N e w s and u p d a t e s
Unanticipated Gains published by Oxford University Press
The new book on network formation in routine organizations is out. From the book description:Social capital theorists have shown that some people do better than others in part because they enjoy larger, more supportive, or otherwise more useful networks.
But why do some people have better networks than others? Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life argues that the answer lies less in people's deliberate "networking" than in the
institutional conditions of the churches, colleges, firms, gyms, childcare centers, schools, and other organizations in which they happen to participate routinely. The book illustrates
and develops this argument by exploring the experiences of New York City mothers whose children were enrolled in childcare centers.... (continued)
From the back cover:
- "Small does nothing less than transform the way that we understand social capital." Mitchell Duneier
- "A supremely smart book." Mary Pattillo
- "A beautiful and richly conceived study." Peter Bearman
How not to make qualitative research more scientific
A new paper published in Ethnography
examines a dilemma faced by many ethnographers and interviewers today. From the abstract: Today, ethnographers and qualitative researchers in fields such as urban poverty, immigration, and social inequality face an
environment in which their work will be read, cited, and assessed by demographers, quantitative sociologists, and even economists. They also
face a demand for case studies that not only generate theory but also somehow speak to empirical conditions in cases beyond those observed. Many have responded
by incorporating elements of quantitative methods into their designs, such as selecting respondents "at random" for small, in-depth interview projects
or identifying "representative" neighborhoods for ethnographic case studies, aiming to increase generalizability. This article assesses these
strategies, argues that they fall short of their objectives, and evaluates alternatives.
"'How Many Cases Do I Need?' On Science and the Logic of Case Selection in Field-based Research". Please email for a copy. (May/09)
Four reasons to abandon the idea of "the ghetto"
A new paper argues that strong conceptions of the ghetto, in which the ghetto
is an institution possessing a set of durable characteristics that recur from city to city, masks more than it uncovers, and it perpetuates many
of the stereotypes its proponents often aim to fight. Part of a symposium in
City and Community on the concept of the ghetto. Click here. The symposium was inspired by
a heated online debate on the concept of the ghetto. The debate
was prompted by an earlier paper published in City (click here
for an earlier version). (Feb/09)
Why the poor would not be better off in just any nonpoor neighborhood
The Moving To Opportunity experiments, designed to determine whether living in a poor
neighborhood reduces life chances, have produced mixed results. A new paper, "Why Organizational Ties Matter for Neighborhood Effects," co-authored with Erin Jacobs
and Rebekah Massengill, argues that part of the reason may be the study's neglect of the organizational dynamics of poor and non-poor urban neighborhoods. Local organizations
in poor neighborhoods are often very well connected.
In the September issue of Social Forces.
Click here for the working paper; please email for the published version.
Click here for an orgtheory.net post on the paper. Please email for a copy.
(Nov/08; upd Dec/08)
How to study culture and poverty without "blaming the victim"
Older studies of cultural dynamics among the poor relied on norms-and-values models
that had little explanatory power and were often accused of "blaming the victims" for their problems. However, the sociology of culture has moved far beyond
those models of culture, a fact that has been lost on much recent research on the poor. A new paper with
Michele Lamont examines six alternative conceptions of culture and their applications to the study of poverty and inequality. Click here.
(Nov/08)
New book on social capital to be published by Oxford University Press
Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life will be published next year. Based on a study of the connections
that mothers sometimes make through their children's childcare centers, the book examines the relationship between personal networks and social inequality.
Introducing an alternative to social capital theory, the book addresses a surprisingly understudied question: Why do some people have better networks
than others? (Sep/08; upd Mar/09)
Symposium on the ghetto in City & Community
A forthcoming issue of City & Community will feature a symposium on the concept of "the ghetto." Contributors include Herbert Gans, William J. Wilson,
and me (among others). Spring 2009. Check here for updates. (Aug/08)
Review essay examines Villa Victoria
A new paper by Felipe Pimentel reviews several books, including Villa Victoria, on social capital in Puerto Rican
communities. See also reviews in
AJS,
Contemporary Sociology,
Library Journal,
Social Anthropology, and
Urban Studies Journal. (Jul/08)
New paper on Chicago ghettos
"Is There Such a Thing as 'the Ghetto'?" sparked a passionate debate in the Community and Urban Sociology listserv.
It is a critique of Loic Wacquant's Urban Outcasts. For a copy, please click here
from a campus network or send an email. Cuz Porter, a Columbia Ph.D. candidate, has posted the debate here. (Feb/08)
New website launched
UrbanOrgs.org is a website for researchers interested in how organizations shape urban inequality. It posts notices on new books and articles, upcoming conferences, and
available datasets, with links. (Nov/07)
Two new papers on racial inequality
"Black Students' Graduation From Elite Colleges," with
Christopher Winship ,
examines why black students are more likely to graduate from some elite colleges than others. Published in Social Science Research.
"Racial Differences in Networks: Do Neighborhood Conditions Matter?" examines why
African-Americans in Chicago tend to have smaller personal networks than either whites or Latinos. Neighborhood poverty seems to make a difference. Published in Social Science Quarterly. (Sep/07)