Power, Capital, and
Politics
Faculty in this area
draw on a variety of methodological approaches, interdisciplinary literatures,
and theoretical perspectives to interrogate the relationship between the state
and capital, the impacts and implications of social policies, and the punitive
as well as the productive effects of power throughout society. We pay
particular attention to the ways in which race, class, gender, and citizenship
both shape and are shaped by ongoing political struggle. The faculty in this
cluster are especially concerned with linking macro-analyses of political
economy to questions of culture, identity, experience, and struggle.
Political Sociology
(Ackerman, Kurien)
The political sociologists
on our faculty employ a range of theoretical perspectives to examine the
relationship between state and civil society, the nature of citizenship, and
the dynamics of social movements and political advocacy. We have explored these
topics through both comparative-historical and ethnographic methods and in
contexts as diverse as the U.S., Latin America, and the Middle East. Recent
scholarship has focused on the formation of political parties, immigrant
political activism, the changing modalities of state power, and relationships
between population health and voting patterns in the 2016 Presidential
election.
Work and Labor
(Purser, Green, Schewe, Paris)
A number of faculty
engage in sociological and interdisciplinary research on topics of work and
labor. We examine the relations between capital and labor, the transformations
in the labor market, the changing nature of work, the challenges
of care work and reproductive labor, and the past, present, and future of
workers’ movements in the U.S.
and around the world. We are especially interested in the intersections of work
and race, gender, and citizenship status. Recent scholarship has focused
on precarious forms of work, globalization and work, the shifting terrain of
care work, the role of labor market intermediaries, agricultural labor,
job-readiness and job-search programs for the unemployed, and the promise and
permutations of innovative forms of labor organizing. Many sociology
students and faculty participate in the PARCC Labor Studies Working Group,
which hosts symposia, organizes reading groups and workshops, and--in the
past—has distributed research grants.
Crime, Law, and
Punishment (Purser, Green, Monnat)
We have a cluster of
faculty interested and engaged in questions concerning crime, law, and
punishment, particularly within the exceptionally punitive and race- and
class-stratified context of the United States, but also globally. Recent
scholarship has focused on policing as racialized state-violence, the bail
bond industry and pretrial detention, the race/class/gender implications
of the penal system in Barbados, the workplace vulnerability of the
formerly-incarcerated, and prisoner “re-entry” programming.
Social Policy
(Harrington-Meyer, Monnat, Purser, Montez, London, Silverstein, Wilmoth,
Lutz, Ma)
Our department has
deep expertise in the area of social policy. Drawing upon a wide range of
theoretical approaches, we examine government policies related to social
welfare, immigration, health and aging, criminal justice, education,
disability, housing, the family, and the workplace. Whether via policy
evaluation or critical policy ethnography, recent scholarship in the
department has focused on care work and aging policy, affirmative action
policies and their impact on college enrollment, welfare reform and neoliberal
paternalist poverty governance, school physical activity policies, state
tobacco policies and smoking behavior and attitudes, the effects of
deregulation and decentralization of political
authority on population
health, and veterans’ benefits. Many faculty and graduate students working
in this area are affiliated with the Center for Policy Research or Aging
Studies Institute.
Science and
Technology (Orr, Paris, Schewe, Ma)
We also have a cluster of faculty interested and
engaged in questions of technology, science, culture, and power. Faculty
approach these questions from a wide range of theoretical perspectives. Recent
scholarship has focused on the technoscientific management of disorder, the
politics of digital infrastructures, stratification in STEM degree attainment,
and agricultural climate change mitigation.