-prevention interventions focused on empowering women, with little comparable attention paid to heterosexual men. Given the very real risks heterosexual women and homosexual men continue to face in the fourth decade of AIDS, Dworkin’s claims could be easily misinterpreted as a reactionary defense of heterosexual men in the face of gains made by feminists and LGBTQ activists. From the opening pages of Men at Risk, however, it is clear we are in very capable hands. Dworkin draws on a deep and sophisticated understanding of feminism, gender studies, and the sociology of sexuality to show how women have been framed as vulnerable, and heterosexual men invulnerable, to HIV infection. A deconstruction of this ‘‘vulnerability paradigm’’ is the subject of Chapter Two, and Dworkin traces its roots in part to early second-wave feminism. She then synthesizes more contemporary feminist theorizing to foreground both the privileges and costs of dominant conceptions of masculinity for heterosexual men. She reveals how such constructions of masculinity shape heterosexual men’s risk of HIV infection and, importantly, how intersecting forms of inequality (especially race, class, and gender) have different sexual health implications for different groups of heterosexual men. These are particularly valuable insights in relation to AIDS but also useful, essential even, for any analysis of masculinity and men’s health. Interestingly, nearly all of the attempts to integrate this more sophisticated approach to gender and health into HIV prevention have occurred in the global South. In Chapter Three, Dworkin provides a useful overview of the most innovative programs, stressing that to date they have problematically fallen into two separate tracks: one focused exclusively on women and a second exclusively on men. The first half of the chapter profiles the successes and limitations of the only two randomized controlled trials combining microfinance grants with anti-violence and HIV prevention education for women: the Intervention for Microfinance and Gender Equity in South Africa and the Shaping the Health of Adolescents in Zimbabwe trials. Reviews 425

Decentering Citizenship: Gender, Labor, and Migrant Rights in South Korea:

Abstract: A lively body of scholarship in recent years has examined the journeys of women who migrate from the global South to the global North. Yet there is a limited understanding of how migrants from the South navigate multiple inequalities in new migrantreceiving countries that are experiencing rapid industrialization. In Decentering Citizenship: Gender, Labor, and Migrant Rights in South Korea, Hae Yeon Choo introduces readers to the lives of Filipina migrants in South Korea, a country that has recently undergone rapid economic ascendance. Although South Korea relies on migrants to meet its urgent demand for labor, the nation offers them relatively few rights and protections. In this context, how do marginalized migrants struggle to achieve mobility, security, and dignity? How do their daily interactions with the state and other civil society actors affect the process of citizenship-making? To answer these timely questions, Choo draws on interviews and ethnographic analysis of South Koreans involved in migrant advocacy and integration programs, as well as three groups of Filipina migrants: factory workers, wives of South Korean men, and hostesses at American military camptown clubs. The central goal of this book is to move beyond simplistic accounts of the citizenship-making process, in which the state is conceptualized as the major—and only—driving force shaping migrants’ rights. To accomplish this, Choo introduces the concept of the ‘‘margin of citizenship,’’ which she defines as the space ‘‘where migrants negotiate their rights, entitlement, and belonging’’ (p. 6). At the macro level, (a) short-term non-settlement policies prevent factory workers from obtaining legal citizenship, (b) newly initiated multicultural integration policies provide migrant wives married to Korean men a pathway to citizenship, and (c) anti-trafficking laws allow migrant hostesses to claim their rights as victims in need of protection. Nonetheless, these different laws and policies do not fully dictate migrant women’s claims to their rights and resources. Instead, Choo’s careful analysis identifies how migrant women draw on cultural ideologies—including gendered beliefs pertaining to morality—in ways that significantly shape how migrants make sense of their experiences and respond to exclusive policies. For example, although factory workers were subjected to daily immigration crackdowns, they secured rights by drawing on the legacy of South Korean civil society workers’ mobilization to position themselves as ‘‘workercitizens’’ worthy of dignity. By contrast, immigration policies in South Korea ostensibly support the integration of migrant wives; nonetheless, migrant women were often seen as mere victims of domestic violence or accused of chasing a fake marriage that was not based on ‘‘pure love.’’ Accordingly, many migrant wives tried to secure their citizenship rights as ‘‘mothercitizens,’’ or by using their moral status as mothers of South Korean children, thus sidestepping questions about feelings toward their husbands altogether. Finally, anti-trafficking laws resulted in a different outcome for hostesses, who often refused to present themselves as vulnerable ‘‘prostitutes’’ in need of protection. Hostesses—who wanted the right to work or pursue intimate relationships with American GIs—carried a stigma based on sexual morality and thus had a limited basis to claim their rights as workers or mothers in South Korea. Decentering Citizenship thus reveals that migrant rights are not simply determined by the state’s policies and laws. Rather, migrant women from different social positions draw from available discourses and navigate moral boundaries, thereby actively shaping their paths to citizenship. Decentering Citizenship also argues that the margin of citizenship is a multi-level contested space where various social actors co-construct and remake citizenship boundaries. As such, Choo introduces South Korean actors—such as social workers, Korean 662 Reviews

Scenescapes: How Qualities of Place Shape Social Life

Abstract: Daniel Aaron Silver and Terry Nichols Clark embark on an ambitious project in their guide to the study of scenes in Scenescapes: How Qualities of Place Shape Social Life. Cities have been reimagined as part of a renaissance of economic growth in terms of their allure in a global marketplace of urban imaginaries. The authors explain how scenes and consumption in scenes shape economic development, residency flows, and politics. With an analysis of cities from all over the world, down to their ZIP code data, Silver and Clark give urban planners and cultural analysts myriad tools for reflecting on how place informs us about where to live and work and how to best organize our communities. Their goal is multifold; one overarching ambition is to ‘‘show how access to scenes empowers people to improve their lives’’ (p. 135). Three factors—the rise of arts and culture, the rediscovery of the urbane, and the rise of a new political culture—give rise to scene effects in contemporary cities. The urbane—’’what kind of place enables me to pursue a life deemed worthy, interesting, beautiful, and authentic’’—illustrates how cultural branding and place identity become crucial (Harvey 1989). Another goal is to move from the literature on the concept of a ‘‘scene’’ to a general theory and practical methodology to study the relationship between certain amenities and lived meaning in place. They aim to bridge the gap between qualitative studies of authenticity in place with the quantitative tools of inferential statistics and the covariance of factors such as self-expression, glamour, charisma, and proximity effects or age. The social attributes particular to a scene are composed of specific, emplaced tenets of value. In the post-industrial landscape of cities, cultural categories, such as ‘‘scenes,’’ take on a more prominent role in demarcating inclusion, group membership, and the identity politics of power. Consumption and lifestyle are overtaking production and identity essentialisms in many people’s lives, and this can be complementary to traditional macro-social dynamics. Scenes, and their dimensions of aesthetic styles of living, represent the character of enclaves that attract residents and fuel power in new political formations in cities. In referring to the phenomenon of the big sort, social clustering has led to these new social formations, and as such, they must be studied with a new lens. Theoretically, the authors suggest that David Ricardo and Alfred Marshall have something to offer concerning the value of land itself in a society that has shifted from production relationships toward the valorization of place. They suggest that Marx, through positing a dialectical relationship between labor and capital, covers over the lasting persistence of the living agency of soil and place in the categorization of value. Contemporary Marxist geographer David Harvey supports their contention that land value plays an independent role in valorizing place. The philosophical basis for the book is the aesthetic disposition of place. This dimension is brought forth through the use of Kantian notions of categories of judgment and Gestalt theory. The idea that the object world of places informs one’s dispositions (‘‘affordances’’) is an important contribution to theory on the cultural effect of place. The authors could have gone a step further to include Actor Network Theory and the aesthetic potential of things on action, but the way they assert that a situated gestural economy of action varies along the lines of aesthetic scenes is a strong one. It is in this way that they conceptualize their idea of a New Chicago School that is both ecological and place based but based on amenities and aesthetics. The broad brush with which they paint scenes is a useful one; for instance, they don’t relegate 716 Reviews

Living at the Edges of Capitalism: Adventures in Exile and Mutual Aid

Abstract: of adult children’s duty towards aging parents. Women’s ideas become more traditional in this regard as they age, but both period and cohort effects nevertheless indicate declining support for close intergenerational relations. In contrast, attitudes toward traditional gender relations do not show a unilinear pattern of change. While the life-cycle effect is similar to that for intergenerational relations, gender-role attitudes became less traditional between 1993 and 2003 and reversed course after that. As Fukuda states, ‘‘gender-relation attitudes do not show a consistent shift among birth cohorts and survey periods’’ (p. 149). This finding mirrors Japanese media reports of opinion polls showing a slight return to more conservative gender-role attitudes in the past decade. Fukuda also examines the effect of marriage and childbearing on changes in gender-role attitudes and family-related attitudes. These analyses do not always yield clear results, and men’s attitudes in particular seem to vary over time in ways that are not very clear. Here, the often-found clustering of Japanese respondents into a middle ‘‘uncertain’’ or ‘‘neutral’’ category may be one source of difficult-to-interpret results. The clearest and most important finding of Fukuda’s analysis of how family events impact attitudes is that women tend to become more gender-role conservative after the birth of their first child. Several important questions remain unanswered in the book. To be clear, these are questions that Fukuda not only does not answer but also does not raise. I mention them here because of their great importance for understanding change in Japanese marriage and fertility behavior and, by implication, for interpreting Japan’s ‘‘low-fertility’’ trap. First, the book provides few clues as to why the proportion of never-married men and women has increased so dramatically in Japan over the past few decades. Given that so little childbearing in Japan occurs outside of marriage, this is a crucial issue to address in studying Japan’s very low birth rate. Second, the book includes virtually no discussion of the institutional context that inhibits work-family balance, working hours and organizational expectations for men and women in full-time jobs, or the dramatic labor market changes that have pushed more workers into non-standard, insecure jobs in Japan since the early 1990s. In focusing exclusively on articulating economic and value-based theories within a rational action framework and juxtaposing them as competing explanations, Fukuda neglects to consider how the institutional context (labor market structure, work norms, and family policies) as well as dramatic economic change provide the context for individuals’ decisions. As a result, the book does not offer insight into these macro-level features of the Japanese context to readers unfamiliar with them. This is a missed opportunity, one that results from Fukuda’s inclination to stick so closely to micro-level data sets and shy away from broader contextualization. In sum, the main contribution of Fukuda’s book is the detail it offers on how Japanese marriage and fertility behavior varies by individuals’ values and by the demographic correlates we conventionally care about the most: age, education, income, and occupation. Most of all, the book conveys that the path of family change in Japan is complex and that any path toward increasing the fertility rate is not likely to be straightforward.

Sentencing Fragments: Penal Reform in America, 1975–2025:

Abstract: The ebb and flow of sentencing policy track American attitudes toward public safety. Indeed, the disputes over sentencing policy in the twenty-first century encompass, and in some cases act as a proxy for, many of the larger philosophical and practical debates taking place within public policy. For example, beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, increases in drug abuse triggered policy responses that significantly contributed to incarceration rates and aggravated simmering racial disparities. In spite of these ideological shifts toward hardline retributivism, subsequent falling crime rates and the fiscal and moral pressures of overincarceration have encouraged a reconsideration of the rehabilitative role of sanctions, with a renewed interest in diversion and non-custodial punishments. Sentencing policy, which often reflects normative views on race, poverty, equity, and fiscal priorities, serves as a lens through which the structure and priorities of American public policy can be dissected and critically examined. In Sentencing Fragments: Penal Reform in America, 1975–2025, Michael Tonry provides clear insight into the current state of sentencing in the United States and the often torturous path that led here. By the fifth word, Tonry’s perspective on the state of affairs is clear: we are in the midst of a ‘‘disaster,’’ with a subsequent laundry list of critical adjectives elaborating on just how injurious the system can be. Organized into thematic sections, Fragments addresses the weight of the challenges in sentencing within broader public discourses (‘‘Matters,’’ Chapter 1), before contemplating the key constituent elements of the system: the patchwork quilt of rules and goals that are in place nationwide (‘‘Fragments,’’ Chapter 2) and the often overemphasized national elephant in the room (‘‘Federal,’’ Chapter 3). The text then shifts to a consideration of the ‘‘why’’ of modern sentencing, the ‘‘Theories’’ (Chapter 4) and ‘‘Principles’’ (Chapter 5) that have been used to justify the modern penal machine, and concludes with an assessment of what may lie in store in the next decades (‘‘Futures,’’ Chapter 6). As a whole, the book provides a data-informed overview of the modern era of sentencing and sets the stage for what may come next. Fragments provides a strong foundation for contextualizing many of the modern challenges in criminal justice. The text traces the macro-level, non-linear development of sentencing policy with a focus on the trends that are now manifest: incarceration rates, life without parole (LWOP), three strikes, racial disparities, and restorative justice, among others. From this perspective, the ubiquitous influences of ideologies, from both the right and the left, become as visible as rivers and roads on a map. At the same time, this perspective leaves less time for the explanation of the intricate mechanics of the sentencing processes. Readers unfamiliar with the relevant empirical and legal literatures will need to look elsewhere for deeper exposition on bedrock concepts (e.g., why the Blakely/Booker line of U.S. Supreme Court cases was a challenge for many state guidelines, or the twisted relationships between discretionary parole, truth-in-sentencing laws, and indeterminate sentencing systems). Throughout the course of the text, the focus gradually moves toward broader ideals, with emphasis being placed first on empirical evidence and then on descriptive and reflective policy analysis before turning to the philosophical justifications for modern punishment. Fragments concludes with predictions and goals for the future. The developmental process provides for a change in perspective. Domestic sentencing policy is weighed not just against its own past, but against the aspirational and philosophical goals that could be within reach, in the short and 362 Reviews

French SociologyFrench Sociology, by HeilbronJohan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015. 271 pp. $27.95 paper. ISBN: 9780801456633.

Abstract: ‘‘orthogenic shifts,’’ he is able to develop this line of argument. His best example of an ‘‘orthogenic shift’’ is his description of the process of urbanization. By showing how the emergence of cities and towns impacts humans’ relationship with infectious disease, Hardt is able to show how a change in social structure is able to alter the ecological balance between humans and microbes. Likewise, his related concepts of an ‘‘urban death penalty’’ and ‘‘urban life advantage’’ also are useful in understanding how long-term social changes can shape mortality patterns. The value of these contributions is undercut by the undisciplined nature of Hardt’s book. His work is not clearly organized, and the reader is often required to work at making the theoretical connections that Hardt implies. Each chapter is split into many different sections, and sometimes the links between those sections are unclear. For example, in Chapter Two, ‘‘Origins of the Urban Death Penalty,’’ in twenty pages Hardt discusses topics ranging from the conceptualization of the urban death penalty, how the development of cities impacts rates of disease, the role culture plays in disease susceptibility, the role disease played in the conquest of the Americas, the Aztecs’ experience of cultural anomie after conquest, the experience of disease in seventeenth-century England, a comparison between the disease experiences of the West and Asia, an analysis of classical and contemporary social theories of urbanization, the ‘‘domino theory of disease eradication,’’ and, finally, an analysis of the impact of SARS and pandemic influenza. As each chapter tackles many different issues, some of those topics remain underdeveloped. Overall, Hardt’s book is intriguing and his approach is at times original, but its unsystematic style diminishes its full potential. French Sociology, by Johan Heilbron. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015. 271 pp. $27.95 paper. ISBN: 9780801456633.