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.
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.
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.
This study argues that the increase in middle management in recent decades was accompanied by a shift in managerial roles. Increased task complexity and a new management philosophy have reduced the need for direct supervision but generated a greater demand for collaboration, leading to the emergence of a managerial class whose primary role is collaboration not supervision. The author analyzed a large volume of data to generate three sets of findings: (1) The expectations of the managerial role have quickly changed, in almost all sectors, to emphasize more collaboration and less supervision (2) This new managerial role is especially concentrated in innovation-focused firms. (3) Firms treating managers as collaborators have a higher proportion of middle managers than those still treating them primarily as supervisors. These findings suggest that the role of managers has fundamentally shifted and that accounting for changing managerial roles could explain a significant portion of the managerial growth.
This study explores the longevity of artistic reputation. We empirically examine whether artists are more- or less-venerated after their death. We construct a massive historical corpus spanning 1795 to 2020 and build separate word-embedding models for each five-year period to examine how the reputations of over 3,300 famous artists—including painters, architects, composers, musicians, and writers—evolve after their death. We find that most artists gain their highest reputation right before their death, after which it declines, losing nearly one SD every century. This posthumous decline applies to artists in all domains, includes those who died young or unexpectedly, and contradicts the popular view that artists’ reputations endure. Contrary to the Matthew effect, the reputational decline is the steepest for those who had the highest reputations while alive. Two mechanisms—artists’ reduced visibility and the public’s changing taste—are associated with much of the posthumous reputational decline. This study underscores the fragility of human reputation and shows how the collective memory of artists unfolds over time.
This is a special episode in which we reflect on the question of how to build interdisciplinary spaces and dialogues across disciplines for the study of organizations. We sit down with Woody Powell and Bob Gibbons who, since 2016, have been organizing the Summer Institute on Organizational Effectiveness at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford. The episode focuses on the history of CASBS, the summer institute, and the value as well as challenges of fostering interdisciplinary conversations across economics, sociology, management, public policy, political science, information and communication studies, and related fields.
The broader podcast catalogue includes episodes on foundational texts and ideas in organization theory. All episodes are accessible on the main podcasting platforms, and further information is available on the website.
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to an edited book on Graduates’ work in the knowledge economy (with Palgrave). The volume aims to advance the understanding of graduate careers in the ‘knowledge economy.’ It uses sociological, economic, and political lenses to examine the structures of opportunities (and constraints) shaping graduates’ experiences of work in the knowledge economy. We are interested in personal, as well as the more structural implications of graduate work across a variegated occupational spectrum. The book asks whether (and for whom) the knowledge economy can bring decent, white-collar jobs and for whom/ where/ when it is over-selling the promise of upward careers. It examines the social and economic implications of the knowledge economy.
We invite contributions on the structural enablers, including skill formation systems, professional and company cultures, as well as critical analyses of the politics of the knowledge economy. Empirical or theoretical papers from different domains (including, but not limited to Sociology of Work and Employment, Youth studies, Political economy, and regional studies) are welcome.
City & Community Presents: “How to Write (and Not Write) Journal Articles”A Virtual Professional Development EventThursday, October 19, 6:30-8 pm EST, on Zoom.
Aimed primarily at doctoral students and early career scholars, this virtual information session is meant to offer first-time authors some guidance in journal article writing from the perspective of an editor. Richard Ocejo, editor of City & Community, will offer some practical tips and common mistakes authors make in papers. Attendees will also get ample opportunity to ask questions about the process and to receive writing advice. While City & Community and urban sociology will serve as the main examples, scholars with interest in other subfields and journals are welcome to attend. Registration required: https://jjay-cuny.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIucOGvrT8tEtNjFBzmdbvcLTrlVQNkQONF
The Management Division of Columbia Business School is currently searching for qualified applicants for a tenure-track position in Entrepreneurship at the Assistant or Associate Professor rank. Applications that are received by October 15 will receive full consideration. However, we encourage applicants to submit their materials as soon as possible as we are evaluating applications on a rolling basis.
Applicants for an Assistant Professor level appointment should have, or be close to completing, a PhD from an accredited institution, demonstrate promise of becoming an outstanding scholar in every respect, including research and teaching, and should combine exceptional disciplinary training in Management with a strong interest in the professional mission of the school.
Applicants for an Associate Professor level appointment (non-tenured, tenured) should have a PhD from an accredited institution, a record of being an excellent scholar in every respect, including research and teaching, and should combine exceptional disciplinary training with a strong interest in the professional mission of the school and show great promise of attaining distinction in the field of Management.
Columbia Business School is particularly interested in candidates who, through their research, teaching and/or service will contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community. We will have a particular interest in Entrepreneurship, and other related areas of Management. Applicants from a range of disciplines are encouraged to apply, including those with PhDs from business schools, sociology, social psychology, economics, and political science departments.
City & Community Presents: “Reaching a Broader Audience: How to Publish Crossover Books”
A Virtual Panel Event
Thursday, September 21, 2023; 3:30-5:00 p.m. EST
Wanting to write a “crossover” book for a “broader” audience is becoming more and more common in sociology. But how is it different to write a book for readers outside of academia compared to writing one for scholars? How does an author identify and write to a specific non-academic audience? What are the potential pros and cons of writing a crossover book? What are editors looking for from scholars who propose crossover books? And what challenges have authors who have written books for broader audiences faced in the research, writing, and promotion of their work?
Hosted by City & Community, this virtual panel event brings together authors and a book editor who will share their experiences with crossover books. We welcome sociologists at any level who are interested in writing a book to a broader audience now or in the future to attend.
Host and Moderator: Richard Ocejo, Editor, City & Community
Organizations, Occupations and Work 