Person: Hochschild, Jennifer
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Hochschild
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Jennifer
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Hochschild, Jennifer
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Publication Race, Class, Politics, and the Disappearance of Work(Taylor and Francis, 2017-06-05) Hochschild, Jennifer“When Work Disappears” has shaped research agendas on poverty, racial hierarchy, and urban social and economic dynamics. That is a lot for one article, yet two issues warrant more analysis. They are the ways in which socially defined “race” – rather than or in combination with class – explains the impact of sustained joblessness, and the political behaviours that may emerge in response to work’s disappearance. I point to evidence showing that both race and class have independent associations with the loss of work in poor African-American communities, as well as interactive effects. In the political arena – too often neglected by sociologists studying poverty – sustained, community-wide joblessness or underemployment are associated both with withdrawal from political engagement and with the recent resurgence of right-wing populism. Even after several decades of intensive research, we have more to learn about the interactions of race, class, politics, and the disappearance of work.Publication Commentary on “Bordering by Law” by Judith Resnik(NYU Press, 2017-01-17) Hochschild, JenniferJudith Resnik’s “Bordering by Law” has three major themes. First, the United States is strongly and increasingly criminalizing immigration and stigmatizing immigrants, to the detriment of everyone. Second, the United States is engaging in more and more harmful surveillance of migrants as well as citizens. Third, the history of the Universal Postal Union provides a model for how to overcome nationalist solipsism, as well as a warning that the virtues of public governance are threatened by privatized services. This commentary focuses mostly on the first theme, disagreeing to some extent with Resnik’s characterization of the trajectory of policies surrounding immigration and immigrants, and aiming to substitute a more complicated and multifaceted characterization. Her final theme provokes several larger questions, which are explored but not answered. The overall message is that we need more political analysis to fully understand the United States’ ambivalent treatment of migration and migrants.Publication Studying Contingency Systematically(Cambridge University Press, 2016) Einstein, Katherine Levine; Hochschild, JenniferIn a series of articles and books, David Mayhew has argued convincingly that "in the realm of primitive building blocks, there is a case for ranking events as the equals of interests and preferences in a seriously explanatory political science." We develop that insight byexamining the cases of gun control, global warming, and others. Our goal is to determine when and how unique events can spur opinion change, and when and how such opinion change can eventuate in new laws, rules, or rulers. We do not fully succeed, since the task is too great for a single chapter. But the cases enable us to develop a decision tree with crucial points for empirical study, in order to help scholars develop more systematic understandings of when, how, and why, contingency matters in political processes and outcomes.Publication Americans' Belief in Linked Fate: Does the Measure Capture the Concept?(Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2016) Gay, Claudine; Hochschild, Jennifer; White, ArielFor decades, scholars have attributed Black Americans' unified political and policy views, despite growing internal class and status differences, to a strong perception of linked fate. In recent years, the concept has been measured in other racial and ethnic groups and with regard to gender, but not applied to social statuses such as class or religion. Without broad comparisons across groups and different statuses, however, one cannot determine the appropriate empirical test or most distinctive correlates of this canonical construct. Using a new national survey, we examine Americans' views of linked fate by race or ethnicity, and also by gender, class, or religion. We find expressions of linked fate to be similar across racial or ethnic groups, robust to experimental manipulation, and as strong for class as for racial or ethnic identity. Intra-individual correlations on linked fate items are very high, while a sense of linked fate is rarely associated with political views or political participation. Expressions of linked fate are not always closely related to feelings of closeness to one's group or perceptions of discrimination against that group. We speculate on the broader meaning of responses to this standard item, and conclude that the enormously fruitful theory of racial linked fate is due for further conceptual development and empirical experimentation.Publication Grade Inflation as a Tragedy of the Commons(Harvard Education Press, 2016) Hochschild, JenniferPublication Should the Mass Public Follow Elite Opinion? It Depends …(Informa UK Limited, 2012) Hochschild, JenniferJohn Zaller’s finding that members of the public usually follow elites’ cues may seem normatively disturbing. If true, it might be taken to obviate the need for democracy or to show that elites are manipulating the public. However, as long as the public sometimes fails to follow elites, we can judge cases of public followership according to independent criteria, such as whether the public’s occasional rebellions against elite opinion further liberal-democratic or utilitarian purposes. A review of some prominent cases of mass followership of and mass divergence from elite opinion suggests that public opinion that is independent of elite leadership is neither an unmitigated good nor an unmitigated problem for a well-ordered polity.Publication Redistributive implications of open access(Springer Nature, 2016) Hochschild, JenniferThis article addresses the virtues of gold open access from the perspective of its impact on social science scholarly associations and their members. OA has clear and obvious virtues, including redistribution downward and outward of research findings. But it also has the potential for upward redistribution or narrowing of the realm of publication, which this author finds troubling. A central question is who will cover APCs. The article identifies five potential sources of the necessary funds or ways to reduce the funds that are necessary, and discusses problems with each in terms of likely gainers and losers. It also identifies two potential substantive concerns about the kinds of social science scholarship most amenable to open access. It concludes by observing that, as is often the case, an apparently narrow technological innovation opens large issues— organizationally, substantively, and even morally.Publication Genetic Determinism, Technology Optimism, and Race: Views of the American Public(SAGE Publications, 2015) Hochschild, Jennifer; Sen, MayaWe begin with a typology of Americans’ understanding of the links between genetic inheritance and racial or ethnic groups. The typology has two dimensions: one running from genetic determinism to social construction, and the other from technology optimism to technology pessimism. Construing each dimension as a dichotomy enables four distinct political perspectives on the possibilities for reducing racial inequality in the United States through genomics. We then use a new public opinion survey to analyze Americans’ use of the typology. Survey respondents who perceive that some phenotypes are more prevalent in one group than another due to genetic factors are disproportionately technology optimists. Republicans and Democrats are equally likely to hold that set of views, as are self-identified blacks, whites, and Latinos. The article discusses the findings and speculates about alternative interpretations of the fact that partisanship and group identity do not differentiate Americans in their views of the links between genetic inheritance and racial inequality.Publication Reflections on How to Better Communicate Political Science’s Public Value(Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2015) Hochschild, JenniferPublication Two Cheers for American Cities: Commentary on Urban Citizenship and American Democracy(SUNY Press, 2016) Hochschild, JenniferThe editors of Urban Citizenship and American Democracy identify three provocative themes running through the volume: 1) “urban autonomy is contingent upon the historical development of the American polity;” 2) “when urban actors and public policies are relatively autonomous they can exert a significant effect on American society and politics,” and 3) “local politics and policies shape an individual or a group’s . . . membership in a broader community, whether defined as political or racial“ (all from page 1 of prospectus). Empirically, the book is full of feedback loops, ranging from the very macro interaction between constitutional federalism and local policy debates through intermediate levels to the very micro question of the associations among parents’ involvement in different public arenas. Normatively, the authors’ touchstone for successful urban citizenship is strong democratic control and greater racial or ethnic equality. In this commentary, I will react to individual chapters and, more importantly, these overarching themes, empirical regularities, and normative commitments. The chapters are all significant, innovative, and analytically rich. My own views do not always concur with those of the authors and editors, but they have been deeply informed by their arguments.