Call for Abstracts: Expertise In and Around Organizations

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Research in the Sociology of Organizations
Expertise In and Around Organizations

Call for Abstracts
There is ample evidence that expertise is in crisis due to increasing distrust in and the diminished
authority of experts. We have witnessed – in relation to climate change and the pandemic – the
public, visible struggles among expert groups in which knowledge claims are revealed as
incommensurable and related courses of action are contested, further diminishing the authority of
expertise. Expertise also faces renewed challenges from intelligent technologies and efforts to
codify and institutionalize expertise in ways that increase managerial and organizational control
over experts. Despite these and other challenges, society continues to rely on expertise.
Organizations routinely turn to and depend on experts to address some of our most pressing and
important problems, including public health, issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity, the
management of the economy, and the reduction of CO2 emissions. We also observe the
emergence of new forms of expertise in and around organizations and changes in how expertise
is organized. Expertise – specialized knowledge and techniques about a class of social problems
and related solutions or responses to these problems – continues to be important.
Scholars from different fields of research (e.g., Organization Theory, Sociology, Science and
Technology Studies, and Policy Studies) have grappled with the topic of expertise through
various related concepts such as knowledge work, professions, specialization, and institutional
elites. These theoretical conversations create overlapping, complementary, and – at times –
incommensurate understandings of the constitution and production of expertise, its role and
mobilization in and around organizations, and its consequences for employees, organizations,
and institutions.


The goal of this volume is to bring these various ways of conceptualizing expertise into
conversation to understand the dynamics of expertise in and around organizations. We welcome
submissions that examine expertise empirically or conceptually. This includes, but is not limited
to, submissions that examine 1) new forms of expertise and new ways of organizing expertise, 2)
expertise in the context of work and professions, 3) expertise in various policymaking arenas,
and 4) expertise in relation to old and new technologies. We welcome a range of methodologies
and perspectives.


Those interested in contributing to this volume should submit an extended abstract that
articulates the main argument of the paper as well as the setting, methods, preliminary findings,
and contributions by October 17th 2022. Abstracts should not exceed 3000 words excluding
references and tables. Abstracts for the volume should be submitted via EasyChair.

Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to participate in a paper development workshop in the spring of 2023. Final papers will be due by autumn of 2023.


If you have any questions about the volume, please contact a member of the editorial team.
Kasper Elmholdt, Aalborg University, elm@dps.aau.dk
Ruthanne Huising, Emlyon Business School, huising@em-lyon.com
Elina Mäkinen, Tampere University, elina.makinen@tuni.fi

Call for Participants: Junior Theorists Symposium, ASA Pre-Conference

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16th Annual Junior Theorists Symposium

Thursday, August 4, 2022

University of Southern California

Please register to attend in-person here

Interested in attending virtually? Register here

Donate to support JTS: Venmo: @JTS-2022

8:30am – 9:00am PST | Light breakfast

9:00am – 10:20am PST | Panel 1: Health and the politics of knowledge

Discussant: Steven Epstein, Northwestern University

Presenters:

Jonathan Shaffer (Boston University) – “Noncommunicable Diseases Between North and South: The Double Standards of a Single Category”

Lisa Owens (Columbia University) – “Birth, Blood, and the Social Origins of Trauma”

Brandon Sward (University of Chicago) – “The colonization of media: Indigeneity, visuality, and social science in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries”

10:20am – 10:30am PST | Break

10:30am – 11:50am PST | Panel 2: Political elites, social movements, and entrepreneurialism 

Discussant: Saskia Sassen, Columbia University

Presenters:

Vrinda Marwah (University of Utah) – “The caste of our commons: Political entrepreneurialism and social structure”

Luis Flores (University of Michigan) – “Polanyi at a Tupperware Party: Marketizing Home Life and the Social Limits of “Breadwinner Liberalism”

Wendy Li (University of Wisconsin-Madison) – “What Does the Revolving Door Do? Careers, Cohesion, and Policy Networks among Political Elites”

11:50am – 12:20pm PST | Lunch begins

12:30pm – 1:50pm PST | Keynote & lunch continued

Winners of the 2020 Junior Theorist Award for “Gender and Charismatic Power”

Paul Joosse (Hong Kong University) and Robin Willey (Concordia University of Edmonton) 

2:00pm – 3:20pm PST | Panel 3: Race, categories, and temporality

Discussant: Mario Small, Columbia University

Presenters:

Jared Clemons (Duke University) and Mo Torres (Harvard University) – “Racism without Races: Sociology beyond the “Social Construction of Race”

prabhdeep singh kehal (Brown University) – “Negotiating Utopia: Ethnography and Theorizing from Entangled US Trans Subjectivities”

Sabrina Charles (New York University) – “Time and Unpredictability: Arrhythmia in Immigration Court”

3:20pm – 3:30pm PST | Break

3:30pm – 5:00pm PST | After-Panel: Theorizing Intersections

Panelists: 

Tey Meadow (Columbia University)

Tianna Paschel (University of California, Berkeley)

Vrushali Patel (Florida International University)

Mary Romero (Arizona State University)

Adia Harvey Wingfield (Washington University, St. Louis)

5:30pm PST | “Theory in the Wild”

After the Symposium, please join us for drinks at TBD

Please contact Tara Gonsalves and Davon Norris with questions: juniortheorists@gmail.com 

Job Post: Director of Research, Professional Development, and Academic Affairs at ASA

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Director of Research, Professional Development, and Academic Affairs

American Sociological Association

Are you committed to advancing sociology as a science and profession? Would you enjoy conceptualizing and organizing professional development opportunities for sociologists in all sectors, conducting research on the discipline, and supporting sociology departments? Are you good at working collaboratively with teams to develop and implement programmatic initiatives? Are you a detail oriented, effective, and experienced leader who is ready to embark on a new challenge in a dynamic and fast-paced environment? If so, the American Sociological Association (ASA) invites you to apply to become the Director of Research, Professional Development, and Academic Affairs (RPA).

ASA has a membership of about 10,000 sociologists who are scholars, teachers, and practitioners. Our office is in Washington, D.C., but staff is working 100% remotely at present. The return to office plan (tentatively to begin at the end of June) includes a COVID-19 vaccination policy and flexibility for remote work. A fully remote arrangement may be considered for this position. Additionally, this position could be filled on an ongoing employment basis or as a two-year temporary position.

Essential Functions:

  • Identify innovative opportunities for the association to support the teaching, research, practice, and professional development of sociologists; develop and implement a strategic portfolio of relevant initiatives.
  • Develop and produce ASA’s full complement of virtual professional development programming including webinars, graduate student proseminars, “Ask Me Anything” sessions, and more.
  • Oversee the strategic direction and management of the Department Affiliates Program, the Program Reviewers and Consultants group, the undergraduate honors program, TRAILS (ASA’s online peer-reviewed library of teaching resources), the Howery Teaching Enhancement Fund and the Annual Meeting Travel Fund.
  • Support and facilitate professional and career development of various communities of sociologists including high school teachers, community college faculty, retirees, students, people working in practice settings, and contingent faculty, among others.
  • Oversee the association’s portfolio of research about the discipline and lead organizational research efforts.
  • Liaise with relevant committees and task forces.
  • Manage relevant website content.
  • Work with the Communications Department to develop and distribute information regarding research on the discipline, professional development, and academic affairs through channels such as newsletters and social media.
  • Manage a substantial departmental operating budget.
  • Respond to relevant requests for assistance from members and staff.
  • Serve as a member of the staff leadership team and the staff sociologists team.
  • Manage additional responsibilities as assigned by the Executive Director.

Reporting Structure: Reports to the Executive Director; Supervises Assistant Director for RPA, Senior Research Associate, and RPA Assistant.

Job Classification: Exempt

Preferred Qualifications: It is important to note that these qualifications are preferred. We recognize that there are several professional profiles that could be well suited to this position. Should your profile vary in some ways from the qualifications listed and you think you can be successful in this endeavor, please do not hesitate to apply.

  • PhD in sociology or closely related discipline.
  • A commitment to serving the discipline by supporting sociologists in teaching and learning, research, practice, and professional development across the broad range of employment sectors and institution types where they are employed.
  • Demonstrated leadership, management, and administrative abilities.
  • Exemplary writing, editing, and verbal communication skills.
  • Familiarity with quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.
  • Strong work ethic.
  • Ability to organize, prioritize and move forward on simultaneous initiatives across a broad portfolio.
  • Organizational savvy, ability to work independently and in collaboration with teams, excellent interpersonal skills.

Compensation: Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. A full benefits package is provided to all ASA staff members.

To apply: Please submit a substantive cover letter and a resume to Nancy Kidd, ASA Executive Director, at nkidd@asanet.org. Your letter should indicate if you are applying for an ongoing position or a two-year temporary post. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Preferred start date August 1.

ASA does not tolerate any forms of discrimination based on age, gender, race, socioeconomic status and socioeconomic origins, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, health conditions, political affiliation, marital status, domestic status, parental status, or any other applicable basis proscribed by law. We prioritize cultivating an inclusive workplace where collaboration and creativity are encouraged and employees excel based on merit and job performance. ASA is an equal opportunity employer.

Job Post: Post-Doc Research Associate at University of New Mexico-Albuquerque

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Job ID:17967
Date Position is Available:Fall 2022
Application Deadline:6/1/2022
Listing Active:5/9/2022 to 6/8/2022
Company:University of New Mexico-Albuquerque
Department:Department of Sociology
Region:Southwest
Title:Postdoctoral Research Associate
Job Position/Rank:Fellowships/Post-docs: Post-doctoral
Tenure/Tenure Track:Not Applicable
Special Program and
Areas of Faculty Expertise:		Racial and Ethnic Relations
Race, Class and Gender
Salary Range:$50,000 – $59,999
Submission Link:https://unm.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/18/home/requisition/19706?c=unm
Job Description:The Institute for the Study of “Race” & Social Justice in the Division for Equity and Inclusion at The University of New Mexico invites applications for up to two Postdoctoral Research Associates to conduct research from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023 (renewable). The Postdoctoral Research Associates will conduct qualitative case studies on the genealogy, historical context, institutional dynamics, and power relations shaping the ontologies, epistemologies, development and trajectory of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines  and Census questions for race and ethnicity from the 1960s to the present. The Postdoctoral Research Associates will also help co-facilitate convenings with scholars, policy makers and key leads of federal administrative agencies for a convening examining how to revise Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to include intersectionality.  The Postdoctoral Associates will also help in sharing the project’s findings and may be able to assist in convening a summer institute. The postdoctoral research fellow will have department affiliation with the Sociology Department will receive professional development funds. This research is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant #79072: Employing an Intersectionality Framework in Revising Office of Management and Budget Standards for Collecting Administrative Race and Ethnicity Data). Minimum Criteria:* PhD in Sociology or closely related field by date of application* expertise in race, ethnicity and intersectionality* specialization in qualitative research methods Preferred Criteria:* Teaching experience in race, ethnicity and intersectionality* Project Management, including data management* Qualitative Software Analysis* Mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) research expertise* demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion and student success and working with broadly diverse communities A complete application consists of a cover letter, CV, list of up to three references and contact information, and up to two writing samples. Note: At least one writing sample must be a dissertation chapter.  Finalists should be prepared to submit up to three letters of reference upon request.  Review of applications will begin on June 1, 2022 and continue until the positions are filled.  Information on benefits and salaries for postdoctoral positions can be found on  http://ofas.unm.edu/post-doctoral/index.html The University of New Mexico is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. UNM values diversity among its students, staff, and faculty and strongly welcomes applications from women, persons with disabilities, protected veterans, and underrepresented minorities
Employer Description:Our Department is actively engaged in research and teaching, and maintains a strong commitment to diversity in our graduate and undergraduate education. Our mission is to advance the comprehension of society, and explain and analyze human relationships, social institutions, and the dynamics of social change. Our faculty engages major sociological issues of global, national, and regional significance.
Contact:Nancy Lopez
Email:nlopez@unm.edu
Phone:(505) 277-2501
Website:https://unm.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/18/home/requisition/19706?c=unm

New Publication: Practical Feelings: Emotions as Resources in a Dynamic Social World

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Hi OOW Members! Today we’re sharing news about Marci Cottingham‘s new book, Practical Feelings.

SUMMARY: Tracing emotions across work, leisure, social media, and politics, Practical Feelings counters old myths and shows how emotions are practical resources for tackling individual and collective challenges.

We do not usually think of our emotions as practical — often they are nuisances to overcome, momentary mysteries to solve, or fleeting sensations to savor before getting back to the business of living. But emotions interlace the practical elements of daily life. In Practical Feelings, Marci D. Cottingham develops a theory of emotion as practical resources. By integrating the sociology of emotion with practice theory, Cottingham covers diverse areas of social life to show the range of an emotion practice approach and trace how emotions are put to use in divergent domains. Spanning work, leisure, digital interactions, and the political sphere, Cottingham portrays nurses, sports fans, social media users, and political actors in more complex, holistic ways. Practical Feelings provides the conceptual tools needed to examine emotions as effort, energy, and embodied resources that calibrate us to the social world.

You can order it online at http://www.oup.com/academic with the promo code ASFLYQ6.

Call for Participants: OMT Doctoral Student Consortium at the 2022 AOM Annual Meeting

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The consortium is designed to allow for high levels of faculty-student interaction. In order to maintain a high faculty/student ratio, space for this consortium remains limited. Interested students must be nominated by their schools and must be OMT members (either already or by joining now).

Doctoral programs should limit their nominations to one applicant. Universities with multiple departments seeking to send students should coordinate their nominations. Preference will be given to those students who have progressed to the dissertation stage and are either on, or considering being on, the job market in the coming year.

Several waivers of the AOM conference’s registration fees and stipends are available to support students who are interested in applying but lack budget/resources from their schools or otherwise. The nomination deadline again is May 15, 2022. 

Nomination Instructions

Nominations should be submitted by the department representative who nominates the student via the following online form only (no email nominations, please): https://bostonu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3mb9XGJh3CCnpQ2

As specified in the online form, nominations should include basic information about the nominated student (name, e-mail address and university affiliation) as well as: (1) a confirmation that the student is (or will become) a member of the OMT division; and (2) a confirmation that the student will complete doctoral coursework and comprehensive exams (or equivalent) by August 1, 2022.

In addition, the following three supporting documents should be uploaded via the online form:

  1. A brief letter from a faculty member providing a general appraisal of the nominee, including an assessment of the nominee’s progress toward a dissertation defense, expected defense date, and subject of dissertation;
  2. The nominee’s CV (including contact information, research and teaching interests, publications, and/or working papers);
  3. A 3-5 pages summary of a research project on which the nominee would like to receive feedback.

Additional information about the OMT Doctoral Consortium will be available on the OMT website closer to the date of the event.

If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact the OMT Doctoral Consortium co-organizers:

            Michel Anteby, Boston University, manteby@bu.edu

Danielle Logue, University of Technology Sydney, danielle.logue@uts.edu.au

We look forward to seeing you in-person and virtually at AOM!

Michel & Danielle

OMT Representatives-at-Large

SASE Virtual Salons July 9-11, 2022

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Dear colleagues,

SASE is proud to announce a new series of events, convened in collaboration with the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre and the University of Limerick, aimed at presenting cutting-edge research from leading thinkers in anticipation of the 2022 annual SASE conference at the University of Amsterdam, “Fractious Connections: Anarchy, Activism, Coordination, and Control” from 9-11 July 2022.

This series, SASE Salons [https://sase.org/salons], will be open live exclusively to paid SASE members—to join, visit https://sase.org/join-sase/.

Series overview

  • April 28: “Fragmented work boundaries and digital (dis)connections” with Tony Dundon, Caroline Murphy, Michelle O’Sullivan, and Aida Ponce Del Castillo
  • May 12: “Anarchism in the Business School” with Martin Parker
  • May 17: “Fractious Feminisms and Feminist Solidarities” with Elaine Coburn, Jayati Ghosh, Martha Gimenez, Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Rauna Kuokkanen, Julie Nelson, and Busi Sibeko
  • May 24: “Society and Economy” with Mark Granovetter, Elaine Coburn, and Michel Grossetti
  • June 2: Panel on Ukraine with Alya Guseva, Yuliya Bidenko, Alexander Rodnyansky, and Mariia Shuvelova
  • June 9: “The Rise of the Right in the US” with Arlie Hochschild and Glenn Morgan
  • June 14: “How Digital Media Facilitated and Curtailed the Pro-Democracy Movement in Hong Kong” with Joseph Chan and Francis Lee
  • June 23: “Histories of Racial Capitalism” with Destin Jenkins and Justin Leroy (open to non-members)
  • June, TBD: Panel on Islamic Moral Economy and Finance, speakers TBA

Click through to learn more [https://sase.org/salons]

By joining SASE, you will also have access to the online content of the annual meeting, including all featured speakers and panels, as well as a limited number of hybrid events organized by the networks and mini-conferences. Click here to join [https://sase.org/join-sase/].

Best wishes,

The SASE Team

New Publication: The Paradox of Self-Help Expertise: How Unemployed Workers Become Professional Career Coaches

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Hi OOW! Today we are sharing Patrick Sheehan‘s new article:

CITATION: Sheehan, Patrick. “The Paradox of Self-Help Expertise: How Unemployed Workers Become Professional Career Coaches.” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 27, Number 4, January 2022. https://doi.org/10.1086/718471

ABSTRACT: A wide range of self-styled experts have emerged in recent years to sell professional self-improvement advice in fields as diverse as employment, health, and finances. Despite lacking traditional markers of expertise, these minor experts are gaining credibility and clientele, often at the expense of official experts in their field. Why do people turn to these experts? How do they build credibility? This article analyzes the paradoxical case of career coaches, many of whom were themselves long-term unemployed, to advance a theory of credibility construction among self-improvement experts. Drawing on qualitative data, the author finds that self-improvement experts build their credibility through strategic interactions and relational work with clients rather than through the institutional affiliations and credentials normally associated with expertise. The author identifies three complementary techniques—(1) constructing a shared moral order, (2) building affective trust relationships, and (3) sharing personal testimonials of transformation—and argues that this bundle of tactics represents an alternative and growing pathway for building expert credibility.

Call for Participants: 40th International Labour Process Conference (Hybrid format)

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Dear colleagues,

We are looking forward to welcoming you to the 40th International Labour Process Conference, which will take place in Padua, Italy, 21 – 23 April 2022. The ILPC 2022 will be held in a hybrid format. You can choose to participate online or in person. Registration for Online Participation is open until SUNDAY APRIL 3rd. MORE INFORMATION ABOUT REGISTER HERE.

About the conference:

The 2022 Conference focusses on labour mobility and the mobilization of workers, aiming to develop its theoretical understanding, the implications of migration in the labour process and its connections with work and migration policies. The theme of labour mobility encompasses a variety of related topics, from migrants’ experiences of the labour market to wider issues of occupational mobility in the labour processes. The movement of workers in and out of jobs and occupations is especially important given the growth of precarious employment and the gig economy where insecure workers fear remaining forever stuck in the same spiral of mini jobs or social instability.

The Coronavirus pandemic has had tremendous implications on both of these understandings of labour mobility. On the one side, the tensions around labour migration have been exacerbated by the health crisis and the subsequent border closure, showing how the mobility of labour is crucial for many actors – workers, employers, states, unions but also temporary agencies and brokers – involved in the labour processes. On the other side, the (post?)-coronavirus time risks to worsen the segmentation of labour market along the lines of gender, race, nationality, age, education, social class and visa status.

This bulk of reflections mingles with the great amount of attention towards how social reproduction activities are interlinked with labour processes and in particular with the mobility of labour. While occupational mobility in the labour market is indeed strongly influenced by domestic and caring work in the household, international labour migrations sustain the social reproduction activities occurring in the country of origin and destination of migrant workers and their families.

Another key aim of the Conference is to understand how labour mobility shapes work and employment relations, affecting both dynamics of control and resistance in the labour process and individual and collective actions. Although labour turnover and subjective mobility practices have been, for long time, conceived as opposed to collective strategies to organize labour, the experiences of workers’ mobilizations show how boundaries between the two are actually much more blurred.

Therefore, the Conference will address the role of labour mobility in the international labour process, by developing a debate on several aspects: at a critical time of change for the world economy following the pandemic, how do labour migrations and the mobility of workers across borders, sectors and occupations shape and are shaped by changing labour processes? How do technological and social changes in work controls and production processes interact with the mobility of workers across jobs and borders? How do the mobilizations of workers challenge the dichotomy between individual and collective forms of actions?

New Book: Shaping the Futures of Work: Proactive Governance and Millennials

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Hi OOW members! Today we are sharing some news about Nilanjan Raghunath‘s new book!

SUMMARY:

The widespread belief that tech-savvy, educated millennials are well positioned to handle the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution is unfounded. It does not fully grasp the reality of a flux society, where relevant technological skills and knowledge are continuously changing: no one is permanently tech-savvy. Millennials, like other generations, face the challenge of needing to continually reskill. This has compounded their struggle to begin their careers at a point when there is no longer any guarantee of lifetime employment or retirement at a set age.

Shaping the Futures of Work is a timely sociological exploration of the impact of technological innovations on employment. Nilanjan Raghunath proposes that stakeholders such as states, enterprises, and citizens hold equally important roles in ensuring that people can adapt, innovate, and thrive within conditions of flux. A promising model focuses on collaboration and proactive governance. While good governance includes citizen engagement, proactive governance goes one step further, creating inclusive policies, roadmaps, and infrastructure for social and economic progress. This book reveals that lifelong learning and adaptability are imperative, even for well-educated professionals. Using Singapore and Singaporean millennials as a case study, Raghunath examines proactive governance and delivers research and analysis to elucidate career trajectories, pointing to a work ethic that aims to engage with technological futures.

Looking at local and global sociological literature to confirm the need for proactive governance, Shaping the Futures of Work suggests that Singaporean millennials – and professionals around the world – need to better prepare themselves for flux, risk, failure, and reinvention for career mobility.

More about the book.