We checked 6 sociology journals on Friday, November 28, 2025 using the Crossref API. For the period November 21 to November 27, we retrieved 12 new paper(s) in 3 journal(s).

American Sociological Review

“Choppy Waters”: Navigating Political Generational Conflict in Social Movement Organizations
Carolina P. Seigler, Kristopher Velasco, Pamela Paxton
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Social movements are composed of distinct political generations. Yet empirical work documenting distinct generations is limited, and work detailing the conflict and problems created by generational turnover exceedingly rare. Based on interviews with 39 leaders of LGBTQ+ organizations, supplemented with longitudinal administrative text data from 1,840 LGBTQ+ organizational mission statements, we demonstrate political generational change, and conflict, in the U.S. LGBTQ+ movement. The prior “Legacy” generation is confronted by an “Emergent” generation with different understandings of sexuality/gender, intersectionality, and organizational strategies. These conflictual differences produce material and emotional consequences as the “Legacy” generation takes their resources away and members of both generations feel erased from the movement’s collective identity. Leaders navigate these “choppy waters” by taking either a harsh approach, which seeks to dismiss whichever generation is viewed as hindering their organization’s work, or an inclusive approach that views generational tension as an opportunity to grow and strengthen their organization and the larger movement. We highlight how the observed conflict between political generations prompts a serious re-evaluation of the “unity through diversity” mantra associated with this movement. Ultimately, political generations are a critical link to understanding transformation and change in social movements with clear implications for collective identity, resource mobilization, and other core social movement processes.
Who Can Have a Baby? Social Norms and the Right to Reproduce
LetĂ­cia J. Marteleto, Sneha Kumar, Luiz Gustavo Fernandes Sereno, Alexandre Gori Maia
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Childbearing norms and discourse influence social interactions and policy priorities, reflecting and reinforcing social stratification. We propose a theoretical framework that systematically explains stratification and discrimination in childbearing norms. The theory of socially sanctioned reproduction (TSSR) emphasizes how childbearing and reproductive norms are shaped by individual and intersectional attributes of both evaluators and those evaluated, underscoring multidimensionality and intersectionality in childbearing norms. We empirically examine this theory through paired conjoint survey experiments with a population-based sample of women ages 18 to 34 in Pernambuco, Brazil—a highly unequal, multiracial context. In our novel application, respondents assessed profiles of hypothetical married women with randomly varying attributes and reported whether they were well-suited for childbearing. Findings show how intersectional attributes and in-group/out-group dynamics, principally along race and SES lines, define childbearing norms. Black women receive less approval if in low- versus high-SES positions, whereas White women receive similar levels of approval regardless of SES. We find that these discriminatory patterns are shaped by the social attributes of evaluators themselves, suggesting othering and group attachment processes. Our theoretical and empirical frameworks can be extended to study norms in other highly contested areas of reproductive and family life.
Shades of Égalité : Educational Mobility and Ethnoracial Hierarchy Over Three Generations in France
Mathieu Ferry, Milan Bouchet-Valat, Lucas G. Drouhot, Mathieu Ichou, Ognjen Obućina
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The long-term incorporation of immigrant-origin populations is a crucial question in liberal democracies. While much research has focused on the second generation, less is known about the grandchildren of immigrants. Investigating this “third generation” is key to assessing whether migration societies offer equal opportunity to their members regardless of their origins—that is, whether family background shapes life chances in a similar way among immigrant and native families. Here, we gauge the influence of ethnoracial origins on life chances in the long run by studying trajectories of intergenerational educational mobility among immigrant and native families over three generations. Our study is set in France, a major country of immigration in Europe, where a national narrative of immigrant integration and equality across ethnic origins has long prevailed. We show substantial catching up in educational attainment and higher social fluidity in immigrant families, for whom the grandparental educational starting point was very low. The grandchildren of Southern European immigrants converge with natives in their mobility patterns, suggesting equal opportunities. Despite a partial convergence, the grandchildren of North African immigrants experience a distinct mobility regime and enduring educational disadvantage. Altogether, our results suggest the existence of an ethnoracial hierarchy, whereby Southern European families experience educational destinies broadly comparable to those of natives, while ethnoracial origins durably shape the educational trajectories of North African families.
Organizational Scarring, Legal Consciousness, and the Diffusion of Local Government Litigation Against Opioid Manufacturers
Amanda Sharkey, Kathryne M. Young, Christof Brandtner, Patrick Bergemann
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Between 2017 and 2020, local government attorneys’ offices in the United States filed a surge of lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. Aimed at recovering the costs of the opioid epidemic, this “affirmative litigation” was a novel action for most of them. Participation necessitated a tectonic shift in how they conceptualized their roles vis-à-vis the law. To understand how this occurred, we use a mixed-methods approach that draws on in-depth interviews and event-history analysis. Our investigation reveals the importance of “organizational scarring,” wherein an organization develops a lingering sense of having been wronged by another entity—a feeling that persists via an organizational narrative but does not shape organizational action until much later. Here, scarring resulted from the Big Tobacco lawsuits. As many localities perceived it, states’ distribution of settlement money unfairly disadvantaged them. This scar was activated when the possibility of opioid litigation arose, triggering distrust of state legal action and causing local government attorneys to reconceptualize affirmative litigation as befitting their roles—which facilitated their decisions to sue. Our findings not only shed light on a tactic that local governments are increasingly using to respond to public health crises, but also inform research on organizational learning, diffusion, and legal consciousness.

European Sociological Review

Increasingly polarized? Inequality, prosperity, and perceived socioeconomic conflict in advanced economies (1987–2019)
Cristian Márquez Romo, Simon Bienstman, Markus Gangl
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Previous studies suggest that in more unequal societies, people perceive stronger antagonistic relations between opposing socioeconomic groups. Given that income inequality and social polarization have both been on the rise in most Western democracies, we expand on this body of work by investigating whether changes in macroeconomic fundamentals have triggered changes in perceived socioeconomic conflict. To assess this proposition, we fit hybrid multilevel models using time-series cross-sectional data from 26 countries spanning over three decades (1987–2019). Our evidence shows that rising economic prosperity does not reduce the level of perceived conflict once income inequality is accounted for. In contrast, growing inequality is robustly associated with increased salience of perceived socioeconomic conflict. Findings indicate a sociotropic within effect of income inequality, net of changes in economic prosperity and accounting for contextual confounders and individual-level compositional effects. Our results further suggest that income inequality exacerbates class-based polarization in conflict perceptions: it increases perceived conflict across all groups—except the upper-middle class. Alternative model specifications and extensive robustness checks lend additional support to our argument that the distribution of economic resources has a direct impact on the salience of socioeconomic conflict perceptions.
Class-based network segregation, economic inequality, and redistributive preferences across societies
Julio Iturra-Sanhueza
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Rising economic inequality has renewed interest in how class-based social networks shape redistributive preferences across societies. While previous research has explored how social class influences individual attitudes towards redistribution, less is known about how class-based network segregation—defined as the extent to which network ties belong to the same or similar social class of the individual—affects this relationship. At the national level, there is limited understanding of how income inequality could moderate how individuals at both ends of the class spectrum form redistributive attitudes within segregated networks. For example, in more segregated networks, the working class may experience heightened marginalization, while the service class may have reduced exposure to disadvantaged classes. This can deepen class-based attitudinal divides, particularly in societies with low to moderate inequality. However, in highly unequal societies, existing evidence suggests that the class gradient in redistributive preferences tends to narrow, primarily due to rising support for redistribution among the service class. This study investigates how income inequality moderates the interplay between social class and class-based network segregation in shaping redistributive preferences. Using cross-national data from 32,717 individuals across 31 countries, the findings reveal that homogeneous networks are associated with stronger redistributive support among the working class and weaker support among the service class. This relationship is mitigated in high-inequality contexts. Overall, the findings suggest that country-level inequality weakens the interaction between class-based network segregation and individual class position on redistributive attitudes, especially for the service class. The study underscores the value of integrating relational and structural approaches to better understand class, inequality, and support for redistribution.

Social Forces

Economic inequality and economic segregation: a systematic review of causal pathways
Clémentine Cottineau-Mugadza
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Although economic inequality and economic segregation represent fundamental challenges of contemporary societies, their causal and empirical connections remain unclear. In particular, the direction of causality, causal pathways, and temporalities are not evident in the literature. This gap has two probable origins: (1) the discussion is dominated by a handful of studies from the United Stated published in the 2000s. This comes at the expense of a more plural and complex understanding of the phenomena in the rest of the world. (2) The literature on inequality and that of segregation are segmented by disciplines operating at different scales with corresponding theories, actors and mechanisms. To address these issues, I conduct an extensive systematic literature review of articles linking economic inequality to economic segregation across multiple languages and disciplines. Starting from 20,000+ references, I identify 80 relevant research articles to review. Most conclude that variations in economic segregation follow differences in economic inequality in the short term and that reverse causality is more probable in the longer term. The housing market is the most cited mediator between economic inequality and economic segregation, and a diversity of theories are mobilized to explain their empirical connections. Many articles are not presently comparable, but compatible definitions and measurements of inequality and segregation are rising.
Outgroups and ingroups: how support for torture and aggressive counterterrorism policies varies by extremist type
Murat Haner, Melissa M Sloan, Justin T Pickett, Francis T Cullen
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As domestic terrorism has become central to US national security, the American public has shown divided reactions to political violence. In the current context of increasing political polarization and racial tension, we draw on social identity theory to compare responses to Islamist, left-wing, and right-wing terrorism and identify moderators of those responses. Analyses of data from a 2022 national survey experiment (n = 1,300) reveal that Americans’ responses to terrorism depend heavily on who is doing the terrorizing. Whereas Americans are equally outraged by Islamist, right-wing, and left-wing terrorism, support for controversial policies varies by terrorist type, with greater support for the use of torture on Islamist terrorists. Our findings also point toward the importance of Republicanism and white nationalist sentiment. Compared to Democrats, Republicans were more supportive of policy and the use of torture targeting Islamist terrorists and less supportive of policy targeting right-wing extremists. In addition, white nationalist sentiment corresponded to increased support for aggressive counterterrorism policy and the use of torture when applied to left-wing and Islamist terrorists. As public opinion is key to the development of government policies, it is critical that policymakers recognize the role of outgroup animosity in public support of counterterrorism measures.
Review of “Subtle Webs: How Local Organizations Shape US Education”
Allison L Hurst
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Austerity as reproductive injustice: did local government spending cuts unequally impact births?
Laura Sochas, Jenny Chanfreau
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Large local government spending cuts in England, spanning over a decade of austerity policies, have severely restricted the universal services and public goods that constitute the environments within which parenting occurs. Drawing on the Reproductive Justice (RJ) framework and conceptualizing spending cuts as restricting the right to parent in safe and healthy environments, we ask whether these cuts constrained people’s right to have children. To do so, we introduce a new quantitative approach for “thinking with” RJ. Using nationally representative UK Household Longitudinal Study data and a within-between random effects model, we analyze whether local government spending cuts were associated with intersectional inequalities in childbearing over the 2010–2020 period. We find that local government spending cuts were associated with a 9.1 percent reduction in the probability of having a(nother) birth for women in the poorest households, but not for women in the middle or richest households. Further, racially minoritized women across income categories were much more likely to live in local authorities that experienced substantial cuts. Our findings support the claim that local government austerity cuts unequally restricted the right to have children amongst the most disadvantaged.
Why moderate voters choose extreme candidates: voter uncertainty as a driver of elite polarization
Minjae Kim, Daniel DellaPosta, Liam W Essig
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Representative democracy depends on elected officials reflecting voters’ policy preferences. Yet, US elected officials are more ideologically extreme than even the voters from their own party. This disparity is especially puzzling in light of recent studies reinforcing the view that voters are highly motivated by policy preferences and ideological fit when selecting among candidates. Using both agent-based computational models and an online vignette experiment, we uncover a novel mechanism through which candidates who rigidly back the party’s ideological priorities, even when doing so is unpopular among the party’s own voters, may paradoxically benefit because partisan voters under conditions of uncertainty infer that such candidates are also likelier than more moderate and representative candidates to support the party’s other (more popular) positions. This dynamic alone can produce a world with moderately partisan voters but extreme politicians, not despite but precisely because of those voters’ motivation to see their (relatively moderate) policy preferences reflected by their elected representatives.
Trends in realized job insecurity rate and depth in the United States from 1978 to 2022
Jessie Himmelstern, Tom VanHeuvelen
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Scholars have argued that the past four decades have undergone a fundamental change to the nature of economic security in the American labor market. However, the literature is surprisingly unsettled on the basic nature of historical trends of economic insecurity. This study expands on past work by developing novel measures of realized job insecurity using the monthly longitudinal data from the Current Population Survey from 1978 to 2022. We differentiate between an individual’s insecurity rate, or a change in labor market status, and insecurity depth, the frequency of changes in employment status. Using regression, counterfactual, and decomposition techniques allows us to disentangle the complex historical changes in the labor market by showing how our measures change in contrasting ways. Our results show women’s high levels of insecurity rate decline through 1990s and remain largely stable through the late 2010s. Men, in contrast, experienced a slow and volatile increase in rate through the early 2010s with a decline following the Great Recession. Both women and men experienced increased depth in the late 1980s and decreased in the 2010s before a rapid rise preceding the COVID pandemic. Changes occur through rising educational attainment, population aging, and changing risks to vulnerable and marginalized populations. Our results provide a critical long-run empirical foundation for modern economic insecurity trends showing decreasing insecurity rate, but increasing severity for the insecure.