Showing papers in "Review of Sociology in 2017"
TL;DR: This paper integrated sociological, neuroscience, epigenetic, and psychological evidence to build a model of early-childhood developmental mechanisms contributing to intergenerational poverty, which captures ways in which social structures interact with biological characteristics and systems to shape life trajectories.
Abstract: Why are children of poor parents more likely to be poor as adults than other children? Early-childhood adversities resulting from social structures and relationships impact children's bodily systems and brain development through recurrent stress. These socially patterned biological processes influence social reproduction. Social support and interventions can prevent or compensate for the early biological effects of toxic social environments. This article integrates sociological, neuroscience, epigenetic, and psychological evidence to build a model of early-childhood developmental mechanisms contributing to intergenerational poverty. This model captures ways in which social structures interact with biological characteristics and systems to shape life trajectories.
217 citations
TL;DR: This work discusses two major unresolved methodological concerns facing wealth research: how to address challenges to causal inference posed by wealth's cumulative nature and how to operationalize net worth, given its highly skewed nature.
Abstract: Research on wealth inequality and accumulation and the data upon which it relies have expanded substantially in the twenty-first century. While the field has experienced rapid growth, conceptual and methodological challenges remain. We begin by discussing two major unresolved methodological concerns facing wealth research: how to address challenges to causal inference posed by wealth's cumulative nature and how to operationalize net worth, given its highly skewed nature. To underscore the need for continued empirical attention to net worth, we review trends in wealth levels and inequality and evaluate wealth's distinctiveness as an indicator of social stratification. Next, we provide an overview of data sources available for wealth research. We then review recent empirical evidence on the effects of wealth on other social outcomes, as well as research on the determinants of wealth. We close with a list of promising avenues for future research on wealth, its causes, and its consequences.
187 citations
TL;DR: The authors examine a vast, interdisciplinary, and increasingly global literature concerning skin color and colorism, which are related to status throughout the world, and document the growing methodological attention to measurements of skin colour and social science data that incorporate skin color measures.
Abstract: We examine a vast, interdisciplinary, and increasingly global literature concerning skin color and colorism, which are related to status throughout the world. The vast majority of research has investigated Western societies, where color and colorism have been closely related to race and racism. In Latin America, the two sets of concepts have particularly overlapped. In the rest of the world, particularly in Asia, color and colorism have also been important but have evolved separately from the relatively new concepts of race and racism. In recent years, however, color consciousness and white supremacy appear to have been increasingly united, globalized, and commodified, as exemplified by the global multibillion-dollar skin-lightening industry. Finally, we document the growing methodological attention to measurements of skin color and social science data that incorporate skin color measures.
170 citations
TL;DR: The first form of network sampling, multiplicity sampling, involved asking respondents about events affecting those in their personal networks; it was subsequently applied to studies of homicide, HIV, and other topics, but its usefulness is limited to public events as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Network sampling emerged as a set of methods for drawing statistically valid samples of hard-to-reach populations. The first form of network sampling, multiplicity sampling, involved asking respondents about events affecting those in their personal networks; it was subsequently applied to studies of homicide, HIV, and other topics, but its usefulness is limited to public events. Link-tracing designs employ a different approach to study hard-to-reach populations, using a set of respondents that expands in waves as each round of respondents recruit their peers. Link-tracing as applied to hidden populations, often described as snowball sampling, was initially considered a form of convenience sampling. This changed with the development of respondent-driven sampling (RDS), a widely used network sampling method in which the link-tracing design is adapted to provide the basis for statistical inference. The literature on RDS is large and rapidly expanding, involving contributions by numerous independent research ...
169 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that there is enormous potential in using big data to study a variety of phenomena that remain difficult to observe, however, there are some recurring vulnerabilities that should be addressed.
Abstract: Social life increasingly occurs in digital environments and continues to be mediated by digital systems Big data represents the data being generated by the digitization of social life, which we break down into three domains: digital life, digital traces, and digitalized life We argue that there is enormous potential in using big data to study a variety of phenomena that remain difficult to observe However, there are some recurring vulnerabilities that should be addressed We also outline the role institutions must play in clarifying the ethical rules of the road Finally, we conclude by pointing to a few trends that are not yet common in research using big data but will play an increasing role in it Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology Volume 43 is July 30, 2017 Please see http://wwwannualreviewsorg/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates
163 citations
TL;DR: This review argues that a sociologically sophisticated understanding of replication must address both the ways that replication rules and conventions evolved within an epistemic culture and how those cultures are shaped by specific research challenges.
Abstract: Across the medical and social sciences, new discussions about replication have led to transformations in research practice. Sociologists, however, have been largely absent from these discussions. The goals of this review are to introduce sociologists to these developments, synthesize insights from science studies about replication in general, and detail the specific issues regarding replication that occur in sociology. The first half of the article argues that a sociologically sophisticated understanding of replication must address both the ways that replication rules and conventions evolved within an epistemic culture and how those cultures are shaped by specific research challenges. The second half outlines the four main dimensions of replicability in quantitative sociology—verifiability, robustness, repeatability, and generalizability—and discusses the specific ambiguities of interpretation that can arise in each. We conclude by advocating some commonsense changes to promote replication while acknowled...
149 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that this categorical inequality frame helps to resolve a fundamental tension in the sociology of education and inequality, shedding light on how schools can-at once-be egalitarian institutions and agents of inequality.
Abstract: Despite their egalitarian ethos, schools are social sorting machines, creating categories that serve as the foundation of later life inequalities. In this review, we apply the theory of categorical inequality to education, focusing particularly on contemporary American schools. We discuss the range of categories that schools create, adopt, and reinforce, as well as the mechanisms through which these categories contribute to production of inequalities within schools and beyond. We argue that this categorical inequality frame helps to resolve a fundamental tension in the sociology of education and inequality, shedding light on how schools can—at once—be egalitarian institutions and agents of inequality. By applying the notion of categorical inequality to schools, we provide a set of conceptual tools that can help researchers understand, measure, and evaluate the ways in which schools structure social inequality.
134 citations
TL;DR: The aim in this article is to provide an overview of selected ideas, models, and data sources from decision research that can fuel new lines of inquiry on how socially situated actors navigate both everyday and major life choices.
Abstract: Over the past half century, scholars in the interdisciplinary field of judgment and decision making have amassed a trove of findings, theories, and prescriptions regarding the processes ordinary people enact when making choices. This body of knowledge, however, has had little influence on sociology. Sociological research on choice emphasizes how features of the social environment shape individual outcomes, not people's underlying decision processes. Our aim in this article is to provide an overview of selected ideas, models, and data sources from decision research that can fuel new lines of inquiry into how socially situated actors navigate both everyday and major life choices. We also highlight opportunities and challenges for cross-fertilization between sociology and decision research that can allow each field to expand its range of inquiry.
132 citations
TL;DR: The origin of this framework and its evolution over time are described, and the empirical fit of the framework to major changes in demographic and family behavior in the U.S., the West, and beyond is reviewed.
Abstract: References to the second demographic transition (SDT) have increased dramatically in the past two decades. The SDT predicts unilinear change toward very low fertility and a diversity of union and family types. The primary driver of these changes is a powerful, inevitable, and irreversible shift in attitudes and norms in the direction of greater individual freedom and self-actualization. First, we describe the origin of this framework and its evolution over time. Second, we review the empirical fit of the framework to major changes in demographic and family behavior in the United States, the West, and beyond. As has been the case for other unilinear, developmental theories of demographic or family change, the SDT failed to predict many contemporary patterns of change and difference. Finally, we review previous critiques and identify fundamental weaknesses of this perspective, and we provide brief comparisons to selected alternative approaches.
124 citations
TL;DR: Contemporary sociology offers competing images of the breadth and consequences of gentrification One subset presents gentrification as a nearly unstoppable force that plays a prominent role in the spatial reorganization of urban life; another presents it as less monolithic and less momentous for marginalized residents, particularly racial minorities as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Contemporary sociology offers competing images of the breadth and consequences of gentrification One subset presents gentrification as a nearly unstoppable force that plays a prominent role in the spatial reorganization of urban life; another presents it as less monolithic and less momentous for marginalized residents, particularly racial minorities Although neither camp is methodologically homogenous, more qualitative scholars, typically relying on micro-level analyses of individual neighborhoods, tend to present gentrification as increasingly endemic, advanced, and consequential, whereas more quantitative scholars, typically relying on macro analyses, tend to present it in less dire terms These competing images of gentrification originate in the fact that each subset of research asks different questions, employs distinct methods, and produces particular answers Exacerbating and partially driving these divergences are different responses to an anxiety within and beyond the academy about broader spati
116 citations
TL;DR: The field of transgender studies has grown exponentially in sociology over the last decade as mentioned in this paper, and three major areas of study represent the current state of the field: research that explores the diversity of transgender people identities and social locations, research that examines transgender people's experiences within institutional and organizational contexts, and research that presents quantitative approaches to transgender people' identities and experiences.
Abstract: The field of transgender studies has grown exponentially in sociology over the last decade. In this review, we track the development of this field through a critical overview of the sociological scholarship from the last 50 years. We identify two major paradigms that have characterized this research: a focus on gender deviance (1960s–1990s) and a focus on gender difference (1990s–present). We then examine three major areas of study that represent the current state of the field: research that explores the diversity of transgender people's identities and social locations, research that examines transgender people's experiences within institutional and organizational contexts, and research that presents quantitative approaches to transgender people's identities and experiences. We conclude with an agenda for future areas of inquiry.
TL;DR: Persistent stratification is found in doctoral and professional education, including pronounced educational inheritance and disparities in participation and degree attainment by race/ethnicity and gender.
Abstract: Graduate and professional education play an increasingly important role in economic inequality and elite formation in the United States, but sociologists have not subjected stratification in and through graduate education to the same level of scrutiny recently applied to undergraduate and subbaccalaureate education. In this review, we discuss how prominent stratification theories might be extended to studies of the role of graduate and professional education, and we review research about stratification at junctures along student pathways into and through postbaccalaureate education to the labor market. Especially in doctoral and professional education, we find persistent stratification, including pronounced educational inheritance and disparities in participation and degree attainment by race/ethnicity and gender. We propose future directions for inquiry, highlighting unanswered questions and conceptual issues concerning how the field of and pathways through postbaccalaureate education contribute to socia...
TL;DR: In this article, the survey profession's response to these challenges and developments to enhance and extend the survey tool is reviewed, and the survey remains a robust and flexible method for collecting data on, and making inference to, populations.
Abstract: This review focuses on recent methodological and technological developments in survey data collection. Surveys are facing unprecedented challenges from both societal and technological changes. Against this backdrop, I review the survey profession's response to these challenges and developments to enhance and extend the survey tool. I discuss the decline in random digit dialing and the rise of address-based sampling, along with the corresponding shift from telephone surveys to self-administered (mail and/or Web) modes. I discuss the rise in nonprobability sampling approaches, especially those associated with online data collection. I also review so-called big data alternatives to surveys. Finally, I discuss a number of recent methodological and technological trends designed to modernize the survey method. I conclude that although they face a number of major challenges, surveys remain a robust and flexible method for collecting data on, and making inference to, populations.
TL;DR: The authors consider the sociology of the demand side by considering three sources of information (human, social, and cultural capital) that employers charged with making hiring decisions seek out, as well as the mechanisms associated with each source.
Abstract: Sociological research on labor markets has focused most of its attention on the supply side of the labor market, that is, the characteristics of job seekers and job incumbents. Despite its pivotal and we believe primary role in labor market processes, the demand side, in particular the hiring decisions made by employers, has received less attention. The employment relationship, however, comprises both the demand and supply sides, as well as the matching processes that bring these together. We consider the sociology of the demand side by considering three sources of information (human, social, and cultural capital) that employers charged with making hiring decisions seek out, as well as the mechanisms associated with each source. We conceptualize employers as active agents whose hiring behavior is both constrained and enabled by larger social, organizational, and institutional contexts. We call for a program of research that will lead to a fuller empirical and theoretical understanding of employer hiring b...
TL;DR: This article reviewed a wide range of field experiments from across the social sciences with an eye to those that adopt virtuous practices, including unobtrusive measurement, naturalistic interventions, attention to realistic outcomes and consequential behaviors, and application to diverse samples and settings.
Abstract: Using field experiments, scholars can identify causal effects via randomization while studying people and groups in their naturally occurring contexts. In light of renewed interest in field experimental methods, this review covers a wide range of field experiments from across the social sciences, with an eye to those that adopt virtuous practices, including unobtrusive measurement, naturalistic interventions, attention to realistic outcomes and consequential behaviors, and application to diverse samples and settings. The review covers four broad research areas of substantive and policy interest: first, randomized controlled trials, with a focus on policy interventions in economic development, poverty reduction, and education; second, experiments on the role that norms, motivations, and incentives play in shaping behavior; third, experiments on political mobilization, social influence, and institutional effects; and fourth, experiments on prejudice and discrimination. We discuss methodological issues conce...
TL;DR: In this paper, an overview of different methods, their history, and their strengths and weaknesses as applied to the study of digital technologies, including ethnographic approaches, interviews, surveys, time and media diaries, trace data, and online experiments.
Abstract: The methodological tool chest available to those who study digital technologies ranges from those that are uniquely digital methods to approaches that are well established in the social sciences. This domain of work includes the application of methods to answer questions about the relationship between digital technologies and the social world, as well as the use of digital methods to answer questions about the offline world. New or old, quantitative or qualitative, the methods used to study the digital have strengths and weaknesses unique to this area of research. These issues include questions about the scope of cyberethnography, the validity of trace data, and the analytical division between on- and offline interaction. This review focuses on an overview of different methods, their history, and their strengths and weaknesses as applied to the study of digital technologies, including ethnographic approaches, interviews, surveys, time and media diaries, trace data, and online experiments.
TL;DR: The authors distinguish between types of electoral and corporate quotas, trace arguments for and against the adoption of quotas, and review research on factors that influence quota adoption across time and space, and provide several suggestions to ensure that future research continues to advance our understanding of the form, spread, and impact of gender quotas.
Abstract: The global proliferation of quotas for women over the past 30 years is both remarkable and consequential. Targeting decision-making positions historically resistant to women’s equal inclusion, the adoption of electoral and corporate board quotas has at times been controversial. After adoption, quotas have influenced women’s numbers, the performance and outcomes of decision-making bodies, and broader public attitudes. In this review, we distinguish among types of electoral and corporate quotas, trace arguments for and against the adoption of quotas, and review research on factors that influence quota adoption across time and space. After outlining the methodological difficulties in demonstrating an impact of gender quotas, we review research that is able to isolate an impact of quotas in politics and business. We conclude by providing several suggestions to ensure that future research continues to advance our understanding of the form, spread, and impact of gender quotas. Expected final online publication ...
TL;DR: The authors have made important contributions to its understanding by drawing attention to the social bases of philanthropy, through the study of micro-, meso-, and macro-level factors that explain variation in philanthropy; the specification of the institutional and legal arrangements that permit philanthropy.
Abstract: Philanthropy—private giving for public purposes by individuals, corporations, and foundations—is a widespread activity. Scholarship on philanthropy is long-standing and can be traced to competing theorizations of gift-giving, wherein the gift has been framed as a case of altruism, self-interest, or reciprocity. Much of the resulting scholarship, in the disciplines of anthropology, economics, evolutionary biology, and psychology, has retained a focus on emphasizing actors’ motivations for the scope and scale of philanthropy. Although sociologists have entered into the study of philanthropy more recently, they nonetheless have made important contributions to its understanding by drawing attention to the social bases of philanthropy. Sociologists have done so through the study of the micro-, meso-, and macro-level factors that explain variation in philanthropy; the specification of the institutional and legal arrangements that permit philanthropy; and the delineation of the social contexts that shape the dir...
TL;DR: Theoretizing is of a practical nature, it draws on a number of basic theorizing tools (such as abduction, abstraction, and analogy), and the area covered by theorizing is considerably larger than that of conventional theory as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: During the last few years a number of articles and books have appeared that signal the emergence of a novel approach to the role of theory in sociology. Instead of equating theory with important studies, the main focus of this approach is how to use theory in ongoing empirical research and especially what happens before the presentation of the results. The key task is to empower the individual researcher to do better research. A word that keeps recurring, and that can also be said to summarize this approach, is theorizing. Three core ideas of this approach are discussed: Theorizing is of a practical nature, it draws on a number of basic theorizing tools (such as abduction, abstraction, and analogy), and the area covered by theorizing is considerably larger than that of conventional theory. If successful, the approach of theorizing would demand a much more active and central role for the theoretician in sociology.
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of privacy in maintaining social order and inequality in information and communication technology has been explored, and the connections of privacy with social control and with group cohesion have been discussed.
Abstract: What are, and what should be, the boundaries between self and society, individuals and groups? To address these questions, we synthesize research on privacy that is relevant for two foundational sociological issues: social order and inequality. By synthesizing work on a narrow yet fundamental set of issues, we aim to improve our understanding of privacy as well as provide a foundation for understanding contemporary privacy issues associated with information and communication technology. We explore the role of privacy in maintaining social order by examining the connections of privacy with social control and with group cohesion. We also discuss how inequality produces variation in privacy and how this variation in turn contributes to inequality. Throughout the review we identify potential directions for sociological research on privacy generally and in the context of new technologies. Our discussion highlights implications of privacy that extend beyond individual-level concerns to broader social, structura...
TL;DR: The remarkable transformation of the American social safety net that began in the early 1990s has led to seismic shifts in who benefits and how as mentioned in this paper, with mounting evidence of positive long-term benefits for child health and development.
Abstract: The remarkable transformation of the American social safety net that began in the early 1990s has led to seismic shifts in who benefits and how. More than two decades later, how should these changes be judged? Expanding and updating prior influential reviews, we evaluate how the transformation of the safety net—broadly defined—has shaped economic and family dynamics within low-income households. Collectively, social safety net policies have expanded support for working poor parents quite dramatically, while the cash safety net for the nonworking poor has all but collapsed. Working poor families have come out ahead economically, with mounting evidence of positive long-term benefits for child health and development. At the same time, a substantial number of poor families have fallen through the cracks, disconnected from stable, adequate wage income and cash aid. A growing number report income so low that it can be tracked with indicators used to measure poverty in the developing world. Meanwhile, contrary t...
TL;DR: These new studies reflect the increasing availability of genealogical microdata that provide information about ancestors and kin over three or more generations, and are valuable resources for social research on family, population, and stratification in a multigenerational perspective.
Abstract: Despite long-standing recognition of the importance of family background in shaping life outcomes, only recently have empirical studies in demography, stratification, and other areas begun to consider the influence of kin other than parents. These new studies reflect the increasing availability of genealogical microdata that provide information about ancestors and kin over three or more generations. These data sets, including family genealogies, linked vital registration records, population registers, longitudinal surveys, and other sources, are valuable resources for social research on family, population, and stratification in a multigenerational perspective. This article reviews relevant recent studies, introduces and presents examples of the most important sources of genealogical microdata, identifies key methodological issues in the construction and analysis of genealogical data, and suggests directions for future research.
TL;DR: A recent review as mentioned in this paper discusses contemporary developments in qualitative research on race, crime, and criminal justice focusing on ethnographic studies of race and policing, criminal justice, prisons, and mass incarceration.
Abstract: This review discusses contemporary developments in qualitative research on race, crime, and criminal justice, focusing on ethnographic studies of race and policing, criminal justice, prisons, and mass incarceration. These ethnographies inform us about the day-to-day contexts in which crime, law, and punishment are produced. They help to make visible structures of power that contribute to inequality, push for a more reflexive approach to ethnography, and sophisticate our understanding of culture. A methodological paradigm has emerged that informs the research process and helps us understand the root causes and consequences of some of the most pressing issues in the United States: race and racism in the justice system, police harassment, police violence, police–community relations, antiauthoritarian social movements, crime prevention, and reentry. This body of scholarship is collectively developing a more reflexive paradigm in ethnography, which we term the sociological double-consciousness approach.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the current state of knowledge on the effects of social networks for four central macrohistorical outcomes: civil uprising, state formation, global and national policy formation and diffusion, and economic development and increasing inequality.
Abstract: Social networks are heavily implicated in large-scale social transformations. They are both transformed and transformative. We review the ways in which social networks act as agents of change in macrohistorical processes, stressing two distinct theoretical approaches. Formalism analyzes the structure of networks. Relationalism evaluates the linking properties of networks. Using these two approaches to organize the literature, we present the current state of knowledge on the effects of social networks for four central macrohistorical outcomes: civil uprising, state formation, global and national policy formation and diffusion, and economic development and increasing inequality. We then consider new theoretical advances in institutional emergence and methodological innovations in computational modeling and their potential for reconciling and advancing existing findings and approaches on the effects of social networks on macrosocial change.
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TL;DR: In this paper, an autobiographical account of her life and accomplishments is presented. But, as I think about my life and achievements, I know full well that they are way out of my league.
Abstract: There has lately been a slew of movies—biopics—that depict the lives of immensely talented individuals—the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, the cryptographer and computing pioneer Alan Turing, the physicist extraordinaire Stephen Hawking, and the southern-born novelist Thomas Wolfe, among others. As I think about my life and accomplishments, I know full well that they are way out of my league. All the same, I offer the following autobiographical account.