Archive for the ‘self-promotion?’ Category
new book spotlight: approaches to ethnography
New book alert! For those prepping a methods course or wanting additional insight into ethnography as a research method, sociologists Colin Jerolmack and Shamus Khan* have co-edited an anthology Approaches to Ethnography: Analysis and Representation in Participant Observation (2017, Oxford University Press).**
In Approaches to Ethnography, several ethnographers, including myself, have contributed chapters that delve into our experiences with ethnography across the subfields of urban sociology, poverty and inequality, race and ethnicity, culture, political economies, and organizational research. For example, in his chapter, Douglas Harper explains how he integrated visual ethnography to get farmers to discuss experiences of farming past and present, capture the itinerant lives and transitory relations among tramps, and document food traditions in Bologna, Italy.
My own chapter “Capturing Organizations as Actors” was particularly difficult to write, with several major chunks jettisoned and sections rewritten several times to incorporate feedback from an ever-patient Khan. Eventually, I realized I was struggling with how to advocate what is taken-for-granted among organizational researchers. Normally, organizational researchers write for audiences who readily accept organizations as the unit of analysis and as important and consequential actors worthy of study. However, for sociologists and social scientists who are not organizational researchers, the organization falls into the background as static, interchangeable scenery. Given this anthology’s audience, I had to make an explicit argument for studying organizations to readers who might be inclined to ignore organizations.
With this in mind, my chapter focused on explaining how to use ethnography to bring organizations to the foreground. To illustrate how researchers can approach different aspects of organizations, I drew on my ethnographic data collected on the Burning Man organization. Most of the vignettes tap never-before-seen data, including discussions from organizers’ meetings and my participant-observations as a volunteer in Playa Info’s Found. With these examples, I show how organizational ethnography can help us understand:
- how informal relations animate organizations
- how organizations channel activities through routines and trainings
- how organizations and its subcultures communicate and inculcate practices
- how organizations handle relations with other actors, including the state
Here is Approaches to Ethnography‘s table of contents:
Introduction: An Analytic Approach to Ethnography
Colin Jerolmack and Shamus Khan1. Microsociology: Beneath the Surface
Jooyoung Lee
2. Capturing Organizations as Actors
Katherine Chen3. Macro Analysis: Power in the Field
Leslie Salzinger and Teresa Gowan4. People and Places
Douglas Harper5. Mechanisms
Iddo Tavory and Stefan Timmermans6. Embodiment: A Dispositional Approach to Racial and Cultural Analysis
Black Hawk Hancock7. Situations
Monica McDermott8. Reflexivity: Introspection, Positionality, and the Self as Research Instrument-Toward a Model of Abductive Reflexivity
Forrest Stuart
* Jerolmack and Khan have also co-authored a Socius article “The Analytic Lenses of Ethnography,” for those interested in an overview.
** I have a flyer for a slight discount that I hope is still good from the publisher; if you need it, send me an email!
happy holiday and submit to contexts
I wish you all an excellent holiday. And while I have your attention, you should consider submitting an article to Contexts, which Rashawn Ray and I now edit. Here are the submission guidelines. If you want a 99% acceptance rate, send us a piece for the blog! Orgtheory has the lowest standards in academia. We really do.
50+ chapters of grad skool advice goodness: Grad Skool Rulz ($4.44 – cheap!!!!)/Theory for the Working Sociologist (discount code: ROJAS – 30% off!!)/From Black Power/Party in the Street / Read Contexts Magazine– It’s Awesome!
the antitrust equilibrium and three pathways to policy change
Antitrust is one of the classic topics in economic sociology. Fligstein’s The Transformation of Corporate Control and Dobbin’s Forging Industrial Policy both dealt with how the rules that govern economic life are created. But with some exceptions, it hasn’t received a lot of attention in the last decade in econ soc.
In fact, antitrust hasn’t been on the public radar that much at all. After the Microsoft case was settled in 2001, antitrust policy just hasn’t thrown up a lot of issues that have gotten wide public attention, beyond maybe griping about airline mergers.
But in the last year or so, it seems like popular interest in antitrust is starting to bubble up again.
Just in the last few months, there have been several widely circulated pieces on antitrust policy. Washington Monthly, the Atlantic, ProPublica (twice), the American Prospect—all these have criticized existing antitrust policy and argued for strengthening it.
This is timely for me, because I’ve also been studying antitrust. As a policy domain that is both heavily technocratic and heavily influenced by economists, it’s a great place to think about the role of economics in public policy.
Yesterday I put a draft paper up on SocArXiv on the changing role of economics in antitrust policy. The 1970s saw a big reversal in antitrust, when we went from a regime that was highly skeptical of mergers and all sorts of restraints on trade to one that saw them as generally efficiency-promoting and beneficial for consumers. At the same time, the influence of economics in antitrust policy increased dramatically.
But while these two development are definitely related—there was a close affinity between the Chicago School and the relaxed antitrust policy of the Reagan administration, for example—there’s no simple relationship here: economists’ influence began to increase at a time when they were more favorable to antitrust intervention, and after the 1980s most economists rejected the strongest Chicago arguments.
I might write about the sociology part of the paper later, but in this post I just want to touch on the question of what this history implies about the present moment and the possibility of change in antitrust policy.
in defense of shameless self-promotion
To be honest, much of this blog is just a shameless exercise in self-promotion. But still, there remains the question – why self-promote at all? Should you be a shameless self-promoter?
First, start with the question – do I need promotion, especially shameless self-promotion? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. Some of us are just relaxed Dude-like entities, content to admire our fine Persian carpet and hang out with our bowling buddies. We are happy in a zen like state of being and don’t need the trappings of high society. If you are an academic, you aren’t the Dude. You’re probably an uptight person whose obsesses over the promotion and tenure committee. You want attention. You live and die off of citations.
If you need promotion, why not rely on regular promotion? For most of us, regular promotion doesn’t work terribly well. The number of people who can push your cookie is small and they only focus their efforts on a few select individuals. For every person who earns the graces of the gods, there are five or ten folks who are pretty darn good who get little attention and probably deserve more. And if you do work that is out of fashion, against the winds of the day, or don’t have the right last name, then the gods will help you even less, if not hinder you.
So, what’s left? As Art Stinchcombe once allegedly said to a student, if you want to be famous in the academy, either be a genius or use the photocopier. Since I’m not a genius, I think I’ll need to use that photocopier.*
50+ chapters of grad skool advice goodness: Grad Skool Rulz ($2!!!!)/From Black Power/Party in the Street
* Super cool self-promotion coming up!! I have news!!
free grad skool rulz book….
… if you attend any of the book talks listed below. I’ll send a free copy to a friend if you live tweet the talk w/photo.
50+ chapters of grad skool advice goodness: Grad Skool Rulz ($2!!!!)/From Black Power/Party in the Street!!
party in the street: new york, chicago and washington, DC!!! come to the talks!
My friend and co-author Michael Heaney will be speaking about Party in the Street this week. Here is the info:
- On Monday, Michael will be in Washington, will be at Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC. 6:30 pm, catch it if you can.
- On Tuesday, Michael will be in Chicago at the Seminary Coop bookstore. They will be starting a series called “Fresh Ayers” where Chicago activist Bill Ayers will host a series of book talks. Michael will be is the first guest.
- On Wednesday, Michael will be in New York (yes, I know, he’s a busy guy) at Books and Culture. He will be hosted by Dan Wang of the Columbia Business School.
Come out and support the book. We’d love to see you there!
50+ chapters of grad skool advice goodness: Grad Skool Rulz ($2!!!!)/From Black Power/Party in the Street!!
come say hello!!!!
This semester, I’ll be visiting a few places.
- January 19th (Monday) – I will be giving a talk and leading a discussion on student activism at Bates College. Bonus points: Peniel Joseph will be giving the key note for the MLK Day celebration.
- February 26th (Thursday) – I will be giving a talk on the lessons of the Civil Rights movement for the modern era at the University of Central Arkansas.
- March 6th (Tuesday) – Michael Heaney, my co-author on Party in the Street, will be at the Seminary Co-op in Chicago giving a talk on the book.
- March 27th (Friday) – I will be on the “Author Meets Critics” panel for Jerry Jacobs’ book In Defense of Disciplines at the Southern Sociological Association.
Please come by and say hello!!
50+ chapters of grad skool advice goodness: Grad Skool Rulz ($1!!!!)/From Black Power/Party in the Street!!
socinfo 2014 proceedings – for free!!!
That is correct: SocInfo 2014 convened down the street from this building.
Last week, I was lucky to attend the SocInfo 2014 conference. It drew together scholars at the intersection of social science and computer science. I will write up some notes later, but I wanted you to know that, for a few weeks, Springer will make the Proceedings free: http://www.lajello.com/files/SocInfo_2014.zip.
50+ chapters of grad skool advice goodness: Grad Skool Rulz/From Black Power
status bias in baseball umpiring
Jerry Kim and I have an op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times about our new paper on status bias in baseball umpiring. We analyzed over 700,000 non-swinging pitches from the 2008-09 season and found that umpires made numerous types of mistakes in calling strikes-balls. Most notably, we expected that umpires would be influenced by the status and reputation of the pitcher, and this is indeed what we found:
One of the sources of bias we identified was that umpires tended to favor All-Star pitchers. An umpire was about 16 percent more likely to erroneously call a pitch outside the zone a strike for a five-time All-Star than for a pitcher who had never appeared in an All-Star Game. An umpire was about 9 percent less likely to mistakenly call a real strike a ball for a five-time All-Star. The strike zone did actually seem to get bigger for All-Star pitchers and it tended to shrink for non-All-Stars.
An umpire’s bias toward All-Star pitchers was even stronger when the pitcher had a reputation for precise control, as measured by the career percentage of batters walked. We found that pitchers with a track record of not walking batters — like Greg Maddux — were much more likely to benefit from their All-Star status than similarly decorated but “wilder” pitchers like Randy Johnson.
Baseball insiders have long suspected what our research confirms: that umpires tend to make errors in ways that favor players who have established themselves at the top of the game’s status hierarchy. But our findings are also suggestive of the way that people in any sort of evaluative role — not just umpires — are unconsciously biased by simple “status characteristics.” Even constant monitoring and incentives can fail to train such biases out of us.
You can can download the paper, which is forthcoming in Management Science, if you’re interested in learning more about the analyses and their implications for theories about status characteristics and the Matthew Effect.
post doc position on social media and activism
I’m really happy to announce a new post doctoral position here at Northwestern University on social media and activism. If you’re interested, please apply early. The application deadline is March 2nd! Read the rest of this entry »
blogs, twitter, and finding new research
Administrative Science Quarterly now has a blog – aptly named The ASQ Blog. The purpose of the blog is a bit different than your typical rambling academic blog. Each post contains an interview with the author(s) of a recent article published in the journal. For example, there are interviews with Chad McPherson and Mike Sauder about their article on drug court deliberations, with Michael Dahl, Cristian Dezső, and David Ross on CEO fatherhood and its effect on employee wages, and András Tilcsik and Chris Marquis about their research on natural disasters and corporate philanthropy. The interviews are informal, try to get at the research and thought process behind the article, and allow reader comments. I think its innovative of the ASQ editorial team to come up with this in an effort to make research more open and to draw more eyes to the cutting edge research at ASQ.
A couple of years ago I served on an ASQ task force (with Marc-David Seidel and Jean Bartunek) to explore different ways that the journal could better use online media to engage readers. At the time, ASQ was way behind the curve. It was difficult to even find a permanent hyperlink to its articles. Since that time ASQ and most journals have greatly improved their online accessibility . The blog is just one example. ASQ’s editor, Jerry Davis, said in a recent email to the editorial board that they recognize that “younger scholars connect with the literature in ways that rarely involve visits to the library or print subscriptions.” To maintain relevance in today’s academic “attention economy” (for lack of a better term), journals have to be active on multiple platforms. ASQ gets it; Sociological Science’s (hyper)active tweeter (@SociologicalSci) gets it too. In the end, everyone hopes the best research will float to the top and get the attention it deserves, but if the best research is hard to find or is being out-hyped by other journals, it may never get noticed.
It made me wonder, how do people most commonly find out about new research? I know that orgtheory readers are not the most representative sample, but this seems to be the crowd that Jerry referred to in his email. So, below is a poll. You can choose up to three different methods for finding research. But please, beyond adding to the poll results, tell us in comments what your strategy is.
asian and asian american studies at indiana!!!
Though luck, and the gritty determination of our program leadership, Indiana has become a center for the sociology of Asia and Asian America. We now currently have five (!) faculty to work in this topic:
- Jennifer Lee – Asian American migration/adolescence/schooling
- Dina Okamoto (starts in Spring) – Asian American politics
- Weihua An – networks/youth in China
- Keera Allendorf – demography/family in India
- Ethan Michelson – law & society in China
If you’re interested in Asian or Asian American studies, you should check us out.
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storytelling in organizations, the state of the field of organizations and values, and a freebie article
I’ve recently published two articles* that might be of interest to orgheads, and Emerald publisher has ungated one of my articles:
1. Chen, Katherine K. 2013. “Storytelling: An Informal Mechanism of Accountability for Voluntary Organizations.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 42(5): 902-922.**
Abstract
Using observations, interviews, and archival research of an organization that coordinates the annual Burning Man event, I argue that storytelling is a mechanism by which stakeholders can demand accountability to their needs for recognition and voice. I identify particular frames, or perspectives and guides to action, articulated in members’ stories. Deploying a personalistic frame, storytellers recounted individuals’ contributions toward a collective endeavor. Such storytelling commemorated efforts overlooked by official accounts and fostered bonds among members. Other storytellers identified problems and organizing possibilities for consideration under the civic society or anarchist frames. By familiarizing organizations with members’ perspectives and interests, stories facilitate organizational learning that can better serve stakeholders’ interests. Additional research could explore whether (1) consistent face-to-face relations (2) within a bounded setting, such as an organization, and (3) practices that encourage participation in organizing decisions and activities are necessary conditions under which storytelling can enable accountability to members’ interests.
2. Chen, Katherine K., Howard Lune, and Edward L. Queen, II. 2013. “‘How Values Shape and are Shaped by Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations:’ The Current State of the Field.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 42(5): 856-885.
Abstract
To advance understanding of the relationship between values and organizations, this review synthesizes classic and recent organizational and sociological research, including this symposium’s articles on voluntary associations. We argue that all organizations reflect, enact, and propagate values. Organizations draw on culture, which offers a tool kit of possible actions supported by institutional logics that delineate appropriate activities and goals. Through institutional work, organizations can secure acceptance for unfamiliar practices and their associated values, often under the logic of democracy. Values may be discerned in any organization’s goals, practices, and forms, including “value-free” bureaucracies and collectivist organizations with participatory practices. We offer suggestions for enhancing understanding of how collectivities advance particular values within their groups or society.
3. In addition, one of my previously published articles received the “Outstanding Author Contribution Award Winner at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2013.” Because of the award, Emerald publisher has ungated this article (or, as Burners like to say, contributed a gift to the gift economy :) ) to download here (click on the HTML or PDF button to initiate the download):
Chen, Katherine K. 2012. “Laboring for the Man: Augmenting Authority in a Voluntary Association.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations 34: 135-164.
Abstract:
Drawing on Bourdieu’s field, habitus, and capital, I show how disparate experiences and “dispositions” shaped several departments’ development in the organization behind the annual Burning Man event. Observations and interviews with organizers and members indicated that in departments with hierarchical professional norms or total institution-like conditions, members privileged their capital over others’ capital to enhance their authority and departmental solidarity. For another department, the availability of multiple practices in their field fostered disagreement, forcing members to articulate stances. These comparisons uncover conditions that exacerbate conflicts over authority and show how members use different types of capital to augment their authority.
* If you don’t have access to these articles at your institution, please contact me for a PDF.
** Looking for more storytelling articles? Check out another one here.
burning man round table discussion at the society pages
Several sociologists (Matt Wray, Jon Stern, and myself) and an anthropologist (S. Megan Heller) have a round table discussion on Burning Man at the Society Pages. We’ve all done research at Burning Man, an annual temporary community in Nevada that has inspired events and organizations worldwide.
Have a peek at our discussion, which includes ideas for future studies. We discuss answers to questions such as:
“Why might the demographics of the Burning Man population be of interest to researchers? For instance, there is a cultural trope that people who go to Burning Man are often marginalized individuals—outsiders in some way. Could the festival’s annual Census be used to measure this rather subjective characteristic of the population? Is there a single “modal demographic” (that is, a specific Burner “type”) or are there many? What else does the Census Lab measure (or not measure)?”
and
“Burning Man sometimes gets portrayed as little more than a giant rave—a psychedelic party on the playa. It is like a party in many ways, but those of us who go know that the label doesn’t begin to capture the full experience. What larger phenomena does Burning Man represent in your research? In other words, how do you categorize the event and why should we take it seriously?”
Going to Burning Man? Check out the un-conference schedule. Looking to volunteer? Start with this post.

(Unfortunately, this photo didn’t make it into my book because the image quality wasn’t sufficient for a black and white reprint.) A 2003 San Francisco billboard ad for a voluntary association references Burning Man. As Burning Man’s popularity has increased, other organizations and individuals have sought to expropriate the Burning Man name, imagery, and output for their own use. Photographer unknown.
protect your self on the internet – the brayden and eszter way
C0-blogger Brayden King and leading Internet scholar Eszter Hargittai wrote a nice post for Kellogg’s Executive Education newsletter. The topic: how to cultivate your reputation in the age of social media. A few choice clips:
Let others in your social network do the talking for you. People see impression management as most genuine when others they already trust and respect do it on your behalf. When third parties say positive things about you, they help cement your reputation and create a halo around your activities.
and
Engage critiques from legitimate sources directly and alleviate their concerns openly. As anyone who has spent any time online knows, people love to criticize others and sling a little mud. In many cases these attacks can be ignored, especially when they come from “trolls,” or individuals whose sole intent is to pester others, usually from behind a veil of anonymity. In some cases, however, criticism will come from legitimate sources and be a reputational threat.
They are now writing a book on this topic. Recommended.
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academy of management meeting highlights
Many of us orgheads will be attending the Academy of Management meetings this weekend. AOM is a great place to dive into org. theory and get a taste of the trends in organizational research (see my past post on why I like AOM). One negative thing about AOM though is that it is really big and it can be easy to get lost in the vast tunnels of organizations-related research and social events. Like any conference, AOM sessions vary in their quality. I’d love to get tips about what we should be attending. Feel free to post your favorite sessions or social events in the comments.
I’ll start off by offering a few suggestions, some of which I’m participating in:
- Cultural (Ac)counting: The rise of formal organization in cultural and social domains. Tuesday, August 7, 1:15-2:45. Organized by Amanda Sharkey and Tricia Bromley. The session is about “a dramatic, but poorly understood, shift in the purposes and standing of formal organization in society, from technical structures for facilitating mainly economic transactions to corporate citizens endowed with a broadened scope of actorhood.” Some of the authors include our friend Beth Duckles, Frank Dobbin and Sandra Kalev, and Woody Powell. I’m the discussant.
- From confrontation to influence: How social movements drive the corporate sustainability agenda. Tuesday, August 7, 3-4:30. Organized by Daniel Beunza, Fabrizio Ferraro, and me. The papers in this session look at how social movements have begun adopting nonconfrontational, more collaborative tactics as means of influence over their corporate targets, leading to sometimes unexpected results. Presenters include Shon Hiatt, Ioannis Ioannou, Fabrizio and Daniel, and Mae McDonnell. Huggy Rao is the discussant.
- Occupy, economic inequality, and business: Setting the agenda. Saturday, August 4, 2:30-4:30. Come talk about the Occupy movement and the effects of economic inequality on management! Participants on the panel include Jerry Davis, Adam Cobb, and AnaMaria Peredo.
The big social events are the department receptions. Teppo’s post links to a list of those receptions (brave the Harvard reception chaos if you dare!). I’d like to encourage everyone to attend the OMT events. This is where all the cool orgheads are. In particular,
- OMT Social Hour, Monday, Aug 6 2012 7:30PM – 9:00PM, at Sheraton Boston Hotel in Back Bay Ballroom D
- OMT After Party, Monday, Aug 6 2012 9:00PM – 1:00AM, at Back Bay Social Club in the downstairs bar, 867 Boylston St.
I’ll be at the OMT parties if you want to hang out. If we’ve never met, please introduce yourself.
free dinner @ ASA?
The Kickstarter project for the antiwar movie has almost completed its goal, but we’re about $400 short. Free dinner @ ASA on me to the first person who provides that sum. Just send me the receipt. Here’s the URL:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/melofilms/the-activists-war-peace-and-politics-in-the-street
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will workshop for food
I’ve got some new material in the pipeline and I’m looking to workshop it. If your campus is a day’s drive or less from Bloomington and you need to fill up your seminar schedule, drop me an email. All I ask that you buy me lunch. Topics: a new social theory manuscript; antiwar movement research; how organizations produce scientific knowledge.
Easy way to Erdös #
MathSciNet now has a simple tool to compute your Erdös number. You go here, put an author’s name and first initial followed by an asterisk and then click on the “Collaboration Distance” link and click on the “use Erdös” button. In Sociology, one of the few open paths to Erdös is via Stan Wasserman (E=6; you can check for yourself here). Thus, all co-authors of Stan have a finite Erdös number. One of them is Joe Galaskiewicz (E=7). Since Jeff Larson is a co-author of Joe G’s, and I’m a co-author of Jeff’s, then that puts my Erdös number in the finite camp (E=9).
fund raising
Hi, everyone. After paying my new ASA fees, I don’t have much left in the research fund and Indiana cut my travel budget. For real. Since I desperately need to go to Vegas, I’m raising money by selling merchandise. Scroll through this post and buy one of our new orgtheory hats or t-shirts from Cafe Press. All proceeds will go to making sure that orgtheory is well represented at the “round tables” in Vegas. All items $19.95 . Buy ’em all for a 20% discount. Click on the link at the bottom to purchase. Thanks.
“The basic”
“The Kieran”
“The Brayden”
“The Omar”
“The Teppo”
“The Fabio”
the outcaste elite
Yesterday I was on Radio-Canada’s “Dispatches” to talk about outsourcing to India. Below is the description and a link to the segment. (Last radio plug I promise!)
India’s out-caste achievers take your calls
Outsourcing call centres and tech support shops to India has created an affluent new generation of young Indians. But other disturbing truths are beginning to emerge.
And they’re in a new book: Dead Ringers: How Outsourcing Is Changing The Way Indians Understand Themselves (Princeton University Press).
The author is sociologist Shehzad Nadeem, an American, from City University of New York
Shehzad spoke with Rick from New York
For the full program: http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=1846190801
thinking allowed: outsourced cultures
I was on BBC radio 4’s program ‘Thinking Allowed’ this morning to discuss outsourcing and my new book. It really is a nice show and I’m quite impressed with the care and thought they put into each broadcast. Prof. Henrietta Moore, a social anthropologist at Cambridge and the LSE, also joined the discussion. Here’s a link to the program:
‘women, wine, and water’
On Fabio’s claim that sociology “needs more…” As a qualitative sociologist, I think the discipline stands to gain from a closer engagement with forms of literary non-fiction. At times, it seems we lose a lot of rich detail by cramming things into the stylistic straightjacket of academic journals. (And also by converting narratives into “anecdotes” and “data”). What’s more, sociology can actually go beyond journalism in that it methods allow for a more sustained treatment of subject matter. So, here’s my best attempt. The following is an edited passage from Dead Ringers in which I describe some of the more bizarre ways that corporations are fostering cultural change in India.
***
South Delhi is a dense settlement of middle-class homes and shopping markets, pitted with occasional slums, gardens, and Mughal landmarks. Its ethos is largely consumerist. The banner headline of a community newspaper during the Hindu festival of Diwali asks, “Want to Get Wealthy?” The question is material but the speculations are airily religious. “What pleases Goddess Lakshmi [the goddess of wealth]? When does she bless us with all the riches and comforts of the world? Different people have different answers: some say, it is the gem that you wear, the goddess that you worship, the colour that you paint your walls in or how big is your wealth vase [sic].”
The dance floor of an area night club is occupied by tight clusters of young men and women in designer clothes, all of whom, one presumes, have rather large wealth vases. Rita, a twenty-two-year-old call center worker, has drunk five cocktails priced at 250 rupees a piece, approximately $25 in total—a large sum in a country where 35 percent of the people live on less than $1 a day. Although city regulations require bars to stop serving alcohol at midnight, the club simply locks the front door and allows the intoxicating flow to continue. After a night of dancing, Rita’s head is beginning to spin. Her growing dizziness and fatigue are amplified by the kaleidoscopic whirl of strobe lights and a dance floor that undulates “boombonically” to a Bhangra remix of rapper 50 Cent’s “In Da Club.
Rita is out with her team of six call center workers—the excursion is sponsored by their company to foster camaraderie within the group. Her long swaying hair cannot hide her pale face, which is a knot of exhaustion and sickness. Noticing her obvious discomfort, Deepak, her junior manager, gathers the rest of the team that is gyrating to the hybrid beats. They board a black Toyota Qualis with tinted windows, one of hundreds hired by the company to transport workers to and from work. When they arrive at Rita’s house, Deepak steps out of the vehicle, walks confidently up the dimly lit driveway, and rings the doorbell. He is followed by Rita, who is being assisted clumsily by another inebriated worker. Rita’s mother answers the door.
reservoir sociologists, again
From left to right: Nathan Dollar, Bob Childs, Michell Lueck, Matt Parker, Casey Davidson, Laura Davidson, Fabio, Amanda Shigihara, Colleen Hackett. Photographer: Lara Ridenour.
Two years ago, Laura Ridenour snapped this wonderful photo as she helped me field surveys at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. After explaining how to do the survey to our team members, I said something like, “Ok, let’s see where the protesters are.” As we began to walk, Laura just ran out and snapped one photo of our group. She put it in her flickr account and I then reposted to orgtheory. Two years later, the staff at Contexts wanted a sociological photo with movement in it, remembered the post, and asked Laura if they could reprint her snapshot. Once again, thanks to everyone who did a great job collecting surveys and thank you to Laura for taking the photo. To the folks who’ve been asking: yes, that’s the notorious fanny pack.
accent neutralization in indian call centers
(Warning: shameless self-promotion). The Guardian just posted a short piece I wrote on accent neutralization in Indian call centers:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/09/india-call-centres-accent-neutralisation
Some of the comments are rather funny. Speaking of which, does anyone know of a scholarly treatment of discussion boards? They’re a bizarre phenomenon…