Category: Publications

The spectacle of automation and status aspirations: adoption of automated metro systems around the world, 2000–2020 by Youbin Kang and Jungmyung Kim (2024)

Socio-Economic Review Abstract Automation’s extensive impact on the labor market and economy is well recognized, but the underlying motivations for its adoption remain understudied. To address this gap, we analyze an original dataset covering 1276 cities across 148 countries, using event history analysis to examine the adoption of automated metro systems. Our research suggests that …

Defining the ‘Resource Unit’ for Poverty Measurement in Complex Contemporary Households: It’s Complicated by Lawrence Berger, Maria Cancian, Marcia J. Carlson, Daniel R. Meyer, Quentin Riser & Nora Cate Schaeffer (2024)

Population Research and Policy Review Abstract: Determining whether a household is ‘in poverty,’ requires identifying a resource unit, typically consisting of individuals who both co-reside and pool resources. High levels of family complexity and fluidity in living arrangements among contemporary American families, particularly those that include children, have complicated this task. We leverage novel survey …

Inequality and social stratification in Russia during the Putin regime: From market transition to war on Ukraine by Theodore P. Gerber and Vladimir Gimpelson (2024)

Sociology Compass Abstract: The collapse of the USSR in late 1991 inspired social science research on levels, patterns, and trends in inequality within Russia, due to theoretical interest in how market transition affects social stratification. The start of the Putin regime in 2000 marked a new era in Russia’s post‐Soviet political economic trajectory: in contrast …

Classed Burdens: Habitus and Administrative Burden during the COVID-19 Pandemic by Taylor Laemmli (2024)

Sociological Science Abstract: This paper shows how class shaped service workers’ experiences of administrative burdens during the COVID-19 pandemic. I use the pandemic and pandemic-related shutdowns as a pseudo natural experiment in which job loss was applied to a set of workers from different class backgrounds and with different class locations, workers who then turned …

Asymmetry of Representation in Poor People’s Courts by Tonya L. Brito and Daniela Campos Ugaz (2024)

Fordham Law Review Abstract: This Essay examines the asymmetry of representation in poor people’s courts, specifically in child support enforcement cases involving the State.  The asymmetry of representation is a common occurrence in various civil law fields, but it is notably prominent in family law, which has the highest number of unrepresented parties.  As one …

Safe as Houses: Financialization, Foreclosure, and Precarious Homeownership in the United States by Walker Kahn (2024)

American Sociological Review Abstract: The financialization of the U.S. economy has had important implications for household well-being, but the mechanisms connecting financialization and precarity have not been fully identified. This research identifies mortgage foreclosure as a nexus connecting macro-level financialization to an array of downstream consequences for homeowners and asks (1) how mortgage securitization, a …

A Sociology of Real Estate: Polanyi, Du Bois, and the Relational Study of Commodified Land in a Climate-Changed Future by Max Besbris, John N. Robinson III, and Hillary Angelo (2024)

Annual Review of Sociology Abstract: Real estate plays an essential part in various sociological theories of political economy, state capacity, racecraft, stratification, and urbanization. However, since foundational insights about the novelty of commodified, emplaced private property from theorists like Du Bois and Polanyi, these disparate threads have not been tied together into a coherent field …

THE MYTH OF MUTUALITY: Decision-Making, Marital Power, and the Persistence of Gender Inequality by Jaclyn S. Wong and Allison Daminger (2024)

Gender & Society. Abstract: Invisible power—the ability to resist changing one’s behavior because of an unspoken consensus that the status quo is natural or inevitable—upholds gender inequality in different-gender marriages. Yet the “consensus” that Aafke Komter documented more than 30 years ago—one in which both men and women endorsed male primacy and believed it natural …

Lifetime years married held steady for men with a BA degree since 1960 but dropped to lowest level since 1880 for men without a BA by Christine Schwartz, Rodrigo González-Velastín, and Anita Li (2024)

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Abstract: Trends in life expectancy and marriage patterns work together to determine expected lifetime years married. In 1880, adult life expectancy was short and marriages were more likely to end by death than divorce. Since then, although there have been substantial life expectancy gains in adulthood, marriage …

Genetic Influences on Depression and Selection into Adverse Life Experiences by Tamkinat Rauf and Jeremy Freese (2024)

Social Science & Medicine Abstract: Genome-wide association studies find that a large number of genetic variants jointly influence the risk of depression, which is summarized by polygenic indices (PGIs) of depressive symptoms and major depression. But PGIs by design remain agnostic about the causal mechanisms linking genes to depression. Meanwhile, the role of adverse life …