Zulema Valdez

Introduction to the special issue: intersectionality and entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT We briefly review the ethnic entrepreneurship paradigm, identifying the problems associated with an approach that emphasizes the salience of one social group, ethnicity, to the exclusion or downplaying of others, such as race, class, and gender. We introduce an intersectional approach to the study of (ethnic) enterprise, reviewing the literature and using the articles in this special issue to demonstrate the utility of this perspective. We close by encouraging the use of this approach in future research.

Intersectionality, the household economy, and ethnic entrepreneurship†

ABSTRACT The literature on ethnic entrepreneurship emphasizes the role of ethnicity in facilitating group differences in enterprise based on access to ethnic-based resources. This treatment tends to conflate family-based resources with those of ethnicity. Using a framework derived from intersectionality theory, this qualitative study investigates how two aspects of the household economy, namely household composition and family ideology, shape intra-group differences among fifty middle-class Mexican-origin entrepreneurs. Findings reveal that household class and gender dynamics shape access to three family-based resources that facilitate enterprise: family labour, entrepreneurial capital, and inheritance; differences in entrepreneurial activity between family members exceed in some cases those observed between ethnic groups. This study reveals that intersectional dimensions of identity and collectivity influence entrepreneurial outcomes within ethnic households. This study encourages researchers to consider how multiple and intersecting dimensions of identity combine for a more complete understanding of American enterprise.

U.S. racial and ethnic relations in the twenty-first century

ABSTRACT The study of U.S. racial and ethnic relations is often reduced to the study of racial or ethnic relations. This article reveals the limitations of a focus on ethnicity or race, in isolation, and instead urges a new framework that brings them together. We consider three cases that have been conceptualized by the ethnicity paradigm as assimilation projects and by the race paradigm as structural racism projects, respectively: (1) African-American entrepreneurs; (2) the Mexican middle class; and (3) black immigrant deportees. We reveal the shortcomings of the ethnicity paradigm to consider race as a structural force or to acknowledge that structural racism conditions incorporation in marked ways; and the limitations of the race paradigm to take seriously group members’ agency in fostering social capital that can mediate racial inequality. Instead, we offer a unifying approach to reveals how ethnicity and race condition members’ life chances within the U.S. social structure.

Towards an intersectionality of race and ethnicity

As we write this response to our piece, one group of sociologists is preparing to attend a Critical Race conference in Tennessee, while another is preparing to attend an Immigration conference in B...

Nested Contexts of Reception: Undocumented Students at the University of California, Central:

This article draws from five focus groups with 35 undocumented students who enrolled in the University of California–Central (UC Central), a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) located in a Latino-majority, working-class community in the heart of the Central Valley, after the passage of the California Dream Act. We develop a framework of nested contexts of reception to argue that students encounter distinct contexts at the local, state, and federal levels that shape their educational incorporation. By considering nested contexts, we reveal how local, state, and federal policies and societal reception combine to help or hinder undocumented students’ success in higher education.

Bringing Produce to the People: Implementing a Social Marketing Food Access Intervention in Rural Food Deserts

This study describes and evaluates the process of implementing a social marketing food access intervention for food desert communities in rural California. A case study approach used mixed-methods data from nationwide market comparisons, environmental assessment, and community informants. Lessons learned demonstrate room for improvement in implementing such strategies and underscore the importance of involving community in decision making; the strategic importance of operational decisions relating to intervention design, site and product selection, and distribution models; and the need to reconsider the problem of access in rural areas.

Community Perspectives on Access to and Availability of Healthy Food in Rural, Low-Resource, Latino Communities

Introduction Attention has focused on the food environment as a result of the growing concern with obesity rates among Latinos in rural areas. Researchers have observed associations between a lack of physical access to affordable produce in areas where supermarkets and grocery stores are limited and poor dietary intake and obesity; these associations are high in rural, low-resource neighborhoods with a high population of Latino residents. We aimed to engage residents of low-resource, Latino-majority neighborhoods in discussions of food access in a rural yet agricultural community setting, which is typically described as a “food desert.” Methods We used a mixed-methods approach and conducted 3 focus groups (n = 20) and in-depth interviews (n = 59) and surveys (n = 79) with residents of a rural yet agricultural community. We used thematic analysis to explore residents’ perceptions of access to healthy foods. Results Residents (n = 79; mean age, 41.6 y; 72% female; 79% Latino; 53% Spanish-speaking) reported that dollar and discount stores in this agricultural area provided access to produce; however, produce at retail stores was less affordable than produce at nonretail outlets such as fruit and vegetable stands. Gifts and trades of fruits and vegetables from neighbors and community organizations supplied no-cost or low-cost healthy foods. Residents’ suggestions to improve food access centered on lowering the cost of produce in existing retail outlets and seeking out nonretail outlets. Conclusion Our findings contribute to understanding of the food environment in low-resource, rural yet agricultural areas. Although such areas are characterized as “food deserts,” residents identified nonretail outlets as a viable source of affordable produce, while indicating that the cost of retail produce was a concern. Innovative policy solutions to increase healthy food consumption must focus on affordability as well as accessibility, and consider alternate, nonretail food outlets in agricultural areas.

Intersectional Differences in Segmented Assimilation: Skill and Gender in the Context of Reception

Abstract Purpose Segmented assimilation theory predicts that contemporary non-white groups follow three patterns of assimilation: mainstream, downward, or delayed. Yet, the homogenous treatment and primacy of ethnicity resigns all group members to a similar fate. Whereas few studies of ethnic incorporation consider both the classed and gendered nature of the labor market, this study investigates the extent to which intersectional group differences within the highly stratified American economy shape segmented assimilation trajectories. Methodology/approach This study introduces an intersectional approach to segmented assimilation theory. Using the 2000 census, this study examines how within group differences in skill and gender condition the hourly earnings, joblessness and self-employment participation outcomes of five ethnic minority groups from the first to the second generation, compared against US-born, non-Hispanic whites. Findings Findings generally support the mainstream assimilation hypothesis for all groups; a downward assimilation trajectory among Chinese men only; and a delayed assimilation trajectory for low-skilled Filipinas and high-skilled Cuban men and women. This study reveals that intra-group differences in skill and gender shape divergent segmented assimilation trajectories among members of the same ethnic group. Originality/value This study challenges the emphasis on and primacy of ethnicity in predicting segmented assimilation in favor of an intersectional approach that considers how multiple, interdependent, and intersecting dimensions of identity and not only ethnicity shape the process of economic incorporation among ethnic groups.

Precarious Entrepreneurship: Day Laborers in the U.S. Southwest

With the advent of globalization, neoliberalism, and immigration policy reforms that enlarged the non-White workforce in the United States, precarious employment—work that is contingent, risky, and socially stratified—has increased dramatically. The 2008 Great Recession exacerbated labor market uncertainty, deepening the demand for precarious labor. These same structural forces have conditioned a rise in precarious entrepreneurship in the informal economy; yet little is known about how precarity is experienced among “survival entrepreneurs” or its effects on their entrepreneurial outcomes. This study uses unique ethnosurvey data collected between 2012 and 2018 on 116 street corner day laborers in Texas, a state in the Southwest region of the United States, to investigate these relationships. In the context of a more precarious economy, findings reveal that undocumented Latino immigrant men continue to dominate day labor activity; however, the expanding supply and demand for day laborers has resulted in a more diverse day labor pool that includes legal permanent residents, naturalized citizens, and U.S.-born citizens, including Black and White Americans. At the same time, day labor remains a “bad job” characterized by exploitive and abusive working conditions and low hourly income. That said Latino immigrant day laborers are subject to a distinct process of criminalization and racialization that conditions a lower hourly income for this group, regardless of legal status. Findings suggest that day labor is a form of precarious entrepreneurship that is polarized by race and nativity.

Introduction to the Special Issue, Everyday Self-Employment

A “partial renaissance” of self-employment in labor markets of the global North has attracted policy concern within national, supranational, and global arenas, yet sociological thought has been somewhat slower to respond to this phenomenon. In response, this special issue focuses on everyday self-employment among workers drawn from countries across the world. The collection of articles in this volume originated, in part, from a recent symposium that took place at City, University of London, which highlighted the contribution of sociology and cognate disciplines to the study of self-employment. The volume considers the social and structural forces that condition this economic activity as an ideology and practice, as well as the constraints and opportunities for its maintenance and reproduction. It also examines the everyday lives of self-employed workers and in particular the ways in which self-employment is experienced across a range of geographical, occupational, and industrial contexts, and with regard to social categories including race, class, nationality, and gender. As neoliberal subjects, we are increasingly required to inhabit an entrepreneurial self. As such, a sociological understanding of the global patterns and everyday experiences of self-employment—or entrepreneurialism as practice—and the cultural legitimations associated with this oft-celebrated and aspirational economic activity are essential to a critical understanding of the economy and society. What are the current national and international trends in self-employment? What characteristics distinguish entrepreneurs from small-business owners or self-employed workers? If the image of an entrepreneur is an economically mobile rugged individualist, how do social relationships shape entrepreneurialism among transnational migrants or dependent visa holders? Is financial remuneration or maximizing profit always the primary goal, or are the self-employed from different social locations motivated by other, nonpecuniary benefits, such as spiritual fulfillment? Might vulnerable populations, such as undocumented immigrants, have the less lofty goal of basic survival? How is self-employment organized across different occupations? Can self-employment function as a strategy of collective resistance or subversion? The contributors in this volume often challenge mainstream views of self-employment and entrepreneurship to reveal the complexity and scope of self-employed activity; their perspectives provide new insights for researchers and policy- makers regarding the function of self-employment in a changing economy and society. This introduction initiates a discussion of the central debates in the study of self-employment and presents a brief synopsis of the articles in this volume.