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Annual Review of Sociology - Current Issue
Volume 50, 2024
- Autobiographical Article
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Serendipitous Sociologist: Transitions and Turning Points in My Journey
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 1–19More LessSerendipity, curiosity, and lived experience shaped my career as a social demographer and my interests in social policy. I transitioned from the humanities to sociology and demography as a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, where I discovered my affinity for quantitative research. My interest in Latin American demography gave way to domestic concerns as new opportunities arose at each of the three institutions where I have had the privilege to work—the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Chicago, and Princeton University. That all three institutions hosted vibrant demography and policy programs facilitated my research about the Hispanic population, family structure, urban poverty, college access, and myriad aspects of socioeconomic inequality and immigrant integration. Superb colleagues and talented graduate student collaborators deserve major credit for my career accomplishments. I attribute numerous opportunities to serve on philanthropic and corporate boards to the strength of weak ties.
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- Theory and Methods
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“Which Cases Do I Need?” Constructing Cases and Observations in Qualitative Research
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 21–40More LessThis methodological review starts one step before Small's classic account of how many cases a scholar needs. We ask, “Which cases do I need?” We argue that a core feature of most qualitative research is case construction, which we define as the delineation of a social category of inquiry. We outline how qualitative researchers construct cases and observations and discuss how these choices impact data collection, analysis, and argumentation. In particular, we examine how case construction and the subsequent logic of crafting observations within cases have consequences for conceptual generalizability, as distinct from empirical generalizability. Drawing from the practice of qualitative work, we outline seven questions qualitative researchers often answer to construct cases and observations. Better understanding and articulating the logic of constructing cases and observations is useful for both qualitative scholars embarking on research and those who read and evaluate their work.
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Leveraging Experience Sampling/Ecological Momentary Assessment for Sociological Investigations of Everyday Life
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 41–59More LessExperience sampling (ES)—also referred to as ecological momentary assessment (EMA)—is a data collection method that involves asking study participants to report on their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, activities, and environments in (or near) real time. ES/EMA is typically administered using an intensive longitudinal design (repeated assessments within and across days). Although use of ES/EMA is widespread in psychology and health sciences, uptake of the method among sociologists has been limited. We argue that ES/EMA offers key advantages for the investigation of sociologically relevant phenomena, particularly in light of recent disciplinary emphasis on investigating the everyday mechanisms through which social structures and micro (individual and relational) processes are mutually constitutive. We describe extant and potential research applications illustrating the advantages of ES/EMA regarding enhanced validity, illuminating micro-temporal processes, and the potential for linkage with spatially and temporally referenced data sources. We also consider methodological challenges facing sociological research using ES/EMA.
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On Joy and War: Black Feminism/Intersectionality
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 61–83More LessBlack feminist theorizing developed outside the formal academy to meet the needs of Black women but did not end there. This review offers entrée to some current “wars” and debates on politics of knowledge about Black feminist theories, concepts, and praxis that have deepened within sociology and increasingly extend into live conference panels, online debates, and legislatures. Shared characteristics within Black feminism include persistent and critical attention to Black women's knowledge production, power, and social change—but there is much more. Drawing on sociology and other disciplines, this review of Black feminism/intersectionality covers families of Black feminisms, disciplinary citation trends, methodological considerations, and tensions around embodiment in claims to Black feminism and intersectionality. In the conclusions, we propose directions to untether conflicts, unsettle wars, and move toward joy and liberation as the struggle continues.
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The Sociology of Interpretation
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 85–105More LessRecent years have seen a growing sociological interest in meaning. In fact, some argue that sociology cannot confront its foundational questions without addressing meaning. Yet sociologists mean many things when they talk about meaning. We propose a practical approach that conceptualizes meaning as an instance of an actor interpreting a stimulus. Reviewing existing literature, we find that most sociological accounts understand interpretation either as categorization or as semantic association. We show that an integrated approach is analytically useful for conceptualizing shared interpretation and the process by which people coordinate their interpretations. This provides a framework for addressing interpretative heterogeneity when studying attitudinal or behavioral variance. We conclude by highlighting how recent advances in computational linguistics have opened exciting new possibilities for the study of interpretation, and suggest several avenues for future research.
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Thinking Like a Feminist: What Feminist Theory Has to Offer Sociology
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 107–128More LessWhat does feminist theory have to offer sociology? Defining feminist theory as work that problematizes the gender binary and the relations of domination that constitute and emerge from it, we explore four key aspects of feminist scholarship. We begin with work that explores gender as a structuring trope. We then turn to how gender is coconstituted with other structures of power and domination. Next, we survey how feminists have theorized the relationship between nature and the social through the body. Finally, we examine feminist epistemological claims. We conclude by demonstrating the inextricability of feminist conceptual work and feminist politics. As we move across these bodies of work, we show how they are linked with one another and suggest some of the ways in which thinking like a feminist would help sociologists better grasp the dynamics of the social worlds we study.
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- Social Processes
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Are Victims Virtuous or Vilified? The Stories We Tell Ourselves (and Each Other)
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 129–147More LessDerogation of the victim refers to the tendency of an observer to negatively evaluate someone hurt by the action of another. Victim derogation has been a core feature of social psychology for decades, but evidence suggests this phenomenon is weakening. It may even be reversing into a valorization of victims. Is this empirical pattern due to methodological changes and shifts in theoretical framing of victim studies, or have there been large-scale cultural changes in how we view victims? This review outlines the theoretical and methodological origins of the derogation effect. It then discusses contemporary research streams that show the malleability of victim perception in research that considers the entire harmful social interaction. These studies suggest that shifts in broader social, political, and cultural environments may have impacted the social psychological foundations of derogation.
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Social Ecological Systems in Flux
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 149–168More LessA world in flux confronts the present generation, raising fears of systems gone awry. Whether it is the prospect of runaway climate change or the dangers of unbridled artificial intelligence, these dilemmas suggest that scientific and technological remedies have not been matched by progress in harnessing social and political capacities for collective action. Part of this impasse stems from a gap between the multidimensional nature of contemporary global crises and unidimensional modes of understanding and managing them. In this article, we describe an integrative approach rooted in the paradigm of social ecology that might enable us to tackle these challenges more comprehensively. We discuss, for example, how a social ecological perspective focuses attention not only on the carbon footprint of society but also on the social footprint of carbon. We review the tenets of social ecology and reflect on its promise for spurring new modes of collaborative research and collective action, including more effective strategies for planetary governance.
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Sociology of Twitter/X: Trends, Challenges, and Future Research Directions
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 169–190More LessThis article provides a sociology of Twitter (now known as X) and charts the development of the study of the platform and its data in sociological venues through an analysis of 1,644 articles published since 2009. This review helps readers understand developments in the field and provides a road map for advancing future Twitter-related sociological research. The works cited in this review advance sociological research on a variety of subfields, including but not limited to race, social movements, segregation, politics, violence, and stratification. After a brief introduction of definitions as well as methodological approaches used to study the platform (computational, qualitative, and mixed), I explore how Twitter has been used in sociological research. Furthermore, using social movements and activism as a case study, I highlight what the platform's usage and communication reveal about the social world. I conclude with a road map for advancing Twitter-related sociological research in the current atmosphere in which Twitter has been renamed X. Ultimately, a sociology of Twitter does not need to be tethered to the platform per se, as it also provides a framework for understanding new platforms if they become home for what people previously posted to Twitter/X.
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The Plot Thickens: A Sociology of Conspiracy Theories
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 191–207More LessConspiracy theories are a constant feature of human society but have recently risen in prominence with the flurry of COVID-19 conspiracy theories and their public display in social media. Conspiracy theories should be studied not only because of their potential harm but also because they are related to other sources of misinformation such as folk theories, rumors, and fake news. Recent understanding of their spread has shifted the focus from investigating the believers to characteristics of the social processes that motivate and persuade, with a new view of the conspiracy theorist as a bricoleur dealing with threats through social (re)construction of reality. These tendencies are strengthened by the markets for attention and approval constructed by social media platforms, and bots also amplify them. We identify an agenda of multiple important and urgent paths for future research that will help understanding of conspiracy theories in society.
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- Institutions and Culture
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How Social Influence Affects Reporting: Toward an Integration of Crime Reporting, Whistleblowing, and Denunciation
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 209–228More LessReporting—often by ordinary individuals—is the most common means by which authorities become aware of crimes, misconduct, and other types of deviant behavior. In this article, I integrate research across a variety of disciplines and domains to review the role of social influence in the decision to report. Such influences operate at the individual, group, and societal levels to shape reporting behavior, as potential reporters respond to both direct and indirect pressures, along with considering the anticipated reactions of others were a report to be made. Together, these influences can either suppress or promote reporting, which shapes who is identified, investigated, and ultimately punished for deviant behavior within organizations, communities, and states.
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Race and Ethnicity in the Sociology of Cultural Production and Consumption
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 229–249More LessThis review examines cultural production and consumption through the lens of race and ethnicity. Although the sociological study of race, ethnicity, and cultural production and consumption (RECPC) is growing, it is scattered across various subfields. This review aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how race and ethnicity intersect with cultural production and consumption by bringing this scholarship together. I discuss five dominant themes in the scholarship: classification, valuation and evaluation, representations, market outcomes, and cultural capital. The article concludes with implications for future sociological research on RECPC.
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- Political and Economic Sociology
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Automation and Augmentation: Artificial Intelligence, Robots, and Work
Ya-Wen Lei, and Rachel KimVol. 50 (2024), pp. 251–272More LessThis article reviews the literature that examines the potential, limitations, and consequences of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) in automation and augmentation across various disciplines. It presents key observations and suggestions from the literature review. Firstly, displacement effects from task automation continue to persist. However, one should not assume an unequivocally increasing efficacy of technology in automation or augmentation, especially given the declining productivity growth in high-income countries and some large emerging economies in recent decades. Jobs less likely to be negatively impacted are those that require diverse tasks, physical dexterity, tacit knowledge, or flexibility, or are protected by professional or trade associations. Despite countervailing effects, without policy intervention, automation and augmentation could widen inequality between social groups, labor and capital, and firms. Secondly, AI's promise in task automation and labor augmentation is mixed. AI tools can cause harm, and dissatisfaction and disengagement often arise from their opaqueness, errors, disregard for critical contexts, lack of tacit knowledge, and lack of domain expertise, as well as their demand for extra labor time and resources. The inadequate autonomy to override AI-based assessments further frustrates users who have to use these AI tools at work. Finally, the article calls for sociological research to specify conditions and mechanisms that ameliorate adverse consequences and enhance labor augmentation by embedding the study of automation and augmentation in concrete social and political contexts at multiple levels.
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Conservatism, the Far Right, and the Environment
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 273–296More LessSociology operates with an impoverished understanding of conservatism and the natural environment. The discipline's focus on antiregulatory and antiscience dimensions of conservative politics can obscure a more comprehensive, historically deep, and theoretically rich understanding of conservatism's connection to nature. We review and integrate sociological research with a large multidisciplinary global literature on conservative and far right environmental thought. Our analysis shows an intellectual tradition built around three commitments concerning the moral order of nature and society: naturalism, organicism, and pastoralism. Rather than being antiscientific, these traditions have drawn heavily on natural science for their authority. After tracing their history, we consider several contemporary manifestations, sometimes in ways that are counterintuitive to sociology's dominant understanding of conservatism. Conservative thought, including its far right edges, maintains a firm hold on global politics while climate change transforms the planet. To better understand these dynamics, sociology must continue to integrate work from other socioenvironmental fields. This review begins to correct this neglect and charts a path for future research at this increasingly impactful intersection.
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How Threat Mobilizes the Resurgence and Persistence of US White Supremacist Activism: The 1980s to the Present
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 297–317More LessDespite a centuries-long history of violent mobilization, white supremacist activism (WSA) has received relatively little sociological attention outside a small, specialized subfield. Disciplinary interest began to change after Trump's 2016 election; the 2017 violent attack in Charlottesville, Virginia; and the January 6, 2021, insurrection. In recognition, this review article focuses on what has been learned about contemporary WSA since the 1980s. We categorize studies by their unit of analysis—individual or micro, meso, and macro levels—to highlight analytic commonalities and distinctions and to underscore the central role that threat plays in the ebb and flow of WSA. As part of our discussion, we also point to unresolved and understudied issues. We conclude by identifying issues that future research should address.
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Subnational Environmental Policy: Trends and Issues
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 319–339More LessPolicies relevant to many key sociological processes are often subnational, enacted at the regional, state/provincial, and/or local levels. This applies notably in the politics of the environmental state, where public and private subnational environmental policies (SNEPs) have major consequences for managing climate change, addressing environmental injustices, regulating land uses, greening energy markets, limiting pollution, and much more. While sociologists focus more on national policies, diverse sociological contributions emphasize the importance of SNEPs and their origins, diffusion, implementation, and sources of backlash. We begin by providing a typology of SNEPs. Next, we highlight not only environmental sociology (with its particular attention to climate change and energy) but also the sociologies of social movements, politics, the economy, science, risk, and organizations, which have each offered unique perspectives. Finally, we outline an agenda for how sociologists can further elaborate a distinctive perspective that highlights inequality, valuation, diffusion, scale shifts, and venue-shopping up to national and global policy systems.
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The Sociology of Entrepreneurship Revisited
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 341–364More LessOver the last two decades, the sociology of entrepreneurship has exploded as an area of academic inquiry. Most of this research has been focused on understanding the environmental conditions that promote entrepreneurship and processes related to the initial formation of an organization. Despite this surge in activity, many important questions remain open. Only more recently have scholars begun to turn their attention to what happens to organizations, and the people connected to them, as they mature and move through the life cycle of entrepreneurship. These open questions, moreover, connect to many classic themes in the literature on careers, organizational sociology, stratification, and work and occupations. Using a framework that focuses on three phases of the entrepreneurial life cycle—pre-entry, entry, and post-entry—we summarize sociological research on entrepreneurship and highlight opportunities for future research.
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- Differentiation and Stratification
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A Sociology of Real Estate: Polanyi, Du Bois, and the Relational Study of Commodified Land in a Climate-Changed Future
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 365–383More LessReal 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 of study. Here, we review three areas of recent scholarship relevant to understanding real estate—the political economy of place, property rights, and financialization—in order to draw out key insights from each. Overall, the political-economic and socio-legal aspects of real estate have been well-studied, but contemporary research has been limited by its parochialism. We argue that for a sociology of real estate to move forward, it must take a broader, more relational perspective; must become more international; and must confront the climate crisis—and that Polanyi's and Du Bois's contributions can be effectively mobilized toward these ends.
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Diversifying Gender Categories and the Sex/Gender System
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 385–405More LessThe growing visibility of transgender and nonbinary people raises important sociological questions about how the structure of sex and gender is shifting and underscores necessary changes to research practice. We review what is known about emerging gender identities and their implications for sociological understandings of the relationship between sex and gender and the maintenance of the sex/gender system of inequality. Transgender and nonbinary identities are increasingly common among younger cohorts and improved survey measurements of sex and gender are expanding information about these changes. In the United States, an additional gender category seems to be solidifying in public usage even as the higher status of masculinity over femininity persists. The continuing power of the normative binary contributes to both violent backlash and characteristic patterns of discrimination against gender diverse people; yet, underlying support for nondiscrimination in the workplace is stronger than commonly recognized. New, more consistent efforts to account for gender diversity in social science research are needed to fully understand these changes.
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Early-Life Exposures and Social Stratification
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 407–430More LessAdverse environmental exposures—war and violence, natural disasters, escalating heat, worsening air quality—experienced in pregnancy are consequential for multiple domains of well-being over the life course, including health, cognitive development, schooling, and earnings. Though these environmental exposures become embodied via biological processes, they are fundamentally sociological phenomena: Their emergence, allocation, and impact are structured by institutions and power. As a result, consequential early-life environmental exposures are a critical part of the sociological understanding of social stratification, intergenerational mobility, and individual and cohort life course trajectories. We review theory and evidence on prenatal exposures, describe enduring methodological issues and potential solutions for elucidating these effects, and discuss the importance of this evidence for the stratification of opportunity and outcomes in contemporary societies.
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Interracial Unions and Racial Assortative Mating in an Age of Growing Diversity, Shifting Intimate Relationships, and Emerging Technologies
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 431–453More LessWhile racial assortative mating and interracial unions have been a central interest in the study of race relations and family demography since the early twentieth century, there have been marked changes in the social contexts in which these processes have taken place in recent decades. This review article examines three important shifts: (a) the rise of population diversity and its impact on traditional views of racial integration, (b) the changing institution of marriage in American life, and (c) the increasing centrality of technology. We discuss how these societal shifts have challenged traditional understandings of preferences, opportunities, and intermediaries in the mate selection process, as well as new opportunities for interracial intimacy that these changes have introduced. We conclude with a discussion on conceptual issues and promising future research directions.
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Presumed Competent: The Strategic Adaptation of Asian Americans in Education and the Labor Market
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 455–474More LessPresumed competent, Asian Americans exhibit the highest level of education and median household income of all major US ethnoracial groups. On average, they outpace all groups in the domain of education, yet they do not maintain their advantage in the labor market. The question of bias against Asian Americans has taken center stage in the most recent US Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, but the attention has been on university admissions. We broaden the focus and rewrite the question to consider how Asian Americans seek to preempt bias in the labor market by strategically adapting to mitigate it. Strategic adaptation begins with precollege education, continues with college choice and major, and entails acquiring elite credentials that signal hard skills and merit. The strategy falls short of obviating bias altogether, however. We show how Asian Americans’ labor market earnings and mobility vary by gender, nativity, national origin, place of education, and field of study.
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Racialized Horizontal Stratification in US Higher Education: Politics, Process, and Consequences
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 475–499More LessIn this review, we integrate three bodies of scholarship—education stratification research, political-historical sociology of higher education, and sociological theories of race and racism—to understand the production of “separate and unequal” postsecondary experiences for racially marginalized college students in the United States. We argue that the US postsecondary system is plural, heterogeneous, and stratified partly as a result of hundreds of years of contested efforts to deploy higher education in the service of white supremacy and capital accumulation. Organizational stratification of higher education along racial lines leads to horizontal stratification in individual experiences within the same level of schooling, and even within the same university. We review literature on racialized sorting between schools, which channels racially marginalized students to different parts of the postsecondary system relative to their racially advantaged peers. We also describe stratification within schools, as students are tracked, often by race, into divergent academic and social pathways internal to a single university. Both types of sorting have racial consequences for students’ career trajectories, economic security, and well-being. Finally, we detail recent efforts to challenge horizontal stratification, responses to those efforts, and avenues for future research.
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Still Victimized in a Thousand Ways: Segregation as a Tool for Exploitation in the Twenty-First Century
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 501–520More LessIn the thirty years since Massey and Denton's American Apartheid, sociological scholarship on segregation has proliferated, calling attention to the ways in which the social geography of the United States both drives and is shaped by racial and economic inequality. More recent work has focused on the role that institutional actors play in the reproduction of residential segregation and its disparate impacts on communities of color. In this article, we describe different conceptualizations of segregation and how it has been used as a tool for exclusion and exploitation. We review literature on housing and institutional marginalization, highlighting the historical and contemporary mechanisms that perpetuate inequality and necessitate continued research on this topic. We conclude with a discussion of additional considerations and opportunities for future research.
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The Latino Middle Class
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 521–546More LessLatino educational gains over time and income mobility portend a burgeoning Latino middle class. In this article, we critically review scholarship on the Latino middle class, from theoretical perspectives aiming to explain Latino experiences to empirical research investigating mechanisms that promote, and barriers that thwart, upward mobility. Studies suggest that the Latino middle class is distinctive for many reasons—from structural barriers to asset accumulation, legal status precarity for self or family, financial responsibility for class-disadvantaged kin, and negative controlling images that bog down class ascension. Scholars’ recent efforts to decouple middle-class status from Whiteness is an important contribution that undercuts the notion that melding into Whiteness is the desired outcome of middle-class integration. In addition to the utility of education to upward mobility, we contend that studies of middle-class pathways should expand to recognize that Latinos are engaging in workarounds—career paths not requiring a bachelor's degree, such as business ownership or credentialed professions. Workarounds are an intervention that accounts for routes to mobility that are eclipsed by conventional conceptions of mobility. Ultimately, we argue that Latinos are attaining middle-class status even as they are racialized, thereby expanding the minoritized middle class.
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Widening Educational Disparities in Health and Longevity
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 547–564More LessEducational attainment level has long been a strong predictor of adult health and longevity in the United States. Interestingly, the association between education and these outcomes has strengthened in recent decades. Since the 1980s, higher-educated adults have experienced favorable trends in health and longevity, while lower-educated adults have experienced stagnation or unfavorable trends. Studies have provided important clues about why the association between education and health and longevity has strengthened over time. However, explanations remain incomplete and contested. This article discusses key findings and debates about why the association has become stronger and offers recommendations to advance robust explanations. Two key recommendations call for a fundamental shift in how researchers conceptualize and study the increasingly strong association. These include (a) reconsidering which education groups should be viewed as normative in analyses of the trends and (b) elevating attention on contexts, institutions, and actors that have had an outsized influence on the trends.
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- Individual and Society
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The Sociology of Police Behavior
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 565–579More LessBlack Americans are 3.5 times and Black teenagers are 21 times more likely to be killed by police than their White counterparts. Generally, protective factors such as social class do little to reduce this disparity, as high-income Black Americans are just as likely to be killed by police as low-income Black Americans. Given these outcomes, it is unsurprising that the bulk of sociological research on policing examines disparities in policing outcomes between Black and Brown communities and individuals and their White counterparts. We begin by outlining this important research. In addition to focusing on the consequences of (over)policing, sociologists can make unique contributions to our understanding of the empirical limitations of contemporary policing data and the macro-, meso-, and micro-level mechanisms that contribute to policing inequalities. While we draw upon some research in other disciplines, sociologists can and should do more in these areas. Accordingly, the end of this review focuses on future directions and theoretical possibilities by centering emerging research that pivots sociology to a more direct focus on overcoming the methodological limits of police research and contributing to meaningful behavioral, organizational, and policy changes.
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- Demography
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Asian American Diversity and Growth
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 581–601More LessThis article examines how the growth and diversification of Asian Americans have shaped their integration into the US mainstream. I first review recent trends in demographic diversification, socioeconomic differentiation, and geospatial dispersion among Asians. As a high-achieving minority group, Asians—on average—have surpassed Whites in education, income, and wealth. This narrative, however, is inaccurate and incomplete, rendering intra-Asian disparities invisible. One consequence of intra-Asian diversity is the divergent destinies of hyperselected Asians and vulnerable Asians. Another is the increase in political polarization due to the rise of class-based politics. Despite increasing awareness of intra-Asian diversity, the current conceptual framework and data infrastructure are woefully inadequate, with an inherent bias toward the inclusion of the largest Asian groups at the exclusion of small and vulnerable Asian groups. Data disaggregation and integration can fill this gap by identifying new challenges and opportunities for research and policy interventions.
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Political Demography: The Political Consequences of Structural Population Change
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 603–625More LessThis article surveys the growing field of political demography, which explores the political consequences of structural population change. It underscores the importance of integrating demography and political sociology research to better understand the complex and nuanced relationship between demography and political dynamics. The existing research demonstrates profound and multifaceted impacts of demographic shifts on the political landscape, with different demographic factors having distinct political consequences. Notably, population composition and distribution tend to hold greater political significance than sheer population size and growth. Furthermore, while more research is needed, the existing work suggests that the effect of structural demographic factors is neither inevitable nor without limit; rather, the political consequences of demographic change often exhibit nonlinear patterns and interact with prevailing socioeconomic and institutional contexts. As demographic shifts continue to unfold globally, political demography stands as a promising and enlightening area of research that merits further inquiry.
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Sojourners, Not Settlers: Temporary Labor Migration Since the Nineteenth Century
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 627–645More LessSystems of labor mobility across borders in which states assign a fixed duration to workers’ sojourn—temporary labor migration schemes (TLMSs)—have enabled employers to recruit workers while claiming to avoid the presumed negative consequences of settlement and integration. While existing explanations of TLMSs focus primarily on structural determinants, this article introduces a cumulative contextual model. It begins with a political-economic analysis of labor migration and addresses its gaps by adding an analysis of the ideological legitimations of TLMSs, as well as a consideration of the complex of rules and organizations that implement and regulate state-managed temporary migration. Building on this approach, I propose a typology of TLMSs according to dominant actors, rules that govern the labor relationship, and the gap between discourse about the goals of TLMSs and outcomes. The analysis has implications for immigration and citizenship regimes, for their assumptions of permanence, and for the nature of work.
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- Urban and Rural Community Sociology
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The Rise and Fall of the Sociology of the Global City
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 647–669More LessIn the 1980s and 1990s, a series of publications, including Saskia Sassen's landmark book The Global City, triggered a new current of research aiming to link a cycle of globalized financial and tech capitalism to a new type of city, analogous to what the industrial city had been in the past. This article first reviews this literature in relation to the history and sociology of the world city. It then reviews criticism and sociological questions advanced by the global city literature and, in particular, research by Saskia Sassen and Manuel Castells. It argues that claims about the uniqueness of the global city were not validated empirically. Nonetheless, the issues this literature raised became central to research on globalizing cities, in particular in relation to the role of finance and financial capitals. Finally, this article argues that different forms of globalization give rise to different types of globalizing cities. A new cycle of research is now underway in relation to the climate crisis and pandemics, as the climate crisis becomes the most important global phenomenon.
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- Policy
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Online Illegal Cryptomarkets
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 671–690More LessCryptomarkets—online markets for illegal goods—have revolutionized the illegal drug trade, constituting about 10% of all drug trades and attracting users to a greater variety of and more addictive substances than available in offline drug markets. This review introduces the burgeoning area of sociology research on illegal cryptomarkets, particularly in the realm of drug trade. We emphasize the expanding role of illicit online trade and its relevance for understanding broader exchange challenges encountered in all illegal trade settings. Examining the effects of online illegal trade on consumption and supply-side policing, we also discuss the harm and potential benefits of moving drug exchange from offline to online markets. We argue for a network perspective's efficacy in this research domain, emphasizing its relevance in assessing trade and discussion networks, technical innovation, and market evolution and vulnerabilities. Concluding, we outline future research areas, including market culture, failure, and the impact of online illegal trade on stratification.
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The United States in the World Today: How Sociologists Think About It and Why It Matters
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 691–713More LessThe study of policy alone often means domestic policy, of interest to generalist sociologists interested in how political ideas are turned into domestic legislation, executive action, and/or court litigation. Foreign policy, as the financial, commercial, diplomatic and military relations of a state with foreign states, remains a niche subfield. But foreign relations should be conceived of as the broader set of entanglements between societies, encompassing transnational movements, expert networks, and fields. Then, sociological theories of foreign relations can interest generalist sociologists. In this review, we illustrate how this broad view of foreign relations applies to the study of the United States in the world today (USitWT) by first surveying how sociologists of the world society and world system have focused on transnational relations and the place of the United States in their dynamics, and how they have engaged with the question of power. We then demonstrate how field theorists’ study of transnational fields can allow sociologists to reconceptualize the historical role of the USitWT by highlighting continuities between European colonial governmentalities and current US transnational practices. This field perspective can allow sociologists to understand the USitWT as transnational, postcolonial, or neo-colonial governmentality, depending on the sociological and historical depth and range of its relation with different parts of the world.
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- Historical Sociology
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Whither Digitality? The Relationship Between Orality, Literacy, and Digitality, Past and Present: From Spoken Traditions to Digital Media
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 715–736More LessOrality, literacy, and digitality are forms of knowledge and communication based on speech, reading and writing, and electronic technologies using binary formats, respectively. This article reviews four possible relationships between them: Is literacy (and by extension digitality) the superior form, is orality superior, are all three mostly interchangeable, or do they all change each other as they emerge historically? These different positions imply different histories: linear, contingent, and epochal. This article considers the future of digitality by reviewing these relationships, past and present. These four intellectual positions did not arise neutrally. In fact, the superiority of literacy is rooted in Eurocentric views of technological progress and colonial power. Because this positionality is crucial to understanding the historical relationship among them, the article draws on the philosophy of science of dialectical realism to look for the similarities and differences between the positions, as well as the contradictions. It is a bold call for the comparative historical sociology of digitality (and everything else).
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- Sociology and World Regions
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Rights in China: Myths, Abuses, and Politics
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. 737–755More LessThis article presents a sociological perspective on understanding rights in China, examining the interplay between multiple myths of rights, rights abuses, and the politics of rights within various social and physical spaces. It highlights competing myths of rights held by the state, ordinary citizens, rights activists, and legal professionals. The article examines how rights abuses contribute to rights consciousness and mobilization across different human rights domains in a repressive political context. By analyzing the politics of rights in interconnected spaces, such as the street, the legal system, the global arena, and cyberspace, it emphasizes the importance of continuous engagement between domestic and overseas actors in shaping China's human rights future. The article encourages social science researchers to thoroughly examine the myths, abuses, and politics of rights before making normative judgments about China's human rights conditions.
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Acerca de la alegría y la guerra: feminismo negro/interseccionalidad
Vol. 50 (2024), pp. S1–S25More LessResumenLa teorización feminista negra se desarrolló fuera del mundo académico formal para satisfacer las necesidades de las mujeres negras, pero no terminó ahí. Esta reseña ofrece acceso a algunas “guerras” y debates actuales acerca de las políticas del conocimiento sobre teorías, conceptos y praxis feministas negras que se han profundizado dentro de la sociología y se extienden cada vez más a paneles de conferencias en vivo, debates en línea y legislaturas. Las características compartidas dentro del feminismo negro incluyen una atención persistente y crítica a la producción de conocimiento, el poder y el cambio social de las mujeres negras, pero hay mucho más que eso. Basándose en la sociología y otras disciplinas, esta reseña del feminismo negro/interseccionalidad cubre familias de feminismos negros, tendencias de citación disciplinaria, consideraciones metodológicas y tensiones en torno a la encarnación en las demandas sobre el feminismo negro y la interseccionalidad. En las conclusiones proponemos rumbos para destrabar conflictos, desestabilizar guerras y avanzar hacia la alegría y la liberación mientras la lucha continúa.
An English translation is available online at https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-090123-032434
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Previous Volumes
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Volume 50 (2024)
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Volume 49 (2023)
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Volume 48 (2022)
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Volume 47 (2021)
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Volume 46 (2020)
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Volume 45 (2019)
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Volume 44 (2018)
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Volume 43 (2017)
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Volume 42 (2016)
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Volume 41 (2015)
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Volume 40 (2014)
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Volume 39 (2013)
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Volume 38 (2012)
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Volume 37 (2011)
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Volume 1 (1975)
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Volume 0 (1932)