Race and inequality at work: An occupational perspective

Recent research on racial inequality at work offers fruitful insights on the organizational conditions that reproduce racial segregation, racial disparities in wages, and racial hierarchies in the labor market and the workplace. Much less is known, however, about the specifically occupational influences that impinge on equitable work outcomes by race. In this paper, we explore three processes at the occupational level that relate to racial segregation, racialized access to resources, and status in one's line of work. We review research on racial inequality at work over the last 20 years to elucidate what is known, and remains to be seen, about these occupational processes. First, we review how occupational members get selected, and attempt to self-select, into occupations via recruitment, licensing, credentialing, or certifications. Second, we consider how occupational incumbents teach, govern and evaluate new entrants, and with what consequences for racial inclusion/exclusion and retention in careers. Third, we examine research on client- or service-based work, and highlight how workers navigate not only their roles, but also racial dynamics, vis-a-vis clients. We conclude with suggestions for how future research can harness occupational analysis to advance understanding of racial inequality at work.     

司法审判中单位证明现象的法社会学分析

单位证明的证据效力缺乏足够的法理依据,但审判实践对单位证明的运用却十分普遍,这 种现象的产生及其变化需要从法社会学角度进行分析。我国单位社会的形成是产生这一现象的社会基 础,单位与个人之间管理与服从、控制与依赖的社会关系使单位成为证人的权威代言人,单位的同质化增 强了单位证明司法运用的可接受性。随着单位社会的消解,单位证明现象呈现出日渐式微的趋势,审判 模式的转型则加快了这一进程。单位证明最终应退出我国司法证明的历史舞台,但这需要一个较长的过 程,其中如何看待法官的“单位情结”至关重要。     

Groups and individuals: conformity and diversity in the performance of gendered identities

The nature and role of social groups is a central tension in sociology. On the one hand, the idea of a group enables sociologists to locate and describe individuals in terms of characteristics that are shared with others. On the other, emphasizing the fluidity of categories such as gender or ethnicity undermines their legitimacy as ways of classifying people and, by extension, the legitimacy of categorization as a goal of sociological research. In this paper, we use a new research method known as the Imitation Game to defend the social group as a sociological concept. We show that, despite the diversity of practices that may be consistent with self‐identified membership of a group, there are also shared normative expectations – typically narrower in nature than the diversity displayed by individual group members – that shape the ways in which category membership can be discussed with, and performed to, others. Two claims follow from this. First, the Imitation Game provides a way of simultaneously revealing both the diversity and ‘groupishness’ of social groups. Second, that the social group, in the quasi‐Durkheimian sense of something that transcends the individual, remains an important concept for sociology.     

超越嵌入性范式：金融社会学的起源、发展和新议题

金融处于当代社会生活的核心，可视为一种社会现象。自M.韦伯开始，古典社会学已论证了社会学研究经济和金融领域的正当性。随着美国新经济社会学的兴起，社会学学者在新经济社会学框架下，以“嵌入性”为理论起点，从社会结构和社会建构两个理论维度研究了金融现象。欧洲学者则挑战了美国新经济社会学的嵌入性范式，为我们提供了研究金融现象的新视角。在新技术和全球化背景下，社会学能从更多角度对金融领域展开研究。     

Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Limits of Social Constructionism

The sociology of knowledge is a heterogeneous set of theories which generally focuses on the social origins of meaning. Strong arguments, epitomized by Durkheim's late work, have hypothesized that the very concepts our minds use to structure experience are constructed through social processes. This view has come under attack from theorists influenced by recent work in developmental psychology that has demonstrated some awareness of these categories in pre‐socialized infants. However, further studies have shown that the innate abilities infants display differ in systematic and theoretically significant ways from adults' explicit knowledge. This paper moves beyond the constructionist/nativist dichotomy by outlining the complex relationships between innate intelligence and explicit knowledge. I end by suggesting that there are four, distinct ways the social world influences thought‐ facilitation, division, specification, and construction.     

“Maniacal slaves:” normative misogyny and female resistors of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Iran

Feminist scholars the world over are increasingly aware of the importance of analyzing popular discourse, especially regarding women’s involvement in proscribed violence. Yet few have looked at Middle Eastern organizations, and fewer still at the Mojahedin-e Khalq Iran (MEK), a longstanding resistance group whose all-female leadership and sizeable female membership present a compelling challenge to prevailing gender norms. How do popular media portray female MEK resistors and what might these representations signify for our gendered conceptions of violence? In examining the MEK’s female leadership, this article undertakes a close reading of western and Iranian news coverage in an attempt to analyze the degree to which these women are painted as willful political agents or, as is often assumed, irrational actors incapable of autonomous political participation. Following Sjoberg and Gentry, I develop four cognitive frames to describe female resistors, while also challenging the media’s victimizing and sexualizing gaze. I thus problematize these women’s portrayals as “maniacal slaves,” and explain how such gendered rhetoric operates to preclude the notion that members of the MEK might practice legitimate political resistance worthy of analysis or understanding.     

Contradictory Behavior During Genocides1

In all large‐scale genocides, rescuing occurs alongside killing. Some members of the aggressors’ ethnic group even risk their own lives to save members of the targeted group. Killing and rescuing occur closely together, and even the same persons may engage in both behaviors—killing on one occasion and rescuing on another. This article examines such cases—where the same individuals kill and rescue—and discusses their relevance to the explanation of genocide. Both collectivistic and individualistic theories of killing and rescuing—which explain these behaviors with the properties of groups or persons—are inadequate in accounting for those who do both. Using Donald Black’s (1995, 2000) strategy of pure sociology and my theory of genocide ( Campbell, 2009 ), I offer an explanation of contradictory behavior by individuals during genocide. The behaviors themselves occur in different structures—killing where there is social distance and rescuing where there is social closeness. Individuals who exhibit contradictory behavior thus kill those who are distant and save those who are close. One feature of this analysis is its demonstration of the explanatory power of pure sociology, which is uniquely capable of explaining extreme variations in individual behavior.     

Party-Proletariat Relationships in the Theory of Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg, who occupied a central position in both the German and the international communist movement prior to and during World War I, addressed the issue of party proletariat relationships in her writings. Luxemberg-a devoted Marxist-believed in the scientific validity of Marxism. To her, a revolutionary and class conscious proletariat was a world-wide reality, whose ultimate victory was certain. Luxemburg agreed that the party was to lead the proletariat, and was not to wait for revolutionary action by the proletariat. In order for the party to perform its role effectively required intraparty discipline, which would not tolerate deviations such as Eduard Bernstein's revisionism. Luxemburg's model of a revolutionary Marxist party, in its theoretical justification, was not different from the Bolshevik model developed by Vladimir Lenin.     

Unequal views of inequality: Cross-national support for redistribution 1985–2011

This research examines public views on government responsibility to reduce income inequality, support for redistribution. While individual-level correlates of support for redistribution are relatively well understood, many questions remain at the country-level. Therefore, I examine how country-level characteristics affect aggregate support for redistribution. I test explanations of aggregate support using a unique dataset combining 18 waves of the International Social Survey Programme and European Social Survey. Results from mixed-effects logistic regression and fixed-effects linear regression models show two primary and contrasting effects. States that reduce inequality through bundles of tax and transfer policies are rewarded with more supportive publics. In contrast, economic development has a seemingly equivalent and dampening effect on public support. Importantly, the effect of economic development grows at higher levels of development, potentially overwhelming the amplifying effect of state redistribution. My results therefore suggest a fundamental challenge to proponents of egalitarian politics.     

May–December Lesbian Relationships: Power Storms or Blue Skies?

SUMMARY

What are the implications when there is considerable difference in the ages of partners in a lesbian couple? May–December lesbian relationships are those where partners are at least 10 years apart in age, and where both partners are over 30. These relationships have been either neglected or valorized in the psychological literature. Differences in socially ascribed power, women's socialization against acknowledging power, the value the lesbian community places on egalitarianism, and the interaction of other privileges, combine to impact these couples. The fluid nature of power dynamics in May–December lesbian relationships is highlighted and explored. Finally, ways that age-variant lesbian couples can navigate these power differentials in healthy ways are addressed.