Overcoming women’s isolation at work: The effect of organizational structure and practices on female managers’ workplace relationships

Successful career outcomes depend on maintaining positive relationships with and evaluations from supervisors and peers. Recognizing that structure frames behaviors and perceptions, this study explores the impact of organizational structure and practices on the relationships of 598 women in 298 Korean companies using longitudinal data from 2010 to 2016. The results from fixed-effects models show that corporate structure and practices shape female managers’ relationships with supervisors and peers. Gender equality practices improve relationships with both men and women. By contrast, diversity programs have negative effects on female managers’ relationships with female supervisors and peers, and work–life programs show mixed results. However, in firms with female executives and firms that encourage men to use parental leave, diversity programs and work–life practices stimulate positive relationships with both male and female supervisors and peers. This study suggests that organizational contexts, rather than intrinsic gender preferences, shape women’s relationships in the workplace.

Land grabbing and resistance of indigenous landowners in Ibadan, Nigeria

The focus of existing studies on land grabbing in Nigeria has been on acquisition by foreign investors for their socio-economic gain, usually supported by the national government. However, narratives on land grabbing by government through the Land Use Decree and the consequent resistance deployed by the indigenous landowners are scarce. The Accumulation by Dispossession theory and an exploratory design were combined with qualitative methods to gather data from 41 participants through a combination of key informant and in-depth interviews and focus groups in Ajoda New Town. Data were ethnographically and content analysed and findings revealed that locals resisted government activities consequent upon their exclusion from compensatory and resettlement activities promised by the government. Displacement from patrimonial inheritance led to resistance, though government claimed it discharged its financial and moral responsibilities. Resistance took the form of violent, economic and civil protests.

Politics of alliance in the farmers’ march to Parliament in India

On 30 November 2018 tens of thousands of Indian farmers marched to Parliament and demanded a special session to discuss the deepening agrarian crisis. The protest march to Parliament was only the latest in a series of protest marches which had been organized by an umbrella group of over 200 farmers’ organizations from all over India. Moreover, for the first time, an alliance of different activist groups, political parties, trade unions and students had cohered to support the farmers and their cause. Despite its political, empirical and theoretical significance, research on the formation of alliances has gained scant attention in sociological research. Based on original research, this article suggests alliance building should be understood with reference to political opportunities, processes of meaning attribution and framing, and as a strategy, which facilitates worthiness, unity, numbers and commitment (WUNC displays, as outlined by Charles Tilly).

Beaten paths towards the transnational corporate elite

The transnationalization of economic activities has fundamentally altered the world. One of the consequences that has intrigued scholars is the formation of a transnational corporate elite. While the literature tends to focus on the topology of the transnational board interlock network, little is known about its driving mechanisms. This article asks the question: what are the trajectories that corporate elites follow in driving the expansion of this network? To answer this, the authors employ a novel approach that models the transnationalization of elites using their board appointment sequences. The findings show that there are six transnationalization trajectories corporate elites follow to expand the network. The authors argue that while the transnational elite network appears as a global social structure, its generating mechanisms are regionally organized. This corroborates earlier findings on the fragmentation of the global network of corporate control, but also provides insights into how this network was shaped over time.

Women’s participation and challenges to the liberal script: A global perspective

Existing scholarship documents large worldwide increases in women’s participation in the public sphere over recent decades, for example, in education, politics, and the labor force. Some scholars have argued that these changes follow broader trends in world society, especially its growing liberalism, which increasingly has reconfigured social life around the choices of empowered and rights-bearing individuals, regardless of gender. Very recently, however, a variety of populisms and nationalisms have emerged to present alternatives to liberalism, including in the international arena. We explore here their implications for women’s participation in public life. We use cross-national data to analyze changes in women’s participation in higher education, the polity, and the economy 1970–2017. We find that women’s participation on average continues to expand over this period, but there is evidence of a growing cross-national divergence. In most domains, women’s participation tends to be lower in countries linked to illiberal international organizations, especially in the recent-most period.

Impact of farmers’ participation in tourism on sustainable livelihood outcomes in border tourism areas

Tourism, as a new way of industrial poverty alleviation, is of great significance to poverty reduction in border areas. This research takes the Sino–Vietnamese border tourism area as a case study and introduces a sustainable livelihood analysis framework. It collects questionnaire data from Napo County of Guangxi and uses structural equation modeling to analyze the behavioral intention of farmers still willing to participate in tourism after overcoming poverty. Results indicate that (1) participation motivation, participation opportunity, and participation ability had significant positive effects on farmers’ involvement level; (2) farmers’ economic, social, cultural, political, and environmental outcome perceptions had significant effects on their sustainable livelihood outcome perception; (3) farmers’ involvement level had a significant positive effect on their sustainable livelihood outcome perception; (4) the positive effect of the involvement level on behavioral intention failed to pass the significance test; and (5) farmers’ sustainable livelihood outcome perception had a significant positive impact on behavioral intention. Therefore, farmers’ involvement in poverty alleviation through tourism is a complex process of behavior and psychological perceptions.

‘I am tired of being afraid’: Emotions and protest participation in Belarus

Belarus witnessed a staggering level of mass mobilization in the aftermath of the 2020 fraudulent election and disproportionate use of police force against peaceful protesters. Using the case of anti-government protests in Belarus, this article argues that a confluence of moral and reflex emotions explains an incredibly high level of protest participation in a hard autocracy. Specifically, indignation over the magnitude of electoral malpractices and the intensity of police violence, in congruence with the loss of fear, provides a moral battery for generating and sustaining mass mobilization. It is further argued that a sense of unity within the protest movement mitigates fear of repression and facilitates sustained engagement in protests. Drawing on media reports and protesters’ narratives, the study traces how citizens overcame their fear of state reprisal and took to the street. The article contributes to contentious politics literature by elucidating the role of emotions in shaping mass mobilization.

Inclusive masculinity and Czechia youth

In this, the first investigation of inclusive masculinities among 18- to 19-year-old Czech students, the authors interviewed 19 participants from a rural part of the country. The purpose of this research was to identify attitudes of young, rural, Czech men toward homosexuality and examine for perceived generational difference compared to men who emerged under communism. Results showed evidence of inclusive masculinities for these rural youth based in three principal categories: (1) positive attitudes toward homosexuality; (2) openness to a bromance with a gay male (dependent on gender typicality); and (3) perceived generational differences in gay acceptance compared to their parents’ generation. Overall, results therefore show that young men in this rural part of Czechia are enacting more inclusive forms of masculinity than possible under communist rule.

The dialectics of universalism and particularism: World society, religious traditions, and women’s political representation, 1960–2013

This study develops a model of macro-cultural identity inspired by the work of George Herbert Mead. The model puts world society theory, which emphasizes the homogenizing effects of ‘world culture,’ into conversation with civilization-analytic perspectives, which contend that religious and civilizational differences grow increasingly salient over time. The author regards these approaches as dialectically co-implicated. To test the model, the article analyzes cross-cultural heterogeneity in the effects of world society linkages on women’s share of parliamentary seats between 1960 and 2013. Countries are grouped into cultural zones based primarily on religious composition and secondarily on geographical region. The results generally support world society theory. Contrary to civilization-analytic perspectives, cultural resistance to women’s representation is most pronounced early but fades over time. Despite overall increases in women’s representation, there is little cross-cultural convergence, giving rise to improvement without isomorphism. The study concludes with a refined model of world society effects.

Sociology of the Japanese, by the Japanese, for the Japanese: A short history of unintentional indigenization of sociology in Japan

The majority of Japanese social scientists have treated the idea of indigenization of social sciences as unrelated to them. However, sociology in Japan also has its own characteristics shaped by the structure of the Japanese society. Since long ago, Japanese sociologists have tried to analyze the unique characteristics of Japanese society and published numerous books on this subject for the Japanese public. Even their eagerness to introduce Western theories of sociology was an integral part of this effort to elucidate Japan’s ‘uniqueness’. The fact that Japan was not colonized and managed to develop an extensive domestic education/labor/language/publishing market played an important role in this predominantly domestic focus of Japanese sociology. The specific nature of the domestic public demand also contributed to this situation. Although it has been gradually changing since 2000s, this autarky resulted in a weak presence of Japanese sociology in the global academic community.