A Section of the American Sociological Association
Author: Dilan Eren
I am a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at Boston University. I work at the intersection of work, occupations, and organizations by adopting a cultural sociology lens to examine topics of social inequality.
My dissertation, “The Self-Taught Economy: Open-Access and Inclusion in the Tech Industry,” studies how aspiring developers without a computer science degree make sense and use open-access to coding skills initiatives to get jobs in tech. I adopt a longitudinal perspective and use multiple methods (including surveys, in-depth interviews, and digital ethnography and observations) to understand how open access to coding initiatives may alter or not the existing regimes of inequalities and make tech more or less diverse.
The American Bar Foundation is currently accepting applications for two visitorship opportunities to join our diverse interdisciplinary community of sociolegal researchers:
The William H. Neukom Fellows Research Chair in Diversity and Law is a year-long residential appointment,awarded to an outstanding scholar with a distinguished record of empirical socio-legal research on diversity and law, broadly conceived. The Neukom Chair carries no formal teaching or service responsibilities; however, the successful candidate is expected to spend the fellowship year in residence at the ABF offices on Northwestern University’s downtown Chicago campus, and to participate in the ABF’s expanding program of research and dialogue on diversity and law. Along with office space, opportunities for collegial interaction, and library access, the Neukom Chair also receives a modest research allowance and a stipend of up to $100,000, which is intended to compensate for foregone salary and will be adjusted based on the candidate’s access to sabbatical pay and/or third-party funding. Applications for the 2024-25 Neukom Chair will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, beginning February 15 and continuing until the position is filled. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply at https://american-bar-foundation.breezy.hr/p/3f127096e16e-william-h-neukom-fellows-research-chair-in-diversity-and-law.
ABF Visiting Scholars join the ABF for all or part of the year. We encourage national and international scholars on leave or sabbatical to take advantage of our diverse socio-legal community and excellent facilities. ABF Visiting Scholars enjoy an office or workspace, opportunities for collegial interaction, and library access, but no stipend. Applications for our 2024-25 cohort of Visiting Scholars are open through March 1. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply at https://american-bar-foundation.breezy.hr/p/bd39aac50ff9-visiting-scholar.
Both positions are open to scholars in all social-science disciplines, law, and the social-science adjacent humanities, regardless of institutional appointment. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are integral to the ABF, so we enthusiastically encourage applicants from historically underrepresented groups and backgrounds.
More information about both opportunities can be found at the links above; but please feel free to contact Jessie Lowinger (jlowinger@abfn.org) if you have any questions.
The Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR) is seeking applicants for a new role, the Corporate Inclusion Index Project Manager. The Corporate Inclusion Index Project Manager will provide project management, research, and analytic support for the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility’s Research Institute’s (HRI) annual research initiative: the Corporate Inclusion Index™ (CII). The CII is a corporate accountability survey that assesses companies’ Hispanic inclusion efforts and outcomes and takes a comprehensive measurement of the business practices and corporate strategies of participating companies around HACR’s four pillars. The CII Project Manager will be responsible for executing all aspects of the CII. The CII Project Manager is expected to keep abreast of current research and identify appropriate methodologies and techniques to provide insights on the underlying business issues for the participants. The CII Project Manager will work closely with the Chief Research Officer to ensure that all work supports the organization’s overall advocacy and learning goals. This position is full-time, with flexibility in location with Washington, D.C. strongly preferred. HACR’s research advances knowledge on Hispanic inclusion, equity, and advancement in Corporate American for the public. Though the HRI, HACR publishes annual studies on the state of the Hispanic corporate inclusion related to our four pillars: Employment, Procurement, Philanthropy, and Governance. The HRI works to expand evidenced-based advocacy for inclusion and share best practices with Corporate America and to inform HACR’s other corporate engagement programs and initiatives.
About HACR: The Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR) is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization dedicated to advancing the inclusion of Hispanics in Corporate America at a level commensurate with the segment’s economic contributions. HACR focuses on four areas of corporate responsibility and market reciprocity: Employment, Procurement, Philanthropy, and Governance. In pursuit of its mission, HACR offers Corporate America direct access to the Hispanic community – its talent, entrepreneurs, and leadership to facilitate corporate responsibility and market reciprocity for the nation’s Hispanic population.
This posting is submitted by OOW member, Lisette Garcia, Chief Research Officer at the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility. For more information or to apply for the job please follow this link https://hacr.org/job/corporate-inclusion-index-project-manager/
Job ID: 19813 Post Doctoral Research Associate – Sociology
Date Position is Available: Spring 2024 (Fully remote option available)
Job Description
Joya Misra and Jessica Pearlman at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow to engage in a large-scale multimethod project aimed at better understanding the pathways and challenges experienced by diverse STEM higher education leaders. The goal of the project is to understand how racialized and gendered organizations lead to differential access to leadership by race, gender, nationality, and other factors. The postdoc will work closely with the team to develop the sample, field and analyze a nationally representative survey, develop the interview protocol, and code and analyze the interview data. The person hired for this position will also play a key role in mentoring the graduate research assistants on the project. We offer professional development opportunities, including through a detailed postdoctoral mentoring plan, workshops provided by the Office of Professional Development, as well as mentoring around supervising student researchers and project management. The postdoc will have opportunities to present findings at academic conferences and to publish in academic journals, as well as for publicly engaged communication.
New College of Florida, a small residential, nationally recognized liberal arts college, invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship beginning in August, 2024. Ph.D. is expected by that time and teaching experience is preferred. We seek candidates who can teach courses in social psychology/micro-sociology and guide students in the use of quantitative research. The areas of expertise are open, and we seek scholars who complement the scholarship and teaching of current professors; for example, new faculty in fields like sociology of science, sociology of sport, medical sociology, aging and life course, crime and law, demography, etc. New College is committed to excellence in teaching and research and encourages collaborative student-faculty scholarship. The teaching load is two courses per semester, sponsoring individual and group tutorials, and supervising independent study projects in January. Faculty members also provide academic advising, sponsor senior theses, and serve on baccalaureate committees. Professors are expected to maintain an active research program. Interested candidates should apply online at http://www.ncf.edu/employment and upload the following: a cover letter, c.v., statements of teaching and research interests, syllabi, teaching evaluations, one writing sample (article or chapter length), and unofficial graduate transcript(s). In addition, please identify three scholars to write letters of recommendation (they will receive a request through the system). According to Florida law, applications and meetings regarding applications are open to the public upon request. For questions about the application process or accommodations, please contact Ms. Kristi Fecteau at kfecteau@ncf.edu. Review of applications will begin on January 4 2024 and continue until the position is filled.
New College of Florida, an Equal Opportunity Employer, complies with all federal, state, and Florida Board of Governors regulations. In accordance with state law, all employees are subject to a background check at the time of hiring.
Philipp Brandt(Assistant professor of sociology – SciencesPo) is looking for a postdoc to join his ERC Starting Grant project, “ReWORCS: Returns to Work in Occupational, Relational, and Corporate Settings,” at Sciences Po Paris for a duration of up to three years (2 + 1). The project aims to recover lived social experiences from large-scale administrative and trace datasets of work activities in different national and organizational settings. It has funding for five years, and the team will include several doctoral students. We will work closely together on the project’s implementation. You will have the opportunity to participate in Sciences Po’s academic life, attend workshops and summer schools, travel to conferences, and be the lead author on articles. The main requirements are a doctoral degree in sociology, coding and quantitative data analysis skills, and broad sociological interests. The Centre de Sociologie des Organisations will be the project’s institutional home, and collaborators worldwide will provide its intellectual foundation. The monthly gross salary is EUR 3500. The position comes with healthcare and other benefits. The start date should be no later than September 01, 2024, and ideally before.
Tasks:
– Assembling datasets, designing and implementing analyses, and interpretation of results – A substantial part of the technical work will focus on the design of new measures of work experiences and trajectories
– Preparation of academic presentations
– Writing of research articles
– Coordination of doctoral student researchers and research assistants
Requirements:
– Doctoral degree in sociology (recently completed or imminent)
– Broad sociological interests, including in different research methods and theoretical frameworks
– Experience coding in R or Python
– Strong English skills
– Excellent communication and collaboration skills
Application:
– Motivation letter (~700 words)
– CV
– Academic degree certificates
– Single-authored writing sample of empirical research
(advanced draft, published article, or thesis chapter)
– Contact information for two references
Submission:
Please send your application materials to philipp.brandt@sciencespo.fr as a single .pdf or separate .pdfs. Don’t hesitate to reach out in the meantime with any questions you may have.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 01, 2024 at 06.30 CET (a.m.).
Project description:
The rise of platforms and remote work has refashioned concerns about work security and flexibility in public debates. Academic studies have documented an increase in non-standard work over decades, including polarization of rewards, shifting occupational boundaries, and winding paths among women and other marginalized groups. These findings had important policy implications but left questions about the unfolding of individual labor market experiences amid the more noticeable changes. This project mobilizes new techniques and data sources and overcomes divisions in research on work to address those problems.
The project has three parts. Work package 1 (WP1) uses national-level employment datasets of France, Germany, and the US to survey job trajectories in relation to earnings across institutional contexts. It advances analyses of occupational and other categorical effects by drawing attention to job change sequences. WP2 asks how workers organize work. It takes two strategic cases with detailed work records, one involving technical expertise and the other practical tasks. WP3 draws on a unique dataset of career descriptions in two areas of work and two countries to capture institutional and cultural effects on meaning construction to ask how workers redefine established jobs.
Socio-Economic Review Cafe: The Financialization of Households
Featuring a conversation with SER authors Marek Mikuš (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology), and Xiaojing Wang and Anne-Marie Ward (both of Ulster University)
Join us for a discussion of how the state and the financial economy are implicated in contemporary household finance. Bobek, Mikuš, and Sokol, in “Making sense of the financialization of households,” review the state-of-the-art literature on this topic and argue that household participation in the financial economy constitutes “a systematic transfer of value from the bottom of society to the top.” Wang and Ward advance a policy proposal for resolving household overindebtedness in their paper “Socio-economic framework for the design of national household insolvency systems,” that takes into account variations in political orientations to indebtedness and levels of social insurance provisions between countries.
Come and join us to discuss how socioeconomic research on household financialization can inform policy solutions for its negative consequences. The event will take place on Wednesday, January 24th, at 9AM PST/12PM EST/6PM CET. Register at this link!
As with all SER Cafe events, we will facilitate a dynamic conversation with the authors. No lengthy talks. Our authors look forward to your questions and comments.
We Thought It Would Be Heaven: Refugees in an Unequal America reveals how organizational obstacles block access to valuable resources for recently resettled refugee families in the United States. This vibrant ethnography brings into focus the many complex organizations that refugee families (like all families) juggle in their day-to-day lives—workplaces, schools, financial institutions, and social service programs. These organizations are interconnected but not coordinated and are rife with hurdles and errors. Seemingly small organizational errors—missing a deadline, mistaking a rule, or misplacing a form—can tangle processes into “knots.” These minor mistakes grind systems to a halt, creating catastrophes as food stamps are cut off, educational opportunities are missed, and benefits are not accessed. Echoing Charles Perrow’s work on “normal accidents” in high-risk technology organizations, Sackett and Lareau find that the complexity, scrutiny, and necessity of proving deservedness increase the likelihood of errors and snags in procedures. Moreover, as refugee families navigate a complex web of social service organizations, problems in one arena can reverberate, creating new challenges in other institutions. By revealing the organizational obstacle course these newcomer families faced, We Thought It Would Be Heaven illuminates key mechanisms of inequality in America.
Big societal challenges such as the climate crisis, proliferating democracy deficits, intensifying casualisation and digitalisation of work and widening inequalities require rethinking the ways we organise to achieve change. Professions and professional organizations have often challenged established bureaucratic was of organizing and have provided alternatives such as partnerships and collegial forms, aiming to maintain high degrees of autonomy. In this stream, we invite you to think about organising beyond hierarchies in professional settings in the public, private or civil sectors and to ponder with us how alternative forms of organising might challenge or affirm the status quo, lead to or stagnate progress, advance or hinder equalities.
A growing literature highlights the experiences of first-generation, low-income (FGLI) students on college campuses. However, these studies often conflate the positions of middle- and upper-class students. Using interviews with undergraduates at one elite institution, the author shows how upper-middle-class students responded to upward and downward cross-class encounters. Perceiving a status threat from above, students responded to interactions with rich peers through stereotypical denigration. Yet prolonged exposure to the rich resulted in another tactic, selective legitimation, which maintained that wealthy individuals who performed “awareness” could be morally rehabilitated. Encounters with FGLI classmates led respondents to view themselves as lucky or “privileged” for having escaped hardship, leading to rituals of deference aimed at muting the salience of class difference. Finally, despite their heightened recognition of class inequality, respondents drew equivalences between the problems of rich and poor students, ultimately denying the relevance of privilege in determining individual worth.
The Program Committee has put together a terrific set of sessions for next summer’s ASA meeting in Montreal (see the listing below). Thanks go to committee chair (and section Chair-Elect) Sarah Thebaud and members Daniel Hirschman, James Chu, Mariana Craciun, Tracey Adams, Laura Adler, Josh Seim, Katherine Weisshaar, Minjae Kim, Maria Charles, Megan Tobias Neely, and Tiffany Chow, for all the work involved in what promises to be a very exciting program.
Submissions for the annual meeting are now open! The deadline is February 26, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. In addition to paper/extended abstract submissions, proposals will be accepted for courses, workshops, preconferences, the Sociology in Practice Settings Symposium, and the Teaching and Learning Symposium. Details on the submission process may be found here, the listing of section sessions is here, and the online portal is available here.
Due to possible significant delays in processing, be sure to get started on obtaining/renewing your passport and other travel documents now. Review the Canada Border Services Agency web page for information about required travel documentation.
The Membership Committee is planning a series of informal book/article discussions for the winter and spring, with the first one slated for mid-January. Details were not quite ready by press time, so keep an eye out for an update shortly. Thanks to committee chair Laura Doering and members Julie Kmec, Argun Saatcioglu, and Jonathan Horowitz for their terrific work.
We’re always interested in announcing opportunities and showcasing the activities and accomplishments of section members. Send job and postdoc announcements, calls for papers, new books and articles, and other noteworthy events to me (please put “OOW NEWS” in the subject line) or for more immediate posting to the section website and blog, to oow.section.asa@gmail.com.
We invite paper submissions under the broad topic of organizations, including studies that assess their structures, norms, policies, and practices, as well as the environments in which they operate.
(Session Organizer) Daniel Hirschman, Cornell University; (Session Organizer) James Y. Chu, Columbia University
Professional and Expert Work
Papers in this session will focus on the topic of professional and expert work.
(Session Organizer) Mariana Craciun, Tulane University; (Session Organizer) Tracey Adams, Western University
The Changing Nature of Work
Papers in this session will focus on topics relating to contemporary changes and challenges in work and labor markets, such as the rise of remote work, AI, climate change, and precarious work.
(Session Organizer) Laura Adler, Yale University; (Session Organizer) Josh Seim, Boston College
Work and Labor Processes
Papers in this session will focus on work and labor processes.
(Session Organizer) Katherine Weisshaar, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; (Session Organizer) Minjae Kim, Rice University
Workplace and Occupational Inequality
Papers in this session will focus on workplace and occupational inequality.
(Session Organizer) Maria Charles, University of California-Santa Barbara; (Session Organizer) Megan Tobias Neely, Copenhagen Business School; (Session Organizer) Tiffany Y. Chow
Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtables
(Session Organizer) Sarah Thebaud, University of California-Santa Barbara
ASA NEWS
Send Nominations for 2024 ASA Awards
Honor your colleagues by submitting nominations for ASA awards. Click on the links below to read the award calls. The deadline for nominations is January 1, 2024.
The Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites applications for a Senior Full Professor to fill the William Burwell Harrison Distinguished Professorship of Sociology. We seek applications from scholars specializing in any area of Sociology who exhibit a record of strong and innovative research and excellence in teaching. Applications from scholars studying immigration, work or inequality are especially welcome. Candidates’ work should align with our departmental mission and values as outlined on our website.
The following information applies to applications for the 2024-25 cohort of postdoctoral fellows. The application cycle for this cohort will open on November 16, 2023 and will close on January 15, 2024.
The Digital Civil Society Lab brings promising new scholars to Stanford University for 1 year appointments (renewable once, for a total of two years) as postdoctoral fellows. Each fellow will be primarily affiliated with the Digital Civil Society Lab, and potentially cross-affiliated with a department or school at Stanford University depending on the fellow’s specific disciplinary focus.
The annual fellowship stipend is $75,000 plus the standard benefits that postdoctoral fellows at Stanford University receive, including health insurance and travel funds. The fellowship program falls under U.S. Immigration J-1 Exchange Visitor Visa activities.
The start date of the fellowship will be September 2024, unless otherwise agreed. To assume a postdoctoral fellowship, scholars must have a PhD in hand by July 1, 2024. We cannot consider applications from scholars who earned a PhD earlier than September 1, 2021.
We encourage applications from candidates representing a broad range of disciplines including the social sciences, humanities, law, computer science and engineering.
Call for submissions: SASE Network H: Markets, Firms and Institutions
2024 SASE conference in Limerick, 27-29 June 2024
Deadline: 19 January 2024
Network H focuses on the interrelationships between markets, firms, and institutions. We welcome a wide range of theoretical perspectives (e.g. political economy, economic sociology, management studies, neo-institutionalism, and comparative institutional analysis).
Welcome topics include but are not limited to: financial systems and financialization; markets and marketization; strategy, corporate governance, employment relations, and the labor process; varieties of capitalism and growth models/accumulation regimes; institutions and institutional change; internationalization and regional integration.
Network H will be organizing 2 virtual sessions in the week prior to the conference, for those who cannot be present in Limerick. No hybrid option is possible. There are limited virtual spots available, and this option is only meant for those who would not be able to attend the conference at all otherwise. These sessions will be included in the program, and those presenting virtually will be required to pay SASE membership (but not registration fees).
SASE accepts 2 types of submissions: abstracts and panels. There are three possible types of panels you can submit – a pre-formed panel with multiple paper presentations, a roundtable discussion panel, or a Book Salon (see here for some examples; these panels include a book author and 2-4 discussants).
Call for submissions: SASE Network D: Professions and Professionals in a globalizing world
2024 SASE conference in Limerick, 27-29 June 2024
Deadline for abstracts: 19 January 2024
Network organisers: Tracey Adams, James Faulconbridge, Elizabeth Gorman, Sigrid Quack and Len Seabrooke
Professions and professionals have long had a central role in economy and society, and in the current era they remain as central as ever. In particular, professions and professionals play a central role in addressing some of the key socio-economic concerns of our time, from climate change to corporate governance, ageing populations to trade regulation. There are, however, some distinctive features of the contemporary role of professions and professionals compared to earlier eras. The meaning of the term profession and professional has evolved. Alongside the ‘traditional’ professions such as accountancy, architecture, law and medicine, a series of ‘new’ professions and professionals have emerged, such as management consultancy and project management, that rely on discourses of expertise, ethics and client service to carve out a role in markets and legitimise claims to a role in issues ‘old’ professions also claim jurisdiction over. Professionals frequently work in large, often multinational organizations that they shape with discourses and identities while being at the same time inserted in new forms of division of labour with other occupational groups. Professions and professionals increasingly operate in and form transnational regimes, and practice in and exert influence through large and global professional service firms but also non-professional organizations as diverse as charities, lobby groups and non-governmental organizations. They also form compacts with corporations, states, and inter-governmental organizations to advance one-another’s interests. Hence, change, re-scaling, redefinition, and re-organization are core themes at the heart of work on professions and professionals.
We invite papers that cover the full spectrum of empirical and theoretical topics relevant to professions and professionals. Previous conferences have included papers from intellectual traditions and disciplines including sociology, political science, economics, geography, anthropology and management studies.
We also invite submissions of full panel sessions (with already identified papers/speakers) on a defined professions related topic.
Subtheme 71: ” The Impact of Organizational Practices on Workplace Diversity and Inequality “
We would like to bring to your attention the colloquium on “The Impact of Organizational Practices on Workplace Diversity and Inequality,” which we are convening as part of the European Group of Organization Studies’ (EGOS) 40th annual conference in Milan, Italy. The conference will take place on July 4-6, 2024.
Our purpose is to bring together a group of researchers who share a concern for advancing our knowledge of the mechanisms through which organizations influence diversity and inequality in the labor market. We welcome papers from different disciplines and at all levels of analysis.
If you are interested, we encourage you to submit a short paper (3,000 words) before January 9th, 2024. You can access the call for papers here:
If you have any questions or require additional information, please contact us
Best regards,
Emilio J. Castilla (MIT)
Isabel Fernandez-Mateo (London Business School)
NEW ARTICLES
Jablonski, E. S., Phillips, K. G., & Henly, M. (forthcoming). “Employment Barriers Experienced at Different Job Acquisition Stages by People With and Without Disabilities.” Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation.
Organizations, Occupations and Work 