Curtis Child

Shaming the Corporation The Social Production of Targets and the Anti-Sweatshop Movement

As social movements co-evolve with changes in states and markets, it is crucial to examine how they make particular kinds of actors into focal points for the expression of grievances and the demand for rights. But researchers often bracket the question of why some kinds of organizations are more likely than others to become targets of social movement pressure. We theorize the “social production of targets” by social movements, rejecting a simple “reflection” model to focus on configurations of power and vulnerability that shape repertoires of contention. Empirically, we extend structural accounts of global commodity chains and cultural accounts of markets to analyze the production of targets in the case of the anti-sweatshop movement of the 1990s. Using a longitudinal, firm-level dataset and unique data on anti-sweatshop activism, we identify factors that attracted social movement pressure to particular companies. Firms’ power and positions strongly shaped their likelihood of becoming targets of anti-sweatshop activism. But the likelihood of being a target also depended on the cultural organization of markets, which made some firms more “shamable” than others. Contrary to suggestions of an anti-globalization backlash, globalization on its own, and related predictions about protectionism, cannot explain the pattern of activism.

Tip of the Iceberg The Nonprofit Underpinnings of For-Profit Social Enterprise

Market-based solutions to social and environmental problems in the form of for-profit social enterprise ventures have attracted considerable attention in recent years. According to popular discourse, the reason for their appeal is that they are not dependent on government grants or charitable support and are therefore more efficient and sustainable than existing alternatives. Using data collected from two social enterprise industries, this article challenges that discourse. It concludes that even though the recent focus on market-based ventures crowds out the importance of philanthropic ones, social enterprises rely substantially on civil society to accomplish their prosocial missions. By shifting attention away from the nonprofit–government relationship and toward the nonprofit–business one, these findings have implications for theorizing in nonprofit studies.

Sector Choice How Fair Trade Entrepreneurs Choose Between Nonprofit and For-Profit Forms

This article advances scholarship on the institutional choice literature by examining how, when both options are available, entrepreneurs choose between establishing for-profit and nonprofit organizations. The article accounts for a fuller range of motivations that shape entrepreneurial decisions than is typically recognized in the scholarship. Data come from semi-structured interviews with founders of businesses and nonprofits in the fair trade industry, where both organizational forms are common. We find support for some, but not all, of the assumptions that are built into prevailing theories of the nonprofit sector and find that founders are motivated by factors not often addressed in the relevant scholarship—especially the normative and symbolic meanings they attach to organizational form. Based on these findings, we propose a new supply theory that focuses on four motivations for sector choice.

Bulwarks against Market Pressures Value Rationality in the For-Profit Pursuit of Social Missions

How do members of fair trade businesses hold their profit-maximizing interests in check in order to make room for extra-financial ones? Answering this question is important because corporations are increasingly called upon to be responsible—even social-value producing—citizens, but scholars do not fully understand how they become so. Using data from the fair trade industry, this article demonstrates that market pressures can be buffered in part by a type of Weberian discipline that is motivated by the meanings that members of an organization attach to the social consequences of their work.

Comparing library wayfinding among novices and experts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate similar and different wayfinding strategies used by novice and expert patrons at an academic library. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a usability study approach. In total, 12 people, places, or things were identified as important for students to be able to locate within an academic library. Students from one of three groups (high school, freshmen, and seniors) were randomly assigned a scenario requiring them to find the indicated person, place, or thing. Student researchers video recorded participants and took field notes during the wayfinding activity and conducted an interview about participant’s experience following the exercise. Findings – Total and average time needed to locate the person, place, or thing indicated in the scenario were determined for each group. In addition, wayfinding tools (signs, maps, help desks, technology, and experience) used by participants were identified. Originality/value – The research compares novice ...

Collaborating with Nonlibrary Faculty for Assessment and Improved Instruction

ABSTRACT Collaboration with other entities and individuals has long been a standard practice of libraries. Typically, these collaborations seek to reduce redundancies, save money, and support educational and research efforts. However, a new model of collaboration exists that both assists discipline-specific research practices and informs library procedures. This article reviews two collaborations between an assessment librarian and a sociology class. The collaborations are unique because the library is the focus of the collaboration, with sociology students being able to apply classroom learning in a real-world setting. Several suggestions are provided for best practices when endeavoring to use this type of collaboration to inform library practice and engage students in hands-on learning.

Sector Choice and Institutional Regret

One in six organizational founders regrets their initial sector choice. Though sector choice theory is improving, we have less understanding of how social entrepreneurs view these choices in hindsi...