Michael L. Schwalbe

Generic Processes in the Reproduction of Inequality: An Interactionist Analysis

The study of inequality has been largely defined as the study of its measurable extent, degree, and consequences. It is no less important, however, to understand the interactive processes through which inequalities are created and reproduced in concrete settings. The qualitative research that bears on understanding these processes has not yet been consolidated, and thus its theoretical value remains unrealized. In this article we inductively derive from the literature a sensitizing theory of the generic processes through which inequality is reproduced. The major processes that we identify are othering, subordinate adaptation, boundary maintenance, and emotion management. We argue that conceiving the reproduction of inequality in terms of these generic processes can resolve theoretical problems concerning the connection between local action and extralocal inequalities, and concerning the nature of inequality itself.

Man Enough: Embodying Masculinities

Identities Authorities Aspects of Self Myths of Manhood Wounds Initiations Transitions Experience Language Emotions and Feelings Relationships Sexualities Responsibilities Spiritual Groundings

Gender Differences in Sources of Self-Esteem

We explore gender differences in the importance of reflected appraisals, self-perceived competence, and social comparisons as sources of self-esteem

IDENTITY STAKES, MANHOOD ACTS, AND THE DYNAMICS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

By the term “identity stakes” I mean all the side bets (Becker, 1960) that ride on being able to convince an audience that we are who and what we claim to be. These stakes are both material and psychic. Getting a monthly paycheck from my university depends on having convinced a host of people in that organization that I am indeed Michael Schwalbe, professor of sociology. Many more side bets ride on getting that check every month.

Class position, work experience, and health.

This paper develops a Marxist analysis of the relationships between class position, work experience, the psychological effects of this experience, and subsequent health outcomes. Specifically, it is argued that the structural imperatives of capitalist production make work for those in working-class positions subject to greater routinization and less control than work for those in other class positions. Routinization and control are argued, in turn, to predictably affect two key psychological variables, self-esteem and stress, which are further argued to affect health in predictable ways. Position in the capitalist labor process is thus linked to health via the psychological consequences of the immediate work experience it engenders. Survey data from workers, managers, supervisors, and semi-autonomous employees in five capitalist firms are used to test the descriptive adequacy of this model linking capitalism to ill health for those in working-class positions.

Sources of Self-Esteem in Work: What's Important for Whom?.

Social psychologists and sociologists of work have documented the importance of numerous aspects of work experience for adult self-esteem. The social psychological dynamics of many of these work and self-esteem relationships remain, however, to be explored fully. The research reported here probes these dynamics by examining various sources of self-esteem in work and asking, Whats important for whom? The data presented suggest that in the workplace, self-perceived competence is the most important source of self-esteem for most people, followed by reflected approaisals, and then social comparisons. The data also suggest that occupational conditions can affect source importance. A new self-esteem-centered conception of the person-environment fit is proposed based on this analysis.

Dramaturgy and Dominance

This chapter uses the perspective of dramaturgical social psychology, associated with the work of Erving Goffman, to examine the processes through which inequalities are created, reproduced, and resisted. We show how cognitive presuppositions, normative and procedural rules, rituals, and self-protective expressive behavior reflect and reinforce relations of domination and subordination. We examine several forms of resistance to inequality: identity work to counter stigma, creation of oppositional cultures and identity projects, disruptions of the interaction order, and self-narratives in social movements. We also propose that the utility of dramaturgy for analyzing inequality can be enhanced by attention to three phenomena: the body as a peremptory signifier, expressive habitus, and nets of accountability. Finally, we discuss affinities between dramaturgy and other social-psychological perspectives that are useful for understanding the interactional bases of inequality.

Emile Durkheim and Erving Goffman Meet Dr. MagnetoInteraction Ritual Chains, by CollinsRandall. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. 464 pp.

Theorists should stick their necks out if they expect to see things that others haven’t. Randall Collins aims to oblige. The goal of interaction ritual theory, he says, is to “explain what any individual will do, at any moment in time; what he or she will feel, think, and say” (p. 45). This is, he tells us, “a full-scale social psychology, not only of emotions and situational behavior, but of cognition” (p. 44). Even more, Collins says he’s laying out a program for “a sociology to dream about” (p. 99). So if there’s one thing not in short supply here, it’s ambition. Collins’s theory, in a nutshell, goes like this: ritual interaction—which includes everything from special ceremonies to everyday conversation—charges people up with emotional energy; humans are naturally motivated to seek emotional energy, and so they will be magnetically drawn to situations that provide it; the social world is a marketplace of situations in which people seek the highest payoff of emotional energy they can get, considering the resources they have to work with; and, when people think about what to do in this marketplace of situations, their thoughts are pulled along magnetically by

24.95 paper. ISBN: 0691123896.

Abstract If what sociologists call “social structures” are understood to be recurrent patterns of joint action, then the charge that interactionism suffers from an astructural bias falls apart, because such patterns of joint action are what interactionists routinely study. The problem, then, is not that interactionism fails to grasp structure, but that much of the mainstream of sociology fails to grasp process. It is this aprocessual bias that impedes a full understanding of how inequality is created and reproduced. The case of capitalism is used to show how an interactionist focus on process can illuminate the workings of a large-scale economic system. I treat capitalism as a macro interaction order, a la Goffman, and then employ the tools of dramaturgical sociology to analyze the recurrent patterns of joint action of which capitalism consists. This form of dramaturgical analysis is applied to two fictional stories as a way to show how capitalism depends on normative and procedural rules, cognitive presuppositions, and ritual forms – all of which are typically rendered invisible by aprocessual bias. The concepts of side bets, identity stakes, and nets of accountability are developed to complete the analysis.

Overcoming Aprocessual Bias in the Study of Inequality: Parsing the Capitalist Interaction Order

Abstract Purpose We examine collective responses to identity threats in organizations, conceptualizing these responses as identity contests in which members of opposing groups share an identity and strive to protect the social psychological rewards derived from that identity. Methodology/approach We present an argument for the importance of identity as a basis for motivation, suggesting that the desires to obtain and protect identity rewards underlie much behavior in organizations. We also present two case studies from which we derive further theoretical implications about identity contests as drivers of organizational change. Findings Our case studies show how organizational subgroups perceived identity threats arising from actual or proposed changes in policies and practices, mobilized to resist these threats, and negotiated further changes in organizational structure, policies, and practices. Practical implications Applying this analysis, social psychologists who study identity threats can see how responses to such threats are not solely individual and cognitive but sometimes collective and behavioral, leading to changes in organizations and in the surrounding culture. Social implications Our analysis of how identity contests arise and unfold can enrich understandings of how self-definition and mental well-being are shaped by organizational life. Originality/value By focusing on collective responses to identity threats, we offer a new way of seeing how intra-organizational identity struggles are implicated in social change.