Please consider submitting by October 15 to a “New Digital Technologies, Power and Work: Labor Control and Resistance” session at the International Sociological Association Forum on Sociology in Rabat, Morocco, 6-11 July 2025.
Please see the link below for a detailed description:
https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/forum2025/webprogrampreliminary/Session19472.html
If you are interested in submitting an abstract for this session, the Call for Abstracts is at https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/conferences/forum/rabat-2025/5th-isa-forum-call-for-abstracts.
The call closes on October 15th (note that the ISA observes Central Europe Time).
“If you have not attended ISA before, it is truly an international sociology conference with distinct inflections in each location where it meets—I have found every ISA conference I have attended to be fascinating, and of course, Rabat itself is a very interesting place in a very interesting region. In addition to this session, I encourage you to scan other possible sessions (Research Council 44 is the ISA’s Labor Movements section; RC 30 is the Sociology of Work).”
– Dr. Tilly, Professor of Urban Planning and Sociology, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
Announcement: “Sociological Thinking in Contemporary Organizational Scholarship” The New Volume of Research in the Sociology of Organizations is Out! Available via OPEN ACCESS
“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
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
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
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
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
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
Two new publications:
- 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.
- 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.
Job Postings
There are two job postings listed below.
- Postdoctoral Research Associate for a two-year term, University of Florida
We are hiring a postdoc to join a team of researchers working on a large, NSF-funded project on the sources of rising income inequality in the U.S. The postdoc will contribute to the project by analyzing structural changes in earnings and employment that have contributed to rising economic polarization in the U.S. since 1996. We’ll be working with confidential linked employer-employee data, which we are accessing through a Census Research Data Center at the University of Florida, in Gainesville. We’re looking for someone who has very strong quantitative skills and a background in economic sociology, stratification/inequality, organizational studies, or labor economics.
Additional details are available in the job ad, which is attached, and also available online here.
Some additional highlights include:
- Annual pay of $65,000 per year, plus benefits
- Postdoc will work part time on our project and part time pursuing their own research
- Exciting opportunity to work with protected, hard-to-access data on cutting-edge research
- No teaching duties
If anybody has questions, please reach out enavot@ufl.edu
To apply, please go to this link. We begin reviewing applications after September 30th but we will review applications until the position is filled.
- Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Boston University
The Department of Sociology at Boston University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor to begin July 1, 2025. We seek a colleague with research and teaching interests in economic sociology broadly defined. The successful candidate will contribute to other departmental research strengths, and to undergraduate and graduate teaching in economic sociology and related areas, and should be able to contribute to core theory, methods, or introductory courses.
Boston University expects excellence in teaching and research, and is committed to building a culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse scholarly community. To apply, please submit 1) a cover letter; 2) teaching and research statements no more than two pages each describing your interests and professional experience; 3) a curriculum vitae; 4) three reference letters; and 5) one sample of written work. Submit to Academic Jobs Online. Applications will be reviewed starting October 1, 2024 and continue until the position is filled.
BU conducts a background check on all final candidates for certain faculty and staff positions. The background check includes contacting the final candidate’s current and previous employer(s) to ask whether, in the last seven years, there has been a substantiated finding of misconduct violating that employer’s applicable sexual misconduct policies. To implement this process, the University requires a final candidate to complete and sign the form entitled “Authorization to Release Information” after execution of an offer letter.
Our university community welcomes differences, encourages open-minded exploration, and upholds freedom of expression. We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military service, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, or because of marital, parental, or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.
Posted on academicjobsonline.com and ASA Job bank (1310223).
For further into http://www.bu.edu/sociology/
Elise St. Esprit stesprit@bu.edu
(617)353-2591
New Publication: “Authoritarian Innovation in the United States: The Role of Dual Subnational Systems of Labor Governance” by Chris Rhomberg
Rhomberg, Chris. 2024. “Authoritarian Innovation in the United States: The Role of Dual Subnational Systems of Labor Governance.” Journal of Industrial Relations. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221856241260770
Abstract: I apply Curato and Fossati’s (2020) concept of “authoritarian innovation” to analyze historic changes in labor governance in the United States that have undermined democratic participation in the workplace and in the polity. Drawing from comparative political economy and welfare state theories, I argue that since the 1930s the U.S. has had not one unified, national labor regime but two competing, subnational regimes: the New Deal and its legacy in the industrialized North and West Coast and a counter-regime based initially in the former Confederate Southern states. The more anti-union, anti-welfare, and anti-democratic Southern regime survived the Civil Rights era of the 1960s and 1970s, gained ascendance nationally with the rise of neoliberalism in the 1980s and 1990s, and expanded its boundaries in the 2010s into the deindustrialized Midwest. The “dual regime” analysis highlights critical transitions and divergent paths in the reshaping of American democracy.
Organizations, Occupations and Work 