New Publication: “Jurisdictional Gerrymandering: The Authority of Problems without Solutions” by Shira Zilberstein

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Zilberstein, Shira. 2026. “Jurisdictional Gerrymandering: The Authority of Problems without Solutions.” Social Problems. doi:10.1093/socpro/spag024

Abstract: This paper develops the concept of jurisdictional gerrymandering to explain how professionals selectively invoke boundaries around their expertise to frame their role and maintain authority in solving problems that extend beyond their jurisdiction. Drawing on a study of artificial intelligence (AI) model development for healthcare, I analyze how AI practitioners position their work in relation to health equity, an issue they acknowledge cannot be solved through technology. Rather than claiming full authority over equity solutions or deferring to other domains, AI practitioners engage in jurisdictional gerrymandering by critiquing, projecting, and dissolving jurisdiction for different aspects of defining and solving health equity. This process enables them to retain authority to participate in health equity problem solving through moral alignment without accountability for solutions. In contrast to jurisdictional models of professional authority or networked expertise, jurisdictional gerrymandering unbundles defining and solving problems. It reveals a key mechanism through which authority is maintained without asserting control or claiming to be able to achieve solutions. Jurisdictional gerrymandering enables problem frames to continually serve as justifications for technological projects and expert interventions regardless of solutions, shedding light on tensions between innovation, expertise, and responsibility for social problems.

Shira Zilberstein is a PhD candidate in sociology at Harvard University and a fellow in the Science and Technology Studies program at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her research focuses on cultural sociology, science and technology studies and organizations, as well as theory and methods. She is interested in the production, interpretation and evaluation of ideas and the dynamics between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forms of knowledge in institutional and technical settings. To this end, she has conducted research on grassroots artists, international non-governmental organizations, American college students, academics and journalists. Her dissertation focuses on applied interdisciplinary research collaborations in the field of artificial intelligence. The project studies the ways in which social impact is understood and structured by organizational incentives and decision-making processes that define and seek to address social needs.

New Publication: “The (State–Private) Ties That Bind: Status, Interactions, and Economic Development in India” by Aruna Ranganathan & Laura Doering

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Ranganathan, Aruna, and Laura Doering. 2026. “The (State–Private) Ties That Bind: Status, Interactions, and Economic Development in India.” Sociology of Development 1–31. doi:10.1525/sod.2026.2893447.

Abstract: Governments often collaborate with the private sector to design and implement major economic initiatives. In studying such state–society collaborations, sociologists tend to focus on how institutional contexts shape outcomes. Although this institutional approach has been highly generative, it can overlook important micro-level interaction patterns between state and private-sector actors that also affect economic outcomes. In this study, we examine how bureaucrats in the Indian government interacted with private-sector representatives to design and implement an industrial crafts park. Drawing on ethnographic observations, interviews, and supplemental survey data, we show how bureaucrats’ status biases in favor of certain private-sector actors produced interaction patterns that blinded them to fatal flaws in the project’s design and ultimately contributed to its dramatic failure. By bringing an interactionist lens to state–society economic engagements, this study reveals how interaction patterns can aggregate to shape large-scale development outcomes. More broadly, it highlights an important but undertheorized pathway through which bureaucrats may inadvertently reinforce social stratification through the very projects intended to reduce economic inequality. We suggest that an interactionist approach to state–private collaborations and policy design can contribute to efforts to address global poverty.

Aruna Ranganathan holds the Dong Koo Kim Chancellor’s Chair in Social Entrepreneurship and is an Associate Professor at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. Prof. Ranganathan is also affiliated with the Sociology department and the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley. She was formerly an associate professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University. Ranganathan spent her childhood in the Middle East, India, and Singapore before graduating with honors from the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business with a BCom in organizational behavior and human resources. She also received an MS in international and comparative labor from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and an MS/PhD in management from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Laura Doering is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management and is cross-appointed in the Department of Sociology. As an economic sociologist, she examines how interactions and social psychological processes shape outcomes for households, organizations, and markets. Her research has been published in the American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Sociological Science, Sociology of Development, and Journal of Business Venturing. Professor Doering’s research and writing have appeared in The New York Times, BBC News, The Globe and Mail, Salon, and other outlets.

New Publication: “Varieties of Capitalism and Cross-national Variation in Fertility Rates”

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Movahed, Masoud, and Emilio A. Parrado. 2026. “Varieties of Capitalism and Cross-national Variation in Fertility Rates.” Demography 63 (2): 511–536. https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-12563895.

Abstract: The institutional approach to explaining cross-national variation in demographic outcomes has gained increasing visibility in both academic research and public policy discourse. In this vein, much of the literature has focused on the effects of welfare programs on risk management and the associated costs of fertility. However, an alternative, more comprehensive perspective, namely, the “varieties of capitalism,” emphasizes the role of broader social-structural and institutional characteristics of national economies in generating socioeconomic outcomes. This perspective has not been extended to debates around cross-national differences in demographic outcomes. We fill this void by elaborating on a varieties of capitalism account of cross-national and longitudinal variation in fertility rates. Drawing on panel data spanning more than three decades (1985‒2019) across 21 countries in the Global North, we investigate how institutional factors, through the lens of the varieties of capitalism perspective, correlate with differences in total fertility rates between countries and over time. Our results demonstrate that crucial institutional dimensions, such as centralization of wage bargaining, the employment protection index, and active labor market policies, are associated with variation in total fertility rates across countries and over time.

Authors:

  • Masoud Movahed is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
  • Emilio A. Parrado is Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology and Director of Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Call for Abstracts: Research Symposium on Young People’s Access to Social Rights

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The EU–Council of Europe Youth Partnership invites submissions for its upcoming Research Symposium: Young People’s Access to Social Rights, which will take place in Strasbourg, France, from September 15–17, 2026.

The symposium seeks research contributions examining young people’s access to social rights, with particular interest in work adopting a European, cross-national, or comparative perspective.

Possible themes include:

  • Access to social protection and quality public services
  • Access to education and training
  • Access to health services
  • Access to housing
  • Access to employment
  • Access to participation
  • Access to social rights for minority social groups
  • Access to sport, leisure, and culture

The deadline for abstract submissions is May 31, 2026.

For additional information and submission details, please see the links below:

For questions about the symposium, please contact Maria-Carmen Pantea, Chair of the Scientific Committee, at maria.pantea@ubbcluj.ro.

New Publication: “The Foundational Role of Legal Status Categories in Stratifying Job Loss Outcomes”

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Protasiuk, Ewa. 2026. “The Foundational Role of Legal Status Categories in Stratifying Job Loss Outcomes.” Social Problems. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spag014

Abstract: Job loss is a common, stratifying experience in the contemporary labor market, but scholars have undertheorized its relationship to a major axis of inequality: legal status. To bridge this gap, this paper uses qualitative data from interviews and participant observation to compare outcomes after job loss among 76 restaurant workers in three different legal status categories (U.S.-born citizens, immigrants who are legally authorized to work, and immigrants without this authorization). Situated amidst a discussion of unemployment regulations and legal status categories as sites of governance and stratification, my findings point to two mechanisms of legal status-based stratification among unemployed workers. First, legal status directly determines eligibility for unemployment relief. Second, legal status divergently shapes interactions with the unemployment relief system due to differing risks of legal violence associated with distinct statuses. I show that, through these mechanisms, legal status stratifies workers’ agency over the timing and conditions of their return to work after job loss. I also discuss gendered patterns within legal status categories. These findings extend the framework of unemployment as a socially stratifying institution, integrate legal status into theories of gender in unemployment stratification, and contribute to literatures on immigrant job loss as well as immigration and stratification.

Author: Ewa Protasiuk is an incoming Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Announcement: Join the Socio-Economic Review (SER) Café Event on May 26, 2026, via Zoom

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Join us for the next SER Café event on the theme “Financialization and the Reproduction of Inequality.” This one-hour Zoom session will feature a discussion with recent Socio-Economic Review authors Angelina Grigoryeva (University of Toronto), and Bruno Bonizzi (City St George’s, University of London).

In her 2025 article “The shift to stock-based compensation and gender inequality in wealth in the United States”, Angelina Grigoryeva uses Survey of Consumer Finances data to show that stock-based compensation, though a more powerful vehicle for wealth accumulation than regular wages, disproportionately benefits men—especially at the top of the wealth distributions.

The second article “Pension financialization and workplace pension wealth inequality: evidence from Britain” by Bruno Bonizzi, Hulya Dagdeviren, and Benjamin Tippet, examines how the shift from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution pensions has reshaped pension wealth inequality in Britain. They identify four key channels through which DC pensions aggravate inequality—the inequality of pension contributions, lack of redistributive mechanisms, the compounding effects of missed contributions, and unequal capacity for financial risk. Bruno Bonizzi will join the discussion to represent the author team.

The event will take place on May 26, 2026 (Tuesday) at 10:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM CT / 1:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM UK time.
Please register at this link. 

As with all SER Café events, this session will prioritize dynamic conversation with the authors over lengthy presentations. Come ready to engage, ask questions, and discuss. Our authors look forward to your questions and comments.

Team SER Café (Ezgi, Fan, and Kyungmo)
Socio-Economic Review

Call for Papers: HJSR Special Issue 49 – Rural Action

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The Humboldt Journal of Social Relations (HJSR) invites submissions for its 2027 Special Issue 49, Rural Action in the United States: Community-Driven Strategies for Equity, Transformation and Participatory Research.

This special issue aims to advance scholarly and practice-based conversations about rural communities as dynamic sites of both structural inequity and transformative action. The editors welcome theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions examining the diverse forms, sites, and expressions of rural action across the United States.

Submission Information

  • Abstract deadline (250 words): June 30, 2026
  • Notification of selected abstracts: July 15, 2026
  • Full research articles (maximum 8,500 words) due: September 15, 2026
  • Commentaries and creative writing submissions (maximum 3,000 words) due: November 15, 2026

Abstracts should be sent to: hjsr@humboldt.edu

HJSR 2027 Co-Editors

  • Dawn Arledge, MA — California Center for Rural Policy
  • Nino Dzotsenidze, PhD — California Center for Rural Policy
  • Nick Ortiz, MA — California Center for Rural Policy

For additional information, please view the full call for papers here.

Announcement: Digital Statecraft and Political Economy in China Conference at UC Berkeley on May 8-9

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Digital Statecraft and Political Economy in China Conference
May 8-9, 2026
University of California, Berkeley
Conference website: www.dspeconference.com

Digital technologies, from big data, AI, and algorithmic governance to cloud computing and data infrastructures, are transforming how states drive development, govern society, exercise authority, and compete globally. This conference brings together fourteen in-depth qualitative studies that examine how state actors deploy digital tools in practice and how political institutions shape technological development.

Focusing on China as a strategically important and empirically challenging case, the conference showcases new ways to open the “black box” of digital governance beyond dominant computational methods and macro-level analyses. It advances a sociological agenda by showing how digitalization is reshaping core theories of the state and political economy, reconfiguring state capacity, bureaucratic operations, platform governance, and government–firm relations, while moving beyond conventional “digital authoritarianism” frameworks to foreground on-the-ground politics, institutional frictions, and organizational processes.

The papers engage broader debates on the transformation of the state under digitalization, the political economy of data, platforms, digital industries, and the shifting terrain of geopolitical competition.

Interdisciplinary and international in scope, the conference features scholars from four continents. It will be held at UC Berkeley and is open to the public, with both onsite and online participation. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for onsite attendees. Registration is required; online access details will be shared upon registration.

Register here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdqfT0H_0j6GL2RT50n_AQgHMcU37MKBoHqxDcDI0hv0knFpQ/viewform

Organizers:
Yan Long, UC Berkeley, Department of Sociology
Le Lin, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Department of Sociology
Zhifan Luo, McMaster University, Department of Sociology

Sponsors:
UC Berkeley Sociology Department, Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative, Fudan-UC Center

Contact
For questions regarding the conference, registration, or attendance, please contact the coordinator, Zhehang Zhang (UC Berkeley, Department of Sociology) at zhehang@berkeley.edu

Call for Papers for Special Issue: “Networks of Expertise: New Approaches to Study Professions and the Social Organization of Expert Labor”

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The Journal of Professions and Organization has a call for papers for a special issue on “Networks of Expertise: New Approaches to Study Professions and the Social Organization of Expert Labor.”

This special issue is dedicated to empirical and theoretical contributions that harness the innovative potential of the expanded lens of expertise networks. It particularly welcomes submissions that explore the specific contributions of this approach to the study of experts, professions, organizations, and past as well as ongoing shifts in the social organization of expertise. This includes contributions that elaborate on, develop, apply, or critique the network of expertise approach, and/or bring it into conversation with existing approaches to foster a deeper understanding of both continuities and discontinuities in the social organization of expertise. Contributions from varied national contexts, institutional and organizational settings, and types of expertise are equally encouraged. Questions of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • How do different groups of experts coordinate for approaching expert tasks and problems?
  • Under what conditions is trust in experts sustained or lost? Which types of performative work and expertise network structures are better suited to securing trust in expertise?
  • What are the societal preconditions and consequences of the changing nature of expertise?
  • How do organizations enable and constrain (alternative) expert performance, and what impact do new organizational demands and recent organizational forms, such as platform organizations, have?
  • What are the changes in the organization of expert labor following the introduction of new technologies (e.g., new energy sources and GenAI)? When is AI used to monitor or control expert work, when does it create new markets for expertise, and under what conditions does it become an alternative to professionalized expert opinion? 
  • What theories help us to better grasp the phenomenon of networked expertise, and what potential does the study of expertise offer for theorizing (including theorizing from so-called neglected cases (Krause 2021, 2024)?
  • What methodological “tools of the trade” are helpful for comprehensively mapping networks of expertise?

Timeline and Information

Abstract deadline: July 15, 2026 (1-2 pages)

Invitation from the special issue editors to submit full manuscripts: September 15, 2026

Full paper submission: March 15, 2027 (up to 10,000 words including all references, tables, and appendices)

Please submit abstracts to the special issue editors for initial review. When submitting full manuscripts, please follow the submission guidelines of The Journal of Professions and Organization and indicate that the manuscript is intended for the special issue “Networks of Expertise: New Approaches to Study Professions and the Social Organization of Expert Labor.”

For further information, authors are encouraged to contact the special issue editors:

Netta Avnoon (navnon@uwo.ca)

Désirée Waibel (desiree.waibel@unilu.ch)

Gil Eyal (ge2027@columbia.edu)

You can find more information at the Journal of Professions and Organization.

OOW Virtual Panel on Platform Work

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May 6th, 2-3 pm EDT (11am-noon PDT/ 7-8pm BDT)

We invite you to join our virtual panel on digital platform work featuring:

Dr. Elif Birced, Dr. Hatim Rahman, and Dr. Kathleen Griesbach.

Work on digital platforms has exploded in the past decade and continues to evolve with technology. Today, these platforms cover an ever-increasing range of jobs. This panel brings together research on various types of platform work, including content creation, professional services, and ride-hailing and delivery.  

Register for the Zoom link here: https://tinyurl.com/oowplatformpanel

Presenter Bios:

Elif Birced is a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT Sloan School of Management and Schwarzman College of Computing. Broady, her research is at the intersection of sociology of work, cultural production and social media. Specifically, she studies how technology is reshaping work, worker commitment, and control over work with a particular focus on social media platforms. She will be an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Villanova University, starting in Fall 2026. 

Hatim A. Rahman is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and Sociology (by courtesy) at Northwestern University. His research investigates how artificial intelligence is impacting the nature of work and employment relationships in organizations and labor markets. His award-winning book, Inside the Invisible Cage: How Algorithms Control Workers (University of California Press), investigates how digital labor platform organizations use algorithms to control workers’ job opportunities. 

Kathleen Griesbach is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is broadly interested in work and inequality, the significance of time and space for social experience, and the dynamic interplay between culture and economic life. Much of her research examines how temporal and spatial instability shape workers’ experiences, and how workers in turn pursue dignity, meaning, and a path forward amid economic instability. She received her PhD in Sociology from Columbia University and was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne.