Current Sociology, Ahead of Print.
The question of how the digital economy responds to ecological issues has gained salience in recent years. So far, though, social scientists have primarily taken interest in the ecological positionings of tech entrepreneurs. Little attention has been paid to the middle-class fraction of ‘tech workers’ who are responsible for programming, designing, and managing the digital technologies that reconfigure socio-material relations. Based on 52 interviews with data scientists and user experience designers, the article analyzes the ecological habitus of this new professional segment. Four central ecological schemas are identified: (1) managing limited resources, (2) critical techno-optimism, (3) academic concern, and (4) lifestyle struggles. Simultaneously, the article discusses how these four schemas relate to the different forms of capital held by tech workers. This mapping of the ecological habitus of tech workers shows how social relationships with nature are underpinned by class positions. The article thus pursues dual aims, contributing to research on green capitalism as well as to debates on how the middle class relates to climate change.
The effects of fragmented and sticky smartphone use on distraction and task delay
Mobile Media &Communication, Ahead of Print.
The smartphone has become an integral part of adolescents’ daily life. Despite the countless affordances of smartphones, concerns have been raised about their enormous potential to cause failures in self-regulation, such as distraction and task delay. The current study investigated whether two smartphone usage patterns, fragmented and sticky smartphone use, are associated with distraction and task delay. For three weeks, we logged the smartphone usage of 160 adolescents (733,359 observations) and assessed their distraction and task delay six times a day with experience sampling (12,723 observations). Using Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling, we found that, overall, adolescents felt more distracted when their smartphone use was more fragmented or sticky. Exploratory analyses indicated that 77% of adolescents experienced increased distraction (i.e., β > .05) when their smartphone use was more fragmented, and 55% when it was sticky. Overall, adolescents did not report more task delay as their smartphone use was more fragmented or sticky. Nonetheless, 22% experienced increased task delay when their smartphone use was more fragmented, and 42% when it was sticky. Together, our findings underline the dynamic nature of smartphone use and its differential impact on self-regulation outcomes.
The smartphone has become an integral part of adolescents’ daily life. Despite the countless affordances of smartphones, concerns have been raised about their enormous potential to cause failures in self-regulation, such as distraction and task delay. The current study investigated whether two smartphone usage patterns, fragmented and sticky smartphone use, are associated with distraction and task delay. For three weeks, we logged the smartphone usage of 160 adolescents (733,359 observations) and assessed their distraction and task delay six times a day with experience sampling (12,723 observations). Using Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling, we found that, overall, adolescents felt more distracted when their smartphone use was more fragmented or sticky. Exploratory analyses indicated that 77% of adolescents experienced increased distraction (i.e., β > .05) when their smartphone use was more fragmented, and 55% when it was sticky. Overall, adolescents did not report more task delay as their smartphone use was more fragmented or sticky. Nonetheless, 22% experienced increased task delay when their smartphone use was more fragmented, and 42% when it was sticky. Together, our findings underline the dynamic nature of smartphone use and its differential impact on self-regulation outcomes.
Where’s the bathroom in this “mobile home”? Adding Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WaSH) infrastructure to agendas on homelessness and digital media
Mobile Media &Communication, Ahead of Print.
Although access to water and sanitation have been recognized by the United Nations as human rights since 2010, that access continues to be a site of struggle in everyday life, especially among homeless populations. In this paper, we draw from two summers of a fieldwork-based course on homelessness and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Denver, Colorado to consider whether a Google Map of public restrooms in the city might be useful for unhoused people. The paper's conceptual framework stems from Hartmann's idea of “homing”—which refers to how digital media can help unhoused people create everyday routines, exercise some control over their lives and spaces, and gradually create a safe environment—to consider whether the Google Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Map might help unhoused people integrate bathroom access into routines, rounding out the so-called “mobile home” to provide relief and personal agency. The effort runs up against digital literacy issues that mitigate “access” and point to the limits of techno-solutions. This paper points to the need to consider both media literacies and inclusive design in creating digital solutions to address issues faced by unhoused people. We also argue that planners should think holistically about how digital and telecom-focused “solutions” relate to other necessary infrastructures—in this case, public toilets and water access.
Although access to water and sanitation have been recognized by the United Nations as human rights since 2010, that access continues to be a site of struggle in everyday life, especially among homeless populations. In this paper, we draw from two summers of a fieldwork-based course on homelessness and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Denver, Colorado to consider whether a Google Map of public restrooms in the city might be useful for unhoused people. The paper's conceptual framework stems from Hartmann's idea of “homing”—which refers to how digital media can help unhoused people create everyday routines, exercise some control over their lives and spaces, and gradually create a safe environment—to consider whether the Google Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Map might help unhoused people integrate bathroom access into routines, rounding out the so-called “mobile home” to provide relief and personal agency. The effort runs up against digital literacy issues that mitigate “access” and point to the limits of techno-solutions. This paper points to the need to consider both media literacies and inclusive design in creating digital solutions to address issues faced by unhoused people. We also argue that planners should think holistically about how digital and telecom-focused “solutions” relate to other necessary infrastructures—in this case, public toilets and water access.
Rediscovering visual sociology, once again
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Homeless food delivery riders and their transportal home in Shanghai’s lockdown
Mobile Media &Communication, Ahead of Print.
This article draws on the concept of “transportal home” to examine the intersection of mobile media, mobility, and place-making among homeless food delivery workers in the Shanghai lockdown. Shanghai's lockdown lasted from February 28 to May 31, 2022, and was one of the strictest in China, resulting in thousands of food delivery riders being locked out of their homes, treated as potential carriers of the virus, and forced to sleep on the streets until the lockdown was lifted. The article uses qualitative research methods to explore the COVID-related homelessness of food delivery riders during the lockdown, focusing on their media practices and highlighting their experiences and agency in using mobile media to negotiate their lives amid the (im)mobile mobility they faced. It argues that mobile phones, as a transportal home, can offer a technological imaginary of home out of “homelessness”; however, they also serve as a reminder of the constraints of such an imaginary, as these (temporarily) homeless food delivery riders continue to be subject to platform exploitation and pandemic surveillance.
This article draws on the concept of “transportal home” to examine the intersection of mobile media, mobility, and place-making among homeless food delivery workers in the Shanghai lockdown. Shanghai's lockdown lasted from February 28 to May 31, 2022, and was one of the strictest in China, resulting in thousands of food delivery riders being locked out of their homes, treated as potential carriers of the virus, and forced to sleep on the streets until the lockdown was lifted. The article uses qualitative research methods to explore the COVID-related homelessness of food delivery riders during the lockdown, focusing on their media practices and highlighting their experiences and agency in using mobile media to negotiate their lives amid the (im)mobile mobility they faced. It argues that mobile phones, as a transportal home, can offer a technological imaginary of home out of “homelessness”; however, they also serve as a reminder of the constraints of such an imaginary, as these (temporarily) homeless food delivery riders continue to be subject to platform exploitation and pandemic surveillance.
Who counts as a woman? A critical discourse analysis of petitions against the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sport
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Volume 59, Issue 2, Page 203-221, March 2024.
This article aims to analyze the organizational anti-trans discourse on the presence of transgender athletes in women's sport. To achieve this, the petitions published from 2019 to 2022 on the websites of three US organizations (Save Women's Sports, Independent Council on Women's Sports, and the Women's Sports Policy Working Group) were analyzed. The analysis addressed the research questions of how this discourse defines trans women and trans bodies and reproduces the indispensability of sex segregation in sport competitions. The research revealed that the petitions’ authors identified trans athletes as biological males who have an advantage over cis women. The organizations demand that the protection of women's sport from trans women's participation and women's rights be based on the sex (assigned at birth) category. The article emphasizes that members and allies of these organizations perceive biomedical science as providing objective arguments for the sex dichotomy and the exclusion of trans women from sport competitions. At the same time, the petitions’ authors ignore sociocultural factors that influence the perception of gender dichotomy and athletic performance.
This article aims to analyze the organizational anti-trans discourse on the presence of transgender athletes in women's sport. To achieve this, the petitions published from 2019 to 2022 on the websites of three US organizations (Save Women's Sports, Independent Council on Women's Sports, and the Women's Sports Policy Working Group) were analyzed. The analysis addressed the research questions of how this discourse defines trans women and trans bodies and reproduces the indispensability of sex segregation in sport competitions. The research revealed that the petitions’ authors identified trans athletes as biological males who have an advantage over cis women. The organizations demand that the protection of women's sport from trans women's participation and women's rights be based on the sex (assigned at birth) category. The article emphasizes that members and allies of these organizations perceive biomedical science as providing objective arguments for the sex dichotomy and the exclusion of trans women from sport competitions. At the same time, the petitions’ authors ignore sociocultural factors that influence the perception of gender dichotomy and athletic performance.
The power of a look: Tracing webs of power in intimate partner violence through an everyday act
Current Sociology, Ahead of Print.
The relationship between power, control, and violence defines the experience of intimate partner violence, abuse that occurs within the context of a current or former intimate relationship. Coercive control, including using violence and threats of violence to restrict another’s freedom, is an especially dangerous manifestation of intimate partner violence. In this article, we point to an under-explored modality of power and control as well as resistance to intimate partner violence: the act of looking. Our analysis of interviews with 18 intimate partner violence survivors in the United States identified ‘looking’ as an emergent category in their experiences. We read these mentions of ‘looking’ through select insights from symbolic interactionism, post-structuralism, and postcolonial studies. We argue that acts of looking are everyday mechanisms for both the contestation and the maintenance of power and control in survivors’ lives, highlighting dynamics of intimate partner violence that extend beyond physical violence. Paying attention to everyday forms of interaction like looking helps illuminate the webs of power in which survivors’ intimate relationships are situated, including at the social and institutional levels. Tracing the ‘looks’ of survivors also underscores both the social nature of abusive intimate power and the social embeddedness of survivor healing.
The relationship between power, control, and violence defines the experience of intimate partner violence, abuse that occurs within the context of a current or former intimate relationship. Coercive control, including using violence and threats of violence to restrict another’s freedom, is an especially dangerous manifestation of intimate partner violence. In this article, we point to an under-explored modality of power and control as well as resistance to intimate partner violence: the act of looking. Our analysis of interviews with 18 intimate partner violence survivors in the United States identified ‘looking’ as an emergent category in their experiences. We read these mentions of ‘looking’ through select insights from symbolic interactionism, post-structuralism, and postcolonial studies. We argue that acts of looking are everyday mechanisms for both the contestation and the maintenance of power and control in survivors’ lives, highlighting dynamics of intimate partner violence that extend beyond physical violence. Paying attention to everyday forms of interaction like looking helps illuminate the webs of power in which survivors’ intimate relationships are situated, including at the social and institutional levels. Tracing the ‘looks’ of survivors also underscores both the social nature of abusive intimate power and the social embeddedness of survivor healing.
Analysis of Sex-Specific Gene-by-Cohort and Genetic Correlation-by-Cohort Interaction in Educational and Reproductive Outcomes Using the UK Biobank Data
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Ahead of Print.
Synthesizing prior gene-by-cohort (G×C) interaction studies, we theorize that changes in genetic effects by social conditions depend on the level of resource constraints, the distribution and use of resources, structural constraints, and constraints on individual choice. Motivated by the theory, we explored several sex-specific G×C trends across a set of outcomes using 30 birth cohorts of UK Biobank data (N = 400,000). We find that genetic coefficients on years of schooling and secondary educational attainment substantially decrease, but genetic coefficients on college attainments only moderately increase. On the other hand, genetic coefficients for education ranks are stable. Genetic coefficients on reproductive behavior increase for younger cohorts. Additional genetic-correlation-by-cohort analysis shows shifting genetic correlations between education and reproductive behavior. Our results suggest that the G×C patterns are highly heterogenous and that social and genetic factors jointly shape the diversity of human phenotypes.
Synthesizing prior gene-by-cohort (G×C) interaction studies, we theorize that changes in genetic effects by social conditions depend on the level of resource constraints, the distribution and use of resources, structural constraints, and constraints on individual choice. Motivated by the theory, we explored several sex-specific G×C trends across a set of outcomes using 30 birth cohorts of UK Biobank data (N = 400,000). We find that genetic coefficients on years of schooling and secondary educational attainment substantially decrease, but genetic coefficients on college attainments only moderately increase. On the other hand, genetic coefficients for education ranks are stable. Genetic coefficients on reproductive behavior increase for younger cohorts. Additional genetic-correlation-by-cohort analysis shows shifting genetic correlations between education and reproductive behavior. Our results suggest that the G×C patterns are highly heterogenous and that social and genetic factors jointly shape the diversity of human phenotypes.
Racing the Machine: Data Analytic Technologies and Institutional Inscription of Racialized Health Injustice
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Ahead of Print.
Recent scientific and policy initiatives frame clinical settings as sites for intervening upon inequality. Electronic health records and data analytic technologies offer opportunity to record standard data on education, employment, social support, and race-ethnicity, and numerous audiences expect biomedicine to redress social determinants based on newly available data. However, little is known on how health practitioners and institutional actors view data standardization in relation to inequity. This article examines a public safety-net health system’s expansion of race, ethnicity, and language data collection, drawing on 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork and 32 qualitative interviews with providers, clinic staff, data scientists, and administrators. Findings suggest that electronic data capture institutes a decontextualized racialization within biomedicine as health practitioners and data workers rely on biological, cultural, and social justifications for collecting racial data. This demonstrates a critical paradox of stratified biomedicalization: The same data-centered interventions expected to redress injustice may ultimately reinscribe it.
Recent scientific and policy initiatives frame clinical settings as sites for intervening upon inequality. Electronic health records and data analytic technologies offer opportunity to record standard data on education, employment, social support, and race-ethnicity, and numerous audiences expect biomedicine to redress social determinants based on newly available data. However, little is known on how health practitioners and institutional actors view data standardization in relation to inequity. This article examines a public safety-net health system’s expansion of race, ethnicity, and language data collection, drawing on 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork and 32 qualitative interviews with providers, clinic staff, data scientists, and administrators. Findings suggest that electronic data capture institutes a decontextualized racialization within biomedicine as health practitioners and data workers rely on biological, cultural, and social justifications for collecting racial data. This demonstrates a critical paradox of stratified biomedicalization: The same data-centered interventions expected to redress injustice may ultimately reinscribe it.
To do or not to do: practical and ethical concerns in online research with children and young people during crises
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