The sociolinguistics of late modern publics

This issue examines struggles over public discursive power in late modern society, understanding that late modern publics are characterized by a destabilization of formerly unmarked public authorities, in other words, an unsettling of standardized “voices from nowhere” (Gal & Woolard, 2001). The contributions to the issue illustrate traditional social and academic elites’ discursive reactions to such developments. In the introduction, we outline different theoretical frameworks of modern and late‐modern publics, identify factors that contribute to a destabilization of modern certainties of social public order, and argue that a weakening of traditional public norms not only implies emancipation but also, as the contributions to the issue demonstrate, may bring along new forms of public dominance. For the positioning of contemporary sociolinguistic theory and practice, we conclude that it is the crucial task of the current public moment to critically self‐engage with our own relations with, and ideologies of, the public. Dieses Themenheft befragt Strukturen öffentlicher Diskursmacht in spätmoderner Gesellschaft und zeigt auf, dass spätmoderne Öffentlichkeit durch eine Destabilisierung von vormals unmarkierten Autoritäten ist, in anderen Worten, von standardisierten “voices from nowhere” (Gal & Woolard, 2001). Die Beiträge illustrieren Reaktionen traditioneller sozialer und akademischer Eliten hierauf. In dieser Einleitung skizzieren wir verschiedene theoretische Zugänge zu moderner und spätmoderner Öffentlichkeit, identifizieren Faktoren, die zu einer Destabilisierung von sozialen Gewissheiten der Moderne beitragen und legen dar, dass eine Schwächung traditioneller öffentlichen Normen nicht nur soziale Emanzipation impliziert sondern, wie die Beiträge zu diesem Heft zeigen, auch neue Formen öffentlicher Dominanz hervorbringt. In Bezug auf zeitgenössische soziolinguistische Theorie und Praxis schlussfolgern wir daraus, dass es im aktuellen öffentlichen Kontext eine zentrale Aufgabe der Soziolinguistik ist, sich kritisch mit den eigenen Beziehungen zu und Ideologien von Öffentlichkeit befassen. Das Themenheft soll zu dieser Auseinandersetzung beitragen.     

The effect of stress on customer perception of the frontline employee: an experimental study

Review of Managerial Science - This article examines positive effects of customer stress drawn upon the theory of excitation transfer. Contrary to previous marketing and management literature, the...     

Der Schichtgradient von Morbidität und Mortalität

As in many other European countries a contradictory development can be observed in Austria, too: On the one hand, life expectancy increases continuously while incidence and prevalence rates of many groups of diagnoses decrease. On the other hand, differences in morbidity and mortality between the social classes are widening at the same time. This article’s aim is to develop a comprehensive theoretical model of explanation of this social class gradient including the current state of discussion on “health inequalities”. Aspects of material inequality as well as the socially unequal distribution of working and living conditions will be taken into account. In addition, the importance of cultural capital and class-specific lifestyles will be described in detail. Last but not least psychosocial and biological preconditions and potential selection processes will also be taken into consideration.     

The relationship between Black and gay community involvement and HIV-related risk behaviors among Black men who have sex with men

Black gay men must navigate identities and stigmas related to being gay and Black, and report higher HIV incidence relative to their White male counterparts although they report lower rates of drug use and risky sexual behaviors. This study examined whether closeness to the gay or Black community correlated with HIV-related risk and protective behaviors. Data were drawn from uConnect, a population-based cohort study of young Black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) on Chicago's South Side. The sample consists of 618 Black MSM ranging in age from 16 to 29. Cross-sectional measures for this study include Black and gay community closeness, drug use, sexual risk behaviors, HIV testing, and health promotion behaviors. Closeness with the gay community was associated with greater pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) knowledge as well as participating in health promotion programs along with higher rates of transactional sex and having sex under the influence of substances, and increased odds of self-reported HIV seropositivity. Involvement in the Black community was associated with lower odds of reporting being HIV positive. Findings suggest that programs and initiatives are needed to help promote the positive aspects of the Black and gay communities, while minimizing the negative correlates of such involvements.     

Public Sociology on Twitter: a Space for Public Pedagogy?

Research has examined various elements of Twitter; however, no scholarship has explored how sociologists currently use the platform. This empirically driven paper explores how individuals that self-identify as sociologists on Twitter use the popular micro-blogging social media site. A total of 152,977 tweets from Twitter profiles of 130 sociologists were collected and examined using qualitative media analysis. The potential use of Twitter allows the sociologist to become both the generator and interlocutor of dialogue with publics. We frame our data analysis and discussion around the core theme of expertise - namely, the role that expertise plays in the use of Twitter by sociologists. Our findings indicate that when sociologists used Twitter as sociologists (i.e., drawing upon their stated research expertise) little direct engagement with publics occurred. Thus, while sociologists appear to be using Twitter as a space for public sociology, the use of this interactive platform is mostly limited to the generation of content, a finding consistent with Burawoy’s traditional form of public sociology. Suggestions for future research are noted.     

Family Experiences of Competition and Adolescent Performance

The authors examined how mothers' and fathers' feelings of competition at home and work affect their relationships with their daughters and sons using time‐diary data from a national sample of 220 families. Multivariate analyses revealed 3 relationships between parents' feelings of competitiveness at work and home and feelings of competition experienced by their children at school and home: (a) parents' and adolescents' competitiveness varied across home, work, and school—with mothers and fathers reporting similar levels of competition at work but daughters feeling more competitive at school than sons; (b) parents' competition at work was associated with similar activities; however, daughters' and sons' competition at school varied by activities; and (c) mothers' competition was associated with strategies for college enrollment and varied by gender, most notably with respect to daughters' academic progress. The results suggest how parents' competitive disposition may motivate their children's academic performance, especially between working mothers and their daughters.     

Nominal comparability is not enough: (In-)equivalence of construct validity of cross-national measures of educational attainment in the European Social Survey

Educational attainment is a core social background variable covered in each and every survey of individuals. Since educational institutions and qualifications are difficult to compare across countries, cross-national surveys pose a particular challenge to the measurement of educational attainment. This study performs a comparative construct validation of a number of cross-national measures of education using the European Social Survey. The measures comprise two versions of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), the education scheme developed in the project ‘Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations’ (CASMIN) and hypothetical as well as actual years of education. The first ISCED measure corresponds to the well-known main ISCED levels. The second one, the European Survey Version of ISCED (ES-ISCED) developed for this study, represents an effort to reflect different types of education within levels of education by considering ISCED sub-dimensions, most importantly ‘programme orientation’. Using linear regression models, it is shown how much explanatory power educational attainment loses when different cross-national variables are used, as compared to country-specific educational attainment variables (CSEVs), and how these losses vary across measures and countries. The dependent variable used for the construct validation is social status as measured by the International Socio-Economic Index (ISEI). Results suggest that harmonisation always entails some loss of explanatory power for at least a few countries. However, there are clear performance differences between the comparable measures in terms of both the average amount of losses as well as the distribution of losses across countries. The use of actual years of education as well as the levels-only ISCED strongly attenuates the education-social status association on average, but also to very different degrees across countries. CASMIN and ES-ISCED fare considerably better: they show the lowest losses of explanatory power and the lowest variation of losses across countries. Hypothetical years of education lie in between. Some practical implications are then proposed, e.g. on how to implement cross-national measures of educational attainment in international surveys.     

From Affirmative Action to Diversity: Critical Reflections on Graduate Education in Sociology

This article explores the contradictory results of the shift from a race‐conscious affirmative action discourse to a broader “diversity embrace” that advocates tolerance, equality, and respect for cultural differences on university campuses. Drawing on critical race theory and research on the practice of affirmative action in organizations, we argue that the diversity embrace subsumes recognition of racialized histories, social relations, and practices in favor of a “color‐blind” rhetoric that reinforces negative assumptions about the academic merit and worthiness of underrepresented minority students (URM). Our review of the status and condition of URM graduate students in sociology departments reveals that minority inclusion is part of a larger strategy that emphasizes individual and group differences rather than corrective action for past discrimination. We find that access and inclusion in graduate programs in sociology have been uneven with relatively few departments producing a majority of URM sociology doctorates. The diversity embrace obscures their continual low representation in graduate programs, fosters professionalization practices detrimental to these students, and undermines efforts to create a “critical mass” of faculty of color. Such practices constitute a racial project that preserves White privilege at the individual and institutional levels.