Pub Date : 2021-12-01DOI: 10.1177/00031224211049205
Nathan Wilmers, Clem Aeppli
The two main axes of inequality in the U.S. labor market—occupation and workplace—have increasingly consolidated. In 1999, the largest share of employment at high-paying workplaces was blue-collar production workers, but by 2017 it was managers and professionals. As such, workers benefiting from a high-paying workplace are increasingly those who already benefit from membership in a high-paying occupation. Drawing on occupation-by-workplace data, we show that up to two-thirds of the rise in wage inequality since 1999 can be accounted for not by occupation or workplace inequality alone, but by this increased consolidation. Consolidation is not primarily due to outsourcing or to occupations shifting across a fixed set of workplaces. Instead, consolidation has resulted from new bases of workplace pay premiums. Workplace premiums associated with teams of professionals have increased, while premiums for previously high-paid blue-collar workers have been cut. Yet the largest source of consolidation is bifurcation in the social sector, whereby some previously low-paying but high-professional share workplaces, like hospitals and schools, have deskilled their jobs, while others have raised pay. Broadly, the results demonstrate an understudied way that organizations affect wage inequality: not by directly increasing variability in workplace or occupation premiums, but by consolidating these two sources of inequality.
{"title":"Consolidated Advantage: New Organizational Dynamics of Wage Inequality","authors":"Nathan Wilmers, Clem Aeppli","doi":"10.1177/00031224211049205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211049205","url":null,"abstract":"The two main axes of inequality in the U.S. labor market—occupation and workplace—have increasingly consolidated. In 1999, the largest share of employment at high-paying workplaces was blue-collar production workers, but by 2017 it was managers and professionals. As such, workers benefiting from a high-paying workplace are increasingly those who already benefit from membership in a high-paying occupation. Drawing on occupation-by-workplace data, we show that up to two-thirds of the rise in wage inequality since 1999 can be accounted for not by occupation or workplace inequality alone, but by this increased consolidation. Consolidation is not primarily due to outsourcing or to occupations shifting across a fixed set of workplaces. Instead, consolidation has resulted from new bases of workplace pay premiums. Workplace premiums associated with teams of professionals have increased, while premiums for previously high-paid blue-collar workers have been cut. Yet the largest source of consolidation is bifurcation in the social sector, whereby some previously low-paying but high-professional share workplaces, like hospitals and schools, have deskilled their jobs, while others have raised pay. Broadly, the results demonstrate an understudied way that organizations affect wage inequality: not by directly increasing variability in workplace or occupation premiums, but by consolidating these two sources of inequality.","PeriodicalId":48461,"journal":{"name":"American Sociological Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43713182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-29DOI: 10.1177/00031224211056267
R. Heiberger, Sebastian Munoz-Najar Galvez, Daniel A. McFarland
We investigate how sociology students garner recognition from niche field audiences through specialization. Our dataset comprises over 80,000 sociology-related dissertations completed at U.S. universities, as well as data on graduates’ pursuant publications. We analyze different facets of how students specialize—topic choice, focus, novelty, and consistency. To measure specialization types within a consistent methodological frame, we utilize structural topic modeling. These measures capture specialization strategies used at an early career stage. We connect them to a crucial long-term outcome in academia: becoming an advisor. Event-history models reveal that specific topic choices and novel combinations exhibit a positive influence, whereas focused theses make no substantial difference. In particular, theses related to the cultural turn, methods, or race are tied to academic careers that lead to mentorship. Thematic consistency of students’ publication track also has a strong positive effect on the chances of becoming an advisor. Yet, there are diminishing returns to consistency for highly productive scholars, adding important nuance to the well-known imperative of publish or perish in academic careers.
{"title":"Facets of Specialization and Its Relation to Career Success: An Analysis of U.S. Sociology, 1980 to 2015","authors":"R. Heiberger, Sebastian Munoz-Najar Galvez, Daniel A. McFarland","doi":"10.1177/00031224211056267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211056267","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate how sociology students garner recognition from niche field audiences through specialization. Our dataset comprises over 80,000 sociology-related dissertations completed at U.S. universities, as well as data on graduates’ pursuant publications. We analyze different facets of how students specialize—topic choice, focus, novelty, and consistency. To measure specialization types within a consistent methodological frame, we utilize structural topic modeling. These measures capture specialization strategies used at an early career stage. We connect them to a crucial long-term outcome in academia: becoming an advisor. Event-history models reveal that specific topic choices and novel combinations exhibit a positive influence, whereas focused theses make no substantial difference. In particular, theses related to the cultural turn, methods, or race are tied to academic careers that lead to mentorship. Thematic consistency of students’ publication track also has a strong positive effect on the chances of becoming an advisor. Yet, there are diminishing returns to consistency for highly productive scholars, adding important nuance to the well-known imperative of publish or perish in academic careers.","PeriodicalId":48461,"journal":{"name":"American Sociological Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44900631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-29DOI: 10.1177/00031224211056966
Susan Olzak
An underlying premise of democratic politics is that protest can be an effective form of civic engagement that shapes policy changes desired by marginalized groups. But it is not certain that this premise holds up under scrutiny. This article presents a three-part argument that protest (1) signals the salience of a movement’s focal issue and expands awareness that an issue is a social problem requiring a solution, (2) empowers residents in disadvantaged communities and raises a sense of community cohesion, which together (3) raise costs and exert pressure on elites to make concessions. The empirical analysis examines the likelihood that a city will establish a civilian review board (CRB). It then compares the effects of protest and CRB presence on counts of officer-involved fatalities by race and ethnicity. Two main hypotheses about the effect of protest are supported: cities with more protest against police brutality are significantly more likely to establish a CRB, and protest against police brutality reduces officer-involved fatalities for African American and Latino (but not for White) individuals. However, the establishment of CRBs does not reduce fatalities, as some have hoped. Nonetheless, mobilizing against police brutality matters, even in the absence of civilian review boards.
{"title":"Does Protest Against Police Violence Matter? Evidence from U.S. Cities, 1990 through 2019","authors":"Susan Olzak","doi":"10.1177/00031224211056966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211056966","url":null,"abstract":"An underlying premise of democratic politics is that protest can be an effective form of civic engagement that shapes policy changes desired by marginalized groups. But it is not certain that this premise holds up under scrutiny. This article presents a three-part argument that protest (1) signals the salience of a movement’s focal issue and expands awareness that an issue is a social problem requiring a solution, (2) empowers residents in disadvantaged communities and raises a sense of community cohesion, which together (3) raise costs and exert pressure on elites to make concessions. The empirical analysis examines the likelihood that a city will establish a civilian review board (CRB). It then compares the effects of protest and CRB presence on counts of officer-involved fatalities by race and ethnicity. Two main hypotheses about the effect of protest are supported: cities with more protest against police brutality are significantly more likely to establish a CRB, and protest against police brutality reduces officer-involved fatalities for African American and Latino (but not for White) individuals. However, the establishment of CRBs does not reduce fatalities, as some have hoped. Nonetheless, mobilizing against police brutality matters, even in the absence of civilian review boards.","PeriodicalId":48461,"journal":{"name":"American Sociological Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48256682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-26DOI: 10.1177/00031224221080960
Blaine G. Robbins, A. Dechter, Sabino Kornrich
This article seeks to experimentally evaluate the thesis that marriage is deinstitutionalized in the United States. To do so, we map the character of the norm about whether different-sex couples ought to marry, and we identify the extent to which the norm is strong or weak along four dimensions: polarity, whether the norm is prescriptive, proscriptive, bipolar (both prescriptive and proscriptive), or nonexistent; conditionality, whether the norm holds under all circumstances; intensity, the degree to which individuals subscribe to the norm; and consensus, the extent to which individuals share the norm. Results of a factorial survey experiment administered to a disproportionate stratified random sample of U.S. adults (N = 1,823) indicate that the norm to marry is weak: it is largely bipolar, conditional, and of low-to-moderate intensity, with disagreement over the norm as well as the circumstances demarcating the norm. While the norm to marry is different for men and women and for Black and White respondents, the amount of disagreement (or lack of consensus) within groups is comparable between groups. We find no significant differences across socioeconomic status (education, income, and occupational class). Overall, our findings support key claims of the deinstitutionalization of marriage thesis.
{"title":"Assessing the Deinstitutionalization of Marriage Thesis: An Experimental Test","authors":"Blaine G. Robbins, A. Dechter, Sabino Kornrich","doi":"10.1177/00031224221080960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224221080960","url":null,"abstract":"This article seeks to experimentally evaluate the thesis that marriage is deinstitutionalized in the United States. To do so, we map the character of the norm about whether different-sex couples ought to marry, and we identify the extent to which the norm is strong or weak along four dimensions: polarity, whether the norm is prescriptive, proscriptive, bipolar (both prescriptive and proscriptive), or nonexistent; conditionality, whether the norm holds under all circumstances; intensity, the degree to which individuals subscribe to the norm; and consensus, the extent to which individuals share the norm. Results of a factorial survey experiment administered to a disproportionate stratified random sample of U.S. adults (N = 1,823) indicate that the norm to marry is weak: it is largely bipolar, conditional, and of low-to-moderate intensity, with disagreement over the norm as well as the circumstances demarcating the norm. While the norm to marry is different for men and women and for Black and White respondents, the amount of disagreement (or lack of consensus) within groups is comparable between groups. We find no significant differences across socioeconomic status (education, income, and occupational class). Overall, our findings support key claims of the deinstitutionalization of marriage thesis.","PeriodicalId":48461,"journal":{"name":"American Sociological Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47675777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-19DOI: 10.1177/00031224211056954
Daniel DellaPosta, Marjan Davoodi
Goldberg and Stein (2018) present an innovative agent-based computational model that shows how cultural associations can diffuse through superficial interpersonal interactions. They counterintuitively argue that segmented networks—for example, those resembling “small worlds” with dense local clustering—inhibit rather than promote cultural diffusion. This finding is notable because it breaks with a long line of influential research showing that local clustering is crucial to diffusion in cases where behaviors and practices—including cultural beliefs—require multiple reinforcements in order to spread. Replicating Goldberg and Stein’s model, we find this result only holds consistently in settings approximating small-group interactions. In models with larger populations, and where cultural associations require repeated reinforcement through social observation, locally clustered small-world networks can promote global cultural variation as well as globally-connected networks, and sometimes do so better. The complex interactions among parameters that lead to this reversal in Goldberg and Stein’s model are instructive for theoretical models of interpersonal influence.
{"title":"The Complexity of Associative Diffusion: Reassessing the Relationship between Network Structure and Cultural Variation","authors":"Daniel DellaPosta, Marjan Davoodi","doi":"10.1177/00031224211056954","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211056954","url":null,"abstract":"Goldberg and Stein (2018) present an innovative agent-based computational model that shows how cultural associations can diffuse through superficial interpersonal interactions. They counterintuitively argue that segmented networks—for example, those resembling “small worlds” with dense local clustering—inhibit rather than promote cultural diffusion. This finding is notable because it breaks with a long line of influential research showing that local clustering is crucial to diffusion in cases where behaviors and practices—including cultural beliefs—require multiple reinforcements in order to spread. Replicating Goldberg and Stein’s model, we find this result only holds consistently in settings approximating small-group interactions. In models with larger populations, and where cultural associations require repeated reinforcement through social observation, locally clustered small-world networks can promote global cultural variation as well as globally-connected networks, and sometimes do so better. The complex interactions among parameters that lead to this reversal in Goldberg and Stein’s model are instructive for theoretical models of interpersonal influence.","PeriodicalId":48461,"journal":{"name":"American Sociological Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48385187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-19DOI: 10.1177/00031224211057150
Amir Goldberg
In their insightful comment, DellaPosta and Davoodi argue that our finding (Goldberg and Stein 2018) that segmented networks inhibit cultural differentiation does not generalize to large networks. However, their demonstration rests on an incorrect implementation of the preference updating process in the associative diffusion model. We show that once this discrepancy is corrected, cultural differentiation is more pronounced in fully connected networks, irrespective of network size and even under extreme assumptions about cognitive decay. We use this as an opportunity to discuss the associative diffusion model’s assumptions and scope conditions, as well as to critically reassess prevailing contagion-based diffusion models.
在他们富有洞察力的评论中，DellaPosta和Davoodi认为，我们的发现(Goldberg and Stein 2018)，即分段网络抑制文化差异，并不能推广到大型网络。然而，他们的论证依赖于联想扩散模型中偏好更新过程的错误实现。我们表明，一旦这种差异得到纠正，文化差异在完全连接的网络中更加明显，无论网络大小如何，甚至在认知衰退的极端假设下也是如此。我们借此机会讨论关联扩散模型的假设和范围条件，以及批判性地重新评估流行的基于传染的扩散模型。
{"title":"Associative Diffusion and the Pitfalls of Structural Reductionism","authors":"Amir Goldberg","doi":"10.1177/00031224211057150","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211057150","url":null,"abstract":"In their insightful comment, DellaPosta and Davoodi argue that our finding (Goldberg and Stein 2018) that segmented networks inhibit cultural differentiation does not generalize to large networks. However, their demonstration rests on an incorrect implementation of the preference updating process in the associative diffusion model. We show that once this discrepancy is corrected, cultural differentiation is more pronounced in fully connected networks, irrespective of network size and even under extreme assumptions about cognitive decay. We use this as an opportunity to discuss the associative diffusion model’s assumptions and scope conditions, as well as to critically reassess prevailing contagion-based diffusion models.","PeriodicalId":48461,"journal":{"name":"American Sociological Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48183465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-01DOI: 10.1177/00031224211049188
Giampiero Passaretta, J. Skopek
Does schooling affect socioeconomic inequality in educational achievement? Earlier studies based on seasonal comparisons suggest schooling can equalize social gaps in learning. Yet recent replication studies have given rise to skepticism about the validity of older findings. We shed new light on the debate by estimating the causal effect of 1st-grade schooling on achievement inequality by socioeconomic family background in Germany. We elaborate a differential exposure approach that estimates the effect of exposure to 1st-grade schooling by exploiting (conditionally) random variation in test dates and birth dates for children who entered school on the same calendar day. We use recent data from the German NEPS to test school-exposure effects for a series of learning domains. Findings clearly indicate that 1st-grade schooling increases children’s learning in all domains. However, we do not find any evidence that these schooling effects differ by children’s socioeconomic background. We conclude that, although all children gain from schooling, schooling has no consequences for social inequality in learning. We discuss the relevance of our findings for sociological knowledge on the role of schooling in the process of stratification and highlight how our approach complements seasonal comparison studies.
{"title":"Does Schooling Decrease Socioeconomic Inequality in Early Achievement? A Differential Exposure Approach","authors":"Giampiero Passaretta, J. Skopek","doi":"10.1177/00031224211049188","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211049188","url":null,"abstract":"Does schooling affect socioeconomic inequality in educational achievement? Earlier studies based on seasonal comparisons suggest schooling can equalize social gaps in learning. Yet recent replication studies have given rise to skepticism about the validity of older findings. We shed new light on the debate by estimating the causal effect of 1st-grade schooling on achievement inequality by socioeconomic family background in Germany. We elaborate a differential exposure approach that estimates the effect of exposure to 1st-grade schooling by exploiting (conditionally) random variation in test dates and birth dates for children who entered school on the same calendar day. We use recent data from the German NEPS to test school-exposure effects for a series of learning domains. Findings clearly indicate that 1st-grade schooling increases children’s learning in all domains. However, we do not find any evidence that these schooling effects differ by children’s socioeconomic background. We conclude that, although all children gain from schooling, schooling has no consequences for social inequality in learning. We discuss the relevance of our findings for sociological knowledge on the role of schooling in the process of stratification and highlight how our approach complements seasonal comparison studies.","PeriodicalId":48461,"journal":{"name":"American Sociological Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41467752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.1177/00031224211042326
Jane Furey
To understand the relative advantage of a bachelor’s degree, we must consider the question: relative to whom? Using the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Horowitz (2018) argues that educational expansion between 1971 and 2010 decreased college graduates’ skill usage and eroded their advantages relative to individuals without a postsecondary degree. However, the comparison group—individuals without a postsecondary degree—is inconsistently defined over time due to a change to the CPS in 1992; this group also includes individuals without a high school degree, high school graduates, and people with some college but no degree—three groups that have heterogeneous labor market experiences. I replicate Horowitz’s analysis and repeat it using two alternative education categorization schemes that address these limitations. I show that college graduates’ absolute and relative advantages in skill usage depend substantially on how we measure education. Notably, I find that college graduates maintain persistent relative advantages in skill usage when compared to high school graduates and individuals with some college, even as education expands. Although no classification system perfectly accounts for the full variation of the population, my findings demonstrate that researchers must carefully define key variables and comparison groups, especially when considering relative effects.
要理解学士学位的相对优势，我们必须考虑这样一个问题：相对于谁？Horowitz（2018）利用《当前人口调查年度社会和经济增刊》（Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement）认为，1971年至2010年间的教育扩张减少了大学毕业生的技能使用，并侵蚀了他们相对于没有中学后学位的个人的优势。然而，由于1992年CPS的变化，随着时间的推移，对照组——没有中学后学位的个人——的定义不一致；这一群体还包括没有高中学历的人、高中毕业生和有大学学历但没有学历的人——这三个群体的劳动力市场经历各不相同。我复制了霍洛维茨的分析，并使用两种解决这些局限性的替代教育分类方案重复它。我表明，大学毕业生在技能使用方面的绝对优势和相对优势在很大程度上取决于我们如何衡量教育。值得注意的是，我发现，与高中毕业生和一些大学毕业生相比，即使教育程度有所扩大，大学毕业生在技能使用方面仍保持着持续的相对优势。尽管没有一个分类系统能完美地解释人口的全部变化，但我的发现表明，研究人员必须仔细定义关键变量和比较组，尤其是在考虑相对影响时。
{"title":"Relative to Whom? Comment on “Relative Education and the Advantage of a College Degree”","authors":"Jane Furey","doi":"10.1177/00031224211042326","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211042326","url":null,"abstract":"To understand the relative advantage of a bachelor’s degree, we must consider the question: relative to whom? Using the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Horowitz (2018) argues that educational expansion between 1971 and 2010 decreased college graduates’ skill usage and eroded their advantages relative to individuals without a postsecondary degree. However, the comparison group—individuals without a postsecondary degree—is inconsistently defined over time due to a change to the CPS in 1992; this group also includes individuals without a high school degree, high school graduates, and people with some college but no degree—three groups that have heterogeneous labor market experiences. I replicate Horowitz’s analysis and repeat it using two alternative education categorization schemes that address these limitations. I show that college graduates’ absolute and relative advantages in skill usage depend substantially on how we measure education. Notably, I find that college graduates maintain persistent relative advantages in skill usage when compared to high school graduates and individuals with some college, even as education expands. Although no classification system perfectly accounts for the full variation of the population, my findings demonstrate that researchers must carefully define key variables and comparison groups, especially when considering relative effects.","PeriodicalId":48461,"journal":{"name":"American Sociological Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45883096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.1177/00031224211029618
Eva Rosen, Philip M. E. Garboden, Jennifer E. Cossyleon
An extensive literature documents racial discrimination in housing, focusing on its prevalence and effect on non-White populations. This article studies how such discrimination operates, and the intermediaries who engage in it: landlords. A fundamental assumption of racial discrimination research is that gatekeepers such as landlords are confronted with a racially heterogeneous applicant pool. The reality of urban housing markets, however, is that historical patterns of residential segregation intersect with other structural barriers to drive selection into the applicant pool, such that landlords are more often selecting between same-race applicants. Using interviews and observations with 157 landlords in four cities, we ask: how do landlords construct their tenants’ race within racially segmented housing markets, and how does this factor into their screening processes? We find that landlords distinguish between tenants based on the degree to which their behavior conforms to insidious cultural narratives at the intersection of race, gender, and class. Landlords with large portfolios rely on screening algorithms, whereas mom-and-pop landlords make decisions based on informal mechanisms such as “gut feelings,” home visits, and the presentation of children. Landlords may put aside certain racial prejudices when they have the right financial incentives, but only when the tenant also defies stereotypes. In this way, landlords’ intersectional construction of race—even within a predominantly Black or Latino tenant pool—limits residential options for low-income, subsidized tenants of color, burdening their search process. These findings have implications for how we understand racial discrimination within racially homogenous social spheres. Examining landlords’ screening practices offers insight into the role housing plays in how racism continues to shape life outcomes—both explicitly through overt racial bias, and increasingly more covertly, through algorithmic automation and digital technologies.
{"title":"Racial Discrimination in Housing: How Landlords Use Algorithms and Home Visits to Screen Tenants","authors":"Eva Rosen, Philip M. E. Garboden, Jennifer E. Cossyleon","doi":"10.1177/00031224211029618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211029618","url":null,"abstract":"An extensive literature documents racial discrimination in housing, focusing on its prevalence and effect on non-White populations. This article studies how such discrimination operates, and the intermediaries who engage in it: landlords. A fundamental assumption of racial discrimination research is that gatekeepers such as landlords are confronted with a racially heterogeneous applicant pool. The reality of urban housing markets, however, is that historical patterns of residential segregation intersect with other structural barriers to drive selection into the applicant pool, such that landlords are more often selecting between same-race applicants. Using interviews and observations with 157 landlords in four cities, we ask: how do landlords construct their tenants’ race within racially segmented housing markets, and how does this factor into their screening processes? We find that landlords distinguish between tenants based on the degree to which their behavior conforms to insidious cultural narratives at the intersection of race, gender, and class. Landlords with large portfolios rely on screening algorithms, whereas mom-and-pop landlords make decisions based on informal mechanisms such as “gut feelings,” home visits, and the presentation of children. Landlords may put aside certain racial prejudices when they have the right financial incentives, but only when the tenant also defies stereotypes. In this way, landlords’ intersectional construction of race—even within a predominantly Black or Latino tenant pool—limits residential options for low-income, subsidized tenants of color, burdening their search process. These findings have implications for how we understand racial discrimination within racially homogenous social spheres. Examining landlords’ screening practices offers insight into the role housing plays in how racism continues to shape life outcomes—both explicitly through overt racial bias, and increasingly more covertly, through algorithmic automation and digital technologies.","PeriodicalId":48461,"journal":{"name":"American Sociological Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44758748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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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