ABSTRACT Cities play a central role in contemporary climate change debates, both because of their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and because they are sites where climate impacts disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. Social infrastructures, open‐access fixed points such as libraries and parks, are increasingly recognised as crucial for urban resilience, providing shelter and fostering social bonds. Nevertheless, despite the common assumption that social infrastructures are universally accessible, evidence shows that various barriers prevent them from realising their full potential, particularly for vulnerable groups. This article examines the gap between the promises of social infrastructures and their practical limitations by developing a critical framework to analyze the conditions under which they can promote socially just adaptation to climate change. Drawing on Löw's conceptualization of relational production of space, I propose a framework that defines social infrastructures as the contingent product of the interaction and mutual influence of four constitutive dimensions: (1) Intersectional structures (2) Subjective experience (3) Agency and (4) Governance Arrangements. Accounting for the relationality of SI and the dynamic interaction among dimensions allows for a more nuanced assessment of the conditions under which such infrastructures compensate for the resource constraints of vulnerable groups in coping with climate change effects. I conclude that achieving socially just climate adaptation requires scholars and policymakers to move beyond a focus on simple provision and engage in critical analyses that account for the relational constitution of space. Only through such an approach can social infrastructures be transformed into inclusive environments capable of compensating for systemic injustices.
ABSTRACT In this article, we review existing literature on delayed marriage and declining fertility in East Asia, and propose an intersectional framework that situates demographic change within economic constraints, gendered institutions, and sociopolitical transformations. Building on existing economic, demographic, and sociological studies, we argue that bringing intersectional perspectives, linking gender inequality, feminist politics, and generational value shifts, can enrich scholarship on delayed marriage and fertility decline by showing that family formation and childbearing are not merely influenced by, but constituted through, these intersecting social forces in three key ways: (1) it extends economic and structural account by foregrounding gendered workplace regimes, long‐working hour culture, and unequal divisions of household and care labor that make the marriage package especially costly for women, (2) it enables the inclusion of feminist movements, such as the Escape the Corset movement and the “4B” lifestyle, within demographic accounts of intimacy and reproduction, (3) it specifies how resistance to patriarchal family norms and generational shifts toward autonomy and egalitarianism reclassify marriage and childbearing as contingent, elective projects rather than default life‐course obligations. To illustrate this argument, we use South Korea as an empirical case, showing how intersecting feminist discourses and generational schism combine with structural economic pressures to produce distinctive patterns of delayed marriage and lowest‐low fertility across East Asia.
ABSTRACT Drawing on the affective trajectories of academics in social science and humanities departments, this article asks how they imagine a ‘good academy’ and how they navigate the tension between that imagination and the demands of contemporary university regulations. Based on sixteen in‐depth interviews with early‐career researchers in Ankara, Turkey, it traces how academics narrate their affective relationship with the academy. Bringing together Berlant's conceptualisation of cruel optimism and Ngai's analysis of low‐key affective states such as ugly feelings, the article shows that the attachment to the good academy is narrated as something that obstructs flourishing due to the institutional demands in higher education. This in‐betweenness is analysed in relation to loosening attachment to the academy that is produced by a mood of irritation.
ABSTRACT This article examines how culture, religion, and coercive control shape the experiences of Malay Muslim women who pursued divorce following domestic abuse in Terengganu, Malaysia. Drawing on a qualitative phenomenological study of 32 divorced women recruited through purposive and snowball sampling, the article explores how coercive control operates within everyday marital and institutional contexts. Participants described abuse not only in physical terms but also through emotional manipulation, economic dependency, and the regulation of social and religious expectations. Emotional abuse emerged as a particularly significant mechanism of domination, reinforced by gendered norms surrounding obedience, family honor, and marital endurance. An intersectional analysis highlights how women's experiences were shaped by the interaction of patriarchal relations, socioeconomic inequalities, and institutional structures, including the Syariah system. Rather than treating religion as inherently oppressive, the study shows how religious authority is mediated through social practices and institutional interpretations that can both constrain and enable women's responses to abuse. Divorce emerged not as a sign of personal failure but as a negotiated and strategic response to cumulative harm. The article contributes to sociological understandings of coercive control by demonstrating how domination and agency are produced through the intersection of religious authority, cultural expectations, and institutional governance in a non‐Western Muslim context. Clinical Trial Registration This is a qualitative sociological study exploring lived experiences; it is not a clinical trial. Therefore, registration in a clinical trial database is not applicable.
ABSTRACT Since its appearance in a 2013 book, the “fractured elite” thesis—the claim that the corporate community in the United States and other developed societies has become increasingly fragmented in recent decades—has been the source of considerable controversy. Andrew Collins has produced a thoughtful and serious critique of this argument and presented three empirical claims that, he believes, render the alternative “corporate dominance” thesis more tenable. In this paper I respond to Collins's criticisms. I argue that his conception of the fracturing idea is based on a misinterpretation of its evidentiary basis. I then point to flaws in each of Collins's empirical illustrations and conclude that despite the persuasiveness of his argument, the evidence that he presents is insufficient to call the fracturing thesis into question.
ABSTRACT This paper re‐evaluates the debate between the corporate dominance thesis and the more recent “fractured elite” thesis. The fractured elite thesis, argued by Mizruchi (2013), posits that the American corporate elite has become increasingly fragmented since the late 20th century. This argument draws heavily on evidence from the U.S. board interlock network, which shows a decline in overall cohesion, the diminishing centrality of major banks, and the disappearance of the influential “inner circle” of well‐connected executives. I argue that these conclusions are premature and possibly an artifact of an overreliance on a methodological framework that has been rendered obsolete by the globalization of capital. By contrasting the decaying U.S. board interlock network with evidence from three other networks—the Policy‐Planning Network (PPN), the international board interlock network of the Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC), and political donation networks—I argue that evidence of corporate elite unity persists, albeit through evolved channels. Analysis of the PPN reveals continued elite coordination, while the TCC literature suggests that the locus of elite integration has shifted from the national to the international stage. Furthermore, political donation networks exhibit strong, and in some cases increasing, behavioral unity among elite donors during the same period of alleged fragmentation. Ultimately, I conclude that corporate dominance remains a powerful force in American politics, but understanding its contemporary mechanisms requires researchers to look beyond the domestic interlock network to these other arenas where elite power is organized and exercised.
ABSTRACT Platform economies are widely celebrated for expanding economic opportunities without requiring workers to relocate. This literature review draws on comparative mobilities scholarship, which conceptualizes mobility as an interdependent, life‐course–situated, and sociotechnically mediated process, to examine how women and people with disabilities (PWDs)—often presumed to benefit differently from digital work—are not merely users of platforms but active co‐producers of the conditions of (im)mobility itself. By situating platform‐based (im)mobilities within a broader genealogy of mobilities research, the article develops a digital comparative mobilities framework and advances three analytical contributions. First, it redefines mobility in platform economies. By drawing on emerging digital labor research, it demonstrates that mobility is no longer defined by the physical movement of bodies across space, but by the capacity to sustain economic participation through the continuous production of visibility, responsiveness, and algorithmic legibility within platform‐governed temporal and infrastructural regimes. Second, it conceptualizes digital platforms as mobility regimes that allocate speed, waiting, visibility, and risk, thereby governing who may remain economically mobile. Third, it reframes immobile mobility as a patterned structural outcome generated through specific configurations of platform economies, including welfare‐policy arrangements, levels of technological development, and cultural contexts.
ABSTRACT This study provides a comprehensive sociological mapping of gender equality research in Europe, examining how the field has evolved as both a policy regime and a cultural formation. Utilising a range of theoretical frameworks, including feminist, institutional and cultural theories, the study employs a comprehensive bibliometric and thematic analysis of over two decades of scholarly output (2000–2025). The findings indicate a shift from individual and labour‐oriented perspectives to multidimensional frameworks that integrate institutional, affective, and intersectional dimensions of equality. The research identifies persistent regional asymmetries in knowledge production, with Western and Northern Europe dominating academic networks, while Central and Eastern contexts remain underrepresented. The study introduces a “multi‐level equality framework” that connects structural, institutional, and cultural dimensions, illustrating how equality functions as both a sociological process and a site of political contestation. The article employs a multidisciplinary approach, situating gender equality within broader transformations in governance, emotion, and identity. This approach advances an integrative understanding of equality as a dynamic and contested social condition. The study concludes that the future of equality research lies in three key areas. Firstly, theoretical coherence must be deepened. Secondly, regional inclusivity must be expanded. Thirdly, cultural and emotional dimensions must be embedded within institutional analysis.
ABSTRACT This scoping review maps and assesses the empirical literature (2014–2024) on cosmopolitan food consumption and its role in social distinction. Drawing on a synthesis of 30 peer‐reviewed articles using the PRISMA‐ScR protocol, the review identifies a central contradiction between the rhetoric of “openness” and inclusivity in globalized food practices and their actual function as strategic adaptations for the maintenance of elite distinction. The findings reveal a qualitative shift in the mechanisms of stratification, where distinction has migrated from the food object itself to a refined “meta‐taste”—a discursive strategy of appraisal rooted in analytical reflexivity and performative competence. The review further identifies a theoretical lag within the field, where a heavy reliance on the Bourdieuian tradition risks overinterpreting consumption as a purely static possession. This conceptual focus sustains two substantive deficiencies: first, the neglect of material capital, which sidelines the economic rationalities and structural constraints that define food access; and second, a persistent Western‐centricity that projects a universal cosmopolitan trajectory onto decontextualized global foodways. In response, a critical research agenda is proposed to decentre the dominant Bourdieuian paradigm by expanding geographical and intersectional scopes, integrating materialist perspectives to bridge the symbolic‐structural divide, and developing methodological tools capable of measuring discursive capital over material acquisition. This review provides a timely re‐evaluation of how distinction is performed and maintained within increasingly discursive global foodways, advancing a more inclusive sociology of food that bridges the disconnect between symbolic performance and material reality.
ABSTRACT The hidden curriculum—the implicit norms, values, and institutional expectations that exist alongside the formal academic curriculum—is a familiar concept in sociology and education circles. In recent years, the term has made its way into the mainstream. While once critiqued as a mechanism of social control and oppression to be resisted, the hidden curriculum is increasingly framed as a toolkit that, when learned, can enable the successful navigation of educational spaces and facilitate social mobility. In this review article, we summarize the literature on the hidden curriculum, mapping its origins in educational and critical theory and tracing its diffusion into popular discourse. In doing so, we examine how scholars have defined and operationalized the term; explore the range of contexts in which researchers have studied the hidden curriculum; illustrate how practitioners have adopted the concept; and discuss the consequences of this shift. We conclude with a proposed agenda for future research. This analysis speaks to ongoing debates within sociology concerning the extent to which educational institutions serve to reduce, reproduce, or exacerbate inequality and invites reflection on the problem of what may be lost when scholarly terms come to be redefined as they migrate outside of academia.
ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of recent developments in the study of revolutions. It briefly reviews the historical development of approaches to revolution, the pre‐scientific approach and the first three generations of theories of revolution. The main part of the article focuses on the current generation of theories and theorists of revolution and the limits of research on revolutions. The article introduces the question of the generational vision of theories of revolution and the current debate about the state of this field of research. It aims to help understand the field of research on revolutions and provide new perspectives on revolutionary change.
ABSTRACT Territorial stigmatization, as both a concept and practice, reflects and reinforces the unequal mechanisms of governance and the paradoxical dynamics of exclusion and dependence among social groups. It does this by reshaping public fear toward “othered spaces” within diverse urban landscapes and intensifying the marginalization and stigmatization of these spaces. This review draws on literature from seven fully democratic countries and from China as a representative authoritarian context, to address three key questions: What are the causes, processes, and outcomes of territorial stigmatization? What are the core differences? And how are these differences shaped by the institutional characteristics of democratic and authoritarian systems? The findings reveal that territorial stigmatization assumes entirely different roles, forms of expression, involved actors, and impacts across causes, processes, and outcomes; such differences are based on divergent institutional features, namely, public consent in democracy and discursive monopoly in authoritarianism. This comparative review encourages reflection on the application of urban concepts originating in the Global North to Global South contexts, drawing attention to the importance of distinct institutional backgrounds that are often treated as default conditions in existing literature. Additionally, it provides suggestions for expanding the theoretical application of territorial stigmatization in future research.
ABSTRACT This article synthesizes research on stay‐at‐home motherhood to examine its evolving definitions and the dynamic forms of agency exercised by stay‐at‐home mothers. Drawing on preference theory, we review existing scholarship to conceptualize stay‐at‐home motherhood as a socially constructed and culturally variable phenomenon that cannot be reduced to related categories of women and that extends beyond the private sphere into the public domain. We further argue that stay‐at‐home mothers are internally heterogeneous. Their experiences of leaving the workforce vary across contexts and are shaped by interactions with structural and cultural forces, including the stalled revolution, the ideology of intensive mothering, and prevailing norms surrounding maternal employment. At the same time, these experiences are further differentiated by intersections with social class, race, and migration. Based on this review, we advocate for a more comprehensive conceptualization of stay‐at‐home motherhood, a comparative approach to examining its diverse meanings and challenges across societies, and greater attention to policies and social support for stay‐at‐home mothers.
ABSTRACT In a radical reimagining of crime in the 19 th century, Émile Durkheim described crime as a “normal” phenomenon which was functional and essential to the workings of healthy societies. Durkheim noted that crime performs specific functions: it reinforces collective norms, clarifies the boundaries of acceptable behavior, and fosters social cohesion in response to violations. In his view, a healthy social order would lead to relatively normal or consistent rates of crime. While Durkheim's proposition regarding a normal level of crime in society does not seem to fit recent experience and is seldom discussed by sociologists or criminologists today, our review suggests that there is indeed a “normal level of crime” in cities, but one that relates to the concentration of crime at place and not to the overall rate of crime. We think in this context that a different proposition from Durkheim's can be raised at this juncture and should be examined in future studies. Weisburd (2015) has argued that there is a law of crime concentration at place reflecting strong concentrations of crime within a narrow bandwidth. Despite changes in crime rates, the concentration of crime appears to follow a consistent pattern across time, and across cities. This is an intriguing finding that places Durkheim's theorizing in a new light. In our discussion and conclusions, we consider why crime concentrations appear to vary within a narrow range drawing from Durkheim's discussion in the Rules of the Sociological Method , and consider policy implications of this perspective.
ABSTRACT Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping the global workforce, but current narratives ignore the billions in the Global South. This review offers a structured comparative synthesis of peer‐reviewed scholarship in labor sociology and political economy, flagship analyses by the ILO and United Nations, and national policy strategies from both high‐income and lower‐ and middle‐income countries to analyze how different strands of automation (industrial robotics, algorithmic management of labor, and generative AI) are reshaping work and labor relations across regions. The analysis shows that high‐income economies confront automation in the context of aging workforces, labor shortages, and restructuring of mid‐skill clerical and manufacturing roles. Contrastingly, the Global South faces a different constraint: not a shortage of workers, but the urgent need to absorb fast‐growing youth populations into decent work, often in environments of weak social protection, limited computer access, and infrastructural gaps. AI offers leapfrogging potential through inclusive innovation, integration with the informal sector, and digital entrepreneurship. The study advocates for a decolonized account of the future of work: one that views the Global South not as a passive adopter of technologies designed elsewhere, but as a site where labor, data, and computational capacity are actively produced, governed, and contested.
ABSTRACT Scholarship on Indian marriages is vast and interesting, with insights into structural practices and transformations, everyday realities, and maintenance of boundaries and hierarchies of groups. To understand these aspects, studies have focussed on specific caste groups, religious and regional communities, bourgeoning urban areas and emerging class structures. These are rich and compelling studies that shed light on the continued practices and slow transformations of marriage practices and preferences in Indian society. In this article, I provide a brief overview of this scholarship on marriages in India to specifically bring attention to the fact that though rich and nuanced, this field has not adequately studied the category of elites. In line with sociological definitions and contemporary studies of elites, I define elites as the top 1% of the Indian population, who are owners of capital and who by virtue of this, wield political, economic, social, and cultural power. To present these insights, this article is divided into four sections: the first provides a brief overview of the various themes explored and examined by the rich array of studies on marriage, family, and kinship in Indian sociology since postcolonial times. The second section draws attention to those research works that have studied marriage practices (and gender and family dynamics) of privileged classes as upper‐caste groups, upper middle class, and what some might define as professional elites. At the same time, this section explains how these studies are not really about the top 1% or Indian elites. Following this, the next section delves into the study of elites at a global level, briefly discussing the growing literature from the US and UK for example, especially works that have focussed exclusively on elite women, their marriage, intimate and domestic lives. Finally, the article identifies key questions or themes that future studies on elites could explore. As such, this article traces studies on marriages and elites to argue that further research must bring these two themes together as this will enable us to better grasp how elites constitute and reproduce inequalities.
ABSTRACT This article examines the concept of international solidarity, emphasizing its significance in both historical and contemporary contexts. Notable movements such as Palestine solidarity movement, the global workers' movement and the Anti‐Apartheid Movement illustrate how individuals and communities across borders unite to challenge injustice. Despite its historical importance, international solidarity remains under‐researched. This article provides a critical synthesis of the literature and highlights the need for deeper engagement with its dynamics. It argues that (international) solidarity is a dynamic, multidimensional concept whose changing meanings across time, place, and politics shape collective action and social alliances. Moreover, it asserts that international solidarity should be understood not as a derivative outcome or an extension of domestic or transnational solidarity, but as a distinct, evolving, and politically charged sociological concept. The article begins by exploring the concept of solidarity, tracing definitions, key features, and historical development through disciplines such as sociology, politics, and philosophy, including insights from thinkers like Durkheim and Marx. It then distinguishes international from domestic solidarity, highlighting its characteristics including its transnational and cross border scope, as well as emphasis on interdependence and power dynamics. Finally, the article addresses challenges such as national interests and cultural differences while considering hope as a bridge for international solidarity, linking diverse movements and histories in a common struggle for justice.
ABSTRACT For eighteen consecutive years, activists, media, international campaigns, and scholars have described Brazil as the country with the world's highest number of transgender murders. We scrutinize the scope and methodology of these claims, highlighting the risks of data universalization, epistemic erasure, and the neglect of less measurable forms of violence. We compare annual reports by ANTRA and Rede Trans Brasil, the main organizations documenting anti‐trans murders in Brazil. Findings show that they collect data from news reports, social media, and local activists, facing limitations such as underreporting and misgendering. Although their absolute counts diverge slightly, both identify similar patterns of racialized, classed, and youth‐targeted transfeminicide . The oft‐cited 35‐year life expectancy for Brazilian trans people reveals political utility but statistical fragility. While murder measurements produce narratives to denounce violence, they impose singular representations on trans lives. This calls for a critical trans ‐epistemology that challenges the treatment of data as universal truth.
ABSTRACT In recent years, there has been a rapid and massive expansion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and infrastructures. Big AI Tech corporations are vigorously marketing these services in the pursuit of profit, despite their devastating impacts on the environment. A body of sociological inquiry into generative AI technologies is beginning to develop, but most of this research is human‐centric, with few studies focusing specifically on their ecological costs. To meet this gap, this review's aims are threefold: (i) to advance a more‐than‐human theoretical perspective in sociological analyses of generative AI's impacts on the natural world; (ii) to introduce the body of literature in the humanities that has already adopted this critical approach; and (iii) to thereby demonstrate the importance of this scholarship in expanding and deepening sociological inquiry into this topic. Insights from more‐than‐human theory, the digital environmental humanities, critical AI, data and data centre studies, and creative arts‐based work are discussed. This scholarship emphasises the importance of continued interdisciplinary social critique and creative inquiry into the harms posed to the natural world—and by extension, to humans—by generative AI development and use.
ABSTRACT Sociological studies of creative work have frequently discussed the precarious and unequal nature of cultural production and labour. Parallel strands of research, however, show how creative work can also be a site of care politics, political protest and creative justice pursuits that not only sustain solidarity and community within precarious environments but also link cultural production to wider social and political struggles. However, while addressing similar concerns, these different bodies of work have only been in sporadic conversation with each other. This paper therefore reflects on key points of connection between care‐ and justice‐based scholarship of creative work, while also linking these discussions to a burgeoning literature on (occupational) activism in the creative industries. I argue that to properly harness arts and culture for broader political protest and movements also requires addressing the labour conditions and inequalities in the cultural sector itself. Thus, in the conclusion of the paper, I call for a multi‐scale theory of cultural activism that unites the everyday politics of care in creative work, justice‐based approaches to policy and institutional change in the cultural industries and arts' role for broader social movements. By bringing together concerns around the organisation and experience of creative work with cultural workers' broader political engagements, such a framework seeks to position arts and culture as a catalyst for more caring, equitable and sustainable futures.
