New Books in Sociology

Worker Centered: Allyship & Action in the Contemporary Labor Movement (Oxford UP, 2024) is a close-to-the-ground, ethnographic narrative of a workplace organizing campaign at a company whose workforce was primarily low wage and immigrant. The book details the overall strategy of the campaign and its ultimate failure to win its core demands. The organization used an innovative strategic model and insisted on the importance of worker leadership. And yet allies and staff participated in a campaign that, although continually framed as such, was decidedly not led by workers. Ultimately, Worker Centered challenges conventional notions of political representation, inviting reflection on the complexities of organizing the marginalized and speaking on their behalf. Our guest Biko Koenig is an Assistant Professor in the Government and Public Policy programs at Franklin & Marshall college in Lancaster, PA. He is also co-founder of Research Action, a worker-owned research and organizing firm that performs research and analysis for unions, solidarity economy organizations, community groups and social justice campaigns. Trained as an ethnographer and qualitative specialist at the New School for Social Research, Koenig's research investigates questions of political behavior and mobilization that centers the experiences of everyday actors as they seek to challenge status-quo power relationships. My co-host today is Joe Zerilli, and MA student in the Communication program at Oakland University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Tamara Kay, sociologist at the University of Pittsburgh who studied Sesame Workshop through seven years of ethnography. She describes how Sesame Street is co-produced with local partners, the phases of disassembly and reconstitution, how teams navigate sensitive cultural topics, and the logistical, funding, and alliance-building work that lets a US cultural icon become locally resonant around the world.

Katie Barclay, historian of family and emotional life, and Eleanor Gordon, professor emerita of Scottish social history, discuss working-class courtship, marriage, and divorce in Scotland, 1855–1939. They explore courtship practices, changing leisure and intimacy, regional illegitimacy patterns, irregular marriage and cohabitation, the effects of war and regulation, and how emotions showed up in everyday care.

Kristin Lawler, a surfing studies scholar and editor; Jarrett Rose, a community health researcher on psychedelics and soul-surfing; and Michael James Roberts, a sociologist of surf and skate cultures. They trace the book's origins, link surfing and skating to temporal politics and anti-work traditions, probe class and labor ties, and explore psychedelics, set and setting, and collective attention practices.

Jennifer Randles, sociologist and author studying family inequalities and diaper insecurity, explores the hidden crisis of diaper need in American families. She traces the rise of disposables and policy gaps. Short scenes cover inventive caregiving tactics, racialized stigma, diaper banks, and proposed policy fixes like vouchers and bulk purchasing.

Nicole E. Trujillo-Pagán, sociologist and author studying race, space, and urban change in Detroit. She discusses how media tropes and mapping practices shape investment and erase resident voices. The conversation covers interviews with Latino youth, modern forms of redlining, and how policy and market-making remake urban space.

Miguel Sicart, professor and head of the Center for Digital Play at the IT University of Copenhagen, studies play theory, ethics of games, and design. He explores play as the core of how we interact with software. Short takes cover software agency, play’s cultural and political effects, gamification as exploitation, and how generative AI reshapes digital play.

Alice Wiemers, Associate Professor of History at Davidson College who studies African history and development. She recounts walking a northern Ghana village and reading its school, clinic, and road. She traces how chiefs, family networks, and communal labor shaped rural statecraft. She examines shifts from midcentury agricultural optimism to projectized, neoliberal forms of local governance.

Elliot Dolan-Evans, researcher and author of Making War Safe for Capitalism, studies World Bank and IMF interventions in conflict zones. He discusses how these institutions shifted into wartime engagement. Short segments cover the cascade approach, land and agriculture reforms, gas privatization and household costs, and pension changes with gendered impacts.

Samuel Kassow, historian of Eastern European Jewry and YIVO research historian, examines the real and imagined shtetl. He contrasts nostalgic portrayals with critical perspectives. He traces origins, social institutions, markets, and economic life. He explores modern changes: migration, politics, and cultural renewal in interwar towns.