Building on recent ethnographic research on social provision in the global South, this article examines the everyday construction of a welfare state that links distributive inclusion with social degradation of the urban poor. The Chilean state has long affirmed its responsibility for housing poor citizens, and claimed considerable success in doing so. Since 1979, subsidized provision of privately built

This article offers an intersectional analysis of how non-elites frame neighborhood as a synecdoche for nation through tourism. In Cape Town, South Africa, white Western tourists perceive the peripheral Black townships to be more dangerous than the city’s white center but also more representative of the country and thus worth visiting. Drawing from ten months of ethnographic fieldwork, I illustrate

How did narratives about character education in the United States change between 1985 and 2016 and what does this reveal about the changing meaning of character over this time period? Policymakers and pundits have frequently invoked ideas of “good” versus “bad” character as they attempt to blame individuals for their own circumstances. It makes sense to trace these narratives in their various forms

In each of four nearby city areas, residents orient to local centers of collective activity in different geographic patterns. In a “perimeter” neighborhood, residents and outsiders are drawn to religious and retail organizations located on streets that form a rectangle. In an “intersection” neighborhood, residents are most visible to each other at an agglomeration of stores and services located where

As climate change increases the frequency and severity of disasters, and population and social changes raise the public’s vulnerability to disaster events, societies face additional risk of multiple disaster events or other hazards occurring simultaneously. Such hazards involve significant uncertainty, which must be translated into concrete plans able to be implemented by disaster workers. Little research

While existing literature has amply demonstrated how states may “see” their populations, we know less about which residents are legible to the state as populations. Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted between 2011 and 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa, this paper compares the fate of two large land occupations, one of which was evicted, one of which was not. In doing so

This paper extends our knowledge of consumer redlining by providing empirical evidence documenting its occurrence at Dollar General stores while also providing an explanation as to why it occurs in the first place. My data was primarily collected during six months of fieldwork working as a low-wage sales associate. It was also supplemented by additional participant observation at the eighteen other

Why, in the context of a rural Colombian mayoral election, do poor clients donate goods and services to political campaigns? The literature on clientelism describes it as a political order in which politicians exchange resources or favors for political support. In this article, I describe the clientelist relationships and exchanges in a 2019 rural Colombian mayoral election, including what I call pork

Progressing quickly from school to work is an indicator of early career success for college graduates. Recent research shows that inter-institutional connections between elite universities and prestigious employers easily move students at these schools into a select few firms. Prior research has yet to fully address whether students at non-elite colleges have differential access to connections between

Past research on unwanted sex has often emphasized individual risk factors or institutional determinants. As a supplement to past research, this article bridges interactionist theory with a sexual scripting approach to explore how unwanted sex is also produced in situ during sexual encounters. This article examines 110 heterosexual and queer college students’ accounts of unwanted sex. Results show

The existing macro-historical scholarship tends to assert rather than demonstrate the wider impact of nationalism. Yet, state-sponsored national ideologies permeate the broader reaches of society to varying degrees. To investigate variations in the consolidation of official nationalism, this paper combines the content analysis of school textbooks as state-regulated and picture postcards as primarily

In contrast to the portrayal of archives as neutral sites that contain evidence of times past, this paper examines the construction of three archives during and after the Holocaust to highlight the challenges involved in gathering, preserving, and sharing documents produced by victimized populations. Specifically, I analyze the construction of, and conflicts among, the archives of the Centre de Documentation

History’s epistemological dilemma equally applies to sociology: how can we make claims about persons, events, and processes on the basis of archival records? This article develops a framework called Life on File that combines sociological strengths in qualitative methodologies and an interest in how states shape populations, with library and information sciences’ attention to documentary production

This paper is a reflection on the power of archives in driving research. Just as much as informants draw the attention of researchers to social patterns, archives do, too. Both archival and ethnographic research depends on the authority of written documents like field notes and official papers—even in the sociology of art. Archives consist mainly of papers about objects and property. I argue that the

What are “good” kinds of archival evidence for theorizing? Surprisingly, the word archive and discussions of the archival process rarely appear in methods textbooks or discussions of methods in historical sociology. Yet, much recent historicized sociology relies upon documents left over by a small group of actors to make large-scale claims. To address this oversight, we leverage the evidentiary strengths

Historical scholars often adopt a solitary ethic, conceiving of their work as the product of a lonely and isolated individual toiling away in a dusty archive. In this article, we assess the validity of this ethic by examining the actual practice of archival research. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with practicing historical sociologists, we reveal that the solitary ethic is largely illusory

Multimethod studies generally fall under what are referred to as “confirmatory” or “complementary” approaches. Yet in addition to these two approaches, Hammersley (1996) identifies a third, which he refers to as “facilitation.” In this paper, we build on Hammersley’s observation and argue that methods can be used propulsively, setting the researcher down whole new paths. We first put this observation

The payment of bridewealth or lobola is a longstanding cultural practice that has persisted in South Africa despite significant societal shifts over the past two decades. Lobola has always been a complex and contested practice that both reinforces gender inequalities and, at the same time, provides status to women and legitimacy to marriages. In this paper, we describe rural South African women’s perceptions

Much of the literature on production in cultural fields has been dominated by gatekeeper and rational-actor narratives. These literatures argue that the production of art objects tends to be driven by competition for status within fields and by institutional forces that shape how actors produce their work and define success. While much of the existing research has provided insight on the structural

The paper outlines different modes of inference that researchers are able to make from interview data. Rather than championing one correct mode of inference, I argue that most open-ended and semi-structured interviews contain (a) open contexts in which we can cautiously infer about other situations from the interview; (b) contexts that we should treat as hermetically closed; and (c) refracted contexts

Drawing on literature on the body and embodiment, body pedagogics, and conversation analysis, this article adopts an integrative approach to the body and seeks to demonstrate the process through which bodily experiences are interpreted and transmitted across individuals, time, and space in the case of 911 emergency communication. With data from three years’ fieldwork in an urban 911 center in the US

Americans who identify as “homesteaders” and “preppers” seek to live “self-sufficient” lifestyles by distancing themselves from institutions that mediate access to the environment. This paper asks why individuals adopt “self-sufficiency” based practices and finds that they respond to discomfort about being embedded in risk society by adopting self-sufficiency as an emotion management strategy that

There is a dearth of research on the characteristics, value, and scope of street knowledge. The few studies that exist suggest that, once acquired, street knowledge is used to mitigate danger and risk across a wide range of socio-spatial settings. Based on five years of ethnographic research in a Toronto social housing project affected by gun violence, I challenge this assumption, demonstrating the

The aims of conservative activists are broadly characterized as anti-state. But an ethnographic case study of a rural activist chapter reveals a range of anti- and pro-state attitudes. Existing concepts for studying the idea people hold of the state, such as the “state effect,” are inadequate for understanding such multidimensional views. To make sense of the chapter’s seemingly contradictory views

Many working mothers in the US say that they feel guilty about their inability to live up to cultural ideals of the “good mother” embedded in intensive mothering discourse. Intensive mothering is reflected in and exacerbated by the country’s work-family policies. The United States is an outlier among Western welfare states for its lack of policy supports for families, assuming that childrearing is

This article contributes to inquiry on storytelling practice through analysis of the strategies that engineers adopt when reasoning through a disaster scenario. In hazardous industries, engineering work is closely linked to disaster prevention, and analysis of past cases is a key learning strategy. Natural gas pipeline project personnel were presented with the case of the Überlingen mid-air aircraft

This paper wishes to explain, using qualitative sociology, an epidemiological finding: that the extent of recovery following stroke is class-based and that patients from the working classes and lower socioeconomic groups are more vulnerable to functional impairments following stroke than those from higher socioeconomic groups. Based on a 15-month ethnographic study of neurology and rehabilitation units

Affect is increasingly understood as a critical element of political life and collective action in Latin America and elsewhere. It is critical to generating participation in collective action projects, sustaining or collapsing action, and how participants interpret the meanings and values of a project and the social relationships within it. More broadly, affective political experiences are markers

Studies have illustrated the role of the body as an improvable project that constitutes an important part of an individual’s self-identity and social life. For marginalized groups, the body project proves to be meaningful in gaining social respectability and negotiating stigma and visibility. While literature on rehabilitation and recovery has highlighted identity processes and the remake of moral

AbstractThe white-collar ideal worker norm helps to explain why social inequality persists in the workplace, yet the concept reflects corporate workplaces of the mid-twentieth century. This article identifies emerging cultural ideals for white-collar workers in today’s economy by examining the experiences of high earners in financial services. Despite its glorification of flexibility and independence

Research on cultural capital in higher education has primarily focused on institutional knowledge and taste as stratified cultural resources. Through analysis of an interview study of 70 undergraduates and a year-long ethnographic study of 20 undergraduate extracurricular activities at an elite college, I explore a further form of cultural capital that I call narrative capital. Narrative capital consists

Recent research on street-involved populations has documented their online presence and has highlighted the effects of their online presentations on their lives in the real world. Given the increasing conflation between the online and offline world, contemporary urban ethnographers should pay increased attention to their participants’ online presence and interactions. However, methodological training

Cities are gentrifying, yet we know little about the experience of older adults aging in gentrifying areas. Most research has focused on a shortage of affordable housing and threat of eviction for low-income residents but has paid less attention to age. This trend neglects a fuller understanding of place’s heightened significance for older people and how commercial gentrification threatens their possibilities

In this paper, we report data from interviews with members of conservative political clubs at four flagship public universities. First, we categorize these students into three analytically distinct orientations regarding Donald Trump and his presidency (or what we call Trumpism). There are principled rejecters, true believers, and satisficed partisans. We argue that Trumpism is a disunifying symbol

Cultural capital may contribute to socioeconomic achievement gaps by shaping how students engage with authority in schools. However, social class shapes academic skills and know-how in other ways. Through classroom observations and interviews with first graders, their parents, and teachers, I find that higher-SES students decode teachers’ inexplicit academic instructions and demonstrate academic knowledge

Researchers have studied how artistic judgments are made in group interactions, but much remains to be known about artistic evaluations in decision-making settings where agreements need to be reached. This paper analyzes panel evaluations of artistic productions, drawing on interviews with panelists from a Polish theater competition. The article focuses on two aspects of panel decision-making: (1)

The original version of this article unfortunately contained mistakes in Excerpts 6 and 8 in terms of text alignment. These mistakes were not present in the proofs provided to the author and were introduced during the final stages of article production.

This paper offers an ethnographic account of the context of autonomy for participants at Moving Toward Independence in the Community (MTIC), an independent living program for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In the case at hand, staff interventions are planned around goals, frame that increases temporal distance between the staff and participants by locating the object of action

This article examines the influence of geographic location on trans men’s desire to pass in the southeastern United States. Through 51 in-depth interviews with trans men, I find three key reasons for passing in the South: 1) self-confidence and psychological health; 2) the privileges of being a man; and 3) safety and fear of violence. These motives for passing are amplified in the South, where transphobic

The criminalization of Muslims—framing an Islamic religious identity as a problem to be solved using state crime control logic—is undeniably in process in the United States. Local, state, and federal statutes target Muslims for surveillance and exclusion, and media sources depict Muslims as synonymous with terrorism, as others have shown. This paper analyzes the public’s role in the criminalization

This paper argues that lay people’s legal consciousness, defined as how they experience and interpret the law and legal meanings, can be studied by observing natural conversation. It proposes a framework that analyzes the contexts when law is invoked to account for social behavior, which enables examination of individuals’ perceptions of law through their utilization of and reactions to it. This framework

Work organizations are commonly studied as sites that produce and reproduce inequality. But we know much less about how organizations promote equality. This article examines efforts to broaden access to power, opportunity, and resources in Hotel Bauen, a worker-recuperated business that was converted from a privately-owned company into a worker-run cooperative. Drawing on extensive ethnographic and

Service programs and other short-term work experiences have become much more common for young adults after college graduation. Emerging adulthood has become a widespread explanation for this phenomenon, namely that a new life stage has arisen between adolescence and young adulthood in which emerging adults prioritize identity exploration. However, using in-depth interviews with juniors and seniors

The Good News Businessmen’s Brotherhood (GNBB) is a Christian organization with evangelical commitments, charismatic practices, and whose members insist that their organization is secular. How are we to understand such a Christian claim to secularity? Members of GNBB draw on the multiple overlapping meanings of the secular in order to reach otherwise inaccessible places and audiences, but they also

Researchers have explored the role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) play in mediating both religious practice and intergenerational family relationships. Few, however, have paid close attention to the interplay between ICTs and spiritual dimensions of intimacies. Drawing from an ethnographic case of parents and their young adult children from various countries who walk the Camino

Embodied experiences are strongly felt, but hard to communicate or verbalize. This article examines people’s articulation and sense-making of their sexual sensations, during interviews, to gain insight into what we refer to as a “perceptual loop” between embodied sensations, body-sensorial knowledge, and social meanings. We employ a combination of interactionist and practice theory to study sex as

The cultural dominance of non-relational sexual scripts for short-term sexual encounters on college campuses, combined with the persistence of gendered practices for heterosexual relationship formation, complicates students’ interest in committed, monogamous, and gender egalitarian relationships. This paper draws on interviews with 56 heterosexual undergraduates ages 18–23 at the University of Illinois

This article aims to consider conceptions of the Brazilian conditional cash transfer Bolsa Família Program as elaborated by both those responsible for its implementation and its beneficiaries in Northeast Brazil. Most innovative in this study is the adoption of the program’s municipal social workers, who are responsible for the implementation of the program, as the main observation point, by conceptualizing

This paper places Latour’s (2004) concept of “body talk” alongside literature on symbolic boundaries to consider how the symbolic judgements and evaluations that comprise body talk frame the impact of structural pressures on the body. Drawing from individual and focus group interviews with 36 first-generation Arab Canadian immigrant women, this study shows that the female body, and practices of feeding

Latin America remains, much more than any other region in the world, dominated by a single religion: Catholicism. But in the second half of the twentieth century, a so-called “Protestant wave” spread across the region increasing religious diversity. This wave was spurred on by Pentecostal and other evangelical Protestant churches, denominations that challenge the religious syncretism, state-church

Researchers of street life and homelessness in the United States continue to acknowledge the persistence of nomadism among the young and homeless, yet we know little about the role that travel plays in their lives or the meanings and motivations tied to this contemporary experience. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we compare homeless youth and young adults that travel with those that do not. Building

The unstable, even precarious labor conditions of many frontline service jobs in the United States should render them undesirable to upwardly mobile young workers. Yet for many, these types of jobs complement, rather than infringe upon, their broader lifestyles. Drawing on six years of ethnographic research in upscale Los Angeles restaurants, I show how front-of-the-house service workers navigate portfolio

Since its medicalization, resolutions around infertility have shifted. Adoption, once considered the natural solution to infertility, is now deemed secondary to medical treatments. Beyond noting this preferential order, little is known about the relationship between medicalized infertility and adoption. To explore this relationship, this study examines why adoption is seen as second best and how the

This article examines a recent controversy over the Catholic Church’s registration of Cordoba’s iconic Mosque-Cathedral as official Church property in 2006. In analyzing the controversy, we take up broader theoretical questions regarding the politicization and contestation of national cultural heritage, and the sociology of public controversy more generally. Drawing upon Alexander’s work on civil discourse

The original version of this article contained several mistakes.

What is qualitative research? If we look for a precise definition of qualitative research, and specifically for one that addresses its distinctive feature of being “qualitative,” the literature is meager. In this article we systematically search, identify and analyze a sample of 89 sources using or attempting to define the term “qualitative.” Then, drawing on ideas we find scattered across existing

The scope and structure of social theory are often analyzed as part of or preamble to theorizing proper. This paper takes an indirect approach to the metatheoretical question, “what does social theory look like in terms of scope and structure?” by analyzing a form of social theory that sociologists tend not to think of as social theory: namely, judge-made law produced in Federal appellate courts. We

Research suggests poor outcomes among children raised in disadvantaged contexts are a consequence of cultural mismatch, that is, competing practices that create conditions too weak to support positive outcomes. While useful, research is limited in its primary focus on individual social spheres and, as a result, does not yet fully account for dynamics across spheres. It also fails to explain the puzzling

Current research indicates that younger Americans, driven by socioeconomic shifts and cultural trends prioritizing self-actualization, are increasingly disinclined toward traditional communal organizations. Yet a search for self-actualization may, in fact, lead religiously inclined young adults to traditional communal organizations, which are characterized by relatively strict organizational norms

In the past, ethnographers often presented themselves in the classic hero frame, where they appeared authoritative and calm. Recent ethnographers, though, reveal hardship and vulnerability yet prevail as “new age heroes” who overcame danger and doubt. Missing are the important methodological insights of ethnographers who experience multiple setbacks and obstacles, ones that lead to a broken ethnography