Sociological FocusPub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2021.2012861
Qi Li, C. Knoester, Richard J. Petts
{"title":"Attitudes about Paid Parental Leave in the United States","authors":"Qi Li, C. Knoester, Richard J. Petts","doi":"10.1080/00380237.2021.2012861","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2021.2012861","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Paid parental leave offerings in the United States are relatively rare and unequal. Yet, little is known about public opinions about paid leave and the factors that distinguish adults’ attitudes about them. With the use of data from the General Social Survey, we investigated attitudes about paid parental leave availability, preferred lengths of paid leave offerings, and government funding of leave in the United States. We found overwhelming support for paid parental leave availability, an average preference for four months of paid leave offerings, and common support for at least some government funding for leaves. Older and more politically conservative individuals were consistently less supportive of paid parental leave availability, longer lengths of leave, and government funding of leave. Women, supporters of dual-earner expectations, black individuals, and those who were not working in paid labor were typically more supportive of generous paid parental leave offerings. These findings suggest that there have been longstanding desires for more widespread and generous paid parental leave offerings in the United States but that this has not yet been sufficient to prompt widely applicable policy changes across the nation.","PeriodicalId":39368,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41722091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sociological FocusPub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2021.2009074
Holly J. McCammon, Magdalena N. Sudibjo, Cathryn Beeson-Lynch, Amanda J. Brockman, M. Moon
{"title":"Feminist Friends of the Court: Amicus Curiae, Social Movement Institutional Activism, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Women’s Rights Cases","authors":"Holly J. McCammon, Magdalena N. Sudibjo, Cathryn Beeson-Lynch, Amanda J. Brockman, M. Moon","doi":"10.1080/00380237.2021.2009074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2021.2009074","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT To influence outcomes in U.S. women’s rights Supreme Court cases, feminist advocacy groups and their allies routinely file amicus curiae briefs, third-party briefs designed to persuade the justices in their decision-making. Yet no study has systematically examined the impact of these feminist-supporting amici on judicial decision-making. We argue that advocacy groups’ amicus mobilization can be understood as institutional activism, activism utilizing a judicial channel through which advocacy groups can communicate directly with the justices. To discern whether this form of feminist institutional activism shapes judicial law, we examine amicus activity in the women’s rights cases from the mid-1960s until 2016. We utilize a resource mobilization perspective to examine mobilization of amici but offer refinements of the theory by invoking affected-groups and information theories. Our regression analyses show that use of amici can persuade the justices to vote in favor of the feminist litigant. We also investigate whether the influence of feminist amicus activity is moderated by legal circumstances (for instance, whether a justice is conservative or liberal). We find only limited evidence that the potency of this form of institutional resource mobilization is moderated by the legal context.","PeriodicalId":39368,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49002953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sociological FocusPub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2021.2015730
Ayodeji Bayo Ogunrotifa
{"title":"Beyond Adherence: The Healthwork of People Living with HIV in Nigeria","authors":"Ayodeji Bayo Ogunrotifa","doi":"10.1080/00380237.2021.2015730","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2021.2015730","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Following the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 1996, adherence was regarded by biomedical researchers as the only way to manage HIV effectively in everyday life. The sociological critique of this biomedical stance posits that the everyday management of HIV goes beyond the biomedical conception of adherence, as HIV-positive individuals undertake healthwork practices that form the basis of HIV management. Using symbolic interactionism and social context theory to ground the lived experience of healthwork, this paper explores the kinds of healthwork people living with HIV in Nigeria undertake. Drawing from 32 semi-structured interviews with HIV-positive individuals living in Nigeria, it was observed that healthwork is an individualized practice including spirituality, testing, counseling, adherence, concealment, dieting, and support-group participation. These practices are shaped by the sociocultural, economic, political, and structural factors in the Nigerian context. Meaningful healthwork practices were informed by the personal responses to HIV diagnosis, and such practices were tied to formal rules, local dynamics, and contextual issues that are shaped by structural and institutional factors. This paper contributes to sociological knowledge on HIV management by demonstrating the importance of context and meaning in the design of health interventions and programs connected with the lived experience of people living with HIV.","PeriodicalId":39368,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49479590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sociological FocusPub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2021.2009075
Emily K. Carian
{"title":"“No Seat at the Party”: Mobilizing White Masculinity in the Men’s Rights Movement","authors":"Emily K. Carian","doi":"10.1080/00380237.2021.2009075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2021.2009075","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT I use the men’s rights movement, an anti-feminist backlash movement consisting largely of straight, white men, to examine how high-status group members develop a collective identity leveraged by right-wing movements. Drawing on 31 interviews with men’s rights activists, I find that masculinity, whiteness, and straightness play crucial roles in motivating identification with the movement. Interviewees believe others see them as privileged and thus immoral because of these identities. This clashes with the way they see themselves, threatens their moral sense of self, and evokes negative emotions. In response, they reconstruct themselves – as straight, white men – as victims, thus developing a sense of “we” and a basis for collective action. In an effort to recoup a sense of moral goodness and build community, they also construct a new collective identity as men’s rights activists, which invests them in organized backlash. This paper develops a theory to explain collective identity formation among high-status group members, and illustrates how the identity work straight, white men undertake in the face of culturally legitimate challenges to their privilege can invest them in organized backlash movements.","PeriodicalId":39368,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44975333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sociological FocusPub Date : 2022-01-01Epub Date: 2022-04-17DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2022.2049409
Cheng Wang, John R Hipp, Carter T Butts, Cynthia M Lakon
{"title":"The Moderating Role of Context: Relationships between Individual Behaviors and Social Networks.","authors":"Cheng Wang, John R Hipp, Carter T Butts, Cynthia M Lakon","doi":"10.1080/00380237.2022.2049409","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00380237.2022.2049409","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A social context can be viewed as an entity or unit around which a group of individuals organize their activities and interactions. Social contexts take such diverse forms as families, dwelling places, neighborhoods, classrooms, schools, workplaces, voluntary organizations, and sociocultural events or milieus. Understanding social contexts is essential for the study of individual behaviors, social networks, and the relationships between the two. Contexts shape individual behaviors by providing an avenue for non-dyadic conformity and socialization processes. The co-participation within a context affects personal relationships by acting as a focus for tie formation. Where participation in particular contexts confers status, this effect may also lead to differences in popularity within interpersonal networks. Social contexts may further play a moderating role in within-network influence and selection processes, providing circumstances that either amplify or suppress these effects. In this paper we investigate the joint role of co-participation via social contexts and dyadic interaction in shaping and being shaped by individual behaviors with the context of a U.S. high school. Implications for future study of social contexts are suggested.</p>","PeriodicalId":39368,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10956702/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44294609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sociological FocusPub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2021.1987075
Rachel E. Stein
{"title":"NCSA 2021 Presidential Address: Discovery, Disenchantment, and Recovery: Finding Sociology that Matters in Amish Country","authors":"Rachel E. Stein","doi":"10.1080/00380237.2021.1987075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2021.1987075","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Popular text-matching software generates a percentage of similarity – called a “similarity score” or “Similarity Index” – that quantifies the matching text between a particular manuscript and content in the software’s archives, on the Internet and in electronic databases. Many evaluators rely on these simple figures as a proxy for plagiarism and thus avoid the burdensome task of inspecting the longer Similarity Reports that show the matching in detail. Yet similarity scores, though alluringly straightforward, are never enough to judge the presence (or absence) of plagiarism. Ideally, evaluators should always examine the Similarity Reports. Given the persistent use of simplistic similarity score thresholds at some academic journals and educational institutions, however, and the time that can be saved by relying on the scores, a method is arguably needed that encourages examination of the Similarity Reports but still also allows evaluators to choose to rely on the similarity scores in some instances. This article proposes a four-band method to accomplish this. Used together, the bands oblige evaluators to acknowledge the risk they take in relying on the similarity scores yet still allow them to ultimately determine whether they wish to accept that risk. The bands – for most rigor, high rigor, moderate rigor and less rigor – should be tailored to an evaluator’s particular needs.","PeriodicalId":39368,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44796113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sociological FocusPub Date : 2021-10-02DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2021.1987077
Gregory T. Kordsmeier
{"title":"North Central Sociological Association 2020: John F. Schnabel Teaching Address: Practicing What We Preach: Inclusive Pedagogy and the Sociology Classroom","authors":"Gregory T. Kordsmeier","doi":"10.1080/00380237.2021.1987077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2021.1987077","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT As sociologists, inequality and difference are at the core of what we study as a discipline. At the same time, the college classroom can often be a site that reproduces and reinforces those same inequalities. Inclusive pedagogy offers sociology instructors tools that will allow them to put sociological theory and empirical research into practice in their teaching, to better live their values by disrupting inequalities in their classrooms, and to offer all students greater opportunities for success. While sociologists can and must do more outside of the classroom to create a more equitable and just system of higher education, inclusive pedagogy offers instructors a place to start in their endeavors to serve all students, regardless of background.","PeriodicalId":39368,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44969244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sociological FocusPub Date : 2021-09-14DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2021.1970062
K. Brumley, Katheryn C. Maguire, Shirin Montazer
{"title":"The Paradox of Time: Work, Family, Conflict, and the Social Construction of Time","authors":"K. Brumley, Katheryn C. Maguire, Shirin Montazer","doi":"10.1080/00380237.2021.1970062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2021.1970062","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Today’s employees work longer hours and face constraints from nonstandard, rotating, or unpredictable schedules. Even when they are home, employees are often tethered to their jobs by technology and expected to be available. Higher demands on an employee’s time can lead to burnout and greater job-related stress, impacting work-family conflict. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we analyze how women in dual-income heterosexual partnerships make sense of and manage their family relationships in light of the competition between work-imposed demands and family time. Our study shows how women attempt to control their time by setting boundaries, scheduling, and allowing work and family time to blur as a way to address hectic work and family lives; however, this is often not successful, leading to paradoxical outcomes, particularly for those with children. Nevertheless, our participants make their limited time meaningful as a source of connection within their relational lives by ritualizing meals, accomplishing tasks, and sharing space. This study extends our theorizing on how work and family demands shape perceptions and meanings of the structure of time.","PeriodicalId":39368,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46050463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sociological FocusPub Date : 2021-09-06DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2021.1966690
Racheal Pesta, Robert L. Peralta
{"title":"Nonfatal Suicidal Behavior among a Sample of College Students: The Role of Gender as a Risk and Protective Factor","authors":"Racheal Pesta, Robert L. Peralta","doi":"10.1080/00380237.2021.1966690","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2021.1966690","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In the United States, suicide is a leading cause of death among college-aged persons, particularly among men. However, while college-aged men are at higher risk for suicide, it is women who exhibit higher incidences of nonfatal suicidal behavior. Nonfatal suicidal behavior (NFSB) includes acts such as suicidal ideation, self-injury, and suicide attempt. Expanding the research on the gender gap in suicidal behaviors by drawing on a contemporary gender socialization framework, this study examines the role of various gender dimensions and NFSB. Utilizing data from a survey of college students, we find that the gender dimensions, Nurture/Warmth and Affect, operate as risk and protective factors in the use of NFSB for men and women.","PeriodicalId":39368,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42632522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sociological FocusPub Date : 2021-08-30DOI: 10.1080/00380237.2021.1970063
J. Schweitzer, Tamara L. Mix
{"title":"“Personally, It Does Not Bother Me All that Much”: Nuclear Risk Assessments and Strategic Choice among Stakeholders in Post-Fukushima France","authors":"J. Schweitzer, Tamara L. Mix","doi":"10.1080/00380237.2021.1970063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2021.1970063","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Nuclear technology is often associated with risk, a connotation amplified by major nuclear disasters including Japan’s 2011 Fukushima Daiichi power plant catastrophe. Assessments of risk associated with nuclear energy are complex, reflecting political and economic interests in the technology. Countries like France that rely heavily on nuclear power make efforts to craft messages about nuclear risk to both normalize and prevent resistance to the technology. Normative, oppositional, and monitoring stakeholders compete to define the meaning of nuclear energy in France. As actors discuss the future of the industry, they integrate the concept of risk into daily narratives. Employing data from 27 semi-structured interviews with 28 key stakeholders, our study considers France’s unique relationship with nuclear energy to address risk and tactical choice in a context that normalizes a contested technology. Our analysis highlights the dominant position of normative stakeholders in influencing nuclear risk perceptions and weakening oppositional tactical choices.","PeriodicalId":39368,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48120043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}