Harvey Molotch

Harvey Molotch, Professor of Sociology at New York University, will complete a project exploring how New York City subway workers sense and respond to threat, and the corresponding implications for sociological questions of surveillance. Though their work is not formally related to security, these employees are the “first responders” to a large number of social safety issues. Drawing on extensive interviews and field observations, Molotch will examine how workers handle the conflicting pressures of keeping themselves safe, adhering to formal regulations, and coming up with creative ad hoc solutions to the problems they encounter on a daily basis.