Sandra Susan Smith

MOBILIZING SOCIAL RESOURCES: Race, Ethnic, and Gender Differences in Social Capital and Persisting Wage Inequalities

Drawing on a social capital theoretical framework, I examine race, ethnic, and gender wage inequalities. Specifically, I extend past research by analyzing differences in the mobilization of different types of job contacts, what these types of contacts and their level of influence “buy” job seekers in the labor market, and the extent to which differences in social resources explain between-group variations in wages. Four aspects of job contacts are implicated: the race and gender of the job contact, the strength of the relationship between the job seeker and the job contact, and the job contacts influence. Employing the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, I find that white men are more likely to mobilize weak, white, male, and influential contacts, those contacts hypothesized to positively impact employment outcomes. Moreover, their greater mobilization of male and influential ties helps to explain a substantial part of their wage advantage over white women and Lations. However, in many ways, their overall social resource advantage seems somewhat overstated. They reap no advantages over blacks, Latinos, and white women in their use of weak and white ties. Furthermore, results indicate that the benefits of social resources appear largely contingent on the social structural location of job seekers mobilizing them, less on any benefits inherent in different “types” of job contacts.

A Test of Sincerity: How Black and Latino Service Workers Make Decisions about Making Referrals:

The author draws from in-depth interviews with thirty-nine black and Latino custodial and food service workers at the University of California, Berkeley, to determine how workers make decisions about making job referrals. Interviews were revelatory. Drawing from widely available and institutionalized scripts about what makes a good worker, jobholders assessed jobseekers’ orientation toward work as well as what effect this orientation might have on their own reputations on the job to determine whom to help and how much to do so. Because of ethno-racial differences in how unemployment was interpreted, Latinos were more likely than their black counterparts to help and to do so proactively. These findings suggest that theories of social capital mobilization must take into consideration individuals’ access to and deployment of cultural resources to fully understand the circumstances under which actors are mobilized for instrumental action.

Examining the impact of welfare reform, labor market conditions, and the Earned Income Tax Credit on the employment of black and white single mothers ☆

Abstract Using the Annual Demographic Files of the March Current Population Survey, we estimate the effects of welfare policies, labor market conditions, and the Earned Income Tax Credit on the probability of employment for black and white single mothers, and we investigate the extent to which changes in these macro-level factors account for racial differences in employment growth over this period. Compared to white single mothers, black single mothers are more likely to be high school dropouts, never married, and central city residents, and our results show that policy and labor market changes had a more profound effect on the employment of these groups. However, these compositional differences and interaction effects were not substantial enough to produce dissimilar explanations for the changes in employment by race. During the period of economic expansion, increases in the EITC were the most important factor, accounting for approximately 25% of the increase in employment for both black and white single mothers. Declines in the unemployment rate and welfare reform were less important, together accounting for an additional 25% of the increase.

Exploring the efficacy of African-Americans’ job referral networks: A study of the obligations of exchange around job information and influence

Although the work of William Julius Wilson has done much to shed light on the role that social capital, or the lack thereof, has played in perpetuating joblessness among the urban poor, major gaps remain. Specifically, research in the urban poverty literature has almost exclusively theorized and measured social capital in terms of the poor’s network structure and composition. Thus, it is widely believed that the paucity of social capital among the urban poor is simply a function of having few contacts with job information and influence. Few have taken into account the conditions considered necessary to promote the type of personal relationships required for the informal transmission of valued resources; namely, networks of relations in which norms have been created, effective sanctions in place, expectations established, and trust bred. My work contributes to William Julius Wilson’s scholarly tradition by unpacking this primary source of the urban poor’s social capital deficiency.

Intraracial harassment on campus: explaining between- and within-group differences

Abstract Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (NLSF), we examine both between- and within-group differences in the odds of feeling intraracially harassed. Specifically, we investigate the effects of colleges’ and universities’ racial composition as well as the nature of students’ associations with non-group members, including involvement in racially homogeneous campus organizations, ethnoracial diversity of friendship networks, and interracial dating. Our findings suggest that although college racial composition appears to have little effect on experiencing intraracial harassment, the nature of students’ involvement with other-race students matters a great deal. For all groups, interracial dating increased odds of harassment. Among black and white students, more diverse friendship networks did as well. And among Asian and Latino students, involvement in any racially homogeneous campus organization was associated with increases in reports of intraracial harassment. Thus, we propose a baseline theoretical model of intraracial harassment that highlights the nature of students’ associations with outgroups.

Unpacking Pretrial Detention: An Examination of Patterns and Predictors of Readmissions

Pretrial detention makes up the majority of jail admissions, but little is known about this high-volume population. The current study fills this gap by examining the pretrial detention population in New York City and assesses their pretrial readmissions over a 10-year follow-up period. While the number of individuals detained pretrial has consistently decreased since 1995, the prevalence and the frequency of pretrial readmissions remain high: About 60% of the sample was readmitted at least once within 10 years and they were readmitted on average 3 times. A negative binomial model predicting readmission counts for felony and misdemeanor admissions found that males, non-Hispanic Blacks, and younger individuals were more frequently readmitted pretrial. Self-reported drug use and prior criminal records were associated with higher readmission counts. We also found that charge and discharge types predicted readmission counts. Findings suggest the importance of earlier intervention and developing targeted strategies to reduce further readmissions.

Want, Need, Fit: The Cultural Logics of Job-Matching Assistance

Drawing from a unique dataset based on 146 in-depth, semistructured interviews with a nonrandom sample of ethnoracially and class diverse workers at one large public sector employer, the authors link job contacts’ patterns of assistance to three distinct cultural logics of job-matching assistance—defensive individualism, particularism, and matchmaking—which differed along three dimensions: (a) the primary criteria upon which help was contingent, (b) the perceived risk faced, and (c) the screening practices contacts used. These findings contribute to a small but growing body of research highlighting the cultural logics that inform where, how much, and to whom job information and influence flows.

Exploring the Challenges Former Prisoners Face Finding Work

In their chapter, “Families, Prisoner Reentry, and Reintegration,” Harding and colleagues speak powerfully to the role that the family plays in shaping former prisoners’ life chances immediately post-release. The authors could do more, however, to deepen our understanding of the challenges the formerly incarcerated face upon exit from prison and of families’ responses to these challenges. Because Harding and colleagues do not engage the growing body of research linking former prisoners’ employment problems to their lack of engagement in a job search, resulting from a whole host of challenges structural in nature, these issues largely go unexamined, as do the family’s response. The authors also seek to make sense of the ways in which the family helps and hinders without directly studying the families involved in the process. In this chapter, I complicate both our understanding of the labor market challenges faced by prisoners and also the family’s role in facilitating and hindering their reintegration, given these challenges.