Author: Julia Dessauer

Job Posting: Postdoctoral Fellow in Public Policy, Colby College

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The Department of Sociology at Colby College is searching for a postdoctoral fellow in public policy to start September 1, 2024. The fellow will teach three courses in the first year of a two-year appointment and four in the second: introduction to policy analysis and other policy courses related to their substantive interests. These courses will provide early career scholars a chance to hone their teaching skills in a selective liberal arts college environment. Fellows will be expected to pursue an active research and publishing agenda and will receive mentoring from senior faculty. The fellow will also have the opportunity to take part in a new public policy colloquium series.

Areas of policy specialization are open. Although the position will be housed in the Department of Sociology, we will consider candidates from other social science disciplines. Candidates may be A.B.D. but a Ph.D. must be in hand prior to September 1, 2024.

A complete application must include: a curriculum vitae; letter of application that explains the candidate’s research and approach to teaching and teaching inclusively; representative samples of scholarship; and three letters of recommendation.

Please submit all of these materials via Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/137995. Review of applications will begin February 12, 2024 and will continue until the position is filled. Questions about this position should be directed to: nlgross@colby.edu

OOW Book Discussion: January 22

On By Julia DessauerIn AnnouncementsLeave a comment

All OOW members are invited to participate in an informal, online discussion of Carolyn Chen’s Work, Pray, Code on January 22nd, 12-1pm EST. The book is a brisk, qualitative study of how work becomes religion in Silicon Valley. The conversation will be “book club style”, with everyone welcome to share ideas. (If you’d like to participate but time is short, focus on the introduction & chapter 4.) 

We hope students and faculty alike come to discuss and meet with fellow OOW members. To register and receive a zoom link, click here.

Questions? Contact Laura Doering (laura.doering@utoronto.ca).

Job Postings: Copenhagen Business School

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Copenhagen Business School invites applications for two open positions in Organization Theory in the Department of Organization. The open positions include a two-year postdoc (with an optional additional third year of teaching) and a three-year assistant professor (with six months of teaching) on Jane Bjørn Vedel’s research program on how large-scale funding impacts organizational forms in higher education.

The successful candidates will work with her team in a collaborative project that aims at generating novel insights on a topic of significant societal importance and publishing them in high-impact journals within Organization and Management Theory. She is looking for candidates who can move to Copenhagen, have good qualitative skills, and who want to join her team in elucidating some of the main drivers of organizational change in academia.

Start date September 1, 2024, and deadline is January 29, 2024.

More information about the positions here:
https://shorturl.at/anAJK
https://shorturl.at/dsAY1

CFP: EGOS After the Crisis (?): Towards a new Politics of Professionalism Under pressure

On By Julia DessauerIn Calls for PapersLeave a comment

Due: Tuesday, January 9, 2024, 23:59:59 CET [Central European Time]

In this sub-theme we take an eco-systems approach to studying shifting state-organization-profession-user (inter)dependencies and their consequences on policy, organization and practice levels. We seek to contribute to the reinvention of professionalism as an increasingly political and economic endeavour, discussing (amongst others) the micro-political practices of priority setting, data-driven surveillance and modelling, economic rationing and repair work, as well as the (conflicting) valuations and accountability regimes these involve. At the same time, we acknowledge that the micro-political dynamics of organising professional work are both constitutive of and framed by wider institutional, ideological and macro-political rationalities.
 
We invite contributions that address the following themes and questions, but we are also interested in related contributions exploring a new politics of professionalism under pressure:

  • What new risks and uncertainties in the organization of expert work and the provision of health and welfare services are emerging in the ‘after-crisis’, and how do they exacerbate and/or create new pressures on professionals and professionalism?
  • What new (inter)dependencies emerge between state-level actors, organizations, professionals, and service users in times of uncertainty, scarcity and austerity and with what kinds of precariousness?
  • Technological innovations and new forms of knowledge create new possibilities, affordances, and challenges. How do professionals and organizations signal and respond to these developments, and how do they shape professionalism as a social and lived phenomenon?
  • How can this emerging set of questions around the micro, meso and macro politics and practices of professionalism be theorized as ‘professionalism under pressure’ in times of uncertainty and precariousness?

Further information: https://www.egos.org/jart/prj3/egos/main.jart?rel=de&reserve-mode=active&content-id=1662944489704&subtheme_id=1669874219503

Short papers should focus on the main ideas of the paper, this means, they should explain the purpose of the paper, theoretical background, the research gap that is addressed, the approach taken, the methods of analysis (in empirical papers), main findings, and contributions. In addition, it is useful to indicate clearly how the paper links with the sub-theme and the overall theme of the Colloquium, although not all papers need to focus on the overall theme. Creativity, innovativeness, theoretical grounding, and critical thinking are typical characteristics of EGOS papers.

Your short paper should comprise 3,000 words (incl. references, appendices and other material). Please take note of the Guidelines and criteria for the submission of short papers at EGOS Colloquia.

Job Posting: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland

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The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland is looking to fill the position of a full professor of sociology with a focus on “micro-organizational sociology” (100%) starting February 1, 2025.

You are responsible for the area of organizational sociology that relates to processes of organizing. In teaching and research, you will contribute to the conceptual-theoretical and empirical development of the field. In your empirical work you approach processes of organizing within and between organizations from a sociological perspective.

The University of Lucerne explicitly encourages qualified female scientists to apply.

Application deadline is January 12, 2024.

For further information, see https://www.unilu.ch/en/university/personnel/human-resources-department/vacancies/full-professor-of-sociology-with-a-focus-on-micro-organizational-sociology-100-1946937/

CFP: SASE Annual Meeting and Network A: Community, Democracy, and Organizations

On By Julia DessauerIn Calls for Papers, Calls for Participants, ConferencesLeave a comment

Please consider submitting an abstract of about 500 words for an individual presentation or a panel relating to community, democracy, and organizations at the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) annual meeting. The conference submission deadline is Jan. 19, 2024. Our 2024 annual meeting will primarily be an in-person conference spanning 3 days in Limerick, Ireland, June 27-29, 2023. For those unable to travel, our network—Network A: Community, Democracy, and Organizations—also have a very limited number of virtual presentation slots in two sessions to be scheduled for June 18-21. (Details about those are here.)

As the organizers of Network A: Community, Democracy, and Organizations, we would be glad to consider any papers on our network’s topics that you wish to submit, in addition to any ideas you have for pre-formed panels with multiple paper presentations, roundtable discussion panels, or book salons (aka Author Meets Critics panels). SASE is an international organization of scholars who study topics related to economic sociology and political economy. Network A focuses on the moral or values-based underpinnings of human thought, practices, and institutions that comprise civil societies, particularly as they relate to the participatory, collectivist, and democratic aspirations of organizations, markets, and other spaces of collaboration and contestation. We examine how communities, enterprises, and societies can be organized around principles of democratic governance or other substantive values that go beyond calculative self-interest and instrumental relations. In particular, we welcome submissions relating to: (1) how groups and initiatives promote social change, through formal organizations, informal groups, prefigurative organizations, decentralized projects, participatory decision-making, and various forms of shared ownership; and (2) how collectivities reinforce prevailing conventions of hierarchical, bureaucratic, and profit-driven organizational structures and markets.

Examples of relevant phenomena include, but are not limited to: affinity groups; anti-oppressive human services; artistic or cultural collectives (including democratic governance and autonomy-respecting practices in creative organizations more broadly); collectively governed commons; community land trusts; community real estate investment cooperatives; community-based economic exchanges; community-run marketplaces; decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs); free schools; giving circles; limited equity housing cooperatives and co-housing; mutual companies and aid networks; open, commons-based, and inclusive innovation and valuation frameworks; participatory budgeting; public-private partnerships; social enterprises; solidarity economies; and worker, producer, or consumer cooperatives, including platform cooperatives.

To learn more about our network and its history, please read here. To join our Network A listserv, visit https://inthefray.org/list.

For more information about the 2024 conference, visit https://sase.org/event/2024-limerick/#submissions.

How to submit to the 2024 SASE annual conference:

If you are interested in presenting in person or virtually, please submit your paper title(s) and abstract(s) to https://auth.oxfordabstracts.com/?redirect=/stages/6679/submitter and select “Network A: Community, Democracy, and Organizations” by Jan. 19, 2024.

SASE’s Early Career Workshop brings together PhD students, recent PhDs, and independent scholars who wish to participate in small roundtable discussions of their work with assigned faculty mentors. It is held in person shortly before the SASE annual meeting, with some travel expenses paid. Applicants should submit full papers and other required materials, as specified here, by Jan. 19, 2024.

Please direct any general questions or comments about Network A to sase@inthefray.org.

How to support Network A:

Network A relies entirely on the efforts of volunteer organizers and additional support from colleagues at all stages of their careers. Please consider supporting the growth and sustainability of our community in these and other ways: 

(1) Circulate this cfp to listservs and other potentially interested parties, particularly those who might not have heard of our network or the SASE conference.  

(2) Help us build community at the SASE conference in Limerick, Ireland. Among other things, please send us suggestions for local venues, local organizations, or other groups that might be of interest to our network’s members and that could possibly present at the conference, host field trips for our members, etc.  

(3)  Consider becoming  part of the Network A leadership. There are many ways to help, including by organizing conference panels, social events, and virtual sessions. 

We look forward to reading your submissions!

Best wishes from your SASE Network A organizers,

In-person team

Katherine K. Chen, kchen@ccny.cuny.edu

Victor Tan Chen, vchen@vcu.edu 

Philipp Degens, Philipp.Degens@uni-hamburg.de 

Virtual session team

Joyce Rothschild, joycevt@aol.com 

Marc Schneiberg, schneibm@reed.edu

Coordination team

Paola Ometto, pometto@csusm.edu

Update: OOW Book Discussion – Work, Pray, Code 

On By Julia DessauerIn WorkshopsLeave a comment

OOW Book Discussion: New date – January 22

All OOW members are invited to participate in an informal, online discussion of Catherine Chen’s Work, Pray, Code on January 22nd, 12-1pm EST. The book is a brisk, qualitative study of how work becomes religion in Silicon Valley. The conversation will be “book club style”, with everyone welcome to share ideas. (If you’d like to participate but time is short, focus on the introduction & chapter 4.) 

We hope students and faculty alike come to discuss and meet with fellow OOW members. To register and receive a zoom link, click here.

Questions? Contact Laura Doering (laura.doering@utoronto.ca).

Job Posting: Postdoctoral Research Associate

On By Julia DessauerIn Job Postings, postdocsLeave a comment

Date Position is Available: Spring 2024 (Fully remote option available) 

Job ID: 19813

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.

https://careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-us/job/521359/post-doctoral-research-associate-sociology

Questions about this can be directed to misra@umass.edu.

CFP: Digital Civil Society Lab Postdoctoral Fellowship

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https://pacscenter.stanford.edu/research/digital-civil-society-lab/dcsl-post-doctoral-fellowships/

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.

New Publications

On By Julia DessauerIn PublicationsLeave a comment

Kincaid, R., & Reynolds, J. (2023). Unconventional Work, Conventional Problems: Gig Microtask Work, Inequality, and the Flexibility Mystique. The Sociological Quarterly, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2023.2268679

Gig work platforms often promise workers flexibility and freedom from formal constraints on their work schedules. Some scholars have questioned whether this “formal flexibility” actually helps people arrange gig work around non-work commitments, but few studies have examined this empirically. This paper examines how hours spent in microtask work – a form of gig work with high formal flexibility – influence work-to-life conflict (WLC) relative to conventional work hours, and how these relationships differ by workers’ gender and financial situation. Fixed-effects regressions using panel data from workers on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform (MTurk) suggest that microtask work hours are just as closely associated with WLC as conventional work hours. Moreover, microtask work disadvantages the same groups as conventional work (i.e. women and financially struggling workers). Only financially comfortable men seem immune from microtask hours’ association with WLC. This suggests that the benefits of gig work’s formal flexibility are often elusive. We argue that platforms like MTurk promote a flexibility mystique: the illusory promise that gig work empowers workers to set their own schedules and earn decent income without disrupting their personal/family lives. The gig economy’s expansion may thus do little to bring work-life balance to the masses or alleviate inequalities at the work-life nexus.

The Accidental Equalizer: How Luck Determines Pay After College by Jessi Streib

A startling discovery—that job market success after college is largely random—forces a reappraisal of education, opportunity, and the American dream.

As a gateway to economic opportunity, a college degree is viewed by many as America’s great equalizer. And it’s true: wealthier, more connected, and seemingly better-qualified students earn exactly the same pay as their less privileged peers. Yet, the reasons why may have little to do with bootstraps or self-improvement—it might just be dumb luck. That’s what sociologist Jessi Streib proposes in The Accidental Equalizer, a conclusion she reaches after interviewing dozens of hiring agents and job-seeking graduates.

Streib finds that luck shapes the hiring process from start to finish in a way that limits class privilege in the job market. Employers hide information about how to get ahead and force students to guess which jobs pay the most and how best to obtain them. Without clear routes to success, graduates from all class backgrounds face the same odds at high pay. The Accidental Equalizer is a frank appraisal of how this “luckocracy” works and its implications for the future of higher education and the middle class. Although this system is far from eliminating American inequality, Streib shows that it may just be the best opportunity structure we have—for better and for worse.