Sociologists Backstage | Answers to 10 Questions About What They Do |

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Sociologists Backstage

ABSTRACT

Published social science rarely gives real attention to the actual doing of research, making the process appear magical, or at least self-evident and simple. This book is intended to right the balance by illuminating the craft and the choices made as the research process unfolds for the sociologist. The metaphorical image of going "backstage" speaks to the reader’s experience with each of the seventeen interviews, which illuminate the choices and constraints of researchers as well as unanticipated developments, good and bad. The volume represents a range of interests, themes, research philosophies and approaches from a diverse group of contributors. Particularly suited for advanced undergraduate and graduate research methods students, the volume addresses virtually all of the most vexing methods questions through accessible and compelling first-hand descriptions of sociological research. The volume is an invaluable addition to the library of all social science researchers.

From the Foreword by Howard Becker:

"The stories in Sociologists Backstage tell how the contributors, who differ in so many ways, dealt with the situations they found themselves in as they did their research, and how who they were and what they had become in their lives intersected with those situations. The stories will fascinate you, and give you a lot to think about as you go ahead with your own research adventure."

TABLE OF CONTENTS

chapter |12 pages

INTRODUCTION

part |2 pages

SECTION I URBAN SOCIOLOGY IN THE POST-CIVIL RIGHTS ERA

chapter 1|13 pages

Mary Pattillo Pattillo explores her research on Black middle-class communities and considers how it reconﬁ gured the boundaries of studying urban Black populations. She describes how moving into the neighborhoods she studies presented rich opportunities for data collection, as well as considerable challenges

chapter 2|13 pages

Scott Brooks Brooks shares insights from his years spent coaching young Black men in South Philadelphia. He describes how studying young men’s transition from playing streetball to more formally organized basketball reveals structural patterns of inequality. Drawing from his ﬁ eld observations and life experiences, Brooks stresses the importance of good mentoring practices, particularly for people of color and women

chapter 3|8 pages

Alford A. Young, Jr. Young highlights the importance of reframing more traditional sociological approaches to the study of Black men. Rather than focusing on behavior, Young strives to understand the varied ways in which Black men construct social meanings, and how those constructs impact their social conditions. He discusses how his own experience of growing up in East Harlem informs

chapter 4|12 pages

Mitchell Duneier Duneier discusses the idea of moral worth and unpacks the centrality of this theme in his studies of disadvantaged urban Black men. He explains the difﬁ culty of conducting ethnography, and weighs in on the longstanding debate over theory’s rightful place in the practice of ﬁ eldwork

part |2 pages

SECTION II GLOBAL ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE STUDY OF TRANSNATIONAL LABOR MIGRATIONS

chapter 5|10 pages

Miliann Kang Kang reﬂ ects on her theoretical transformations as a researcher. She describes how her earlier study of Korean nail salons privileged gender as the main focus of analysis, and explores how her recent work captures the shifting dynamics of gender, race, and class. Kang discusses how her examination of Asian “model minority” discourses takes up this new theoretical demand. She also explores the notion of respondents as co-collaborators in research

chapter 6|8 pages

Hung Cam Th ai Thai discusses how his interest in researching transnational marriage and migration was ignited during a return to Vietnam after many years. He describes how his multiple identities as a refugee, an immigrant, and a transmigrant offer a unique advantage in making connections between macro processes and individual relationships. His discussion of his present research on Viet Kieu—those Vietnamese workers who have returned to Vietnam—exempliﬁ es these connections

chapter 7|7 pages

Nazli Kibria Kibria locates the struggles of studying Islamic identity in the Bangali Diaspora in a post-September 11 world. She addresses the economic and cultural strains that transnational forces have in shaping social relations within Bangladesh. She stresses her desire to produce scholarship that can inspire her students and inform policy agendas

chapter 8|11 pages

Rhacel Parrenas Parrenas draws upon her three major studies of transnational Filipina workers to stress the need for complicating analyses of migration and class mobility. She contextualizes her working concepts of “serial migration” and “destination hierarchies” through a discussion of the research processes that led to their development

part |2 pages

SECTION III STUDYING GENDER, CRIME, AND VIOLENCE IN THE ERA OF MASS INCARCERATION

chapter 9|10 pages

Meda Chesney-Lind Known as the “mother of feminist criminology,” Chesney-Lind shares her passion and motivation for researching women and crime for over 30 years. She traces the dramatic shifts and changes in the acceptance of women in criminology, but insists that there is still much to be done if we are to improve the lives of girls and women

chapter 10|9 pages

Victor Rios Rios reﬂ ects on how his own youth involvement with gang culture in Oakland informed his study of Black and Latino youth experiences. He explains how discovering patterns of punitive social control within these two youth groups called into question his own reﬂ exivity. He provides some startling accounts of ﬁ eld experiences, and speaks candidly about the consequences that resulted from certain decision-making during the research process

chapter 11|19 pages

Mercer Sullivan Sullivan explains how growing up in the “still segregated South,” coupled with his coming of age in the 1960s, shaped his early interests in social justice. He describes how cutting his teeth in New York during his grad school years helped him to shed his idealistic expectations, and grow as a researcher. In tracing his unconventional career path, Sullivan recounts how he managed to successfully straddle the boundaries between academia and think-tank research, while keeping intact his studies of disadvantaged inner-city youth

chapter 12|24 pages

Valerie Jenness Jenness opens a portal into her experience conducting transgender inmate and sexual assault research in California men’s prisons. She frankly discusses the complexities involved in interviewing respondents behind prison walls, and reﬂ ects on managing the collision between a researcher’s curiosity and the contraints of systematic data collection. Jenness explains how traversing the basic/applied divide is achievable and offers insight into obtaining self- respect, and respect from others in the ﬁ eld

part |2 pages

SECTION IV THE RESEARCHER AS…

chapter 13|11 pages

Karyn Lacy Lacy details the process of conducting and completing her ﬁ rst research project which focuses on the housing decisions of middle-class Black suburbanites. She brings to light how an inductive approach to data

chapter 14|15 pages

France Winddance Twine Twine discusses the impact that growing up in segregated Chicago has had on her sociological imagination, and how this experience continues to shape her scholarly journeys. Trained as an anthropologist and sociologist, Twine discusses why she embraces an interdisciplinary perspective in her work. She weaves theory, narrative, and empirical rigor to provide intricate understandings of racial formations in places such as Brazil and Great Britain

chapter 15|15 pages

Denise Segura Segura reﬂ ects on the trials of advancing as one of the few University of California Chicana scholars, beginning in the late 1980s. She explores the choices and consequences of valuing public sociology, and balancing her life as a mother, feminist scholar and community organizer. Segura describes the importance of a feminist borderlands consciousness, and discusses how the projects she works on are informed by personal experiences, as well as by larger social realities

chapter 16|11 pages

Christine Williams Williams stresses the importance of applying an intersectional lens to sociological inquiry. In rethinking her earlier work, in which she developed the concept of the “glass escalator,” Williams describes how she has learned to incorporate an intersectional approach to her research that includes race, class, and sexuality, in addition to gender. She discusses how theoretical shifts within the discipline ultimately work to improve the sociological stories we tell. She offers insight into the consequential differences between the interview study and participant research

chapter 17|14 pages

Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp Taylor and Rupp discuss their experiences studying drag queens, and explain how they moved beyond theory to understand embodied accounts of their research. They speak to the political nature of drag shows, and share vivid details of how drag queens push the boundaries of respectability for themselves and their audiences. Taylor and Rupp credit their dynamic research process, which spans 30 years, to the commitment that they bring to their studies and to each other