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Research Statement

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Broadly, I study societal problems and social inequalities endemic to contemporary capitalism in affluent societies, both internationally and within the U.S. My interest in these issues stems from my deep commitment to social justice and progressive social change; a commitment that is evident in my years of experience as a labor and environmental activist, including my role in helping to organize the graduate employee union at the University of Connecticut and serving as its founding president. My research agenda is a theoretically and empirically driven effort to understand the structural origins and consequences of inequality and the struggles of ordinary people to achieve greater equality and dignity. To this end, I have engaged in macro-level analyses of country-level data as well as micro-level interactions of individuals in changing institutional contexts. My research encompasses a range of methods, including sophisticated modelling of longitudinal, country-level data, analyses of survey data, use of large data sets such as the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), and ethnographic methods such as participant observation and in-depth interviewing. At this point in my career, my research has centered on four broad areas: 1) social inequality, with an emphasis on labor markets and work and occupations; 2) labor and labor movements in advanced capitalist countries in historical and contemporary perspective; 3) sociology of education, with a focus on social reproduction; and 4) social movements, with a focus on institutional processes and the interaction among social movement organizations. Rather than seeing these as discrete areas of research activity, these various streams of my research agenda are often interconnected. Below I provide a brief synopsis of my work. .

 

Social Inequality

My research on social inequality has largely explored the relationship between labor market institutions, globalization, politics, and occupations on various measures of inequality both in the U.S. and internationally. For example, in a recent publication in Social Currents with Hyde and Wallace, we investigate the effects of globalization and financialization on income inequality in 18 affluent capitalist democracies. Using error correction models to explore long-run effects, we find that three measures of financialization (FIRE employment, credit expansion, and financial crises) increase both market-generated and state-mediated income inequality. In another publication in Social Science Research with Fischer and Lundquist, we examine the relationship between past military service and residential housing choices. Given that the military is the single largest employer in the United States, and very racially diverse in its composition, we examine whether military employment is associated with subsequent residential settlement patterns. We find that white veterans are more likely than white nonveterans to reside in racially integrated neighborhoods. With Wallace and Hyde, I have two additional projects in preparation for journal submission. The first is a longitudinal analysis of how political party control and union strength have influenced the rise of income inequality in the U.S. states since 1950. The second examines the linkages between neoliberalism and the rise of the 1% in the U.S. states in the wake of Great Recession.

 

Labor Movements

In the area of labor movements, my research largely explores the determinants of union decline, including globalization, neoliberalism, and political climate. A recent publication in Socius with Wallace and Hyde typifies this work. Using error correction models to examine the long-run effects of globalization, financialization, and European integration on union density in 18 affluent capitalist democracies, we find that imports and financialization negatively affect unionization, while capital mobility and European integration have positive effects. In a publication in Labor Studies Journal with Wallace, we explore the economic and political determinants of three measures of unionization—total, private sector, and public sector density—at the metropolitan level. We find that economic conditions and labor market structure affect private and public sector union density differently, but that political factors affect unions across all sectors. In particular, Republican governments and right-to-work laws hurt all unions. Also with Wallace, I am preparing a paper for a special issue of the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society which focuses on the shrinking state. For this special issue, our contribution will explore the effects of state-level political and legal factors on the public sector labor movement in the U.S. states. With Wallace and Fullerton, I am preparing a manuscript for journal submission which explores the political economy of union decline in the U.S. states since 1970.

 

Sociology of Education

My educational research has explored various ways in which social stratification is either reproduced or challenged through educational institutions and family involvement. In a publication in Sociological Forum with Ma, we explore the relationship between teacher union bargaining strategies and student outcomes. We find that “industrial bargaining,” which focuses on winning economic benefits for teachers, helps students by attracting a pool of better qualified candidates to become teachers; while “professional bargaining,” which includes efforts to improve education by reducing class sizes and protecting teacher autonomy, also has positive effects on student performance on standardized tests. With Ma and Cheng, I have an article under review at Social Science Research which examines the divide in digital skills and usage among high school-aged students across 55 countries. We find economic development and political freedom reduce the digital divide between low- and high-SES students and that educational expenditures and R&D investments have differential effects on the divide depending on the wealth of the nation. With Li, Cheng, and Obach, I am preparing a paper for submission to the American Journal of Sociology which explores the role of parental involvement and overinvolvement on students’ academic and behavioral outcomes. We find that although parental involvement is a strong predictor of student achievement, too much involvement—often referred to as “helicopter” or “tiger parenting”—can actually have negative effects on children.

 

Social Movements

While I have a longstanding interest in social movements, this has only recently been evident in my research program, and it is central to my dissertation research. In a forthcoming publication in Qualitative Sociology Review, I report the results of fifteen months of participant observation and in-depth interviews with a group of municipal workers as they organized a new union to resist attacks on their dignity at work in the face of neoliberalism. The workers, mostly women, had been facing gender discrimination for years as well as workplace chaos from continuous managerial turnover each election cycle. However, it was not until Tea Party candidates, running on a platform of neoliberal austerity were elected that these workers chose to resist. This case study provides an example of what Michelle Lamont has referred to as “social resilience” in the face of neoliberalism. In another piece, I am working with Wallace and Brady on an historical analysis of the key determinants of wildcat strikes in 20 U.S. manufacturing industries between 1960 and 1980. We examine four factors related to wildcat strikes: economic conditions, labor resources, capital and managerial control, and political opportunity structure. In addition to structural economic and workplace determinants such as unemployment and work injury rates, we find support for Sidney Tarrow’s “cycles of protest” perspective as wildcats are positively related to surges in other movement activism, such as anti-war protests and race riots, during these tumultuous decades of U.S. history.  

 

The remainder of my social movement research to date, including my dissertation, derives from my personal interest and involvement with the issues of labor and climate change. My early interest in this topic was inspired by reading a variety of works, but most importantly Brian Obach’s Labor and the Environmental Movement: The Quest for Common Ground and Lyle Scruggs’ Sustaining Abundance: Environmental Performance in Industrial Democracies. (I am fortunate that both Professors Obach and Scruggs have agreed to serve as members of my dissertation committee). Building upon their works, I have pursued two research papers. For the first, I collaborated with historian Jeremy Brecher to publish a study of public opinion data which explored the possibility of future labor-environmental coalition work. We found that U.S. union members were more likely than the general population and non-unionized workers to hold pro-environmental attitudes and take actions such as signing petitions, joining environmental organizations, and choosing to recycle and conserve energy. This finding seemed to indicate a pool of support among union members for strong measures to protect the environment and address climate change, despite the common media frame of “jobs versus the environment.” A second paper, with Hyde, is a longitudinal study of the relationship between unionization and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within 18 wealthy capitalist democracies between 1990 and 2010. After controlling for an extensive array of covariates, we find union density to be associated with reduced emissions while the presence of employment protection legislation to be associated with greater emissions. I considered broadening this study into a dissertation project that would examine in greater depth how the relationship between unionization and GHG emissions among these affluent countries was mediated by political structures, economic fluctuations, and EU membership.

 

However, about this same time, in my capacity as president of my local union, I became involved in a newly formed labor-climate organization that was seeking remedies for climate change at the state level and pushing the labor movement into the struggle for climate justice. As I became more engaged with this group and learned of a national and international group doing similar work, the inspiration for a very different type of dissertation project began to emerge. I had explored the opinions of union workers regarding climate with Brecher and had begun studying the relationship between unions and GHG emissions with Hyde, but my involvement with a grassroots union movement actively engaged in a progressive environmental agenda inspired me to re-invent my dissertation project. While the paper with Hyde addressing the union movement and GHG emissions in 18 countries is still progressing, my dissertation now focuses on the labor-environmental field within the U.S. labor movement. The project is comprised of data from three years of participant observation, 34 in-depth interviews, and content analyses of dozens of documents from three social movement organizations (SMOs) operating within the U.S. labor movement—one at the state level, one at the national level, and one international organization. These SMOs, comprised of leaders and members of dozens of unions in a diverse range of industries, tap into workers’ concerns about environmental justice and attempt to change the culture of labor from within to make it more pro-active on climate change and target the government to address climate change in a way that does not place the burden of mitigation on the backs of workers and marginalized communities.

 

In the dissertation, I begin by providing a brief history of the relationship between labor and the environment in the U.S., highlighting key points of tension and cooperation. I then paint a picture of the labor-environmental field that illustrates the different types of unions operating in the U.S., how their members’ work is related to climate change, and the unions’ position on the issue of climate change. I draw from the work of Benford and Snow to explore the framing processes of the three SMOs as they define the problem, attribute blame, and craft solutions. Drawing upon Armstrong and Bernstein’s multi-institutional approach, I identify two distinct targets of the SMOs: 1) the state, for not adequately addressing climate change in the U.S., and 2) the culture of the labor movement for not engaging with the issue of climate change and helping to craft solutions that reduce GHG emissions and create good jobs for workers. The common solution proposed by all three SMOs is a “just transition” to a clean and just economy. In the dissertation, I identify four distinct meanings of the term “just transition” that are used by movement actors as they struggle over the production of a key mobilizing factor: protective transition, proactive transition, transformative transition, and oppositional. Finally, I explore the ability of actors to reach consensus and translate it into action. Taken together, this study of the dynamics of the labor-climate movement will increase our understanding of how various political actors can best construct linkages between economic, social and environmental reform agendas; which strategies are most successful for building broad support; and what forms of alliances are most conducive to supporting a transition to a sustainable economy. This knowledge is essential to building the broad and sustainable political consensus necessary to win comprehensive climate protection policy.

 

Future Research

My future publication agenda begins with the completion of several journal-length papers that are in various stages of production. I then hope to revise my dissertation into a book manuscript. This will begin with a series of follow-up interviews with key movement participants focusing on changes in the political opportunity structure for labor-climate activism since the election of Donald Trump. For example, the recent U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord may relax government regulation in coal and other fossil fuel industries and slow the development of renewable energy sources. In the longer term, I have given thought to working on a second book which explores a broader array of issues that labor influences outside of the workplace. This book would build upon two prominent contributions in the labor field: first, Freeman and Medoff’s classic work, What Unions Do (1984) which examines the relationship between unionization and employment-related outcomes such as wages, benefits, and unemployment rates; and second, a more recent work by Rosenfeld titled What Unions No Longer Do (2014), which explores how  unions’ decline has undermined their ability to increase wages and benefits, reduce racial inequality in the workplace, and combat rising income inequality. In the book idea I am contemplating, tentatively titled Beyond the Workplace: Unions, Society and Democracy, I would explore in detail the effect of unions as political actors and social movements on a variety of social outcomes outside of the workplace, including unions’ role in building a robust civil society by increasing volunteerism, membership in civic organizations, and charitable giving. In a broader sense, this book would explore how unions help to build a more vibrant democracy by increasing citizen participation in the political process as voters, activists, and candidates for office.  

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