There is increasing interest in having data that recognize gender diversity by offering non-binary response options on surveys and official data collection. Much attention has focused on “third gender” or “third sex” categories that acknowledge the existence of transgender and intersex people. Several states, including California, now allow non-binary responses on birth certificates and documents such as driver’s licenses. However, simply adding new categories does not address the limitations of conventional approaches to measuring these concepts.
Union jobs provide livable wages and good benefits, including pensions, for those without four-year college degrees. But they have been declining for decades. Now that fewer workers have access to good-paying jobs and benefits, and public benefits are difficult to access, those with union ties may find themselves serving as a private safety net for needy relatives, sharing their resources across households and generations. How do workers balance providing help with satisfying their own economic needs?
Sociologist David Grusky and computer scientist Jure Leskovec will convene a workshop to launch data analysis for the Opportunity Study (OS), a project that combines qualitative, survey, administrative, and experimental approaches to study the lived experiences of people in poverty. OS is based on three premises: (1) that existing quantitative protocols for counting those in poverty tell us relatively little about the day-to-day experience of poverty; (2) that existing qualitative studies do not allow for systematic comparisons across different types
Approximately 70-80 percent of people in jail and prison and 30-50 percent of those on probation or parole have a mental health or substance use disorder, compared to about 10 percent of all adults.
Co-funded with the JPB Foundation
The "immigrant health paradox" reflects the fact that recent immigrants often have better health outcomes and lower mortality than the native-born, especially soon after arrival, once socioeconomic differences are taken into account. However, findings on other health outcomes are mixed and are contingent on specific health measures, age, race/ethnicity, country of origin and number of years since migration. What individual, social and environmental factors explain immigrants’ health outcomes.
The transition to adulthood between the ages of 18 and 25 is a critical stage for acquiring human capital and setting one’s economic trajectory. Reaching the milestones for a successful transition to adulthood—obtaining stable employment, completing education, and establishing financial independence—has been more elusive for recent birth cohorts, particularly for young adults of color. Public policy expert Christina Gibson-Davis notes that racial and ethnic disparities in parental wealth are an understudied source of inequality in young adulthood outcomes.
- December 2019: Additional funding of $36,000 awarded
Through original survey data and in-depth interviews, sociologists Cristina Mora and Tianna Paschel will examine how the political attitudes of Asians, blacks, Latinos, and whites in California are shaped by place. They will study the extent to which racial and political attitudes vary across groups and regions across California and explore how local attributes (demographic, political, economic, cultural) are associated with political identities and ideas about race and class.
As mainstream advertising firms have sought to capture the growing racial and ethnic consumer market, the demand for black representation in the industry has increased. Sociologist Corey Fields will examine the context and salience of black identity among advertising industry professionals, examining both firms with a minority focus and mainstream firms. He will investigate the extent to which turning “blackness” into an economic good strengthens or inhibits African American advertising professionals' sense of racial identity.