Sociological Debates

• Should sociologists engage with social psychologists when studying values?
  • Vaisey vs. Martin/Lembo
    • Martin, John Levi and Alessandra Lembo. 2020. “On the Other Side of Values.” American Journal of Sociology 126: 52–98.
    • Vaisey, Stephen. 2021. “Welcome to the Real World: Escaping the Sociology of Culture and Cognition.” Sociological Forum 36: SI: 1297–1315. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12770
    • Martin & Lembo. 2021. “Response to Vaisey.” Sociological Forum. DOI: 10.1111/socf.12790

• Is income segregation increasing in the U.S.?
  • Reardon/Bischoff vs. Logan
  • This debate goes back to 2011, but one might start with Logan et al. (2018):
    • Logan, John R., Andrew Foster, Jun Ke, and Fan Li. 2018. “The Uptick in Income Segregation: Real Trend or Random Sampling Variation?” American Journal of Sociology 124(1):185–222. doi: 10.1086/697528.
  • Reardon et al. (2018) article which is partly a response:
    • Reardon, Sean F., Kendra Bischoff, Ann Owens, and Joseph B. Townsend. 2018. “Has income segregation really increased? Bias and bias correction in sample-based segregation estimates.” Demography 55(6): 2129-2160.
  • Then Logan replied, also in Demography with:
    • Logan, John R., Andrew Foster, Hongwei Xu, and Wenquan Zhang. 2020. “Income Segregation: Up or Down, and for Whom?” Demography 57(5):1951–74. doi: 10.1007/s13524-020-00917-0.

• Has the increase in gender equality stalled and what might account for this?
  • England vs. Symposium participants
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0891243210361475
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0891243210392781

• Are Americans getting lonelier?
  • McPherson/Smith-Lovin/Brashears vs. Fischer vs. Paik & Sanchagrin
  • McPherson, Miller, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and Matthew E. Brashears. 2006. Social isolation in America: Changes in core discussion networks over two decades. American Sociological Review, 71 (3): 353-371. (See also Erratum. 2008. ASR, 73 (6): 1022.)
  • Fischer, Claude S. 2009. The 2004 GSS finding of shrunken social networks: An artifact? American Sociological Review, 74 (4): 657-669.
  • McPherson, Miller, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and Matthew Brashears. 2009. Models and marginals: Using survey evidence to study social networks. American Sociological Review, 74 (4): 670-681.
  • Braschears, Matthew E. 2011. Small networks and high isolation? A reexamination of American discussion networks. Social Networks, 33: 331-341.
  • Paik, Ian, and Kenneth Sanchagrin. 2013. Social isolation in America: An artifact. American Sociological Review, 78 (3): 339-360.
  • Could include work by Putnam and Klinenberg, too.

• Does “de-prosecution” (the choice of prosecutors to not prosecute some low-level crimes) cause more homicides?
  • Hogan vs. Kaplan et al.
  • https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1745-9133.12597
  • https://drive.google.com/file/d/12aZDxYC7MUkZHwORkCECHNWV-SOei0nx/view
  • https://thogan.substack.com/p/de-prosecution-and-death

• In studies of lightness and colorism, should we measure skin color objectively or subjectively?
  • Branigan et al. and Flores/Telles (subjective) vs. Monk (objective)
  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X13001130
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0003122412444720
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/682162

• Are ethnographies superior methods to interviews/surveys?
  • Jerolmack/Khan vs. Survey methodologists
    • Jerolmack/Khan: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124114523396
    • Cerulo rejoinder: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124114526378?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.2
    • Vaisey rejoinder: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0049124114523395
    • DiMaggio’s short rejoinder: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124114526371
    • Jerolmack/Khan’s response: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0049124114523397?journalCode=smra
    • Lamont & Swindler in Qual Soc: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/lamont/files/art3a10.10072fs11133-014-9274-z.pdf

• Did the TV Show “16 and Pregnant” reduce teen childbearing?
  • Kearney/Levine vs. Jaeger/Joyce/Kaestner
  • https://www.nber.org/papers/w24857
  • Rather technical (Diff-in-diff design)

• Is racial identity fluid?
  • Saperstein/Penner vs. Alba et al. vs. Kramer et al.
    • Saperstein A, Penner AM. 2012. Racial fluidity and inequality in the United States. Am. J. Sociol. 118:676– 727
    • Alba RD, Lindeman S, Insolera NE. 2016. Is race really so fluid? Revisiting Saperstein and Penner’s empirical claims. Am. J. Sociol. 122:247–62
    • Kramer R, DeFina R, Hannon L. 2016. Racial rigidity in the United States: comment on Saperstein and Penner. Am. J. Sociol. 122:233–46
    • Saperstein A, Penner AM. 2016. Still searching for a true race? Reply to Kramer et al. and Alba et al. Am. J. Sociol. 122:263–85
    • https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-polisci-060418-042801

• Do police killings make people less likely to call 911?
  • Desmond/Papachristos/Kirk vs. Zoorob
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122416663494
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0003122419895254
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0003122419895979

• Is mass incarceration caused by racism, capitalism, or some combination?
  • Usmani/Clegg vs. Stein/Norton
  • “The Economic Origins of Mass Incarceration” by Clegg/Usmani https://catalyst-journal.com/2019/12/the-economic-origins-of-mass-incarceration
  • “Materializing Race” by Stein/Norton https://spectrejournal.com/materializing-race/
  • “Reifying Racism.” Rebuttal by Clegg/Usmani https://spectrejournal.com/reifying-racism/
  • “Direct Effects.” Adjacent argument by Lily Hu about measuring racial bias in policing.

• Alice Goffman’s On the Run
  • Sharkey’s review in Social Science Research: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/681934
  • Victor Rios’ review in AJS: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/681075
  • Christina Sharpe’s review: https://thenewinquiry.com/black-life-annotated/
  • Jerolmack defense in Northwestern Symposium
  • Lewis-Kraus “The Trials Alice Goffman” in NYT Mag: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/magazine/the-trials-of-alice-goffman.html
  • P. Cohen’s review (focuses on survey methods): https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2015/05/28/on-the-ropes-goffman-review/

• Should ethnography be reproducible?
  • Lubet vs. Burawoy
  • Symposium at Northwestern
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1536504219830676
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1536504219830677
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1536504217742393

• Are criminal justice disparities due to differential offending or racial bias in policing?
  • Fryer vs. Knox vs. Hill
  • This debate can get technical, so do your best to understand it from the non-methods sections of the papers.
  • Hu in Boston Review (a less technical overview): https://bostonreview.net/science-nature-race/lily-hu-race-policing-and-limits-social-science
  • The paper that started the debate (though the debate has evolved since): https://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/empirical-analysis-racial-differences-police-use-force
  • https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/administrative-records-mask-racially-biased-policing/66BC0F9998543868BB20F241796B79B8
  • The PNAS exchange:
• Johnson et al. 2019 in PNAS
• Knox & Mummulo’s reply to Johnson et al. 2019 https://www.pnas.org/content/117/3/1261
• Schimmack & Carlsson’s reply to Johnson et al. 2019 https://www.pnas.org/content/117/3/1263
• Johnson & Cesario’s reply: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/3/1264.full#ref-1
• Johnson et al.’s correction: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/16/9127
• Johnson et al.’s retraction: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/30/18130

• Does moving to a richer neighborhood improve one’s life outcomes?
  • Clampet-Lundquist and Massey vs. Ludwig vs. Sampson in AJS
  • Moving to opportunity

• Are Black-white disparities in earnings a lingering consequence of skills differentials or the product of active discrimination?
  • Pager vs. Heckman (Gaddis in Social Forces on this, too)
  • Match pair audit studies

• Are liberals or leftists better equipped to address crime and state violence?
  • the Tony Platt vs. Jonathan Simon debates in the special issue of Social Justice from 2014.

• Is the motherhood wage penalty larger for women in low-wage jobs?
  • Budig/Hodges vs. Killewald/Bearak
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122410381593
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0003122414524574?icid=int.sj-full-text.similar-articles.2
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122414523616

• A second motherhood penalty debate
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/717886
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/717863

• Do second generation immigrants do better or worse than their parents in the U.S.?
  • Portes vs. Alba
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/41290085
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/41290086
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/41290087

• Can we separate economic class from cultural status (i.e. economic capital from social capital?)
  • Chan vs. Flemmen/Jarness/Rosenlund
• Tak Wing Chan. 2019. “Understanding Cultural Omnivores: Social and Political Attitudes.” The British Journal of Sociology 69(1): 784-806.
• Flemmen, Magne, Vegard Jarness, and Lennart Rosenlund. 2019. “Omnivorousness and Openness: Comments to Tak Wing Chan.” The British Journal of Sociology 69(1): 807-815.
• Flemmen, Magne, Vegard Jarness, and Lennart Rosenlund. 2019. “Class and Status: On the Misconstrual of the Conceptual Distinction and a Neo-Bourdieusian Alternative.” The British Journal of Sociology 69(1): 816-866.
• Tak Wing Chan. 2019. “Understanding Social Status: A Reply to Flemmen, Jarness and Rosenlund.” The British Journal of Sociology 69(1): 867-881. 
• Lambert, Paul S. 2019. “Class, Status and Lifestyle: On Omnivores, Distinction, and the Measurement of Social Position.” The British Journal of Sociology 69(1): 887-891.
  • Pay special attention to Lambert’s comment on methodological differences.
  • Optional: Lazardo’s entry in this issue. It’s a fun one.

• Can observational researchers infer causality?
  • Gelman vs. Grosz
  • This Gelman AJS review outlines some debates in causal inference including the spectrum from “permissive” to “conservative.   http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/research/published/causalreview4.pdf
  • Grosz fits squarely in the “permissive” camp: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745691620921521
  • Gangl, M., 2010. “Causal Inference in Sociological Research.” Annual Review of Sociology, 36, pp.21-47.
  • Winship, Christopher, and Stephen L. Morgan. 1999. “The Estimation of Causal Effects from Observational Data.” Annual Review of Sociology 25(1): 659-706.

• Religiosity is declining globally. Is the U.S. a counter-example?
  • Voas/Chaves vs. Schnabel/Bock
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/684202
  • https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v4-28-686/
  • https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v5-29-694/
  • https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v5-30-711/

• Should research reflect or resist common sense?
  • Watts vs. Turco/Zuckerman
  • Watts, D., 2014. Common sense and sociological explanations. AJS. Turco & Zuckerman., 2017. Verstehen for Sociology: Comment on Watts. AJS.
  • Watts, 2017. Response to Turco and Zuckerman’s “Verstehen for Sociology”. AJS.

• Can quantitative methods properly account for the social construction of race?
  • Iceland vs. Williams
  • Bonilla-Silva White Logic, White Methods
  • https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11113-019-09512-7
  • https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11113-019-09538-x

• Scrutinizing the Street
  • Wacquant vs. Duneier/Anderson/Newman.
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/340461
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/342772?journalCode=ajs
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/342925?journalCode=ajs
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/342993?journalCode=ajs

• Scrutinizing the Heat
  • Duneier vs. Klinenberg
  • Duneier criticized Klinenberg in Comtemp Soc (partly as retaliation against EK’s advisor, LW), Klinenberg responded. Then there was another exchange in ASR in 2006.

• Do men with jobs in predominantly female occupations do more male chores at home?
  • Schneider vs. McClintock https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jomf.12381
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/662649#

• What social network analysis can and can’t do
  • “Why Social Networks are Overrated: Downsides of the Commensuration that Underlies Social Network Analysis.” Ezra Zuckerman. Perspectives: Newsletter of the ASA Theory Section, May 2010. http://www.csun.edu/~egodard/asatheory/newsletters/Perspectives-2010-May.pdf
  • Some examples of network analysis:
    • Rossman, G., Esparza, N. and Bonacich, P., 2010. I’d like to thank the Academy, team spillovers, and network centrality. American Sociological Review, 75(1), pp.31-51.
    • DiMaggio, P. and Garip, F., 2011. How network externalities can exacerbate intergroup inequality. American Journal of Sociology, 116(6), pp.1887-1933.

• Should criminology use longitudinal methods that focus on criminal careers or cross-sectional methods that focus on theories of crime?
  • Gottfredson/Hirshi vs. Blumstein/Cohen/Farrington
  • https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1986.tb01494.x
  • https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1987.tb00812.x
  • https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1988.tb00830.x
  • https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1988.tb00829.x
  • https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1988.tb00831.x

• Are countries in the global south and countries in the global north getting less unequal? If so, what role has industrialization played?
  • Arrighi et al. vs. Firebaugh
  • https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02686289
  • https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/BF02686317.pdf
  • https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02686319

• Will the U.S. be a majority minority country in 2042?
  • Alba vs. Census Report

• Is gentrification caused by the movement of people or of capital?
  • Ley vs. Smith
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0042098032000136192
  • https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01944367908977002
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/622612
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0042098020940596
  • https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053427

• Are straight parents better than gay parents?
  • Regnerus vs. Cheng/Powell
  • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.03.009
  • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.04.005
  • https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11113-014-9329-6.pdf
  • Chronicle of Higher Ed summary: https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/controversial-gay-parenting-study-is-severely-flawed-journals-audit-finds
  • https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/regnerus-study-controversy-guide/
  • The letter from 200 researchers responding https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/200-researchers-respond-to-regnerus-paper/
  • See also Carr et al. p. 172.

• Should comparative historical sociology use inductive methods and generalizing theories of other subfields?
  • Sewell vs. Burawoy vs. Paige
  • https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/51215/448.pdf?sequence=1
  • https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00147158
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/210360#
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0049124192020004001

• Do immigrants impact the wages of native-born workers?
  • Borjas v. Card
  • Non-technical overview: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/magazine/the-immigration-equation.html
  • The opening salvos:
    • Borjas, G. J. (2003). The Labor Demand Curve Is Downward Sloping: Reexamining the Impact of Immigration on the Labor Market. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(4), 1335–1374.
    • Card, D. (2005). Is the New Immigration Really so Bad? The Economic Journal, 115(507), F300–F323. 
  • A recent update to the debate:
    • https://davidcard.berkeley.edu/papers/card-peri-jel-april-6-2016.pdf
    • https://www.nber.org/papers/w21850

• Do immigrants fare better in ethnic enclaves?
  • Portes/Jensen v. Sanders/Nee

• Can we test for racial discrimination in policing using quantitative methods, or does the social construction of race require we need qualitative, evaluative description?
  • Kohler-Hausman vs. quant studies of racial discrimination
  • https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3050650
  • https://phenomenalworld.org/analysis/direct-effects
  • Pull examples of audit studies from K-H’s critique

• Is obesity contagious?
  • Fowler/Christakis and critics
  • The study that started it all: Christakis, Nicholas A. and James H. Fowler. 2007. “The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years.” New England Journal of Medicine 357:370–79.
    • You can also read press coverage of the study from the time: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/health/25cnd-fat.html
  • Critique: Cohen-Cole, Ethan and Jason M. Fletcher. 2008. “Detecting Implausible Social Network Effects in Acne, Height, and Headaches: Longitudinal Analysis.” British Med- ical Journal 337:a2533.
  • Critique: Shalizi, Cosma Rohilla and Andrew C. Thomas. 2011. “Homophily and Contagion Are Generically Confounded in Observational Social Network Studies.” Sociological Methods and Research 40:211–39.
  • Critique: Noel, Hans, and Brendan Nyhan. 2011. “The ‘Unfriending’ Problem: The Consequences of Homophily in Friendship Retention for Causal Estimates of Social Influence.” Social Networks 33(3):211–18. doi: 10.1016/j.socnet.2011.05.003.
  • Additional analysis: VanderWeele 2011. “Sensitivity Analysis for Contagion Effects in Social Networks.” Sociological Methods and Research 40:240–55.
  • Rebuttal:Christakis, Nicholas A. and James H. Fowler. 2013. “Social Contagion Theory: Examining Dynamic Social Networks and Human Behavior.” Statistics in Medicine 32:556–77.

• Should we develop a feminist methodology?
  • Hammersley vs. Gelsthorpe
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0038038592026002002
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0038038592026002004
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0038038592026002003
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0038038594028001018

• Can sociology make objective, positivist generalizations?
  • Collins (for the positivists) vs. Denzin (for the constructivists)
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/228424
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/228712
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/228713
  • https://doi.org/10.2307/2095666

Theoretical Debates

• How much does society shape urban space?
  • Gans vs. Gieryn vs. Zukin
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/1540-6040.00027
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/1535-6841.00034
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1540-6040.t01-1-00029

• Is race “essential”? Critique of Bonilla-Silva’s structural understanding of racism
  • Bonilla-Silva vs. Loveman
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/2657316
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/2657409
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/2657410

• The role of ideology, structure, and agency in revolutions
  • Skocpol vs. Sewell
  • https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/242778