Book Reviews: Black Picket Fences, and Voices from Beneath the Veil

Reviews of the books Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class, by Mary Pattillo-McCoy, and Voices from Beneath the Veil: Analysis of the Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs of Middle Class African Americans, by Michael E. Hodge

Romania for Beginners: Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender

In this article, I discuss a faculty learning community abroad in Romania. Key topics include cross cultural comparisons of race, gender, and medical care

Review of After a Fall: A Sociomedical Sojourn by Laurel Richardson

This a review of Richardson, Laurel. 2013. After a Fall: A Sociomedical Sojourn. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. ISBN: 978-1-61132-317-7, paperback, 268 pages. The book is an example of an autoethnography, detailing Richardson\u27s stay in a nursing home

Introduction to the Special Issue of The Journal of Public and Professional Sociology: Teaching Sociology in Challenging Times

Introduction by Editor In Chief Even under ideal conditions, teaching sociology can be challenging; however, recent attacks on academic freedom involving core sociological tenets have brought a sense of urgency to the discipline..

Letter from the Editors

A letter from the editors, welcoming readers to the special issue on Faculty Development Abroad

Introduction to the Special Issue

Introduction to the issue

Introduction to the Special Issue

Introduction to the issue

Workplace Bullying, Perceived Job Stressors, and Psychological Distress: Gender and Race Differences in the Stress Process

A large body of empirical research documents the adverse mental health consequences of workplace bullying. However, less is known about gender and race differences in the processes that link workplace bullying and poor mental health. In the current study, we use structural equation modeling of survey data from the 2010 Health and Retirement Study (N ¼ 2292) and draw on stress process theory to examine coworker support as a buffering mechanism against workplace bullying, and gender and race differences in the relationships between bullying and psychological distress. The results of the analysis indicate that coworker support serves as a protective buffer against workplace bullying, although the buffering effect is relatively small. We also find that the effects of workplace bullying more heavily impact women and persons of color. Specifically, women and African American individuals in our sample were less protected from the buffering mechanism of co-worker social support

Safety or Control? Workplace Organization and Occupational Health

Using labor process theory and epidemiologic models as a framework, this study analyzed relationships between task exposures, worker labor process control, perceived safety climate, and three dependent measures of adverse occupational health: workplace injury, exhaustion, and health status among a national sample of employed adults (n = 1,607). Multivariate analyses confirmed that task demands of heavy labor were associated with workplace injury above baseline individual and job characteristics. Consistent with previous research, results indicated worker control was associated with increased health. Reliable co-workers were associated with less exhaustion, and working fast was associated with greater exhaustion. My results implied that increased safety climate was associated with fewer injuries, less exhaustion, and increased health. Safety climate did not account for associations between task exposures, labor process control, and work place injury or exhaustion. Results suggested that part of the influence between labor process control and health status occurs through improvement in safety climate

Paradoxes of Labor Process Control: Adverse Occupational Health

Does having control over your work make you less likely to get injured on the job? Or is workplace safety climate more important to your health? What are the effects of using your skills on the job? What are the positive and negative effects of having friendly co-workers? What are the most important factors in determining exhaustion and persistent pain? How does workplace organization contribute to overall health? Most of the existing literature on worker health and safety fails to appreciate the ways in which workers are embedded in a social context with complex relationships. Often, epidemiologic models lack a critical approximation of power and control. This book critically examines the intended and unintended health consequences of worker autonomy, skill, and social cohesion, drawing from labor process theory and from epidemiologic models of host, agent/exposure, and environment. It is directed toward injury prevention researchers, sociologists, behavioral health experts and industrial management professionals