Abstract Scholars and practitioners position health disparities research as an important tool for redressing race-based inequities and re-conceptualizing racialized health outcomes in non-essentialist terms. Given this context, we explore a peculiar phenomenon, which is the circulation of such research among white nationalists. We discover that white nationalists incorporate and respond to health disparities research not solely to defend racist and essentialist reasoning, but also to project a discourse that indicts the science establishment for ostensibly incorporating liberal politics, corrupting inquiry, and obfuscating understanding of biology in the name of anti-racism or social constructionism. We term this practice “lay agnotology,” as it involves white nationalists capitalizing on their role as non-specialists to charge the health disparities field and its expert contributors with an alleged set of institutionalized biases that produce ignorance about the “truth” of race. We connect this finding to the literature on racialized ignorance, as it demonstrates how stories about the institutional nature of science can be as central to myth-making about race as stories about the scientific nature of people.
{"title":"Beyond Biological Essentialism: White Nationalism, Health Disparities Data, and the Cultivation of Lay Agnotology","authors":"Kushan Dasgupta, Nicole Iturriaga, Aaron Panofsky","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Scholars and practitioners position health disparities research as an important tool for redressing race-based inequities and re-conceptualizing racialized health outcomes in non-essentialist terms. Given this context, we explore a peculiar phenomenon, which is the circulation of such research among white nationalists. We discover that white nationalists incorporate and respond to health disparities research not solely to defend racist and essentialist reasoning, but also to project a discourse that indicts the science establishment for ostensibly incorporating liberal politics, corrupting inquiry, and obfuscating understanding of biology in the name of anti-racism or social constructionism. We term this practice “lay agnotology,” as it involves white nationalists capitalizing on their role as non-specialists to charge the health disparities field and its expert contributors with an alleged set of institutionalized biases that produce ignorance about the “truth” of race. We connect this finding to the literature on racialized ignorance, as it demonstrates how stories about the institutional nature of science can be as central to myth-making about race as stories about the scientific nature of people.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135677423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dominant explanations for variation in performance between state organizations focus on macro-level factors, such as political support, and meso-level factors, such as civil service capacity. However, these factors cannot account for why different groups within the same state organization perform better than others. I leverage a comparative analysis of state officials working under particularly challenging circumstances—task forces of prosecutors investigating high-level corruption in Brazil—to develop a framework to explain how small-group communication and decision-making processes affect performance. Drawing on document analysis and 124 original interviews with federal investigators, I argue that, even when we account for macro- and meso-level factors, prosecutors performed better when they cultivated frequent communication and collective decision-making. This study shows the mechanisms through which these processes affect performance: while frequent communication enables group members to generate knowledge connections that help them make unforeseen discoveries, collective decision-making helps build defensive alignment, which allows members to protect the group from external pressures and manage internal tensions.
{"title":"Communication and Decision-Making Processes: Group-level Determinants of State Performance","authors":"Luiz Vilaça","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Dominant explanations for variation in performance between state organizations focus on macro-level factors, such as political support, and meso-level factors, such as civil service capacity. However, these factors cannot account for why different groups within the same state organization perform better than others. I leverage a comparative analysis of state officials working under particularly challenging circumstances—task forces of prosecutors investigating high-level corruption in Brazil—to develop a framework to explain how small-group communication and decision-making processes affect performance. Drawing on document analysis and 124 original interviews with federal investigators, I argue that, even when we account for macro- and meso-level factors, prosecutors performed better when they cultivated frequent communication and collective decision-making. This study shows the mechanisms through which these processes affect performance: while frequent communication enables group members to generate knowledge connections that help them make unforeseen discoveries, collective decision-making helps build defensive alignment, which allows members to protect the group from external pressures and manage internal tensions.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48297385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
How do temporal understandings shape the construction of social problems and the work of addressing them? This article takes up a social problem with an explicit time dimension – severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) – to advocate for a focus on time in the analysis of social problems. Drawing on interviews with community mental health workers (n=100) and observations of a police department and a psychiatric emergency department, I show how the work of these organizations yields two distinct sociotemporal orders – what I deem pursuing quick closure for police and rushing to wait for emergency hospital staff. The sociotemporal orders influence how these workers construct and approach the problem of SPMI. While these sociotemporal orders enable coordination within organizations, they produce temporal incongruence across organizations, which leads to conflict and undermines wider system coordination. Because police and hospital staff are not on the same time, their organizations are not on the same page. This article underscores the extent to which local constructions of social problems carry temporal assumptions that have practical effects on the work of ameliorating such problems. I conclude by discussing how this temporal analysis provides insight into the operation of power in community mental health.
{"title":"How Long Does Madness Take? Time and the Construction of Mental Illness in Community Mental Health Work","authors":"Owen Whooley","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 How do temporal understandings shape the construction of social problems and the work of addressing them? This article takes up a social problem with an explicit time dimension – severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) – to advocate for a focus on time in the analysis of social problems. Drawing on interviews with community mental health workers (n=100) and observations of a police department and a psychiatric emergency department, I show how the work of these organizations yields two distinct sociotemporal orders – what I deem pursuing quick closure for police and rushing to wait for emergency hospital staff. The sociotemporal orders influence how these workers construct and approach the problem of SPMI. While these sociotemporal orders enable coordination within organizations, they produce temporal incongruence across organizations, which leads to conflict and undermines wider system coordination. Because police and hospital staff are not on the same time, their organizations are not on the same page. This article underscores the extent to which local constructions of social problems carry temporal assumptions that have practical effects on the work of ameliorating such problems. I conclude by discussing how this temporal analysis provides insight into the operation of power in community mental health.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43334489","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sociologists of U.S. higher education have emphasized the sector’s historical expansion, which has limited the attention given to the dynamics of organizational closure. Drawing on an original dataset comprising colleges and universities across all sectors and tiers, we show how general expansion is tempered by 354 organizational closures between 1944 and 2018. Closures cluster in time between 1964 and 1974 and after 2008 reflecting shifting causes of and responses to legitimacy loss. Analyses provide support for hypotheses drawn from institutional theory, and, while controlling for a number of variables, identify two main causes of college mortality. These are demographic exclusivity, i.e., women’s and (historically) Black college status, and accreditation. Mortality of exclusionary institutions is further associated with social activism and the system-wide diffusion of related group-differentiated study programs, particularly in the period 1944–1979. By contrast, accreditation becomes more important in the post-1980 period.
{"title":"Live and (Let) Die – Shifting Legitimacies and Organizational Mortality in American Higher Education, 1944–2018","authors":"Mike Zapp, Clarissa Dahmen","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spad001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Sociologists of U.S. higher education have emphasized the sector’s historical expansion, which has limited the attention given to the dynamics of organizational closure. Drawing on an original dataset comprising colleges and universities across all sectors and tiers, we show how general expansion is tempered by 354 organizational closures between 1944 and 2018. Closures cluster in time between 1964 and 1974 and after 2008 reflecting shifting causes of and responses to legitimacy loss. Analyses provide support for hypotheses drawn from institutional theory, and, while controlling for a number of variables, identify two main causes of college mortality. These are demographic exclusivity, i.e., women’s and (historically) Black college status, and accreditation. Mortality of exclusionary institutions is further associated with social activism and the system-wide diffusion of related group-differentiated study programs, particularly in the period 1944–1979. By contrast, accreditation becomes more important in the post-1980 period.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61426879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-01Epub Date: 2021-08-17DOI: 10.1093/socpro/spab035
Danya E Keene, Alana Rosenberg, Penelope Schlesinger, Shannon Whittaker, Linda Niccolai, Kim M Blankenship
In 2016, only one in five eligible U.S. households received rental assistance and waiting lists averaged two years nationally. The gap between available rental assistance and need requires systems to allocate this scarce resource. The way potential rental assistance recipients experience and navigate these systems is likely to shape who ultimately receives assistance. We draw on repeated qualitative interviews (N=238) with low-income New Haven residents (N=54) to examine how participants understand and navigate rental assistance applications and waiting lists. Participants encountered multiple challenges in their search for rental assistance. They described an opaque and complex application and waiting process requiring significant knowledge to navigate. They also described considerable labor associated with monitoring waiting lists, a challenge made more difficult for some by their lack of a stable address. Additionally, participants described significant labor and knowledge required to strategically navigate prioritization systems that often required them to advocate for their deservingness of scarce housing resources. Our findings suggest that the allocation of rental assistance through complex processes that depend on applicant knowledge, labor, and advocacy may create barriers to housing, particularly for more vulnerable and marginalized housing seekers.
{"title":"\"The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease\": Rental Assistance Applicants' Quests for a Rationed and Scarce Resource.","authors":"Danya E Keene, Alana Rosenberg, Penelope Schlesinger, Shannon Whittaker, Linda Niccolai, Kim M Blankenship","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spab035","DOIUrl":"10.1093/socpro/spab035","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In 2016, only one in five eligible U.S. households received rental assistance and waiting lists averaged two years nationally. The gap between available rental assistance and need requires systems to allocate this scarce resource. The way potential rental assistance recipients experience and navigate these systems is likely to shape who ultimately receives assistance. We draw on repeated qualitative interviews (N=238) with low-income New Haven residents (N=54) to examine how participants understand and navigate rental assistance applications and waiting lists. Participants encountered multiple challenges in their search for rental assistance. They described an opaque and complex application and waiting process requiring significant knowledge to navigate. They also described considerable labor associated with monitoring waiting lists, a challenge made more difficult for some by their lack of a stable address. Additionally, participants described significant labor and knowledge required to strategically navigate prioritization systems that often required them to advocate for their deservingness of scarce housing resources. Our findings suggest that the allocation of rental assistance through complex processes that depend on applicant knowledge, labor, and advocacy may create barriers to housing, particularly for more vulnerable and marginalized housing seekers.</p>","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":"70 1","pages":"203-218"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9928171/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9522201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article uses ethnographic and interview methods to compare two international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) implementing public health programs in Cambodia. Both INGOs formally adopt the same policy, developing state partnership, but implement this policy very differently. One INGO successfully aligns the policy with on-the-ground practice, while the other organization is unable and unwilling to successfully cooperate with local state officials. I argue that previous research on international development organizations, policy convergence, and divergence in implementation needs to be expanded to analytically specify the process of policy alignment and misalignment. Drawing on the inhabited institutions perspective, I illustrate how global policies are made meaningful in intra- and inter-organizational interactions through a two-step process: (1) operationalization in which the broad policy is translated into specific programming and (2) implementation in which local actors do or do not align the policy with actual practice in Cambodia. This article offers a method for systematically theorizing policy alignment or misalignment with practice in international organizations.
{"title":"To Align or Misalign?: Interpreting INGO-State Partnership in Cambodia","authors":"Mary-Collier Wilks","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spac059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spac059","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article uses ethnographic and interview methods to compare two international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) implementing public health programs in Cambodia. Both INGOs formally adopt the same policy, developing state partnership, but implement this policy very differently. One INGO successfully aligns the policy with on-the-ground practice, while the other organization is unable and unwilling to successfully cooperate with local state officials. I argue that previous research on international development organizations, policy convergence, and divergence in implementation needs to be expanded to analytically specify the process of policy alignment and misalignment. Drawing on the inhabited institutions perspective, I illustrate how global policies are made meaningful in intra- and inter-organizational interactions through a two-step process: (1) operationalization in which the broad policy is translated into specific programming and (2) implementation in which local actors do or do not align the policy with actual practice in Cambodia. This article offers a method for systematically theorizing policy alignment or misalignment with practice in international organizations.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136296490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The recent populist wave has raised questions about the implications of populism for democracy. Some scholars express optimism that populism may be a source of democratic revitalization, bringing about sweeping changes in accordance with the majority will. More often, populism is viewed as a threat to liberal democracy, combining calls for radical change with disdain for core democratic institutions and norms. We consider the possibility that these outcomes may not be mutually exclusive and develop a conceptual typology for understanding the consequences of populist rule. We then use cross-national panel fixed-effects models to analyze the effects of populist leadership between 1990 and 2017. We first examine whether populists have economic and social effects in line with their core aspirations. Left-wing populists are quite effective at implementing their agenda: they reduce income inequality, regulate markets, and incorporate marginalized groups. Right-wing populists are also fairly impactful: for instance, they raise tariffs, cut taxes, and restrict the rights of women and gay people. However, populists of all stripes are associated with the rapid and severe erosion of liberal democratic institutions. Populists, we conclude, often destroy democracy in the name of the people.
{"title":"Destroying Democracy for the People: The Economic, Social, and Political Consequences of Populist Rule, 1990 to 2017","authors":"W. Cole, Evan Schofer","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spac060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spac060","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The recent populist wave has raised questions about the implications of populism for democracy. Some scholars express optimism that populism may be a source of democratic revitalization, bringing about sweeping changes in accordance with the majority will. More often, populism is viewed as a threat to liberal democracy, combining calls for radical change with disdain for core democratic institutions and norms. We consider the possibility that these outcomes may not be mutually exclusive and develop a conceptual typology for understanding the consequences of populist rule. We then use cross-national panel fixed-effects models to analyze the effects of populist leadership between 1990 and 2017. We first examine whether populists have economic and social effects in line with their core aspirations. Left-wing populists are quite effective at implementing their agenda: they reduce income inequality, regulate markets, and incorporate marginalized groups. Right-wing populists are also fairly impactful: for instance, they raise tariffs, cut taxes, and restrict the rights of women and gay people. However, populists of all stripes are associated with the rapid and severe erosion of liberal democratic institutions. Populists, we conclude, often destroy democracy in the name of the people.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45857674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This interdisciplinary study applies Erving Goffman’s sociological theory of the total institution and the psychological framework of institutional betrayal to better understand how ongoing gendered and racialized power structures are maintained in Canadian policing. An intersectional analysis of 116 in-depth interviews with police officers from 31 police services and an on-line, national survey (N = 727) reveal that steep institutional requirements of assimilation and conformity, combined with various, commonly reported mechanisms of institutional betrayal effectively silenced, discredited, and/or minimized reports of sexual and gender and/or race-based workplace abuse. This led to significantly negative impacts on racialized women, men, and white women’s mental health, retention rates, and willingness to report workplace abuse. Overall, this study found the ongoing presence of systemic racism and sexism within police services across Canada, institutional knowledge of their existence, coordinated efforts to contain complaints, and ongoing resistance to meaningful change.
{"title":"“When They Hand You Your Uniform, They Forget to Say, ‘Hand Me Your Soul’”: Incidents and Impacts of Institutional Betrayal in Canadian Police Services","authors":"Lesley J Bikos","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spac062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spac062","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This interdisciplinary study applies Erving Goffman’s sociological theory of the total institution and the psychological framework of institutional betrayal to better understand how ongoing gendered and racialized power structures are maintained in Canadian policing. An intersectional analysis of 116 in-depth interviews with police officers from 31 police services and an on-line, national survey (N = 727) reveal that steep institutional requirements of assimilation and conformity, combined with various, commonly reported mechanisms of institutional betrayal effectively silenced, discredited, and/or minimized reports of sexual and gender and/or race-based workplace abuse. This led to significantly negative impacts on racialized women, men, and white women’s mental health, retention rates, and willingness to report workplace abuse. Overall, this study found the ongoing presence of systemic racism and sexism within police services across Canada, institutional knowledge of their existence, coordinated efforts to contain complaints, and ongoing resistance to meaningful change.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":"81 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136297588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Social movements pushed to reconceptualize intimate partner violence (IPV) as a social problem deserving of intervention rather than a private family matter. However, little work has examined which interventions the public is likely to support. How and where do personal politics affect perceptions of and responses to a social problem? To address these questions, 739 participants read a victim’s narrative from a court case and indicated their concern for the victim and support for issuing a protection order, prohibiting the abuser from owning a gun, or the victim owning a gun to protect herself. Concern for the victim and support for issuing a protection order was widespread, regardless of political leaning, with minor variations driven by role-taking and attitudes towards IPV. Similarly, support for the victim receiving a protection order was high, with political ideology and political affiliation having no direct effects. While concern increased support for each intervention, it held less explanatory power for gun-related interventions. Instead, political ideology and affiliation shaped support for disarming the abuser or arming the victim. Support for these interventions seemed to filter through a political lens. Thus, one’s personal politics drive divergent intervention attitudes, even when concern for a social problem is shared.
{"title":"Polarized Support for Intimate Partner Violence Gun-Related Interventions","authors":"Anne Groggel","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spac063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spac063","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Social movements pushed to reconceptualize intimate partner violence (IPV) as a social problem deserving of intervention rather than a private family matter. However, little work has examined which interventions the public is likely to support. How and where do personal politics affect perceptions of and responses to a social problem? To address these questions, 739 participants read a victim’s narrative from a court case and indicated their concern for the victim and support for issuing a protection order, prohibiting the abuser from owning a gun, or the victim owning a gun to protect herself. Concern for the victim and support for issuing a protection order was widespread, regardless of political leaning, with minor variations driven by role-taking and attitudes towards IPV. Similarly, support for the victim receiving a protection order was high, with political ideology and political affiliation having no direct effects. While concern increased support for each intervention, it held less explanatory power for gun-related interventions. Instead, political ideology and affiliation shaped support for disarming the abuser or arming the victim. Support for these interventions seemed to filter through a political lens. Thus, one’s personal politics drive divergent intervention attitudes, even when concern for a social problem is shared.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134969539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Eviction filing rates have declined in many large cities in the United States. Existing scholarship on eviction, which focuses on discrete tenant-landlord relationships, has few explanations for this decline. I consider whether community organizing by nonprofit organizations shapes the social organization of communities and causes landlords to file fewer eviction filings. In cities where tenant and anti-poverty organizing has become common, community-oriented nonprofit organizations advocate for disadvantaged communities and help residents avoid poverty. Community organizing has rarely been studied as a predictor of housing security among low-income tenants, despite studies of how community organizing shapes the use of property in wealthy neighborhoods. I estimate the causal effect of community organizations on eviction filing rates between 2000 and 2016 using longitudinal data and a strategy to account for the endogeneity of nonprofits and eviction. Evidence from year-to-year models in 75 large cities spanning sixteen years estimate that an addition of ten community nonprofits in a city of 100,000 residents is associated with a ten percent reduction in eviction filing. This effect is comparable to the effect of community organizations on murder and is roughly a third of the association between eviction and concentrated disadvantage.
{"title":"The Effect of Community Organizing on Landlords’ Use of Eviction Filing: Evidence from U.S. Cities","authors":"Andrew Messamore","doi":"10.1093/socpro/spac061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spac061","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Eviction filing rates have declined in many large cities in the United States. Existing scholarship on eviction, which focuses on discrete tenant-landlord relationships, has few explanations for this decline. I consider whether community organizing by nonprofit organizations shapes the social organization of communities and causes landlords to file fewer eviction filings. In cities where tenant and anti-poverty organizing has become common, community-oriented nonprofit organizations advocate for disadvantaged communities and help residents avoid poverty. Community organizing has rarely been studied as a predictor of housing security among low-income tenants, despite studies of how community organizing shapes the use of property in wealthy neighborhoods. I estimate the causal effect of community organizations on eviction filing rates between 2000 and 2016 using longitudinal data and a strategy to account for the endogeneity of nonprofits and eviction. Evidence from year-to-year models in 75 large cities spanning sixteen years estimate that an addition of ten community nonprofits in a city of 100,000 residents is associated with a ten percent reduction in eviction filing. This effect is comparable to the effect of community organizations on murder and is roughly a third of the association between eviction and concentrated disadvantage.","PeriodicalId":48307,"journal":{"name":"Social Problems","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135500285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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