Category: Publications

New Publication: “The Loyalty Trap: Conflicting Loyalties of Civil Servants Under Increasing Autocracy” by Jaime Lee Kucinskas

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The Loyalty Trap: Conflicting Loyalties of Civil Servants Under Increasing Autocracy
by Jaime Lee Kucinskas 


Read an interview with the author about the research behind the book

Columbia University Press

Donald J. Trump took office threatening to run roughshod over democratic institutions, railing against the federal bureaucracy, and calling for dismantling the administrative state. How do civil servants respond to a presidential turn toward authoritarianism? In what ways—if any—can they restrain or counter leaders who defy the norms of liberal democratic governance?

The Loyalty Trap explores how civil servants navigated competing pressures and duties amid the chaos of the Trump administration, drawing on in-depth interviews with senior officials in the most contested agencies over the course of a tumultuous term. Jaime Lee Kucinskas argues that the professional culture and ethical obligations of the civil service stabilize the state in normal times but insufficiently prepare bureaucrats to cope with a president like Trump. Instead, federal employees became ensnared in intractable ethical traps, caught between their commitment to nonpartisan public service and the expectation of compliance with political directives. Kucinskas shares their quandaries, recounting attempts to preserve the integrity of government agencies, covert resistance, and a few bold acts of moral courage in the face of organizational decline and politicized leadership. A nuanced sociological account of the lessons of the Trump administration for democratic governance, The Loyalty Trap offers a timely and bracing portrait of the fragility of the American state.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jaime Lee Kucinskas is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Hamilton College. She is the author of The Mindful Elite: Mobilizing from the Inside Out (2019) and a co-editor of Situating Spirituality: Context, Practice, and Power (2022).

New Publication: “Gone Too Long or Back Too Soon? Perceptions of Paid Parental Leave‐Taking and Variations by Gender and Family Structure” by Richard J. Petts, Reilly Kincaid, Trenton D. Mize & Gayle Kaufman

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Petts, Richard J., Reilly Kincaid, Trenton D. Mize, and Gayle Kaufman. 2025. “Gone Too Long or Back Too Soon? Perceptions of Paid Parental Leave‐Taking and Variations by Gender and Family Structure.” Journal of Marriage and Family.

Abstract

Background: Previous research largely focuses on the consequences associated with leave-taking, particularly highlighting workplace penalties associated with leave-taking. There has also been limited attention to workers with diverse family forms. We seek to better understand the culture surrounding paid parental leave in the U.S. by focusing on evaluations of leave-taking itself and whether such evaluations may reduce or exacerbate inequalities by gender, sexual orientation, and marital status.

Method: We use data on 2964 U.S. respondents from a survey experiment in which employer-offered paid parental leave-taking, parent gender, sexual orientation, and marital status were randomly assigned. We use OLS models to assess perceptions of paid leave-taking and the causal effects of parent gender, sexual orientation, and marital status on these perceptions.

Results: We find that respondents view 11 weeks of paid parental leave as the right amount of leave, on average. We also find variations in perceptions of leave-taking by parent gender, sexual orientation, and marital status; mothers with husbands and single parents are viewed more favorably for taking longer leaves than fathers with wives, mothers with wives, and fathers with husbands.

Conclusion: There is increasing support for paid leave within the U.S., but support for parents’ leave-taking largely reflects gendered stereotypes and may reinforce broader patterns of gender inequality.

New Publication: “From Accountability to Algorithms: Interorganizational Learning and the Transformation of Quantification in Education” by Jose Eos Trinidad

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Trinidad, Jose Eos. 2025. “From Accountability to Algorithms: Interorganizational Learning and the Transformation of Quantification in Education.” Qualitative Sociology (online first).

Abstract: While studies often explore the intended and unintended consequences of technologies, few have theorized how and why they change. One crucial transformation in quantitative technologies is the shift from evaluative accountability to predictive algorithms, such as in schools that use dropout prediction systems. Using the case of ninth-grade early warning indicators, I argue that the transformation of quantification resulted from interorganizational learning, or the acquisition of new knowledge through the interaction of different organizations. In particular, I show how technology changes gradually from organization-level evaluation to individual-based prediction to systems-focused improvement. Pivotal to such changes were new forms of knowledge that emerged (1) as “instructing” organizations directed changes and “receiving” organizations resisted them; (2) as organizations in various fields reciprocally collaborated; and (3) as similar organizations practiced networked learning. Although studies have traditionally highlighted the “discipline” of technologies, I illustrate the power of organizational agents to resist, adapt, and change them—with implications for the study of quantification, work, institutional change, and education.

New Publication: “Subtle Webs: How Local Organizations Shape US Education” by Jose Eos Trinidad

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Trinidad, Jose Eos. 2025. Subtle Webs: How Local Organizations Shape US Education. Oxford University Press.

(30% off with code: AUFLY30)

Abstract: In Subtle Webs, Jose Eos Trinidad reveals how organizations outside schools have created an invisible infrastructure not only to affect local school districts but also to shape US education. He illustrates this by providing a behind-the-scenes look at how local organizations in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City have transformed data and worked with high schools to address the problem of students dropping out. The book argues that changes in a decentralized system happen less through top-down policy mandates or bottom-up social movements and more through “outside-in” initiatives of networked organizations spread across various local systems. By detailing change across multiple levels and across multiple locations, Trinidad uncovers new ways to think about educational transformation, policy reform, and organizational change.

New Publication: “Does Wanting Diversity Mean Racial Diversity? How Race and Gender Influence Support for Corporate DEI Policies.” by Adia Harvey Wingfield & Antonia Roach

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Wingfield, Adia Harvey and Antonia Roach. (2025.) “Does Wanting Diversity Mean Racial Diversity? How Race and Gender Influence Support for Corporate DEI Policies.”Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. Online first.

Abstract

In the wake of recent social movements, cultural changes, and emerging organizational norms, decisive majorities of White workers now agree with the premise that companies should strive for workplace diversity. That support rarely translates into an interest in race-conscious programming, yielding what sociologists describe as a “principle/policy gap.” Yet most of the research identifying principle/policy gaps relies on predominantly White samples. In this article, we draw from a sample of 85 Black, White, Asian American, and Latinx workers in the financial sector to examine whether the principle/policy gap is present among both White workers and those of color. Our interviews reveal mixed evidence of principle/policy gaps when it comes to race-based diversity programming. We also find that respondents’ preferences (or lack thereof) for race-conscious diversity are informed by intersections of race and gender, rendering race-based programming more attractive for some groups and gender-based initiatives more appealing for others.

Two New Publications

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Hello, here are two new publications from OOW members!

Ghaziani, Amin. 2025. “The Cultural Field of Queer Nightlife: Organizations, Artists, and Curatorial Activism.” The Sociological Quarterly. 

ABSTRACT: Queer nightlife is recognized by humanists as an artistic project, while social scientists use it more often as a case to examine deviance and regulatory control, macro-structural inequities, substance use, and sexual violence. In this article, I invite researchers to prioritize culture and creativity in theoretical frameworks of nightlife. Based on 112 interviews about underground parties in London that have arisen as gay bars close, I argue that, more than just an art form, queer nightlife is a cultural field. The conceptual shift from form to field accents the organizational plurality of nightlife, relational artmaking practices, and the aesthetics of activism. While these themes have been described by others—and they are by no means exhaustive—I use them to explain broad associations between art and event-based nightlife scenes in the context of community-level disruptions.

Neeraj Rajasekar, Evan Gunderson, and Annika Wilcox. 2025. “The Language of “Diversity” or “DEI”? Exploring Job Titles of Diversity Professionals in US Institutions of Higher Education.” Sociological Forum. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.13047

ABSTRACT : Diversity discourse and related policy have been common in US higher education, and many such institutions employ diversity professionals. As diversity has historically been a contested concept, the language schools use to articulate diversity can greatly shape the discursive environment and work faced by diversity professionals, especially in the current moment of regular political attacks on diversity and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices in US higher education. This study analyzes the language of diversity in US higher education via analysis of diversity-related job titles. We examine job title data collected from thousands of colleges and universities across the country over an 18-year period, with special attention to educational institutions’ use of “diversity” versus “DEI” terminology. We also analyze how institutional characteristics and contextual factors are associated with language in diversity-related job titles. We find that te language of DEI became substantially more prominent over time, rising steadily from 2015 through 2022. While this may change in the near future, our study illustrates that DEI language had some momentum in American institutions of higher education (IHEs) in the past decade. Notably, schools’ language choice has little association with institutional characteristics or contextual factors, which has implications in a moment where anti-DEI politics and policy are affecting IHEs around the country. We discuss our analysis in the context of the current political-legal landscape and consider directions for future research examining the language of diversity and DEI in US society.

New Publication: “Class identity vs intersectional solidarities: Divergent models for organizing gig workers in Seoul and Toronto” by Youngrong Lee

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Lee, Youngrong. (2025). Class identity vs intersectional solidarities: Divergent models for organizing gig workers in Seoul and Toronto. International Journal of Comparative Sociology,  online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/00207152241312904

ABSTRACT

Studies indicate that gig workers, one of the leading groups revitalizing labor movements globally, have organized by diverging from traditional union strategies. How do they achieve this in diverse local contexts? Drawing on 21 months of international ethnographic fieldwork with gig workers’ unions in Seoul and Toronto, this article examines how and why these two unions develop different strategies for addressing critical crises. Comparative analysis reveals that while the shared labor process and the multinational parent company drive the unions toward new unionism, different worker subjectivities are emphasized by each union based on specific axes of oppression: working-class citizen men in Seoul and racialized immigrants in Toronto. These union orientations are linked to the unions’ distinct histories, including the biographies of founding members. My argument is twofold. First, to better understand rising gig workers’ organizing efforts around the globe, we must consider both global and local contexts. While gig labor processes push gig workers’ unions to move away from traditional union tactics, two key local factors—the workforce’s demographic makeup and union histories—shape their divergent models. Second, it is critical to understand the process of cultivating solidarity—not only building solidarity itself but also deciding which groups to be in solidarity within the local context.

New Publication: “Sousveillance Work: Monitoring and Managing-Up in Patrimonial Hollywood” by Julia M. Dessauer

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Dessauer, J.M. Sousveillance Work: Monitoring and Managing-Up in Patrimonial Hollywood. Qual Sociol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-024-09580-y

Abstract: How do workers come to know what their bosses need and want? This paper shows how laborers in patrimonial work environments learn to serve their bosses through bottom-up observation, rather than top-down instruction. The author uses the case of assistants in Hollywood to introduce the concept of sousveillance work, which is the labor of monitoring, anticipating, and fulfilling a boss’s mutable needs and wants. Drawing on 60 + interviews with professionals in Hollywood, the author reveals how sousveillance work helps assistants manage-up and mitigate volatility wrought by their patrimonial superiors. The concept of sousveillance work adds to research on labor and uncertainty in creative industries, and also helps to reveal how patrimonial systems are sustained in contemporary work environments.





New Publication: “The intergenerational reproduction of self-direction at work: Revisiting  Class and Conformity” by Kaspar Burger, Francesca Mele, Monica Johnson, Jeylan Mortimer & Xiaowen Han

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Kaspar Burger, Francesca Mele, Monica Johnson, Jeylan Mortimer, and Xiaowen Han. 2025. “The intergenerational reproduction of self-direction at work: Revisiting Class and Conformity.”  Social Forces. Online First https://academic.oup.com/sf/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sf/soaf016/7996444?utm_source=advanceaccess&utm_campaign=sf&utm_medium=email

Abstract: In his path-breaking monograph, Class and Conformity, Melvin Kohn reasoned that parents prepare their children for the same conditions of work that they themselves experience. Kohn and his colleagues’ research focused on the influence of parental self-direction at work on parental child-rearing values and practices, as well as the self-directed values of children. The intergenerational transmission of occupational self-direction from parents to the succeeding generation of adult children, strongly implied by Kohn’s analysis, has not been empirically tested. Using two-generation longitudinal data from the Youth Development Study (N = 1139), we estimate a structural equation model to assess the intergenerational continuity of occupational self-direction. We find evidence supporting a key inference of Kohn’s analysis: that self-direction at work, a primary feature of jobs of higher social class standing, is transmitted across generations via self-directed psychological orientations, operationalized here as intrinsic work values. Intrinsic values also significantly predicted second-generation educational attainment, contributing further to the reproduction of socioeconomic inequality. The findings enhance understanding of the intergenerational transmission of advantage.

YDS data are publicly available at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research archive, University of Michigan (ICPSR 24881).

New Publication

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Here is a new publication from our OOW section member:

Wilcox, Annika. 2025. “Conforming Critical Diversity: Voicing Diversity for Equity in an Organizational Inequality Regime.” Sociological Focus 58(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2024.2433524

ABSTRACT: Diversity is a contested notion: it can be framed “uncritically,” as all differences that benefit privileged groups, or “critically,” as categorical inequalities that must be addressed to advance equity. While uncritical diversity is broadly legitimated, critical diversity is often socially suppressed, particularly in racialized and gendered workplaces. Prior research elucidates how organizational actors advance uncritical (e.g. colorblind) diversity yet pays little attention to how everyday employees voice critical diversity in white-male-dominated work contexts that politicize matters of inequality. I address this concern via analysis of an extreme case: a large, U.S.-based technology company. Drawing on in-depth interviews with employees, I demonstrate that individuals strategically negotiate critical and uncritical meanings of diversity in conversation by conforming critical diversity, which involves (1) defining diversity broadly yet centering categories of inequality, (2) offering critical and uncritical justifications of diversity, and (3) couching critical justifications in individualistic language. These practices uphold status-quo-reproducing diversity narratives while also generating more critical arguments than expected based on prior research. Results suggest the importance of studying how the interactional spaces of organizations and workplaces constrain and enable individuals’ discussions of diversity. If organizations redefined cultural norms governing diversity-related conversations, they might see greater results from formal diversity initiatives.