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Authors:Ea H Blaabæk, Mads M Jæger Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. In this research note, we analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cultural participation. We use rich survey data from Denmark to construct pooled time-series cross-sectional data for each month of the years 2019–2021 and report three findings. First, participation in physical cultural activities (e.g. attending a concert or a museum) plummeted during two lockdowns and did not return to its pre-pandemic level by the end of 2021. Second, participation in digital activities (e.g. reading a digital book or following a museum on social media) did not change much during the pandemic. Overall, we find little evidence of substitution from physical to digital cultural participation during the COVID-19 lockdown in Denmark. Third, socioeconomic gradients in cultural participation decreased during the pandemic for physical cultural participation, but did not change for digital cultural participation. We end by discussing what we can learn from our results about how social disruptions affect patterns of cultural participation and inequality. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-09-21T06:57:51Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231203077
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Authors:Anni Erlandsson Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. Relying on data from a large-scale field experiment in Sweden, this article studies discrimination in recruitment on the basis of gender and ethnicity combined with recruiter gender. The study includes 5641 job applications sent in response to advertised vacancies, and the employer callbacks to these. Gender and either a Swedish or a foreign-sounding name were randomly assigned to the applications, and recruiter gender was documented whenever available. Based on the callback rates, there is evidence of ethnic discrimination against foreign-named job applicants by both male and female recruiters. Also, male applicants with foreign-sounding names are discriminated more than female applicants with foreign-sounding names. Thus, the results show gendered ethnic discrimination in the Swedish labor market, and this does not appear to depend on recruiter gender in general. However, the patterns for gendered ethnic discrimination by recruiter gender vary across occupational categories. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-09-20T02:39:08Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231201482
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Authors:Trygve B Broch Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. This article joins Durkheim's theory of cult and Goffman's notion of an interactional membrane to show how rituals transform social life from mundanity to ritual, and back again. I update these classical theories with a cultural sociology of performance and the sociology of fun to emphasize diversity in social compositions, contextual transformations, and contradiction in meaning. With an abductive methodology, I leverage an ethnography of children's sports in Norway to show how we carry out symbolic work to set sports apart from the mundane and then meaningfully enact games either as an attractive play modality or as a constrained organizing of creative play. Dramaturgy, not athletic success, is key in this study. Children's sports, as an arena for tacit learning about symbolic modalities, show us how much effort it takes to create ritual-like encounters and fun. The study also reveals how broadly available codes about children's sports, and about play itself, are worked into sports through social performances where adult coaches and children manoeuvre the possible meanings of sports. The result is a theory of the multiple pathways for symbolic work we can travel to create ritual-like interactions. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-09-16T09:48:15Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231201483
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Authors:Peter Fallesen Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. Most analyses of the intergenerational transmission of criminal justice contacts compare outcomes of the second generation to the criminal history of the first generation. Ignoring the demographic process underlying transmission introduces selection bias into estimates insofar as the first generation's criminal history affects the family formation and the probability of parenthood. I study how differential selection into fatherhood across criminal histories may affect prospective transmission of criminal justice convictions. I use administrative data on the complete fertility patterns and criminal justice history all Danish men born during 1965–1973 and retrospective odds-ratio estimates of intergenerational transmission of criminal justice contacts to estimate prospective transmission of crime and the impact of differential fertility on cohort criminal justice involvement. Seriousness of criminal justice involvement is associated with earlier transition to fatherhood but ultimately higher levels of childlessness. The findings suggest that the existing retrospective estimates of the intergenerational transmission of criminal justice contacts overestimate the population level dynastic transmission. Ignoring differential fertility across criminal justice history leads to upward-biased estimates of how criminal justice involvement is maintained across generations when using retrospective sources. Population-level description of fertility trends has substantial implication for theoretical understanding of how transmission of offending occurs at the population level. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-08-30T07:23:59Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231198334
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Authors:Thomas Thurnell-Read Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print.
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Authors:Julius M Rogenhofer, Filipe C da Silva Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. How does material culture shape contentious politics' Things, we argue, influence political contention in ways that are reducible neither to struggles over meaning nor to the thingly aspect of things. The article combines pragmatic semiotics with insights on ritual practice and collective experience. By bringing together three often separate literatures – contentious politics, material culture, and affect – we suggest a thicker understanding of agency. Agency, this article contends, is distributed between primary human actors and objects, which exercise a degree of secondary agency. Our aim is to explore how affect is stored in and channelled through seemingly ordinary objects. Political actors use these affectively charged symbol-index-icons in pursuit of various objectives; specifically, material things are shown to enable and constrain episodes of contention. As a result, our understanding of contentious politics involves not only ideas, texts, and opportunity structures but also the objects that help make social and political change possible. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-08-08T06:00:40Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231186507
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Authors:Jacques Raubenheimer Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. Franzén (2023: 1) has warned of ‘big problems’ when researchers attempt to use Google Trends (GT) data. The evidence she provides is examined, additional evidence is obtained and analysed, and a new set of conclusions are derived. The anomalies previously encountered are due to a combination of factors, but can be explained by noting that Google samples its data to provide GT results, these data are also scaled, which can exacerbate variation between samples, and Denmark is a small country and Jakob Scharf a low-probability search term, both of which would increase variation in search probabilities provided by GT. When multiple samples are obtained and aggregated (medians are best for low-probability search terms), this variation is controlled, and a stable time series is derived. Researchers should not see GT as an easy source of data, but should do the work required to understand the data, and should use it, and interpret their results, within the limitations inherent in these data. It is important to aggregate multiple samples (preferably with the median for each time point) in order to obtain more stable estimates from GT. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-07-19T05:44:22Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231187489
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Authors:Joshua Moody, Aphra Kerr Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print.
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Authors:Ayan Handulle, Anders Vassenden Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. Ethnic minority parents who are fearful of child welfare services (CWS) is an acknowledged social problem, but the existing academic understanding is limited. Interpretations in previous research have tended to highlight people's ‘dispositions’, typically cultural backgrounds, and lack of knowledge, or ‘structures’ like welfare and penal systems. More neglected is how CWS fears can be generated from interactional processes within groups. Building on extensive ethnography with Norwegian Somalis, a marginalized migrant group, we extend the sociological understanding of ethnic minority parents’ CWS fears. Relying on an interactionist theoretical framework, we centre Erving Goffman's interaction ritual (e.g., facework) and stigma, which we combine with Robert Putnam's bonding social capital. From this vantage point, we construct a ‘bottom-up’ theoretical model highlighting transmission of child removal stories in tight-knit social networks. Among Norwegian Somalis, fears emanate from a social process with four interconnected factors: (A) adversities and ‘tribal stigma’; (B) bonding social capital, for coping and self-respect; (C) children as a ‘lifeline’. Together these generate (D) wide diffusion of child removal stories, which perpetuates pervasive CWS fears. This model should productively inform comparative research. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-06-01T05:29:27Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231177548
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Authors:Manuel Eisner Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print.
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Authors:Ilona Wysmułek, Jakub Wysmułek Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. Although the generational experiences of young adults are believed to have an enduring impact on their attitudes throughout the life course, it remains unclear whether periods of stability versus different types of radical social change lead to substantive generational differences. In this paper, we examine attitudes toward meritocracy of four generations in Poland whose young adulthood was spent in (a) the “Little Stabilization” period of the 1960s and early 1970s; (b) the economic and political crisis of the late 1970s and 1980s; (c) the turbulence of the political and economic transformation of the 1990s; and (d) the relative stability of the first decade of the 21st century after Poland's accession to the European Union. Our data come from surveys dating back to 1988, before the regime change in Poland, and until 2020. The results show changing attitudes toward the value of education, innate abilities, talent, and hard work in Poland. There is a generational effect on perceived meritocracy. The generation of people born in 1956–1959, who entered adult life during the deep crisis of the socialist state, expresses the greatest distrust in meritocracy. Findings suggest that the experience of spending one's youth and young adulthood in a relatively stable political and economic system, either socialist or capitalist, has a positive influence on meritocratic attitudes. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-05-09T06:29:17Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231173296
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Authors:Katja Möhring, Céline Teney Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. Affirmative action policies (AAP) polarise the public debate in Western democracies as they involve favouring one candidate at the cost of others because of their group membership. Against this backdrop, we ran a factorial survey experiment in Denmark, France and Germany on the introduction of a hypothetical regulation favouring women and immigrants with equal qualifications in the recruitment process for a management position (N = 4264; YouGov online panel). Our data show that support for AAP for women is significantly greater than for immigrants in all three countries. Moreover, support for AAP is much higher in France than in Germany and Denmark. Germans and Danes show similar low support for AAP for immigrants, while support for AAP for women is higher in Germany than Denmark. We conducted multilevel regression models to investigate the power of several attitudinal factors in explaining target group and country differences. Results show that respondents’ varying levels of ethnic and gender prejudice and perceived disadvantage entirely explain target group differences in support for AAP. Furthermore, differences between Germany and Denmark in the support of AAP for women are explained by different levels of prejudices and perceived disadvantage, and attitudes towards state intervention. However, these attitudinal variables cannot explain why support for AAP is much higher in France. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-05-04T05:29:01Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231163416
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Authors:Arturo L. Fitz Herbert, Reynaldo Rivera, Frank Ketelhohn, Fern Elsdon-Baker Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. Recent surveys show that most scientists do not perceive a conflict between science and religion. However, in many Western societies the “conflict narrative” prevails, which states that science grows at the expense of religion, and vice versa. Furthermore, evidence indicates the presence of stigmas against religion in many scientific fields of the West. Why do religious scientists feel discriminated in a field where several of their colleagues are not prejudiced against religion' Based on 22 in-depth interviews and 2 focus groups with Argentinean scientists, we show that the conflict narrative and the stigmatisation of religious scientists are present in the Argentinean scientific field. We argue that the conflict narrative is learned as part of the shared understandings of the field during the socialisation of Argentinian scientists in public institutions, where the secular norm prevails. Religious scientists adapt by strategically hiding their beliefs from their colleagues. This behaviour means that the narrative is not challenged in public, thus generating a feedback loop where the notion that there is a broad consensus about religion in the field reinforces the incentives for the strategic interaction of religious scientists. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-05-02T05:51:01Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231173292
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Authors:Silje Fekjær, Einar Øverbye, Lars Inge Terum Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. To study discrimination in labour/housing markets, and among street-level bureaucrats in the welfare state, present both theoretical and methodological challenges. In the sociological study of discrimination, experiments have seldom been used to study how street-level bureaucrats make their decisions. The context of decision-making is different in the state and in markets, but experimental methods can provide new knowledge of how perceptions of deservingness may potentially lead to discrimination in the welfare state. Using a vignette experiment on Norwegian street-level bureaucrats (N = 645), we investigate if their perceptions of recipients’ ethnic background, and perceived ‘unfavourable’ behaviour, affect the propensity to impose a time-limited termination of unemployment benefits due to non-compliance with activity requirements. The experiment finds that the propensity to terminate the unemployment benefit was initially less for the recipient with an ethnic minority name, compared to the recipient with an ethnic majority name. However, when information about ‘unfavourable’ behaviour was added to the vignette, the propensity to sanction the ethnic minority recipient strongly increased. The results suggest that perceived deservingness-traits are crucial for understanding possible discrimination when street-level bureaucrats face ethnic minorities in the welfare state. Ethnic markers interact with markers of ‘deservingness’. Theoretical and methodological implications when studying potential discrimination among street-level bureaucrats are discussed. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-02-15T04:40:08Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231156486
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Authors:Otto Erik Alexander Segersven Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. This article uses a novel method—the Imitation Game—to search for lasting ethnic biculturalism. I address the case of Finland-Swedes and the Finnish-speaking majority in Finland. While it is known that most Finland-Swedes are fluent in two languages, Swedish and Finnish, the question remains whether they are fluent in two respective cultures. The Imitation Game investigates biculturalism and alternative acculturation paths as a function of cultural competences. As part of a mixed-methods analysis, I introduce the Group Relations Graph as a comparative framework to pinpoint acculturation paths based on whether members of the minority can exhibit competence in minority and majority culture. The findings display acculturation as a dynamic process of multiple concurrent acculturation paths: the studied groups are assimilated with respect to values and experiences, and separated in terms of knowledge and linguistic style. Finland-Swedes are a powerful minority group with both the resources and the intention to maintain a unique Finland-Swedish culture, yet in terms of cultural competences they appear indistinguishable from the Finnish-speaking majority—except for within the context of an ethnic enclave institution. Ultimately, the article posits a pessimistic assessment for the possibility of lasting biculturalism and, by extension, a multicultural society. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-02-14T07:18:54Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231156488
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Authors:Solveig T Borgen Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. This paper investigates the effect of attending immigrant-dense schools on student outcomes, which consists of the joint effect of immigrant peers and school context. The sorting of students into schools is not random, and a large immigrant peer effect literature uses school fixed effects to eliminate selection bias. However, keeping schools fixed also eliminates the effect of the school context and is accordingly unsuited to estimate the total effect of attending immigrant-dense schools. By using both a value-added approach and by drawing on application data to manage selection bias, this paper demonstrates that attending immigrant-dense upper secondary schools in Norway increases student dropout, even though a school fixed effects model indicates no detectable immigrant peer effects. These findings suggest that immigrant-dense schools affect students in other ways than through mere peer exposure, and that research on the consequences of school segregation should take into account the effect of both school context and peers. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-02-03T08:53:30Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993231154128
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Authors:Alexandra Franzén Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. Google Trends has for over a decade been used by researchers in medicine and the social sciences who want to use information about internet searches to gain new data and insights concerning medical and social issues. A similar tool by the same company, Google Flu Trends, was abolished by Google in 2015 due to serious problems with accuracy; raising larger questions about the quality of the data provided, not only by Google, but by all platforms collecting big data. In this article, I use an unplanned experiment to test the reliability and replicability of Google Trends. The results strongly indicate that scientists in all fields should refrain from using the tool Google Trends when conducting research. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-01-30T09:21:37Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993221151118
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Authors:Daniel Klein, Martin Neugebauer Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. While many studies document the ambitious educational choices of immigrants across Europe, researchers have only recently begun to investigate the consequences of these ambitious choices. Our article extends this emerging literature by focusing on immigrants’ success throughout tertiary education in Germany. We argue that after the transition into tertiary education, immigrants lose their advantages over native students regarding higher aspirations while retaining or even increasing their disadvantages regarding academic achievements, which ultimately results in a higher risk of dropping out. Analyses based on data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) confirm our hypotheses. Net of socioeconomic background and prior academic achievements, immigrants enter tertiary education with similar aspirations as their native peers. At the same time, immigrants, especially those of Turkish origins, have lower grades and competency levels. Furthermore, immigrants continue to receive lower grades during tertiary education and have a considerably higher risk of dropping out. We conclude that immigrants’ high aspirations enable them to enroll in tertiary education at comparably low levels of academic achievement but ultimately increase the risk of academic failure. We discuss possible policy measures to improve the situation of immigrants. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-01-18T07:07:48Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993221148897
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Authors:Elin Svensen Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. The link between students’ family background and their school achievement is well documented. The recent literature has also investigated how social and emotional skills and mindsets relate to educational outcomes. Here I examine how mindset—that is, whether students believe more in that intellectual abilities are fixed or capable of growth—is related to family background and school achievement in Norway. I find that students with higher-educated parents have lower levels of a fixed mindset on entering high school. I also estimate heterogeneity in this association using multilevel modeling. The predicted level of students’ fixed mindset is low for higher-performing middle-school students, irrespective of parents’ education. Furthermore, low middle-school performance predicts higher levels of a fixed mindset, particularly for students with lower-educated parents. A higher level of fixed mindset on entering high school is related to lower achievement after the first year. The results suggest that students’ belief in “natural talent” is a mechanism worthy of further investigation as it is more malleable than the mechanisms traditionally used to explain differences in academic performance according to family background. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-01-02T10:34:55Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993221145427
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Authors:Gregor Schäfer Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. Methodological nationalism as a critique of container-based and nation-state-focused theory and empirical research is currently strongly anchored within migration studies, where it was initially developed. While this has led to extensive literature and critical engagement with methodological nationalism, and ways to circumvent the national trap in many (sub-)disciplines, it has not much penetrated theories of social stratification. This conceptual paper will address this gap by discussing the social positioning of high-skilled migrants in contemporary stratified societies. This exemplary discussion will bring together a critical perspective of methodological nationalism on class and milieu theory. It will also confront the critique of methodological nationalism with the question of the origin of social power and dominance, which are the foundation of stratification theories. This article will specifically draw on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of social space and its derivative. Emphasis will also be given to Michael Vester's development of social milieu to highlight blind spots according to the critique of methodological nationalism. This paper shows that these theories have not grasped high-skilled migration thoroughly. It also outlines that migrant theories and their critique of methodological nationalism inadequately address the source of symbolic hierarchy and the formation of social stratification. Thus, both theoretical strands would benefit from a deeper conversation with each other. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-01-02T10:33:34Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993221145405
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Authors:Jose Eos Trinidad, Assumpta Nina San Andres, Peter Louise Garnace, Stanley Guevarra Abstract: Acta Sociologica, Ahead of Print. Higher education institutions are pressured to use data for university rankings, accreditation, decision making, and technical support of students and faculty. However, these organizations also experience barriers and resistance to such data-driven aspirations. Rather than simply focusing on the whole organization, this research attends to variations in organizational subunits and asks what processes help and hinder data use. It pays attention to the puzzle of how data use variation can lead to effective subunits just as data fragmentation contributes to ineffective systems. Although universities may create centralized coordinating bodies, the structural and cultural bases of loosely coupled university subunits may upset these efforts. Using the case of a university attempting to centralize its data systems, we employ in-depth interviews of senior and mid-level administrators to understand why technical changes happen within specific subunits even as only ceremonial changes happen for the larger organization. This suggests new insights for interrogating how loose and tight coupling can co-exist in the same organization. Citation: Acta Sociologica PubDate: 2023-01-02T10:32:15Z DOI: 10.1177/00016993221145369
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