Media Abstracts for the American Sociological Review

Media Abstracts for February 2008 ASR

 The Rise of Intra-Occupational Wage Inequality in the United States, 1983 to 2002
− ChangHwan Kim, University of Minnesota and Arthur Sakamoto, University of Texas
Wage Inequality Grows Faster Within Occupations than Between Occupations

Wage inequality has increased dramatically in the United States since the 1980s. The effect of this trend lends some credence to the old adage that “the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.” In an examination of why this trend is increasing, sociologists ChangHwan Kim and Arthur Sakamoto studied the causes of wage inequality over time. Using advanced statistical techniques, Kim and Sakamoto find that within-occupational inequality grew faster than between-occupational inequality. In other words, the increase in inequality is due to an increase in the range of salaries possible for a particular occupation—within each job, the rich are getting richer while the poor get poorer. This finding is contrary to the previous attempts to explain inequality largely through differences between occupations. In their many counterintuitive findings, they discover that the proportion of female workers employed in an occupation actually reduces the growth of wage inequality within occupations. Also, a larger unionized work force increases wage inequality, and reductions in manufacturing employment and changes in the distribution of education do not affect wage inequality. Perhaps the least surprising finding is that public-sector employment reduces wage inequality.

 
Job Mobility and Wage Trajectories for Men and Women in the Untied States
 – Sylvia Fuller, University of British Columbia
How Does Changing Jobs Affect Men's and Women's Wage Trajectories?

It has become increasingly common for young American workers to change employers many times while establishing their careers; but what effect does changing employers have on their wages? Also, how do these changes in employers influence wage inequalities between men and women? In a recent study, Sylvia Fuller of the University of British Columbia examines these questions using advanced statistical methods analyzing survey data from 1979 to 2002. She finds that workers who frequently switch employers generally end up earning less than their more stable counterparts due to a variety of reasons. Workers who change jobs frequently do not gain wage premiums given to workers that stay with an employer for more than five years, they are more likely to spend time unemployed, and a greater proportion of their job changes are due to layoffs. However, a worker can achieve a higher wage trajectory if they switch jobs early in their career and do not experience layoffs, unemployment, or leave work for family reasons. For women, leaving work due to family reasons—for example, getting married or having children—leads to wage inequalities between men and women.

Evangelicals in the Power Elite: Elite Cohesion Advancing a Movement
− D. Michael Lindsay, Rice University
Elite Evangelicals Use Powerful Social Networks to Spread Ideas of Evangelicalism

With the election of George W. Bush, evangelicals solidified their position among the political elite. Like other elites, however, little is known about how powerful evangelicals helped shape and spread the evangelical movement. Through interviews with 360 elite informants, D. Michael Lindsay, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rice University, uncovers the mechanisms through which leaders have advanced evangelicalism between 1976 and 2006. He finds that a salient religious identity and cohesive networks played a central role in promoting the goals and ambitions of these elites. Religion and the elite evangelical network often helped these leaders gain access to and retain their prominent positions. As Jimmy Carter, one of Lindsay’s informants, states, “When I was President I was more deeply committed to prayer than ever before or since.”

Religion and the Construction of Civic Identity
− Paul Lichterman, University of Southern California
Religion Works as a Source of Conflict and Cohesion in Civic Groups

Recent debate over the role of religion in civic life has focused on how citizens use religious frameworks to justify their opinions and actions; however, less is known about how people use religion to define boundaries within civic groups. In this analysis of civic identity, Paul Lichterman, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California, describes how religion works as a source of conflict and a source of cohesion within these groups. Based on in-depth evidence from two religiously-based organizations in a midsized U.S. city, the results indicate that religion can enhance or impede collaboration across social status and religious divides. “This study,” Lichterman concludes, “adds to the growing investigation of where and how people express religious language in ordinary, everyday public settings in the United States.”    

Divided We Stand, United We Fall: Religious Pluralism, Giving, and Volunteering
– Francesca Borgonovi, The London School of Economics
Religious Pluralism in a Community Increases Volunteering

Francesca Borgonovi, of the London School of Economics, recently completed a study examining how religious pluralism (greater diversity in religious groups) in a community affects donating to and volunteering for both religious and nonreligious purposes. Using county-level information for the United States and sophisticated statistical analysis, she finds that people living in highly-pluralistic religious areas do not give more to religious causes, but they do volunteer more for religious groups. Social expectations, social connections, and peer pressure all encourage people to donate more of their time to volunteering.  Borgonovi finds that greater competition among religious denominations translates into greater religious volunteering efforts. However, religious pluralism does not reduce giving and volunteering for non-religious purposes. People living in communities with higher levels of religious pluralism are just as likely to give to and volunteer for secular causes as are people in other communities.

The Configuration of Symbolic Boundaries against Immigrants in Europe
− Christopher A. Bail, Harvard University
Europeans’ Attitudes toward Immigrants Differ from Governmental Policy

Several high profile events, such as the 2004 murder of Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands and the heated debates over secularism in France, bring to the foreground the tensions in Europe following the recent increase in non-Western immigrants. European policymakers and politicians are widely believed to support ethnic and racial integration, but less is known about whether the public shares these beliefs. Using cutting-edge methods, Christopher A. Bail, a Doctoral Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, finds that the symbolic boundaries, or “us” versus “them” distinctions, used by the general public do not correspond to the “philosophies of integration” emphasized in previous research. Results also suggest that, by focusing heavily on Western Europe, the previous research overlooks important variations in other parts of Europe where immigration began more recently.

Beyond the Industrial Paradigm: Market-Embedded Labor and the Gender Organization of Global Service Work in China
– Eileen Otis, SUNY-Stony Brook
How Do Local Consumer Markets Impact Staff-Customer Relationships?

Are relationships and interactions between staffs and customers influenced by gender and local communities and markets? Why, in service work, such as hospitality services where women constitute the majority of the workforce, do workers display different gender norms or organize customer relations differently in different settings? Sociologist Eileen Otis studies this phenomenon by comparing two luxury hotels in two Chinese cities, Beijing and Kunming, both run according to the same business plan created by a U.S. corporation. She finds that in the Beijing hotel, which caters largely to Western businessmen, female service workers use feminized practices, which originated in the United States, to anticipate and cater to customer needs. In the Kunming hotel, female service workers display their expertise at their jobs to maintain control over their customers, who are largely Chinese businessman entertaining clients. One reason for this type of interaction is that workers do not want to be mistaken for sex workers, who are common in the area. The hotels are both working off of the same business plan, but the workers’ on-site interpretations of the plan vary widely due to localized customs.