Socio-Economic Review Cafe: Close Relationships, Trust, and the Economy
Featuring a conversation with SER authors Wenjuan Zheng (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), David Shulman (Lafayette College), and Kent Grayson (Northwestern University)
Join us for a discussion of close relationships and the potential and pitfalls of trust in the economy, as well as the ways technology can mediate these dynamics. Shulman and Grayson’s paper “Et Tu, Brute? Unraveling the puzzle of deception and broken trust in close relations” (2023) discusses why closeness, as with friends or coworkers, is no guarantee of trust, revisiting theoretical discussions of trust to shed light on detection errors and associational dilemmas. Meanwhile, Zheng’s paper “Converting donation to transaction: how platform capitalism exploits relational labor in non-profit fundraising” (2023) investigates what happens when platforms intermediate trusting relationships, demonstrating how they reconfigure charity events and mediate civic interactions through invisible value extraction.
Together, these papers offer insights into how trust is built, maintained, and challenged in a world increasingly facilitated by technology.
The event will take place on Thursday, November 16th, 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 rather than lengthy talks. Come ready to engage.
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Asians in America Beyond Education: Career Choices, Trajectories, and Mobility Strategies
Jennifer Lee Columbia University
Kimberly Goyette Temple University
Jackson G. Lu Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Xi Song University of Pennsylvania
Yu Xie Princeton University
The Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action in university admissions in early 2023, in large part due to allegations that Harvard University had engaged in racial discrimination against Asian Americans. Amidst mixed evidence of bias against Asian applicants in Harvard’s admissions process, SCOTUS ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. Asian Americans are not underrepresented in university classrooms, however, including at Harvard. They account for 7.2 percent of the U.S. population, yet 29.9 percent of Harvard’s incoming class. Charges of bias against Asians have focused mainly on university admissions, with scant attention to its more widespread and insidious forms, including in the workplace where they would benefit from affirmative action.
Research on Asians in America has focused disproportionately on their exceptional educational achievement. In spite of social scientists’ explanations of these patterns, the narrow focus on education has had the unintended consequence of reifying the perception that Asians are the advantaged minority—or the so-called “model minority. While Asians outpace all groups in education, they lose their advantage in the workplace. That Asians do not maintain their advantage in the labor market makes this domain worthy of inquiry. Hence, we go beyond education and invite research proposals that address questions about the labor market choices, trajectories, mobility strategies, cultural orientations, and family-related behavior of Asians in America.
In the call for articles, we invite papers that address questions about the labor market choices, career trajectories, and mobility strategies of Asians in America. We welcome evidence-based proposals from all social science disciplines and all methodological approaches.
Prospective contributors should submit a CV and an abstract (up to two pages in length, single or double spaced) of their study along with up to two pages of supporting material (e.g., tables, figures, pictures, etc.) no later than 5 PM EST on December 11, 2023, to:
NOTE that if you wish to submit an abstract and do not yet have an account with us, it can take up to 48 hours to get credentials, so please start your application at least two days before the deadline. All submissions must be original work that has not been previously published in part or in full. Only abstracts submitted to https://rsf.fluxx.iowill be considered. Each paper will receive a $1,000 honorarium when the issue is published. All questions regarding this issue should be directed to Suzanne Nichols, Director of Publications, at journal@rsage.org. Do not email the editors of the issue.
A conference will take place at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City on June 7, 2024. The selected contributors will gather for a one-day workshop to present draft papers (due a month prior to the conference on 5/3/24 ) and receive feedback from the other contributors and editors. Travel costs, food, and lodging for one author per paper will be covered by the foundation. Papers will be circulated before the conference. After the conference, the authors will submit their revised drafts by 10/2/24. The papers will then be sent out to three additional scholars for formal peer review. Having received feedback from reviewers and the RSF board, authors will revise their papers by 1/8/25. The full and final issue will be published in the fall of 2025. Papers will be published open access on the RSF website as well as in several digital repositories, including JSTOR and UPCC/Muse.
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.
Position No. 00053170. The Department of Sociology at Southern Methodist University invites applications for an open-rank position as department Chair to begin August 1, 2024 with the chairship to begin August 1, 2025. Applicants are particularly encouraged to apply if they can contribute to the university’s larger cluster hires in data science or urban studies. Faculty searches for urban studies are being conducted in the departments of Anthropology, Economics, Education, Political Science, Religious Studies, among others.
The Department of Sociology is among the larger degree-granting programs in Dedman College. We serve around 65 Sociology majors and minors and 90 Markets and Culture majors, an interdisciplinary economic sociology degree housed in Sociology. Forty percent of our students are from underrepresented groups. Housed in historic Hyer Hall overlooking the beautiful live oak-lined Dallas Hall Quad, our department is collegial with a strong history of working with McNair Scholars and offering courses that support other interdisciplinary majors in Health & Society and Human Rights and the Women’s and Gender Studies and Law and Legal Reasoning minors. Our faculty contribute to the Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute’s research symposia and take advantage of the opportunity to live on campus in the residential commons as a Faculty-In-Residence and teach at our sister campus in the mountains of Taos, NM.
SMU is in a transformative period of expansion as the university approaches its goal of reaching the R-1 research tier. SMU’s Second Century Campaign was the largest fundraising initiative in SMU’s history, raising $1.15 billion by the end of 2015 and a new, $1.5 billion campaign, SMU Ignited, has begun. A series of interdisciplinary faculty cluster hires centering on urban studies, data science and high-performance computing, earth hazards and national security, and 21st century technology and education are introducing new collaborations among the faculty across the university and generating innovation in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, a culturally rich arts and global business center that is home to many universities, arts organizations and Fortune 500 corporations, and beyond.
Minimum Requirements -PhD -at least three years of administrative experience
Preferred Qualifications -Ability to contribute courses toward the Markets and Culture major -Experience teaching and mentoring diverse students
Applications must be submitted via Interfolio at http://apply.interfolio.com/112539 and should include a complete curriculum vitae and three letters of recommendation. SMU is an inclusive and intellectually vibrant community that values diverse research and creative agendas. Review of applications will begin November 1. To ensure full consideration for the position, the application must be received by October 30, but the committee will continue to accept applications until the position is filled. The committee will notify applicants of the employment decision after the position is filled.
Located near the center of Dallas, SMU is a private nonsectarian university of 12,000 students. SMU will not discriminate in any program or activity on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression. The Executive Director for Access and Equity/Title IX Coordinator is designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies and may be reached at the Perkins Administration Building, Room 204, 6425 Boaz Lane, Dallas, TX 75205, 214-768-3601, accessequity@smu.edu.
The Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics (CID) at the University of Michigan is now accepting applications for a Visiting Fellow for the 2024-25 academic year.
The fellowship provides an early-career social scientist with funded time to pursue their research in an intellectual community with a culture of engagement and collaboration.
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.
Individuals deeply socialized into professional cultures tend to strongly resist breaking from their professions’ core cultural tenets. When these individuals face external pressure (e.g., via new technology or regulation), they typically turn to peers for guidance in such involuntary reinventions of their work. But it is unclear how some professionals may voluntarily break from deeply ingrained views. Through our study of French anesthesiologists who practice hypnosis, we aim to better understand this little-explored phenomenon. Adopting hypnosis, a technique that many anesthesiologists consider subjective and even magical, contradicted a core tenet of their profession: the need to only use techniques validated by rigorous scientific-based research. Drawing on interviews and observations, we analyze how these anesthesiologists were able to change their views and reinvent their work. We find that turning inward to oneself (focusing on their own direct experiences of clients) and turning outward to clients (relying on relations with clients) played critical roles in anesthesiologists’ ability to shift their views and adopt hypnosis. Through this process, these anesthesiologists embarked on a voluntary internal transformation, or reboot, whereby they profoundly reassessed their work, onboarded people in adjacent professions to accept their own reinvention, and countered isolation from their peers. Overall, we show a pathway to such reinvention that entails turning inward and outward (rather than to peers), a result that diverges significantly from prior understandings of professionals’ transformations.
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 ASA Distinguished Scholarly Book Award is presented annually to an ASA member for the best single book published in the two calendar years preceding the year the book is nominated (books with copyright years of 2022 and 2023 are eligible for the 2024 award).
Nomination Procedures
Nominations must include a cover letter with the name of the author, title of book, date of publication, publisher, and a brief statement of no more than 300 words as to why the book should be considered, along with a PDF copy or 10 physical copies of the book.
Nominations can be considered for two award cycles however, nominations are not carried over from one award cycle to the next. Nominations need to be submitted each year for consideration.
In addition to the nomination materials described above, complete and submit the required nomination form.
Self-nominations are encouraged. All awardees must be current ASA members at the time of the award ceremony at the Annual Meeting. One need not be a member to be nominated for an award. All nominators must be current members. Nominations sent from publishers will not be accepted. Please also be aware of ASA’s ethics disclosure and award revocation policies.
Submit the cover letter and nomination form to nominations@asanet.org. Please also send a copy of the nominated book either as a PDF to nominations@asanet.org or ship 10 physical copies of the publication to American Sociological Association, c/o Mark Fernando and Distinguished Scholarly Book Award, 1430 K ST, NW, Ste 600, Washington, DC 20005 (Please ship books as early as possible because of holiday-related shipping delays).
2024 Selection Committee
The selection committee is composed of nine members, each serving a staggered three-year term. Members are appointed from among the Association membership by the Council based on the recommendation of the Committee on Committees.
Richard E. Ocejo, Chair Rick A. Baldoz Kristen Barber Caitlyn Collins Emmanuel David Yến Lê Espiritu Jeff Hass Two additional members TBD
Labor and race have shared a complex, interconnected history in America. For decades, key aspects of work—from getting a job to workplace norms to advancement and mobility—ignored and failed Black people. While explicit discrimination no longer occurs, and organizations make internal and public pledges to honor and achieve “diversity,” inequities persist through what Adia Harvey Wingfield calls the “gray areas:” the relationships, networks, and cultural dynamics integral to companies that are now more important than ever. The reality is that Black employees are less likely to be hired, stall out at middle levels, and rarely progress to senior leadership positions.
Wingfield has spent a decade examining inequality in the workplace, interviewing over two hundred Black subjects across professions about their work lives. In Gray Areas, she introduces seven of them: Alex, a worker in the gig economy Max, an emergency medicine doctor; Constance, a chemical engineer; Brian, a filmmaker; Amalia, a journalist; Darren, a corporate vice president; and Kevin, who works for a nonprofit.
In this accessible and important antiracist work, Wingfield chronicles their experiences and blends them with history and surprising data that starkly show how old models of work are outdated and detrimental. She demonstrates the scope and breadth of gray areas and offers key insights and suggestions for how they can be fixed, including shifting hiring practices to include Black workers; rethinking organizational cultures to centralize Black employees’ experience; and establishing pathways that move capable Black candidates into leadership roles. These reforms would create workplaces that reflect America’s increasingly diverse population—professionals whose needs organizations today are ill-prepared to meet.
It’s time to prepare for a truly equitable, multiracial future and move our culture forward. To do so, we must address the gray areas in our workspaces today. This definitive work shows us how.
Organizations, Occupations and Work 