Category: Publications

New Publication: Organizational constraints on campus support programs: A case for former foster care youth

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Dominguez, Rachael & Ueno, Koji. (2025, online first). “Organizational constraints on campus support programs: A case for former foster care youth.” Children and Youth Services Review, 168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.108036

Abstract: Campus support programs provide targeted services to groups of students throughout their time in college. Some institutions have implemented support programs for former foster care youth, who face lower rates of college retention and graduation than their non-foster peers. These programs must operate within the constraints that colleges and universities impose on them while attempting to maintain program effectiveness. Despite the relevance of the broader university context on campus support program effectiveness, limited studies have examined possible implications of organizational constraints. This study explores organizational constraints and their consequences on campus support programs for former foster care youth. Using an integrated organizational sociology of education framework, we analyzed data from in-depth interviews with 20 program coordinators of campus support programs for former foster care youth across the United States. Results revealed five organizational constraints imposed by the organizational network and structure: limited resource allocation, immobilized information, structural disconnection, conflicting goals, and weak relationships. Our analysis suggests these constraints reinforce each other and undermine program effectiveness. We conclude by discussing the need for additional organizational research on campus support programs, arguing that addressing constraints can lead to a more thorough understanding of their consequences on campus support programs for marginalized student groups.

Free Access by January 17: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1kAvJ_4La8W7-W

New Publication: Work After Lawful Status: Formerly Undocumented Immigrants’ Gendered Relational Legal Consciousness and Workplace Claims-making

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Tenorio, Luis Edward. “Work After Lawful Status: Formerly Undocumented Immigrants’ Gendered Relational Legal Consciousness and Workplace Claims-making.” Law & Society Review. 58(3): 383-414.  https://doi.org/10.1017/lsr.2024.29

Abstract: Undocumented status impedes immigrants’ workplace claims to legal rights and better treatment. But what happens when they obtain lawful permanent residency – does the reluctance to make claims in the workplace change? If so, how? Drawing on timeline interviews, I examine changes in the relational legal consciousness and reported workplace claims-making of 98 formerly undocumented Latino immigrants. Most respondents reported increased willingness to engage in, and follow through with, workplace claims. However, gendered differences emerged. Men’s claims largely revolved around wage negotiations, moving to a better paying position, and enforcement of legal rights with an attached monetary value. They were also more likely to frame claims as legal rights. In contrast, women’s claims largely revolved around better work treatment, access to job benefits, and workplace accommodations. They were also more likely to frame claims as moral rights. I explain these outcomes as a function of three relational mechanisms: lawful status being understood relative to experiences being undocumented; gendering in the legalization process; and social ties promoting gendered expectations of lawful permanent residency. My findings highlight the importance of gendered differences in relational legal consciousness and how lived reference points (e.g., prior undocumented experience) inform how legal consciousness changes over time.

New Publication: A Moral Dilemma of ‘Selling Out’: Race, Class, and Career Considerations among Elite College Students

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Joyce J. Kim. 2024. “A Moral Dilemma of ‘Selling Out’: Race, Class, and Career Considerations among Elite College Students.” Social Problems. Online First.  https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spae056

Abstract: Research on occupational choice focuses on individualistic work values and emphasizes economic returns. Drawing from 62 in-depth interviews with Asian, Black, and White first-generation, low-income (FGLI), and middle-class students at an elite university, I argue that students’ career decisions comprise a moral dimension. How students contended with this dimension varied based on the intersection of their racial and class backgrounds. Specifically, patterns broadly align with two categories: contingent objections to certain high-prestige, high-paying careers arising from individual priorities or concern for social good, and linked obligations to broader collectivities, such as ethnoracial groups or families. While students across all racial and class backgrounds raised objections based on different individual priorities, FGLI students primarily mentioned objections based on the value of social good. Across class backgrounds, Asian and Black students more often cited obligations based on ethnoracial uplift compared to their White peers. Asian and Black FGLI students prioritized family contributions more strongly than their White FGLI counterparts. Paradoxically, some students used these evaluative logics to justify “selling out” in pursuit of high-prestige, high-paying jobs, whereas others used these justifications to reject them. This study furthers understanding of the cultural processes behind social inequalities and highlights how the intersection of race and class shapes moral understandings.

Announcement: “Sociological Thinking in Contemporary Organizational Scholarship” The New Volume of Research in the Sociology of Organizations is Out! Available via OPEN ACCESS

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“Sociological Thinking in Contemporary Organizational Scholarship”
Edited by Stewart Clegg, Michael Grothe-Hammer, and Kathia Serrano Velarde.

This New Volume of Research in the Sociology of Organizations is Now Out! Available via OPEN ACCESS.

The Volume explores the new boundaries of organizational sociology. It sets out to map a community of scholars that transcends disciplinary limitations by following one simple epistemic logic: society happens in, between, across, and around organizations.

“We are deeply grateful for the fantastic contributions we received, and we are especially honored that our volume includes an inspiring piece by the greatly missed Barbara Czarniawska.
We hope you’ll enjoy reading our Volume!”
-Stewart, Michael, and Kathia

Here is the link to the full open access volume:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/doi/10.1108/S0733-558X202490

CONTENTS:

Sociological Thinking in Contemporary Organizational Scholarship
by Stewart Clegg, Michael Grothe-Hammer, and Kathia Serrano Velarde 

PART 1. THE PLACE OF SOCIOLOGY IN ORGANIZATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP

Revitalizing Organizational Theory Through a Problem-oriented Sociology
by Brayden King 

Organizational Sociology and Organization Studies: Past, Present, and Future
by Leopold Ringel 

Facing Up to the Present? Cultivating Political Judgment  and a Sense of Reality in Contemporary Organizational Life 
by Thomas Lopdrup-Hjorth and Paul du Gay 

PART 2. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN AND THROUGH ORGANIZATIONS:
Organizations within Society: Organizational Perspectives on Status and Distinction

Status in Socio-environmental Fields: Relationships, Evaluations, and Otherhood 
by Nadine Arnold and Fabien Foureault 

Organizations as Carriers of Status and Class Dynamics: A Historical Ethnography of the
Emergence of Bordeaux’s Cork Aristocracy
by Grégoire Croidieu and Walter W. Powell 

Organizations as Drivers of Social and Systemic Integration: Contradiction and Reconciliation
Through Loose Demographic Coupling and Community Anchoring 
by Krystal Laryea and Christof Brandtner 

Why Organization Studies Should Care More about Gender Exclusion and Inclusion in Sport
Organizations
by Lucy Piggott, Jorid Hovden and Annelies Knoppers

PART 3. REDISCOVERING SOCIOLOGICAL CLASSICS FOR ORGANIZATION STUDIES:
Reflexivity and Control

Narrating the Disjunctions Produced by the Sociological Concept of Emotional Reflexivity in
Organization Studies by Bruno Américo, Stewart Clegg and Fagner Carniel 

The Promise of Total Institutions in the Sociology of Organizations: Implications of Regimental
and Monastic Obedience for Underlife
by Mikaela Sundberg 

PART 3. REDISCOVERING SOCIOLOGICAL CLASSICS FOR ORGANIZATION STUDIES:
Organizing and Organization

Why Organization Sociologists Should Refer to Tarde and Simmel More Often 
by Barbara Czarniawska 

Organization Systems and Their Social Environments: The Role of Functionally Differentiated
Society and Face-to-Face Interaction Rituals
by Werner Schirmer

New Publication: “Beyond the ‘wow’ factor: the analytic importance of boredom in qualitative research” by Tair Karazi-Presler & Edna Lomsky-Feder

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Karazi-Presler, Tair and Edna Lomsky-Feder. 2024. “Beyond the ‘Wow’ Factor: The Analytic Importance of Boredom in Qualitative Research.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2024.2400154

Abstract: In this paper, we perceive boredom as a potential resource for creativity in qualitative research. We present three main arguments. First, boredom is often an inevitable stage on the way to research excitement and can even serve as an important clue leading to analytic surprises. Second, there is a methodological need to reflect on boredom in order to understand the researcher’s perception of meaningfulness and meaninglessness. Particularly, we show how the ‘interview society’, characterized by the dominance of the therapeutic discourse, shapes researchers’ expectations regarding what is considered ‘interesting’ or ‘boring.’ Finally, the researcher’s experience of boredom may provide insights into the very phenomenon under investigation. We flesh out these arguments by showing how the researcher’s boredom during interviews reflects the interviewees’ emotional style, expected of (women) managers in the neoliberal culture: emotional restraint and a façade of rationality and objectivity.

New Publication: “Moral reconciling at career launch: Politics, race, and occupational choice” by Matthew Clair & Sophia Hunt

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Clair, Matthew and Sophia Hunt. Forthcoming. “Moral reconciling at career launch: Politics, race, and occupational choice” Socio-Economic Review. https://academic.oup.com/ser/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ser/mwae061/7796896

Abstract: Recent research suggests that college-educated young adults, especially those who are politically liberal and/or racially marginalized, exhibit moral reservations about their intended occupations. How do they justify entering occupations that conflict with their morals, and with what consequences? This article examines the case of 74 mostly liberal prospective law school students from a range of racial backgrounds followed over 2 years. In interviews at career launch, respondents criticized the legal profession for its perceived perpetuation of inequality and violence. Despite their moral reservations, they articulated three occupational justification narratives for attending law school: lifting up (exceptional lawyering); leveraging out (legal education for nonlawyer aspirations); and leaning in (conscientious class mobility/maintenance). These narratives differentiate between morally ‘good’ and ‘bad’ occupational domains—a cultural-cognitive process we term moral reconciling. We theorize how moral reconciling at career launch charts young adults down different early career trajectories, with implications for occupational sorting and change.

New Publication: “Know Your Place: Fractured Epistemic Privilege among Women in State Organizations” by Tair Karazi-Presler

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Karazi‐Presler, Tair. 2024. “Know Your Place: Fractured Epistemic Privilege among Women in State Organizations.” Sociological Forum. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.13021

Abstract: Based on 67 in-depth interviews, this article explores how women in positions of power in two major organizational fields in Israel—the military and government ministries—develop different types of gender knowledge. In the military, an extremely and publicly gendered organization, the interviewees demonstrate gender reflexivity and pragmatic literacy of power relations. In the government ministries, which tend to conceal and even repress gendered power, the interviewees demonstrate (neoliberal) feminist consciousness and a limited ability to conceptualize power relations. The contribution of this article is threefold. First, it challenges the common view that gender reflexivity and feminist consciousness are causally related by emphasizing fractured epistemic privilege among women in different organizational contexts. Second, it demonstrates that women’s survival practices produce gender knowledge, which in turn produces gender practices in organizational contexts. Third, it argues that different types of gender knowledge develop as a byproduct of the gendered power-relation characteristics of each specific organizational context. Accordingly, this article offers a framework for analyzing emerging forms of gender sociopolitical knowledge in organizations as an additional dimension of gender inequality and a possible basis for transforming it.

New Publication: “Profiles Among Women Without a Paid Job and Social Benefits: An Intersectional Perspective Using Dutch Population Register Data” by Lea Kröner, Deni Mazrekaj, Tanja van der Lippe, and Anne-Rigt Poortman

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Kröner, L., Mazrekaj, D., van der Lippe, T., & Poortman, A. R. (2024). Profiles Among Women Without a Paid Job and Social Benefits: An Intersectional Perspective Using Dutch Population Register Data. Social Policy & Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.13080

Abstract: Despite their potential vulnerability and untapped work potential, research on the group of women without a paid job and social benefits is limited. This study is the first to identify profiles among women in this group based on their intersecting economic, sociodemographic and contextual characteristics. A cluster analysis conducted on Dutch population register data from 2019 challenges previous research that lumped women without a paid job and social benefits into a single group. Rather, we reveal three distinct profiles: ‘Dutch empty nesters (i.e., mothers with adult children) in affluent households’, ‘Migrant women in urban living areas’ and ‘Dutch, educated mothers with affluent partners’. The identification of these three profiles can mark a significant step in developing tailored active labour market policies for women without a paid job and social benefits.


New Publication: “Doing Genders: Partner’s Gender and Labor Market Behavior” by Eva Jaspers, Deni Mazrekaj, and Weverthon Machado

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Jaspers, E., Mazrekaj, D., & Machado, W. (2024). Doing Genders: Partner’s Gender and Labor Market Behavior. American Sociological Review, 89(3), 518-541. https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224241252079

Abstract: Partnered men and women show consistently gendered patterns of labor market behavior. We test whether not only a person’s own gender, but also their partner’s gender shapes hours worked. We use Dutch administrative population data on almost 5,000 persons who had both male and female partners, whose hours worked we observe monthly over 15 years. We argue that this provides a unique setting to assess the relevance of partner’s gender for labor market behavior. Using two-way fixed effects and fixed-effects individual slopes models, we find that both men and women tend to work more hours when partnered with a female partner compared to a male partner. These results align with our hypothesis that a partner’s gender influences labor market behavior. For women, we conclude that this finding may be (partly) explained by marital and motherhood status. Additionally, we discovered that women decrease their hours worked to a lesser extent when caring for a child if they have a female partner. Finally, we found that for men, the positive association between own and partner’s hours worked is weaker when one has a female partner, indicating a higher degree of specialization within these couples.

New Publications

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Two new publications:

  1. Luis Edward Tenorio, “Legal Care Work: Emotion and Care Work in Lawyering with Unaccompanied Minors,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2024.2401601#abstract

ABSTRACT
We know legal representation can improve the likelihood of favorable legal outcomes for immigrants, what some scholars refer to as the ‘representation effect’. But can legal representation affect client’s broader integration and resettlement outcomes along the timeline of their legal case? If so, how? Drawing from literature on emotion work, care work, and how attorneys interact with immigrant clients, I propose the concept of legal care work to capture the emotion and care work strategies attorneys undertake to respond to immigrant clients’ broader set of needs. Based on a rich qualitative study of attorneys and Central American unaccompanied minor clients, I show how the legal care work attorneys perform illustrate the need for an expanded conceptualization of the ‘representation effect’ they have on clients, impacting behaviors and outcomes across various dimensions of everyday life. Further, I show how who receives and is denied legal care work—a product of biases and stereotypes, as well as bureaucratic dysfunction—exacerbate disparities along different socio-demographic lines (e.g. race, age, gender). These findings underscore the value of interrogating the role attorneys play in facilitating the transformative effects of the law and advancing social change in complex and hostile legal contexts.

  1. Joseph-Goteiner, D. (2024). From Degrees to Dimensions: Accounts of Workers’ Socioeconomic Dependence on Platforms. Socius, 10. https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231241275412

ABSTRACT
Platform work is one prominent type of independent contracting in the United States. Yet the independent status of platform workers is contested. Some scholars call platform workers dependent contractors. Others are measuring workers’ economic dependence to support better classification. Given platform workers’ heterogeneity, current efforts to classify workers’ dependence might be missing different kinds of dependencies. This article asks the following: What are the dimensions of economic dependence that platform workers experience? I interviewed 47 individuals working on the microwork platform Prolific and analyzed three dimensions that were salient in workers’ accounts: “episodic,” “discretionary,” and “projected” dependencies. These dimensions can help us to measure platform dependence. Furthermore, this article theorizes how each form of dependence might reinforce economic precarity. This study calls for further connections between platform studies and literature on household finance, consumption, and culture.