John M. Eason
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226410203
- eISBN:
- 9780226410487
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226410487.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This book represents a new approach to the study of punishment by explaining the causes and consequences of the prison boom from the perspective of the rural, southern towns most directly affected by ...
More
This book represents a new approach to the study of punishment by explaining the causes and consequences of the prison boom from the perspective of the rural, southern towns most directly affected by prison building. Prison placement is often oversimplified as a dubious choice for rural community leaders: a way to secure jobs that may stigmatize their communities. By relocating from Chicago, Illinois to Forrest City, Arkansas I uncovered the challenges facing a community that pursued and secured a prison facility. Some rural leaders see attracting a prison as a way to achieve order in a changing world that seems to be beyond their control. This manuscript shows how collective memory and a shared sense of community are also vital in differentiating the instrumental purposes of a prison (jobs) from its symbolism. In Forrest City, racial violence and stigma marred the collective memory of towns leaders and shared meaning of community. Given the legacy of shame associated with prisons, the need to overcome stigma plays an important role in building a prison. Rural towns want to build prisons not simply for economic wellbeing, but also to protect and improve their reputations by managing ghetto stigma. Prison demand is nuanced, multifaceted, and depends on context. By unraveling why leaders in Forrest City secured placement of the Forrest City Federal Correctional Facility, we can begin to understand the social, political, and economic shifts that drove to United States—“the land of the free”—to triple prison construction in just over thirty years.Less
This book represents a new approach to the study of punishment by explaining the causes and consequences of the prison boom from the perspective of the rural, southern towns most directly affected by prison building. Prison placement is often oversimplified as a dubious choice for rural community leaders: a way to secure jobs that may stigmatize their communities. By relocating from Chicago, Illinois to Forrest City, Arkansas I uncovered the challenges facing a community that pursued and secured a prison facility. Some rural leaders see attracting a prison as a way to achieve order in a changing world that seems to be beyond their control. This manuscript shows how collective memory and a shared sense of community are also vital in differentiating the instrumental purposes of a prison (jobs) from its symbolism. In Forrest City, racial violence and stigma marred the collective memory of towns leaders and shared meaning of community. Given the legacy of shame associated with prisons, the need to overcome stigma plays an important role in building a prison. Rural towns want to build prisons not simply for economic wellbeing, but also to protect and improve their reputations by managing ghetto stigma. Prison demand is nuanced, multifaceted, and depends on context. By unraveling why leaders in Forrest City secured placement of the Forrest City Federal Correctional Facility, we can begin to understand the social, political, and economic shifts that drove to United States—“the land of the free”—to triple prison construction in just over thirty years.
Charles C. Ragin and Peer C. Fiss
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226414379
- eISBN:
- 9780226414546
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226414546.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Methodology and Statistics
The central analytic focus of most policy-oriented social research today is the assessment of the relative importance of competing independent variables in multivariate analyses. A researcher might ...
More
The central analytic focus of most policy-oriented social research today is the assessment of the relative importance of competing independent variables in multivariate analyses. A researcher might ask: “Which variable has the strongest impact on life chances: education, test scores, or family background?” In this book we offer an alternative to the conventional approach to the analysis of policy-relevant social data. Instead of asking, "What is the net effect of each independent variable on the outcome?" we ask, "What combinations of causally relevant conditions are consistently linked to the outcome?" Thus, in our approach causal conditions do not compete with each other; rather, they combine in different ways to produce the outcome. This alternate approach, which utilizes set-analytic techniques, allows for the possibility that there may be several paths to the same outcome, which in turn may differ by race and gender. We illustrate this new approach via a re-analysis of the Bell Curve data. We show that by viewing cases intersectionally and causes conjuncturally, researchers can address nuanced questions about the causal conditions linked to poverty. Our central findings demonstrate dramatic racial differences in the connections between advantages versus disadvantages and the experience versus the avoidance of poverty.Less
The central analytic focus of most policy-oriented social research today is the assessment of the relative importance of competing independent variables in multivariate analyses. A researcher might ask: “Which variable has the strongest impact on life chances: education, test scores, or family background?” In this book we offer an alternative to the conventional approach to the analysis of policy-relevant social data. Instead of asking, "What is the net effect of each independent variable on the outcome?" we ask, "What combinations of causally relevant conditions are consistently linked to the outcome?" Thus, in our approach causal conditions do not compete with each other; rather, they combine in different ways to produce the outcome. This alternate approach, which utilizes set-analytic techniques, allows for the possibility that there may be several paths to the same outcome, which in turn may differ by race and gender. We illustrate this new approach via a re-analysis of the Bell Curve data. We show that by viewing cases intersectionally and causes conjuncturally, researchers can address nuanced questions about the causal conditions linked to poverty. Our central findings demonstrate dramatic racial differences in the connections between advantages versus disadvantages and the experience versus the avoidance of poverty.
Andy Clarno
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226429922
- eISBN:
- 9780226430126
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226430126.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology
In the early 1990s, South Africa and Palestine/Israel began negotiations to end colonial rule. The South African state was democratized and Black South Africans gained formal legal equality. ...
More
In the early 1990s, South Africa and Palestine/Israel began negotiations to end colonial rule. The South African state was democratized and Black South Africans gained formal legal equality. Palestinians, on the other hand, won neither freedom nor equality through the Oslo “peace process.” Israel remains a settler colonial state. Despite these differences, the transitions of the last twenty years have produced similar socio-economic changes in Palestine/Israel and South Africa: growing inequality, racialized poverty, and advanced strategies for securing the powerful and policing the racialized poor. Neoliberal Apartheid explores this paradox through an analysis of settler colonialism and racial capitalism in Palestine/Israel and South Africa after 1994. Based on a decade of research in the Johannesburg and Jerusalem regions, Neoliberal Apartheid presents detailed ethnographic studies of the precariousness of the poor in Alexandra township, the dynamics of colonization and enclosure in Bethlehem, the growth of fortress suburbs and private security in Johannesburg, and the regime of security coordination between the Israeli military and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Scholars and activists increasingly look to South Africa to make sense of conditions in Palestine/Israel. While most studies compare South Africa before 1994 and Palestine/Israel after 1994, Neoliberal Apartheid is the first comparative study of social change in both contexts since the 1990s. It addresses the limitations of liberation in South Africa, highlights the impact of neoliberal restructuring in Palestine/Israel, and argues that a new form of neoliberal apartheid defined by marginalization and securitization has emerged in both states.Less
In the early 1990s, South Africa and Palestine/Israel began negotiations to end colonial rule. The South African state was democratized and Black South Africans gained formal legal equality. Palestinians, on the other hand, won neither freedom nor equality through the Oslo “peace process.” Israel remains a settler colonial state. Despite these differences, the transitions of the last twenty years have produced similar socio-economic changes in Palestine/Israel and South Africa: growing inequality, racialized poverty, and advanced strategies for securing the powerful and policing the racialized poor. Neoliberal Apartheid explores this paradox through an analysis of settler colonialism and racial capitalism in Palestine/Israel and South Africa after 1994. Based on a decade of research in the Johannesburg and Jerusalem regions, Neoliberal Apartheid presents detailed ethnographic studies of the precariousness of the poor in Alexandra township, the dynamics of colonization and enclosure in Bethlehem, the growth of fortress suburbs and private security in Johannesburg, and the regime of security coordination between the Israeli military and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Scholars and activists increasingly look to South Africa to make sense of conditions in Palestine/Israel. While most studies compare South Africa before 1994 and Palestine/Israel after 1994, Neoliberal Apartheid is the first comparative study of social change in both contexts since the 1990s. It addresses the limitations of liberation in South Africa, highlights the impact of neoliberal restructuring in Palestine/Israel, and argues that a new form of neoliberal apartheid defined by marginalization and securitization has emerged in both states.
Jane L. Collins
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226446004
- eISBN:
- 9780226446288
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226446288.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
The Great Recession not only shook Americans’ faith in the economy but also prompted a “citizen’s critique” of our economic institutions. The Politics of Value provides a vivid account of three ...
More
The Great Recession not only shook Americans’ faith in the economy but also prompted a “citizen’s critique” of our economic institutions. The Politics of Value provides a vivid account of three movements that emerged in the wake of the 2008 crisis, each raising profound questions about what matters for the health of our economy. Based on in-depth interviews and observations, The Politics of Value shows how movement activists contest prevailing wisdom about how to measure economic success--and offer their own alternatives. It tells the story of the individuals who created benefit corporations (a new corporate form that requires social responsibility), showing how the new legal form and certification procedures they create challenge the notion that share price is the best measure of business success. It describes the growth of the Slow Money movement that fosters peer-to-peer place-based investment and invents new ways of measuring the significance of dense interconnections and backward and forward linkages in local economies. It tells the story of 2011, when many state legislatures effectively ended collective bargaining rights for public sector workers, and protest movements arose to assert the economic value of public investments and services against the prevalent view that they are a drain on the economy. While providing compelling and intimate accounts of each movement in its own right, The Politics of Value also presents a new framework for thinking about economic value, one grounded in thoughtful evaluation of the social division of labor and the relationship between state, market, and civil society.Less
The Great Recession not only shook Americans’ faith in the economy but also prompted a “citizen’s critique” of our economic institutions. The Politics of Value provides a vivid account of three movements that emerged in the wake of the 2008 crisis, each raising profound questions about what matters for the health of our economy. Based on in-depth interviews and observations, The Politics of Value shows how movement activists contest prevailing wisdom about how to measure economic success--and offer their own alternatives. It tells the story of the individuals who created benefit corporations (a new corporate form that requires social responsibility), showing how the new legal form and certification procedures they create challenge the notion that share price is the best measure of business success. It describes the growth of the Slow Money movement that fosters peer-to-peer place-based investment and invents new ways of measuring the significance of dense interconnections and backward and forward linkages in local economies. It tells the story of 2011, when many state legislatures effectively ended collective bargaining rights for public sector workers, and protest movements arose to assert the economic value of public investments and services against the prevalent view that they are a drain on the economy. While providing compelling and intimate accounts of each movement in its own right, The Politics of Value also presents a new framework for thinking about economic value, one grounded in thoughtful evaluation of the social division of labor and the relationship between state, market, and civil society.
Robin Wagner-Pacifici
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226439648
- eISBN:
- 9780226439815
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226439815.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
What is an Event? describes the complex lived experiences of events-in-the making. It analyzes how events erupt and take off from the ground of ongoing, everyday life and how they then restlessly ...
More
What is an Event? describes the complex lived experiences of events-in-the making. It analyzes how events erupt and take off from the ground of ongoing, everyday life and how they then restlessly move across time and space. Events are central to the way that individuals and societies experience life, as ‘breaking news’ constantly interrupts everyday routines. The book charts fundamental experiences of the events of life that are both inevitable and also, paradoxically, always a surprise: birth, death, love, war. What is an Event? systematically analyzes how events emerge, take shape, gain momentum, flow, and even get bogged down. As an exploration of how events are constructed out of ruptures, it provides a mechanism, termed political semiosis, for understanding eventful forms and flows. This mechanism distinguishes three critical aspects of event-making: representation, demonstration, and the performative. The analyses move from the micro-level of individual life events to the macro-level of historical revolutions, contemporary terrorist attacks and financial crises. What is an Event? develops its analysis through a close reading of a number of cases, both real and imagined, through the reports, personal narratives, paintings, iconic images, political posters, sculptures, and novels they generate and through which they live. The book aims to highlight what is ultimately at stake for individuals and societies in events: identities, loyalties, social relationships, and the very experiences of time and space. The book provides a multi-disciplinary mechanism for identifying and assessing what is at stake in the formations and flows of events.Less
What is an Event? describes the complex lived experiences of events-in-the making. It analyzes how events erupt and take off from the ground of ongoing, everyday life and how they then restlessly move across time and space. Events are central to the way that individuals and societies experience life, as ‘breaking news’ constantly interrupts everyday routines. The book charts fundamental experiences of the events of life that are both inevitable and also, paradoxically, always a surprise: birth, death, love, war. What is an Event? systematically analyzes how events emerge, take shape, gain momentum, flow, and even get bogged down. As an exploration of how events are constructed out of ruptures, it provides a mechanism, termed political semiosis, for understanding eventful forms and flows. This mechanism distinguishes three critical aspects of event-making: representation, demonstration, and the performative. The analyses move from the micro-level of individual life events to the macro-level of historical revolutions, contemporary terrorist attacks and financial crises. What is an Event? develops its analysis through a close reading of a number of cases, both real and imagined, through the reports, personal narratives, paintings, iconic images, political posters, sculptures, and novels they generate and through which they live. The book aims to highlight what is ultimately at stake for individuals and societies in events: identities, loyalties, social relationships, and the very experiences of time and space. The book provides a multi-disciplinary mechanism for identifying and assessing what is at stake in the formations and flows of events.
John Krinsky and Maud Simonet
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226435442
- eISBN:
- 9780226435619
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226435619.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
For New Yorkers, the answer to the question “Who cleans your park?” is complex: Welfare-to-work trainees, volunteers, unionized city workers (working within or outside their official job ...
More
For New Yorkers, the answer to the question “Who cleans your park?” is complex: Welfare-to-work trainees, volunteers, unionized city workers (working within or outside their official job descriptions), summer youth workers, workers for private, nonprofit parks “conservancies,” staff of companies working under contract, and people sentenced to community service all perform routine maintenance in parks. With public services no longer being provided primarily by public workers, the state and the nature of public work have to be reevaluated. Based on four years of fieldwork in New York City parks and on nearly 140 interviews with workers inside and outside the Parks Department, and with others involved in the parks maintenance system, this book is an investigation of the conditions under which New York City’s parks are maintained, of changing labor relations and contracts of the parks’ cleaners, and of their relations at the workplace with each other. It argues that we cannot understand these unless we also try to understand the ways in which the city’s institutions have changed—with the Parks Department sometimes at the avant-garde. We must also, in turn, comprehend how and why even more encompassing changes in urban political economy shape these institutional changes. In taking this view of parks maintenance work, the book moves stepwise up levels of analysis, from an analysis of labor contracts and workplaces through organizations and their legitimation strategies, and up to larger public policies and to an understanding of the State that, in its diverse composition, produces them.Less
For New Yorkers, the answer to the question “Who cleans your park?” is complex: Welfare-to-work trainees, volunteers, unionized city workers (working within or outside their official job descriptions), summer youth workers, workers for private, nonprofit parks “conservancies,” staff of companies working under contract, and people sentenced to community service all perform routine maintenance in parks. With public services no longer being provided primarily by public workers, the state and the nature of public work have to be reevaluated. Based on four years of fieldwork in New York City parks and on nearly 140 interviews with workers inside and outside the Parks Department, and with others involved in the parks maintenance system, this book is an investigation of the conditions under which New York City’s parks are maintained, of changing labor relations and contracts of the parks’ cleaners, and of their relations at the workplace with each other. It argues that we cannot understand these unless we also try to understand the ways in which the city’s institutions have changed—with the Parks Department sometimes at the avant-garde. We must also, in turn, comprehend how and why even more encompassing changes in urban political economy shape these institutional changes. In taking this view of parks maintenance work, the book moves stepwise up levels of analysis, from an analysis of labor contracts and workplaces through organizations and their legitimation strategies, and up to larger public policies and to an understanding of the State that, in its diverse composition, produces them.
Lineages of Despotism and Development
Citizens, Cops, and Power
The Institutional Context of Population Change
The Italian Way
News at Work
Authors of the Storm
Politics and Partnerships
The Renewal of Generosity
Franchising Dreams
