December 2018
Kathleen M. Fallon, Stony Brook University, $7,828, Gender, Development, and the State: The Case of the United States. This project bridges a gap in two distinct literatures addressing gender policy: 1) gender and the state, and 2) gender and international development. Studies on gender and the state tend to focus on gender policy application domestically, whereas studies addressing gender and development tend to focus on gender policy application internationally. Research in both areas overlook the fact that some countries, like the United States, address gender policy both domestically and abroad. These countries thus work to “develop” their own country AND developing countries. I seek to bridge this gap by comparing and contrasting the implementation of specific gender policies as they are applied locally within the U.S. (via departments of the U.S. Government) and applied internationally (via the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)). Understanding how a government, like the United States, implements gender policy domestically versus internationally can shed light on how historical differences in institutional structures, in variations in policy application, and in diverse understandings of gender contribute to both state and gender development. Comparing different historical and institutional applications of gender policies domestically and internationally may also provide insight into how each approach may improve. Drawing on archival research, text analysis, and in-depth interviews, I propose to compare the implementation of two specific gender policies (Gender Based Violence and Maternal Mortality) as they are applied locally within the U.S. and applied internationally via the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The results will contribute to a better understanding of the development of the state and its policy applications at home and abroad.
Lorena Garcia, University of Illinois at Chicago, $7,500, Racial Wealth Disparities Among the Middle-Class in Chicago. Recent studies have shown that black and Latinx children from middle-class families in Chicago are less likely than white children from similar backgrounds to remain in the middle-class or attain a college degree. To understand these differences in social mobility, a growing body of literature has focused on differences in wealth between whites, blacks, and Latinxs who are otherwise equal in class indicators such as income, education, and occupational status. Some scholars argue that wealth is a more powerful predictor of life outcomes than social class indicators such as education, income, and occupation. A great deal of research in this area has focused intergenerational wealth transfers as a mechanism through which financial privilege is reproduced over time. Less attention has been directed towards examining the way wealth shapes the opportunities/constraints individuals experience in their daily lives, the role of intra-generational asset transfers (such as to siblings or spouses), or the challenges families face in transforming income into wealth. To examine these facets of racial wealth disparities and their relation to structures of racial inequality more broadly, we are conducting 150 interviews with middle-class black, Latinx, and white residents in Chicago to learn how they acquired wealth, barriers to wealth accumulation, and the (dis)advantages they experience by virtue of their wealth position. We focus specifically on the middle-class to understand how wealth may produce racial disparities between individuals who are otherwise equal in terms of education, occupational status, and income.
Joanne Golann, Vanderbilt University, $7,875, How Young Children Learn Self-Direction and Conformity. Families play a critical role in developing their children’s cognitive abilities, but also in shaping how they interact in and understand the world around them. The aim of this study is to examine how families teach young children conformity and self-direction. My research has three components: 1) to detail the practices by which families teach self-direction and conformity to their children; 2) to evaluate the extent to which these practices are shaped by social class; and 3) to explore why parenting practices may vary between families. Data for the study come from the New Jersey Families Study, an innovative and unprecedented collection of in-home video data of 21 families with a child between the ages of two and four. These families were video recorded continuously for a two-week period using still cameras positioned around their homes. This study updates and extends Lareau (2003) to examine how families across different social class backgrounds develop cultural skills in their young children. It also highlights the possibilities of video ethnographic approaches for sociological research.
June 2018
Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, University of New Mexico, Elizabeth Roberto, Rice University, $7,800, The Spatial Structure of Income Segregation by Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity in Houston. How do features of a city’s built environment, such as railroad tracks and highways, divide urban spaces and shape the patterns and processes of residential segregation? This study pairs spatial analyses of segregation with ethnographic observation of neighborhoods in Houston, TX, to address this question. Our mixed-methods approach measures multiple socioeconomic and ethnoracial dimensions of residential segregation, examines the spatial structure of segregation patterns, and describes how segregation shapes individuals’ daily lives. This allows us to identify areas of the city where the presence of physical barriers or disconnected streets is associated with higher levels of segregation and describe how segregation is locally experienced by residents in such areas. This project has implications for future research and policies that address the relationship between multiple social and economic dimensions of segregation and the role of the built environment in perpetuating urban inequality.
Jennifer M. Randles, California State University, Fresno, $8,000, The Diaper Dilemma: Invisible Inequalities, Inventive Mothering, and the Politics of Diapering. Diaper need—lacking sufficient diapers—is a common, distressing, and often hidden consequence of poverty in the United States that affects a third of all U.S. families with young children. Extending theories of intensive mothering, this research examines “diaperwork”—how poor families must plan, calculate, save, sacrifice, stretch, and innovate regarding diapers—as an unexamined case of how inequality and policy shape the social organization of caregiving. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with parents, diaper bank staff, and legislators and ethnographic observations in diaper banks, I theorize “inventive mothering,” or how poor mothers use diapering and diaper access strategies and their social meanings to claim a good mother status. This research contributes to sociological understandings of how intensive mothering ideologies shape poor parents’ lives when there is limited public acknowledgment and support for a fundamental aspect of childcare. A concept with significant political implications and applicable beyond diapers, inventive mothering illuminates how poverty shapes the physical, mental, and emotional labor of parenting when children’s basic needs fall outside the purview of policy.
Leslie Kim Wang, University of Massachusetts Boston, Stephen Chen, Wellesley College, Cindy H. Liu, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, $7,800, Addressing the Mental Health Consequences of Transnational Separation in Chinese Immigrant Families. Numerous immigrant groups use prolonged transnational separation between parents and children (in which children are reared by relatives in the parental home country). Although these separations can profoundly affect family well-being and mental health, little research has been conducted in this area. This study will focus on Chinese immigrant families in the United States. Among Asian American families, striking disparities in socioeconomic equality and family stability motivate many parents to send their infants back to China for childcare. Known as “satellite babies,” these children generally return to their parents in the U.S. when they reach school age or parents gain financial stability, entering into unfamiliar familial, cultural, linguistic, and educational environments. Using in-depth interviews, this project will comparatively examine the perspectives of three interrelated groups in the Greater Boston Area: Chinese immigrant parents who sent infants abroad; Chinese American youths (ages 13-18) who underwent this experience; and community clinicians and teachers who work with these families. Triangulating their responses will further scientific understanding of this transnational practice and provide a foundation for developing community-based therapeutic services to assist these families.
Melissa E. Wooten, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, $8,000, 20th and 21st Century Pathways into Black Educational Philanthropy. A rich tradition exists within critical education studies analyzing entrepreneurs’ nation-building motivations for funding educational projects in black communities following the U.S. Civil War. An underlying assumption within this literature is that once an entrepreneur decided to donate he, and they mostly are men, is able to enter educational philanthropy. But how? Understanding the institutional channels that point entrepreneurs toward charitable causes is essential to elucidating the field-level processes that create pathways for philanthropy. There is also space to compare these institutional channels over time. This study uses archival and biographical data to investigate pathways taken by two principle entrepreneurs, Julius Rosenwald and Bill Gates, into black educational philanthropy. Both started out on the periphery but came to occupy central roles in black educational philanthropy in the 20th and 21st century, respectively. A detailed analysis of their social networks, person-to-person and person-to-organization, illuminates the people and organizations that facilitated their entry into black educational philanthropy and consequently, the institutional contingencies necessary to become a black educational philanthropist over time.
