Digital Traces of Distinction? Popular Orientation and User-Engagement with Status Hierarchies in TripAdvisor Reviews of Cultural Organizations

Cultural organizations are categorized by cultural products (high or popular culture) and by organizational form (nonprofit or commercial). In sociology, these classifications are understood predominantly through a Bourdieusian lens, which links cultural consumption to habitus and a class-based struggle for distinction. However, people’s engagement with institutionalized cultural classifications may be expressed differently on the Internet, where a culture of hierarchy-free equality is (sometimes) idealized. Using digital trace data from a representative sample of 280 user-generated reviews of four London cultural organizations, we find that reviewers are concerned with practical issues over cultural content, displaying a popular orientation to cultural consumption (an “audience-focus” or an “embodied” approach). A very small minority of reviewers claim status honor on a variety of bases, including symbolic mastery of traditional cultural capital. Overall, we find an online space in the cultural sphere in which cultural hierarchies are not relevant

Differential Proteome Analysis of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Patients

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a complex three-dimensional deformity of the spine. The cause and pathogenesis of scoliosis and the accompanying generalized osteopenia remain unclear despite decades of extensive research. In this study, we utilized two-dimensional fluorescence difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) to analyze the differential proteome of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) from AIS patients. In total, 41 significantly altered protein spots were detected, of which 34 spots were identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF analysis and found to represent 25 distinct gene products. Among these proteins, five related to bone growth and development, including pyruvate kinase M2, annexin A2, heat shock 27 kDa protein, γ-actin, and β-actin, were found to be dysregulated and therefore selected for further validation by Western blot analysis. At the protein level, our results supported the previous hypothesis that decreased osteogenic differentiation ability of MSCs is one of the mechanisms leading to osteopenia in AIS. In summary, we analyzed the differential BM-MSCs proteome of AIS patients for the first time, which may help to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of bone loss in AIS and also increase understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of AIS

CUMULATIVE VERSUS CONTINUOUS DISADVANTAGE IN AN UNSTRUCTURED LABOR-MARKET - GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE CAREERS OF TELEVISION WRITERS

This article uses longitudinal career history data for the period 1982 through 1990 to explore the mechanisms that produce a gender gap in earnings among writers in the television industry. Two models of labor market dynamics are compared. The first is a model of cumulative disadvantage whereby differential access to opportunity is increasingly consequential over the course of writers' careers. The second is a model of continuous disadvantage whereby the contributions of women writers are uniformly devalued across career stages. The results strongly support the model of continuous disadvantage and show that a narrowing of the wage gap is limited to very recent cohorts of writers. The article describes how unstructured labor market arrangements in the entertainment industry sustain the process of continuous disadvantage and discusses implications for labor market issues more generally

Organizational mediation of project-based labor markets: Talent agencies and the careers of screenwriters

We examine how organizations that mediate 'life-of-project' employment segment the labor market in a culture industry. Using longitudinal data on writers for television and feature films, we examine trends in the extent to which type of agency representation affects writers' employment and earnings. Elite or 'core' agencies are those that transcend their role as market brokers between the suppliers and purchasers of writing services by participating actively in the production process. Writers who are represented by such agencies are substantially more likely to find employment, and they earn considerably more than equally accomplished writers with noncore agency representation. We discuss the implications of these findings for contingent employment of professionalized employees in other highly institutionalized industrial sectors

Women and men in film gender inequality among writers in a culture industry

Distinctive features of culture industries suggest that women culture workers face formidable barriers to career advancement. Using longitudinal data on the careers of screenwriters, we examine gender inequality in the labor market for writers of feature films. We hypothesize and test three different models of labor market dynamics and find support for a model of cumulative disadvantage whereby the gender gap in earnings grows as men and women move through their careers. We suggest that the transition of screenwriting from a mixed to a male-dominated occupation parallels the "empty field" phenomenon described in a study by Tuchman of nineteenth-century novelists. The institutionalization of male dominance of the film industry in the 1930s and the typecasting of women writers has had a lasting impact on gender inequality, which shows little change through the early 1990s

I will follow him: family ties, gender-role beliefs, and reluctance to relocate for a better job

Tests competing explanations for why wives in dual-earner couples are less willing than husbands to relocate for a better job. Hypotheses are derived from a neoclassical market model. Results from a maximum-likelihood probit model that uses data from the 1977 Quality of Employment Survey indicate that couples' orientation to the "provider role' shapes how they respond to job opportunities. A husband's potential loss from a move appears to deter wives from capitalizing on opportunities at a new location, but a wife's potential loss does not deter husbands. Differences by gender are substantially smaller among men and women who reject traditional notions about husbands' and wives' roles within families. Implications for future theoretical development and empirical research are discussed. -from Author