August 11 | August 12 | August 13 | August 14
Thematic Session. Expanding the Boundaries in the Study of Lesbian- and Gay-Headed Families
Mon, Aug 14 - 8:30am - 10:10am
Session Organizer: Mignon R. Moore (Columbia University)
Invisible Men: Gay Men Negotiating Fatherhood in America Ellen Lewin (University of Iowa)
"Who's In, Who's Out?: The Question of Nannies and Trannies Maureen Sullivan (Harvard University)
Two "Real" Moms: Predicting Jealousy between Lesbian Co-Parents Suzanne Pelka (UCLA)
Who Wears the Pants? Household Decision-Making in Black, Lesbian-Headed Families Mignon R. Moore (Columbia University)
Discussant: Mignon R. Moore (Columbia University) mm1664@columbia.edu
This panel brings together a variety of papers that add to or challenge the dominant frames of analysis in the study of lesbian- and gay-headed families.
Thematic Session. Great Divides: The Children of Immigrants in France and the US
Mon, Aug 14 - 8:30am - 10:10am
Session Organizer and Presider: Richard D. Alba (University of Albany)
Panelist: Philip Kasinitz (CUNY-Graduate Center)
Panelist: Rubén G. Rumbaut (University of California, Irvine)
Panelist: Patrick Simon (INED)
Panelist: Roxane Silberman (CNRS)
Discussant: Nancy Foner (Hunter College, CUNY)
The incorporation of the children of immigrants is a major challenge in all economically advanced societies. The session brings together leading scholars to discuss how the process of incorporation is progressing in France and the US, two key immigration societies.
Thematic Session. Public Intellectuals and Public Sociologies: Comparative Perspectives on Canada and the United States
Mon, Aug 14 - 8:30am - 10:10am
Session Organizer and Presider: Lisa M. Kowalchuk (University of Guelph)
A Field Analysis of Intellectuals and Sociologists in Quebec Mathieu Albert (University of Toronto)
The Public Intellectual and Public Sociologies "Tropes" in the United States Eleanor Townsley (Mount Holyoke College)
Scholarship for The/What Public: A Perspective Based on a Decade of Fieldwork on African American Scholars Alford A. Young, Jr. (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
The Trouble with Burawoy: The Case of Anglo-Canadian Intellectuals and Sociologists Neil G. McLaughlin (McMaster University)
The project of public sociology and the older notion of the "public intellectual" have both been at the center of a lively and contentious debate within the discipline over the past decade. How should sociology relate to and dialogue with its various publics outside the university, through either policy or public sociological work? What is a public intellectual, exactly, when looked at through a sociological lens?
What are the sociological origins and context for such a form of intellectual activity and should sociologists play this role? What is the institutional context for public intellectual and public sociological activity, and how does this differ by nation, place and over time? What kind of symbolic boundaries separate journalists, public intellectuals, and public sociologists? This panel will address these broad issues by comparing public intellectual and public sociological activities and discourses in the United States, English Canada, and Quebec.
Thematic Session. Religion and Boundaries
Mon, Aug 14 - 8:30am - 10:10am
Session Organizer and Presider: Paul R. Lichterman (University of Southern California)
Panelist: N. J. Demerath (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
Panelist: John H. Evans (Univ. of California- San Diego)
Panelist: Michael S. Evans (University of California, San Diego)
Panelist: Penny A. Edgell (University of Minnesota)
Discussant: Rhys H. Williams (University of Cincinnati)
Religion has not disappeared in modern society. It continues to be a powerful means of distinguishing good people from bad, truth from falsehood, “us” from “them.” Some argue that certain kinds of religion recently have become even more potent tools for drawing political and social boundaries in the U.S., while politicized forms of religious faith cultivate new forms of exclusion, as well as inclusion, around the globe. These papers investigate how religion works as a tool for drawing boundaries in different institutional settings, in individuals’ judgments, and across national contexts.
Thematic Session. Classification: The Institutionalization of Categories of Race
Sun, Aug 13 - 8:30am - 10:10am
Session Organizer: Joan H. Fujimura (University of Wisconsin)
Session Organizer: Mara Loveman (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Presider: Michael Omi (University of California)
Hypodescent: A History of the Crystallization of the One-Drop Rule in the United States, 1890-1935? Scott Leon Washington (Princeton University)
Latinos and 'Some Other Race' Clara Rodriguez (Fordham University)
U.S. Race Categories in International Perspective Ann J. Morning (New York University)
Institutionalizing Hypodescent in Brazil Stanley R. Bailey (University of California, Irvine)
This session explores how social boundaries get made through the institutionalization of racial categories. What, if anything, is particular about racial classification as a boundary-making practice? When and how does the use of racial categories by states shape lines of social division in society? What are the contemporary political implications of the institutionalized use of racial categories by states in different settings? The papers explore the theoretical and socio-political issues at stake in contemporary debates over racial classification and public policy.
Thematic Session. Changing Boundaries among Organizations
Mon, Aug 14 - 10:30am - 12:10pm
Session Organizer: Brian Uzzi (Northwestern University)
Discussant: Marc J. Ventresca (University of Oxford)
Panelist: Lisa A. Keister (Ohio State University)
Panelist: Neil Fligstein (University of Californnia)
Panelist: Calvin Morrill (University of California, Irvine)
This session will explore how the boundaries of organizations are changing with regard to institutions, social movements, and other organizations and firms.
Thematic Session. The Social Construction, Perception, and Permeability of Social Categories
Mon, Aug 14 - 10:30am - 12:10pm
Session Organizer and Presider: Lynn Smith-Lovin (Duke University)
Perceived Social Structure Predicts Perceived Group Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination, Across Cultures Susan T. Fiske (Princeton University)
Why Do Nominal Characteristics Acquire Status Value? Noah P. Mark (Stanford University)
Exchange, Affect and Group Formation Edward J. Lawler (Cornell University)
Whispers on the Borderline: When Groups Think Like States, Why States Think Like Groups Gary Alan Fine (Northwestern University)
Speakers from psychology, social psychology and sociology address the social processes that lead categories and groups to form. After they become a social reality, how do these categories and groups acquire respect or liking from others? What forces lead their boundaries to sharpen or become less distinct?
Thematic Session. Changing Boundaries of Age and Life Course Trajectories
Mon, Aug 14 - 10:30am - 12:10pm
Session Organizer and Presider: Robert M. Hauser (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Gender Differences in Occupational Trajectories across the Life Course Zhen Zeng (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Socioeconomic Status, Job Characteristics, and Health across the Life Course John Robert Warren (University of Minnesota), Peter Hoonakker (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Pascale Carayon (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Occupational Trajectories and Retirement Transitions James M. Raymo (University of Wisconsin)
Life Course Influences on End-of-Life Planning: Who Prepares for Late-life Health Care Needs? Deborah Carr (Rutgers University), Dmitry Khodyakov (Rutgers University)
The purpose of this session is to provide new insight into the aging and life course processes. While it is best known for contributions to research on social stratification, the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study has successfully followed many aspects of the life course of some 10,000 Wisconsin high school graduates of 1957 for nearly 50 years: education, jobs and careers, family life, social participation, physical and mental health, retirement, and mortality. This session draws on life history data from adolescence through the age of Medicare eligibility – surveys in 1957, 1975, 1993, and 2004 – to present new findings about the interactions of gender, education, socioeconomic status, careers, health, retirement, and preparation for the end of life. Aside from its substantive contributions, this session will be of interest to students of the life course and aging because data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study are in the public domain, and their use is supported by a user-friendly website (http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/wlsresearch/) and a small grants program for pilot research projects http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/wlsresearch/pilot/.
Thematic Session. Crossing Boundaries: Parental Resources and the Well-Being of Children
Mon, Aug 14 - 10:30am - 12:10pm
Session Organizer and Presider: Seymour Spilerman (Columbia University)
Childhood Consumpton and Children's Well-Being: Mechanisms of Intergenerational Mobility Lingxin Hao (Johns Hopkins University), Wei-Jun Jean Yeung (New York University)
What Transfers from Parents Contribute to the Well-Being of Adult Children Martin Kohli (European University Institute), Harald Kuenemund (Free University, Berlin)
Intergenerational Social Mobility of Immigrants and their Children in France Claudine Attias-Donfut (CNAV-Paris)
Discussant: Yuval Elmelech (Bard College)
Parental wealth has a considerable impact on the life chances of offspring. Parents target their intervivos transfers strategically, to assist children in times of financial need and with the purchase of high expenditure items--e.g., car, home. Parental wealth has been shown to influence educational attainment, the waiting time from marriage to home ownership, and the likelihood of self-employment, among other outcomes. Yet the need for parental resources is likley to vary by country, in terms of institutional arrangements and the availability of public transfer programs. In this session the focus will be on the role of parental resources in the attainments of childen in different countries.
Thematic Session. Cultural Classifications and Cultural Boundaries
Mon, Aug 14 - 10:30am - 12:10pm
Session Organizer and Presider: Kees Van Rees (Princeton University)
(De-)Classification in Art? A comparative analysis of the classification of cultural products in American, Dutch, French and German newspapers 1955-2005 Susanne Janssen (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Marc Verboord (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Social status, lifestyle and cultural consumption: a comparative study Tak Wing Chan (University of Oxford)
Social status, lifestyle and cultural consumption: the case of the USA Arthur S. Alderson (Indiana University)
Fictional worlds and social space: US prose fiction debut cohorts, 1940 and 1955 Bo G Ekelund (Dept. of English, Uppsala U, Sweden), Mikael Borjesson (Uppsala University, Sweden)
Discussant: John Mohr (University of California, Santa Barbara)
The comparative study of cultural classification systems – the ways in which members of a society and of institutions constituting organizational fields in a society, classify cultural products and practices and develop corresponding rules of behavior -- builds on several approaches: Bourdieu’s field theory and his theory of cultural capital; DiMaggio’s seminal article “Classification in art” [ASR 1987] and research (by DiMaggio and others) on institutionalization, the construction of organizational sub-fields in specific areas of art and culture and the gradual transformation of a field under the influence of both field-internal and field-external factors; Lamont’s investigations on comparative cultural sociology and the theory of cultural boundaries; research on development of omnivorous taste and consumption patterns initiated by Peterson. This interdisciplinary line of research emphasizes the interdependence of material and symbolic production and consumption of cultural goods as well as the interconnectedness of a particular field with its environment(s). It focuses on the socially constructed nature of cultural classifications, on the cognitive aspects of organizations. Since WW II, cultural classification systems in western countries have become more international, less hierarchical, less universally shared, more differentiated, and more strongly guided by commercial values and practices.
In various countries (Sweden, the Netherlands, Great Britain, US), a number of international comparative research programs on cultural classifications and cultural boundaries are under way which draw on this interdisciplinary line of research. First, in 2004, dr. Tak Wing Chan (Department of Sociology, University of Oxford) and Professor John Goldthorpe (Nuffield College, Oxford) started a two-year international project, entitled “Social Status and Cultural Consumption: A Comparative Study”, involving researchers from the UK, U.S.A., France and the Netherlands. Through secondary analyses of existing data sets that are available in the four countries, it aims at gaining a better understanding of how class and status and personal networks (spouse; friends) affect cultural participation and lifestyle.
Second, in 2003, Professor Susanne Janssen (Erasmus University, the Netherlands) started a comparative program, entitled “Cultural classification systems in transition”. This program aims at clarifying and qualifying the changes that seem to have occurred in the classification of cultural products in four Western countries (France, Germany, the Netherlands, U.S.A). This is being achieved by means of (i) a comprehensive comparative study of newspaper coverage of arts and culture between 1950 and 2000 and (ii) a subsequent analysis of how over time changes and cross-national differences in newspapers’ treatment of cultural products relate to broader social and cultural conditions in these four countries.
Third, the Swedish project “Literary generations and social authority: a study of US prose-fiction debut writers, 1940-2000”, coordinated by Dr Bo Ekelund and dr. Matthias Bolkéus Blom (University of Uppsala), aims to understand the social conditions for literary production and to answer questions about changing conditions for the social authority of literature (cf. Ekelund and Blom 2002; Ekelund & Borjesson 2005). Session presenters will reflect not only on core theoretical and methodological issues, but also on the empirical analyses and results, and would be delighted to discuss them with colleagues.
Thematic Session. The Boundaries of the Black Middle Class
Mon, Aug 14 - 2:30pm - 4:10pm
Session Organizer: Karyn Lacy (University of Michigan)
Presider: Patricia Banks (Harvard University)
Buying Houses: Class, Race, and the Intergenerational Transfer of Assets Annette Lareau (University of Maryland), Elliot Weininger (Temple University)
The Black Bourgeoisie Meets the Truly Disadvantaged Mary E. Pattillo (Northwestern University)
Is the Black Middle Class Larger, More Stable, Better Off than Ten Years Ago? Thomas M. Shapiro (Brandeis University)
A number of sociologists have conducted studies of the life experiences of the black middle class in recent years, yet, unitl now, these scholars have not organized to present their work on a cohesive panel devoted specifically to the growing social importance of this influential group. This thematic session examines the symbolic boundaries negotiated by the black middle class in three social spheres: the workplace, the housing market, and financial markets. Taken together, these papers paint a vivid portrait, one that begins to fill enormous gaps in our understanding of the middle-class black experience.
Thematic Session. The Future of the US Labor Movement: Can Unions Rebuild?
Mon, Aug 14 - 2:30pm - 4:10pm
Session Organizer and Presider: Ruth Milkman (University of California-Los Angeles)
Session Organizer and Presider: Dan Clawson (University of Massachusetts)
Panelist: Gerald Hudson (Service Employees International Union)
Panelist: Stewart Acuff (AFL-CIO)
Panelist: Hassan Yussuff (Canadian Labour Congress)
The U.S. labor movement is in the midst of a historic split. In 2005 several of the largest and most active unions left the AFL-CIO and formed the Change to Win coalition. The implications and meaning of this split are likely to be studied by sociologists for years to come. The panel features key protagonists from both the AFL-CIO (Stewart Acuff, Organizing Director) and Change to Win (Gerald Hudson, Executive Vice-President of SEIU). They will answer questions posed by the session organizers and audience members. A Canadian labor perspective will be offered by Hassan Yussuff, Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress.
Thematic Session. Global Sociology: Whither National Differences?
Mon, Aug 14 - 2:30pm - 4:10pm
Session Organizer: Nico Stehr (Zeppelin University)
Session Organizer: Hermann Strasser (University of Duisburg-Essen)
Author: George Ritzer (University of Maryland)
Author: Richard Sennett (London Sch. Economics)
Author: Piotr Sztompka (Jagiellonian University)
Author: Margareta Bertilsson (University of Copenhagen)
Author: John A. Hall (McGill University)
Discussion will focus on the question of the converegnce or lack of convergence of sociology theory and knowledge around the globe.
Thematic Session. Ethnic Dynamics in a Pluralist Society: The Theoretical Significance of the Canadian Case
Mon, Aug 14 - 4:30pm - 6:10pm
Session Organizer and Presider: Danielle Juteau (University of Montreal)
Presider: Christopher McAll (Université de Montréal)
Ethnicity, Nationalism and Community-building among Turks in Canada Sirma Bilge (Université de Montréal)
Gendered Racism: The Appeal of ‘Culture Talk’ in a Multicultural Context Yasmin Jiwani (Concordia University)
Establishing Discrimination and Understanding Stigmatisation: Past and Present Debates around Affirmative Action and Equality in Canada Linda Pietrantonio (University of Ottawa)
This session interrogates the doxa of diversity, what is taken for granted and unworthy of mention. Papers focus on the essentializing usages of culture, the often stigmatizing effects of categorization, and the on-going competition between interculturalism and multiculturalism as dominant forms of pluralism. As the authors explore the multiple facets of social hierarchization and uncover their dynamics, they open up new avenues for the theorization of social equality that transcend the opposition between inequality and recognition, and between abstract universalism and differentialism.
