Category: Articles

Recent articles published by faculty, students, and alumni.

[Article] Van C. Tran – The Mere Mention of Asians in Affirmative Action

Posted on October 29, 2019 by - Articles, Recent Publications

Van C. Tran (Faculty)

“The Mere Mention of Asians in Affirmative Action.” Sociological Science *co-authored with Jennifer Lee (Sept. 2019)

Abstract 

Presumed competent, U.S. Asians evince exceptional educational outcomes but lack the cultural pedigree of elite whites that safeguard them from bias in the labor market. In spite of their nonwhite minority status, Asians also lack the legacy of disadvantage of blacks that make them eligible beneficiaries of affirmative action. Their labor market disadvantage coupled with their exclusion from affirmative action programs place Asians in a unique bind: do they support policies that give preferences to blacks but exclude them? Given their self- and group interests, this bind should make Asians unlikely to do so. We assess whether this is the case by comparing their attitudes to those of whites, blacks, and Hispanics. Drawing on a novel three-way framing experiment embedded in the 2016 National Asian American Survey, we document how the “mere mention of Asians” in affirmative action frames affects support for the preferential hiring and promotion of blacks. Support shifts in different ways among all groups depending on the mere mention of Asians as either victims of affirmative action alongside whites or as victims of discrimination alongside blacks. Moreover, among Asians, support for affirmative action differs significantly by immigrant generation: first-generation Asians express the weakest support.

[Article] Calvin John Smiley – Release in the Era of BLM: The Nexus of Black Lives Matter and Prisoner Reentry

Posted on October 29, 2019 by - Articles, Recent Publications

Calvin John Smiley (Alum, 2014) 

“Release in the Era of BLM: The Nexus of Black Lives Matter and Prisoner Reentry.” The Prison Journal 99(4), 396-149.

Abstract

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is a challenge and resistance to White Supremacy and state-sanctioned violence. The proliferation of social media and smart technology has allowed the recording, documenting, and archiving of police misconduct and brutality against Black bodies. Furthermore, BLM is critical of various institutions that create disparities, including the criminal justice system. This article examines the nexus of BLM and prisoner reentry. Using qualitative research conducted in the weeks and months following the death of Trayvon Martin in February 2012, a collective of formerly incarcerated and recently released Black men discussed and analyzed this death and its impact on the Black community. Here, these individuals shared their ideas surrounding punishment and justice as well as reflected on their own past, present, and future roles in their community.

Keywords Black Lives Matter, Trayvon Martin, prisoner reentry, resistance, justice

 

[Article] Alexandrea Ravenelle – Digitalization and the hybridization of markets and circuits in Airbnb

Posted on October 29, 2019 by - Articles, Recent Publications

Alexandrea Ravenelle (Alum, 2018)

“Digitalization and the hybridization of markets and circuits in Airbnb.” Consumption Markets & Culture (Sept. 2019).

Abstract

Digitalization, combined with the proliferation of online review and payment systems, has been integral to the creation of the sharing economy. While the sharing economy has opened industries to additional workers, it also shift risks to users and leads to a hybridization of previously pure economic concepts such as markets and circuits of commerce. Due to this risk shift, how do sharing economy users, specifically Airbnb hosts, protect themselves from the risks inherent in a marketplace that is both formal and informal, and regularly crosses the boundaries between legal and illegal? Using qualitative interviews with 23 Airbnb hosts in New York City, I argue that Airbnb’s shifting of risk to workers leads to a hybridized form of institutional work as hosts create a social circuitry in order to protect themselves. This research contributes to the larger literature on digitalized and informal markets and circuits, risk, and societal impact of digitalization.

KEYWORDS: Buyer-seller relationships, sharing economy, Airbnb, informal markets, digitalization, markets