Winter 2021 • Volume 49 • Number 1

In This Issue Toward a More Equitable Food System A collection of articles that highlight social justice issues related to the food system. Values of the Food System Tamara Mose, Director of Diversity, food and society write about a family feeding have changed within 1 on Display Equity, and Inclusion, American number of issues that ail our food households during the pandemic; Sociological Association system, from the complicated costs how people’s resilience is inter- 3 Is Healthy Food Too ood not only takes care of our of eating healthily for low-income connected and defined by class Expensive? Ask Those Fnutritional needs, but also reflects families to foodies confronting across the globe; urban farming Who Know Best broader social contexts in which their own privilege during the and gentrification; ways hops are we live. This has become especially pandemic; from how food con- traded and their impact on labor Household Food noticeable during the pandemic sumption represents a central pillar and agricultural landscapes; and the 5 Procurement, Gender, as many have come to learn how of population-level health issues to connection between food justice and COVID-19 food is accessed—often unequally privatization of supermarkets and and the Black community. corporate food distribution; from This collection of articles illumi- Foodie Tensions in Tough across communities. As a sociolo- 6 Times gist whose scholarship has in large the harmful effects of sugar addic- nates a range of social justice issues part focused on food and foodways, tion among communities of color that stem from the ways in which Why Refusing the Empire’s I know that food has played a con- to the critical role of intermediaries our food system works. The authors 8 Sugar Still Matters for tentious role in our global history, who are increasingly responsible for have approached their essays with Abolition which highlights cultural connect- getting food to our tables. different lenses and methodologies edness while also underscoring Articles also focus on food inse- and suggest ways in which public 9 The Pandemic and the disparities among groups. curity, strains on the food system, policy can be deployed to create a Distribution of Choice In this issue, sociologists studying and ways food procurement and more equitable food system. n Freedom Farmers: Black 11 Agriculture and the Origins of Food Justice Values of the Food System on Display

Urban Farming: Tell All Andrew Deener, Professor of Sociology, neither the time nor the resources lines. Nearly all the food banks 13 the Stories University of Connecticut to repurpose the supply to meet the across the country report increased s news of the coronavi- changing demand. demand, and 59 percent of them Hops across Time and 14 rus pandemic spread, This food waste exists report diminished inventory. Space A alongside millions of grocery shopping became The Role of the Private Market a significant concern for people going hungry. Care and Feeding during While the coronavirus pandemic 16 many. Some stockpiled According to the Brookings the Pandemic put a spotlight on the U.S. food sys- food, fearing visits to Institution, as of June 2020, tem, the pandemic is not the cause supermarkets and the pos- 16 percent of families The Social Context of of these problems. In fact, both 17 sibility of food shortages. reported that their children Healthy Eating food waste and food insecurity are Soon after, the focus turned Andrew Deener did not get enough food on normal features of the food system. Food and Resilience during to the dangers lurking in a weekly basis. The propor- TheUSDA estimates that between 19 the Pandemic: Narratives meat processing plants, fruit and tion of Black and Latino children 30 and 40 percent of the food supply from around the World vegetable packing houses, and ship- was higher, about 33 and 25 percent is wasted every year, and food ping and distribution centers. These respectively—part of the unequal insecurity has remained a constant 21 ASA News locations became transmission burden of vulnerability during the hotspots, which delayed shipments. pandemic. (See Alison Hope Alkon, policy issue for decades without the federal government ever developing Announcements With pressures mounting on both Sarah Bowen, Yuki Kato, Kara 24 supply and demand, warehouse Alexis Young, “Unequally vulnera- comprehensive solutions. and supermarket workers struggled ble: a food justice approach to racial Agricultural economists point to keep the distribution system disparities in COVID-19 cases.”) out that the food system is currently together and the shelves full. The emergency food bank system failing in its flexibility, unable to While supermarket shoppers faces a parallel disruption. A U.S. connect production sectors with encountered empty shelves, demand census survey found that changing consumption needs. for milk and fresh produce from 26 million people are without Underlying this issue is a sociologi- restaurants, hotels, and schools saw enough food. Feeding America, a cal question about why a vital system a precipitous drop. As a result, dairy national organization of 200 food is set up in this particular way. The farmers dumped gallons of milk, banks, projects that the number food system was built to profit from and fruit and vegetable farmers could grow to more than 50 million abundance and convenience without plowed overflowing supplies back in the coming months. Food banks creating reliable methods for solving into their fields. Farmers had have experienced excessively long Continued on Page 2 footnotes 1 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Feature

Values of Food System increasingly privatized. The urban publicly traded to gain expansion over what was considered “super” in From Page 1 grocery and wholesale system of the capital and remain competitive, the 1970s. Shoppers now take this late 1800s and early 1900s connected were at the whim of shareholders. massive overabundance for granted. other kinds of problems, including food supplies to new neighborhoods Stores that did not turn a substan- The federal government contin- food insecurity and food waste. and more consumers. Grocers opened tial profit—mostly smaller urban ued to play a role, too. In addition Why were these particular market hundreds of standardized outlets to outlets—were forced to close. The to subsidizing changes in transpor- values integrated into a vital system? meet the changing urban consump- financial pressures of the 1970s left tation and suburban development, The answer requires looking back tion needs and became skilled at behind a landscape of limited food it helped finance the farming of at the history of the modern food managing many small stores at the access, part of the larger disinvest- commodity crops and created con- system, especially the rise and same time. ment of cities. sumer relief programs, such as the dominance of mass-merchandising Similarly, the supermarket system Taking Overabundance for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance as central to the consumer land- started piecemeal to solve a prob- Granted Program (SNAP). All of these scape. U.S. consumers rarely think lem. During the Great Depression, efforts reinforced the prominence of The modern food system was now about why supermarkets—let alone entrepreneurs sought ways to lower mass-merchandising. SNAP benefits, pursuing a different collective inter- Walmart, Costco, or Target—are food prices by linking volume and for example, are used disproportion- est altogether: the constant search such fundamental parts of a vital variety. So-called “cheapy” markets ately at supermarkets and big-box for organizational and technical infrastructure. And yet, almost incorporated more types of prod- stores, bolstering this aspect of the improvements 90 percent of the nation’s population ucts, initially by inviting vendors retail market. purchases its food at a supermar- in economic to set up stands in abandoned Likewise, ket or one of these big-box stores. warehouse spaces. Over time, super- efficiency. Stores that did not turn a agricultural These private market interests have market owners married self-service The food subsidies fundamentally reshaped people’s consumerism and the coordination processing substantial profit—mostly smaller neglect fruit food tastes, nutritional lives, and of hundreds and then thousands of and consumer urban outlets—were forced to and vegetable consumer expectations. supply chains into the organization markets gained close. The financial pressures of growers, and of supermarket aisles. even more Supermarkets and Limited the 1970s left behind a landscape instead they As the suburbs sprawled between autonomy. Food Access mostly support 1930 and 1970, the federal and Through the of limited food access, part of the growers of As I explain in my book, The state governments financed the 1970s, different larger disinvestment of cities. crops like corn Problem with Feeding Cities construction of new roads and corporations— and soybeans. (University of Chicago Press, 2020), highways. The auto and trucking from regional These ingredi- the history of modern food distribu- industries replaced rail transporta- and national supermarkets to ents are turned into corn syrup and tion since the end of the 1800s is tion. Grocery companies and food discount stores like Kmart and about the shift in the scale of the manufacturers experimented with Walmart—tried to integrate food, soybean oil to create the abundance vital infrastructure, from a system reshaping supply chains, managing clothing, health products, beauty of soda, chips, and other cheap foods of feeding cities to supplying an more branded goods and fresh items, electronics, and other product saturating supermarket aisles. entire nation. The transition mir- foods. Supermarkets aligned with lines into one-stop shopping. This While foods are not widgets, rored changes in the scale of other agricultural interests, trucking consumer format proved difficult companies now design them to fit critical systems like electricity and industries, and food manufacturing until retailers teamed up with the high volume and high variety water distribution. That is, as U.S. corporations, but a tension grew information and communication merchandising platforms. Hyper- population became more urban and between high-tech and low-tech technology companies such as IBM processed foods can sit in ware- th th suburban in the 19 and 20 cen- parts of the system. Manufacturers and RCA. Bar codes, scanning houses and on shelves for weeks, turies, public and private alliances making everything from breakfast equipment, computers, and commu- months, or even years. TheTwinkie extended the means of resource cereals to processed meats devel- nication networks improved upon experiment is only the most famous distribution. oped automated production lines. earlier profit-making inefficiencies. example. Unlike homemade cakes, In the early 1800s, food distribu- They made cheaper foods and relied Harvesting data became as Twinkies defy time, making them tion was made up of small-scale pub- on supermarkets to push them out important as harvesting crops. easier to ship, stock, and sell. lic markets and direct farm-to-market in mass. Supermarkets, however, Corporations monitored and Yet even fresh foods have become exchanges. With the expansion of had high labor costs and minimal analyzed everything—from potatoes caught in this web. The produce grocery manufacturing, wholesaling, technology. They struggled to profit. in the ground to frozen french fries aisle used to be seasonal, but now and retailing, the food system became By the 1970s, supermarkets sold at the checkout stand. More Pop- supermarkets have grapes and blue- about 10,000 Tarts, sugary cereals, and potato berries in the winter and apples and different chips were packed onto shelves. Big pears in the spring. Global shipping, products, but pharma joined in, not only filling cold storage, and precision ripening they made prescriptions, but also filling aisles means that the food system caters to less than with over-the-counter cold and flu demand beyond the most processed 1 cent on remedies and pain relievers. Sam foods, as long as the items are amena- the dollar. Walton’s recipe was logistics: getting ble to the industrial paradigm. The largest even more products to more places. Each fresh product has a unique supermarket Walmart put an entire supermarket supply chain. Tomatoes are har- companies, into its older discount store format. vested when they are green, because many of Walmart Supercenters carry 125,000 they travel better when they are which became items, more than a 12-fold increase Continued on Page 3

2 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Feature Is Healthy Food Too Expensive? Ask Those Who Know Best

Caitlin Daniel, Postdoctoral Researcher, Different assessments of affordabil- it be per calorie? Per serving? conscious of her weight, Brittany Nutrition Policy Institute, University of ity support divergent explanations By weight? The choice of metric discussed her body size and eating California, Berkeley of poor people’s eating habits. If matters, as different measures habits with a disarming mix of s healthy food too expen- healthy diets seem too change how affordable food appears, earnestness and depleted self-es- Isive? This question is cen- expensive, we conclude supporting different explanations teem. Despite her wishes for Dustin, tral to debates about why that cash-strapped con- and judgments of food choice Brittany could only do so much. low-income people have sumers have no choice but in turn. Nutrition experts don’t Having escaped a violent relation- less healthy diets than their to eat in harmful ways. agree on which metric to use, and ship, she was living in a transitional higher-earning counter- If wholesome offerings when advocating one measure apartment, leaning on Temporary parts. It is also surprisingly appear affordable, we infer over another, they often infer how Assistance for Needy Families until contested. that they eat unhealthily low-income shoppers perceive price, her situation stabilized and she Some scholars and Caitlin Daniel for other reasons such as asserting, for example, that a quart could start working. Brittany strug- advocates deem nourishing limited information or of strawberries and a bag of chips gled to afford food, skipping meals food too pricey. Highlighting that personal preference. In turn, these are equally affordable because each at the end of the month so Dustin the cheapest calories come from different explanations give rise to one costs $3.99. But absent from could eat instead. refined grains, sugars, fats, and opposing moral judgments. While these debates are the perspectives When I asked how she managed processed foods made from these some observers blame unhealthy of low-income people themselves. high prices and low finances, she ingredients, they conclude that poor eating durable economic inequal- Without actually observing how immediately focused on waste. people turn to insalubrious offerings ity, others fault what they believe this group views food cost, we can’t “I get the things I know that my son to stretch their skimpy budgets. are poor people’s skewed values, know if analysts’ hunches match will eat and like,” Brittany said. Others deem healthy eating afford- like putting pleasure over health, consumers’ realities. “I mean, I try to mix it up a little bit, able. Pointing to foods like sweet and convenience over thrift. These By talking to low-income par- like I’ll give him different fruits and potatoes, oatmeal, peanut butter, judgments have broader political ents and shadowing them at the stuff like that. But I try not to buy eggs, and beans, they argue that implications. By framing low-in- grocery store, I found that these things that I don’t know if he’ll like, wholesome, economical options come people either as victims or shoppers experience price in ways because it’s just, it’s a waste.” cost no more than “junk.” From architects of their circumstances, that researchers’ calculations don’t Like Brittany, other low-income this perspective, the claim that they shape whether we support capture. As a result, healthy diets parents referenced their children’s carrots cost more than Twinkies providing resources or encouraging that seem affordable on paper can preferences, waste, and financial loss is a “misconception,” if not “just better behaviors—or restricting the become pricey in practice. in the same breath, revealing that plain wrong:” poor people don’t scant resources people already have. they saw them as causally entwined: need more money; they need to use Although food cost has sticky Factoring in Waste when children disliked a food, they their dollars differently, swapping political implications, establishing When low-income parents think rejected it, and when they rejected packaged items for whole ingredi- whether healthy food is affordable of food cost, they think of waste. it, they eroded scarce resources. ents; trading soda for tap water; and should be a straightforward matter Brittany wanted her six-year-old son Food rejection is a natural part of eating less meat. of dollars and cents. However, it’s Dustin to be a healthy and adven- children’s taste acquisition. Children Claims about cost are about more complicated. There are multiple turous eater—healthier and more approach new food with hesitancy, than facts. They are about politics. ways to measure food prices. Should adventurous than she was. Self- Continued on Page 4

Values of Food System yellow and ready for the shelves that storage, and distribution. tions, struggling to find new options From Page 2 day. Others want them greener, so As Instacart and other online as supply chains become leaner and they can keep bunches in the back grocery delivery services rushed to emergencies accelerate the demand. not ripe. At some point between and refill displays on demand. fill the gap between supermarkets Most of the food system goes the field and the store, tomatoes and their customers during the pan- unnoticed until a disaster strikes are sprayed with ethylene gas, a What Will it Take to Solve the demic, no comparable services—at and the world is turned upside plant hormone that ripens them. Food System’s Problems? least in terms of matching the sheer down. Solving these food prob- Tomatoes turn red without gaining The values of the just-in-time scale—have been established to lems is not only about creating their full burst of flavor, one of food economy—abundance, eliminate food insecurity. In fact, as more supply chain flexibility and the reasons supermarket tomatoes convenience, and profit-making Janet Poppendieck discusses in her resilience during a global public taste and feel more like plastic than efficiency—permeate every aspect book Sweet Charity? (Penguin 1999), health crisis. It is also about putting backyard garden varieties. of the system: the treatment of the emergency food bank system Bananas are one of the best-sell- workers; the applications of pesti- was never exclusively designed to societal values front and center. ing fruits, shipped from all over cides to protect agricultural output; eliminate hunger. Like other parts It requires turning our collective Central and South America in the invention of unpronounceable of the vital system, food banks serve attention to how vital infrastruc- their bright green and starchy state. ingredients as product fillers and the interests of the largest food man- tures are built and finding ways to When they arrive to U.S. ports, they preservatives to extend shelf life; ufacturers, processors, distributors, make health equality, food security, go to ripening rooms where heat and the uses of automation, refriger- and retailers as an outlet for their and environmental sustainability and ethylene gas set the ripening in ation, and communication to con- waste and excess. Food banks are as mundane as the pursuit of eco- motion. Some stores want bananas trol time and space in production, always at the whim of private dona- nomic efficiency.n footnotes Winter 2021 3 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Feature

Healthy Food Tracey knew this well. Shortly varied healthy food out of financial to the store and get [ingredients for] From Page 3 before I met Tracey, her three reach and monotonous healthy food burgers for five bucks. So what are children had started to rebel against out of the running, Tracey was left you going to do? You’re going to take spurning it multiple times until their dinner plates. It didn’t matter with the variety she could afford— your fast food option.” they learn it is safe. For low-income that she cooked with love and sacri- Hot Pockets, packaged chicken Per serving, homemade cheese- parents, refused food posed a real fice, standing over the stove through nuggets, frozen burritos, and ramen burgers would have cost slightly less financial threat. exhaustion and neuropathy-numbed noodles. She cringed with guilt. “I’m than their dollar-menu counter- As Brittany admitted with trepi- feet. Her children were bored. like, when did I become this? I used part. But with just dollars on hand, dation, “I’m kinda scared to try new Tracey explained, “We have the same to do healthy food!” But for Tracey, Rebecca didn’t define affordability things … I’m just scared to waste probably 12 to the choice based on servings. She focused on the money.” Cash-strapped parents 13, maybe 14 was not total cost, weighing beef, buns, and like her played it safe, falling back staple items The discrepancy between per- between junk cheese for $5 against three 99-cent on what their children liked, often that I make unit price and out-of-pocket cost and filling burgers, one for each child. In processed foods with added sugar, for dinners, poses fewer problems when money staples. It was contrast, many diet-cost estimates fat, and salt. Brittany wanted Dustin but they’re is more forthcoming. But when between junk reflect the price of what is eaten, not to eat more healthily. But when food just sick of consumers have just dollars to feed and children of what must be purchased for it to scarcity was a monthly reality, she it ‘cause my who simply be eaten in the first place. From this themselves, we overstate their said, “knowing that he’ll eat it, that’s shopping list might not perspective, three slices of cheese a big thing for me.” is pretty much ability to afford healthy food. eat. A narrow would cost 45 cents, even though Brittany revealed what low-in- the same. I range of it takes $2.39 to buy the whole come parents know to be an have to stick healthy foods package. The discrepancy between economic truth: they pay for what to a budget.” Tracey used to cook did fit her budget. But when monot- per-unit price and out-of-pocket their children eat and for what they other foods—vegetable lo mein, ony shifts an eater’s tastes, what is cost poses fewer problems when waste. If an apple costs 60 cents, Chinese chicken wings, and crab affordable in theory might not be money is more forthcoming. But and a child wastes half, consuming Rangoon. She broke the boredom viable in practice. when consumers have just dollars to half an apple costs a full 60 cents. with a monthly splurge on take-out. feed themselves, we overstate their Packages of Food: More than I But most food-cost calculations She could afford to fill their plate ability to afford healthy food. Need, More than I Can Afford reflect only the amount that is with vegetables instead of offering Understand Perspectives eaten: half an apple costs just 30 just a few spoonfuls. But recent A protein- and vegetable-rich cents. As a result, these food-cost financial hits cut Tracey down to peanut stew costs $1.06 per serving. As these mothers show, estimates understate the true cost beans, rice, pasta, chicken quarters, That amounts to $6.38 per recipe. low-income people view food cost of healthy eating. In most cases, the frozen vegetables, tortillas, cheese, The total cost of ingredients—not in ways that outside observers might true cost was enough to push strug- some fruit, and marked-down just the amount used—would be not expect. For them, price inter- gling parents toward less healthy produce past its prime. But with even more. Families could manage twines with practical issues such as but more reliably eaten food. this diet, her children’s patience was these larger sums when government waste, boredom, and cash on hand. tried. food assistance or a paycheck came These practical matters don’t just The Cost of Variety If anyone was going to eat in. But toward the end of the month, pile non-economic challenges onto Eating healthily on a tight budget healthily on a razor-thin budget, when they have mere dollars to a tenuous budget. Rather, they shift has another underappreciated cost: it was Tracey. Raised by an Italian spend, even nourishing staples can people’s very sense of what is afford- variety. A host of wholesome ingre- mother who dried hand-rolled remain out of reach. able because they add unmeasured dients may be cheap. But affordable pasta over a broomstick, she knew Rebecca loved healthy food. Raised costs to the equation: the cost of food healthy food is just a slice of what how to cook. Tracey was resource- by a “health nut” mother, she called waste; variety; and entire bundles of nature has to offer. After eating the ful, too, trawling the internet for herself a “big vegetable freak.” In an ingredients, not just single servings. same thing over and over, we start to healthy recipes and budgeting tips. ideal world, Rebecca would have Because food-cost calculations like it less, and we turn our sights to Her Pinterest page had 219 recipes bought fresh produce, unprocessed largely omit these considerations, other options. Called sensory-specific for hummus alone. But try as she meat, organic dairy, and fewer they risk understating how much satiety, this phenomenon is thought might to placate her family’s shifting starches such as pasta and bread. money healthy eating truly takes— to be an evolutionary adaptation palates with yet another rendition She did what she could, restricting and because different assessments to humans’ need for a wide range of legumes, rice, and chicken thighs, juice and insisting that her three of affordability support different of nutrients from a wide range of her savvy had its limits. “They’ll children eat vegetables at dinner explanations of food choice, omitting sources. Once we get enough of one actually not eat instead of [eating] before getting their entrées. But these costs could lead to the wrong food, our body tells us it’s time to something that they don’t like,” Rebecca worried about running out conclusion about why poor people move on to something else. Often, Tracey sighed. “I truly don’t know of food all the time. She would serve eat what they eat, and about what sensory-specific satiety is used to what to make them for dinner.” pasta for dinner later in the month. policies would support eating more explain why we enjoy the twelfth Tracey’s children would have hap- “Unfortunately, that’s all I have left in healthily. This conclusion is made bite of burger less than the first. But pily eaten something else. Tracey my cupboard right now, until we get possible not by imagining how cash- it also applies to monotonous diets, joked wryly that they would have money to go shopping again.” During strapped shoppers view price, but by like those that rest on a small set of happily devoured fast food every these crunch times, when both cab- understanding people’s choices from healthy, economical staples. When night. But homemade Chinese food, inets and budget were low, Rebecca their perspective—using the tools of cheap, healthy food loses its appeal, roasted vegetables, and salad also turned to fast food. She explained, sociology. To understand whether wholesome affordable diets may not figured among their requests. They “You could go to Wendy’s and get a healthy food is too expensive, we be so feasible after all. weren’t in the budget. With more 99-cent cheeseburger, or you could go need to ask those who know best. n

4 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Feature Household Food Procurement, Gender, and COVID-19

Michael Carolan, Professor of Sociology A High-Level View of Food that food practices are neither I would like to first run through and Associate Dean for Research and Practices evenly distributed across nor within some of the descriptive data, Graduate Affairs in the College of Liberal We also have some clues on how households. But we currently lack which document changes in food Arts, Colorado State University people procure, prepare, post-outbreak data to effectively procurement across households he world is going and consume food since tell that story, which means we between Time 1 and Time 2. Since Tthrough an unprec- the outbreak, suggesting have a long way to go before we the outbreak, respondents reported edented pandemic. In changes to these practices. can unpack how COVID-19 has cooking/baking more frequently, March 2020, one in five In one survey of more than impacted food experiences at the from 3.6 (s 2.71) to 5 (s 1.81) times people around the world 1,000 American adults level of everyday life. per week. They also reported higher rates of food hording, estimating were under lockdown. By conducted in early April Gender Behaviors s the end of that month, 2020, over half reported having 5.6 ( 4.42) days of food at I would like to spend the s three in four Americans cooking more (54 percent), Time 1 versus 18.33 ( 5.45) days at Michael Carolan remainder of the essay discussing were following stay-at- and almost as many said Time 2. Respondents also expressed my efforts to fill some of these gaps, greater interest in gardening—either home orders. Throughout they were baking more empirically. Data were collected over in terms of “expanding existing” or 2020, public health officials have (46 percent), than before the two stages. Stage one (late 2019) “starting one”—during lockdown pleaded with the general public pandemic. Three-quarters of those involved 41 households— than when interviewed prior. to maintain social distancing and claiming to cook more reported 70 respondents—from three Yet aggregated data gloss over restraint when engaging with being more confident in the kitchen Colorado localities, two rural and heterogeneity, which in this case others. This messaging has only (50 percent) because of those one located in a metropolitan reflects differences not only in terms become amplified during the holi- experiences, with 73 percent saying county. Baseline interviews, which of class, gender, and age—the sam- day season. they are either enjoying cooking lasted approximately 45 minutes, ple population was overwhelmingly As we approach the one-year more (35 percent) or as much were then followed by a 30-day white across all three communi- mark from when reports of the (38 percent) as before. tracking period, where respondents ties. Geospatial location was also coronavirus were initially picked The International Food had their macro-mobilities tracked important, playing a significant role up by the U.S. media, a picture Information Council conducted a using a GPS tracking app—Prey— explaining why some households is taking shape about certain survey of 1,000 U.S. adults during that was loaded onto their mobile traveled in excess of 100 miles impacts of the pandemic—from the same time period. Fifty percent phones. Stage one concluded with each way for groceries while others the psychological impacts of social of that sample reported doing less follow-up interviews that lasted could get by traveling far less, with distancing to the economic costs of in-person shopping and 47 percent roughly two hours. some residents hardly ever needing lockdowns and the impacts (mostly were eating more home-cooked I wanted to examine how house- to leave their homes because of positive) related to reduced travel meals. This is supported by data holds procured their food and how home-delivery coverage available to and industrial output, as evidenced from Instacart, an independent these practices and mobilities varied metropolitan residents. in data pointing to reductions in grocery-delivery service in the across communities while interro- All respondents reduced their CO2 emissions, noise pollution, and U.S. and Canada, which has emerged gating such variables and concepts travel, on the whole, during the improved water quality. in 2020 as a leader in grocery as gender, life course, care, food stay-at-home period: 27 respondents Sociologically speaking, it is still delivery with a 48 percent share of access, and a community’s physical reduced their travel by 81 percent to too early to know the pandemic’s the market as of August, according location. Findings from Stage one 100 percent; 14 respondents by full effects, although there are to data analytics provider Second have been reported in the journal 61 percent to 80 percent; preliminary data to draw from. Measure. The company saw their Agriculture and Human Values. 5 respondents by 41 percent to Consider virtual schooling—a order volume increase 150 percent Enter COVID-19, which led to 60 percent; 5 respondents by responsibility that my wife and I, from early March to early April, with Stage two taking shape. Shortly 21 percent to 40 percent; and like many parents across the coun- downloads of their app multiplying after the Colorado governor issued 11 respondents by 1 percent to try, have had to negotiate for most sevenfold during that period. There a statewide stay-at-home order on 20 percent. Filtering for food of 2020. A The New York Times poll are also survey data and countless March 25, 2020, participants were procurement-related trips for each found that nearly half of the fathers media stories indicating that more contacted again and asked for a little household, however, reveals a very surveyed with children under people are buying in bulk now than more of their time. Sixty-one of the different picture. This is especially 12 reported spending more time on prior to COVID-19. Finally, we have original 70 participants—or apparent by the fact that, for home schooling than their spouse, all likely experienced in some form 36 households—agreed to partici- some individuals, trips to grocery with only three percent of women how the pandemic has upended the pate in the second stage, which was stores increased. Gender proved a agreeing with that assessment. food system and the supply chains a combination of virtual interviews significant variable for explaining Meanwhile, 80 percent of mothers upon which we are so dependent; and having their movements this variation. surveyed reported spending more not to mention the role played by tracked using Prey for two weeks. Men made up every instance time on school matters than their the “essential workers” who populate All tracking was completed before (n=7) where the tracking data partners. While peer-reviewed those spaces, and who have risked the statewide stay-at-home order reported an increase in food pro- literature on the subject is only their lives, so we can eat. expired on April 26. A thorough curement-related travel recorded beginning to be published, what is And yet, all these data lack explanation of Stage two’s methods from Time 1 to Time 2. In addition, available supports the thesis that the granularity save for whatever we and conceptual orientation can be for the remainder of participants, pandemic has exacerbated gender have been able to glean from our found in a forthcoming issue of the where travel reductions where inequalities. own lived experiences. We know journal Sociological Quarterly. Continued on Page 6 footnotes Winter 2021 5 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Feature Foodie Tensions in Tough Times

Merin Oleschuk, Assistant Professor further complicate foodie culture’s part, on pause for now. With rising without an aid package. Although of Human Development and Family fraught relationship with culinary infection rates, eating out has been it is too early to know the final Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana- democracy and distinction. Amid highly restricted by social norms toll, it is certain that an enormous Champaign; Josée Johnston, Professor a global pandemic that has brought and regulations. number of restaurants will go of Sociology, University of Toronto; and death, illness, and economic hard- The dining restrictions prompted out of business, taking with them Shyon Baumann, Professor of Sociology, ship to millions, do people still value by COVID-19 have led to a wave University of Toronto many entry-level jobs on which food fashions and pleasure-seeking of restaurant closures, sometimes economically vulnerable populations oodie culture has long walked food experiences? What challenges referred to as restaurant “extinction.” have long relied. The innovation, Fa razor’s edge of snob appeal do the food system pressures and People who work in the restaurant experimentation, creativity, and and accessibility. Foodie culture amplified inequalities prompted by industry have been profoundly hurt diversity of urban restaurant culture celebrates eating styles that cut COVID-19 pose to foodies? by the pandemic. In the United cannot exist in the same way when across lines of highbrow and First, and most obviously, foodie States, the National Restaurant economic survival is tenuous. Eaters lowbrow, upscale and down-market, dining and shopping have become Association’s survey of its members are right to worry, and wonder what home-grown and remote—from practically and logistically difficult. in September revealed that there had they can do to help their favorite street-food festivals and truck-stop Supply chain pressures (especially already been 100,000 closures in the restaurants survive the pandemic. pecan pie to truffle shavings and early in the pandemic) made pro- U.S. since March—an astonishing French wines. curing certain food items difficult, one-sixth of all restaurants, with Democracy Versus Distinction Navigating these tensions has and at times limited what people another 40 percent of remaining Another challenge to foodie always been a balancing act, but could cook at home. Similarly, operators predicting they would pleasure is less straightforward: how today’s troubled times seem to dinner parties are, for the most close permanently within six months Continued on Page 7

Food Procurement hold responsibilities—homeschool- de-feminize—or perhaps even mas- Long-term Impacts From Page 5 ing, extra at-home meals, additional culinize—particular tasks, which Admittedly, my longitudinal proj- house cleaning now that everyone in turn provided men symbolic ect ends up asking more questions recorded men on average recorded was home 24/7. This aligns with cover to participate more directly than it answers. Take the question lower percent changes than women, prior scholarship, where men tend in feeding the family because of of whether the above changes will at least when the trip involved pur- to “help” with housework, during the dangers involved rather than stick. The data do not provide a chasing food for the household. times of crises and stress, rather despite them. clear response, though we cannot This finding is significant because than assume a leading role in feed- Curiously, I also witnessed some entirely dismiss the power of new the data also point to evidence sup- ing the family. of this hegemonic, performative habituations and the competencies porting normativities tied to being, So, why the uptick among some masculinity on display among and materialities therein implied. and reinforcing conceptions of what men choosing to take up grocery some of the women—rural women Regarding those materialities, for it means to be, a “good mother.” shopping in the middle of a global especially. One of these rural moth- instance: a number of respondents Broadly speaking, this literature pandemic? Think about this question ers, for instance, talked about how talked about buying new freezers speaks to, quoting a seminal piece in the context of established links rurality to some degrees requires post-outbreak, which aligns with of scholarship on the subject, the between gender and responses to the women to be “risk takers” if they reports of a rush in freezer sales in “intersecting ideals of motherhood pandemic, specifically, thefinding and their children wish to succeed March and April. And as we know, and ethical food discourse, whereby that men are more likely to down- in this environment. “Living out storage space is positively correlated ‘good’ mothers are those who play the seriousness of the virus. A here you got to be a risk taker,” she with over-consumption. preserve their children’s purity and number of polls find that men in A non-COVID-related question said. “Blizzards. Forest fires. COVID protect the environment through the U.S. are less likely to wear masks raised by the study involves how we is just another thing you learn to conscientious food purchases.” Not compared to women. The idea that think about gendered household deal with. … I’ve got a family. You only do these societal expectations “real” men respond in a particular food practices in relation to metro got to be fearless, for them—to take place an asymmetrical burden on way to the pandemic came out during and non-metro households: Namely, care of them but also to show my women by making it their responsi- the interviews. To quote one father to what degree should place matter kids that you’ve got to be tough. bility to procure “good food” for the talking about the stay-at-home order in all of this? Put another way: How household, they also reinforce neo- and the public health risks associated Life throws you a curve, you have to do performances of rurality shape liberal worldviews by emphasizing with the virus: “I’m not going to let suck it up.” conceptions of being a good mother? mothers’ individual responsibility some little ol’ virus keep me from Another way to interpret these What I do know is that the for securing their child’s wellbeing. making sure my family is fed. Not data: As opposing to doing mas- sociological impacts of COVID- This provides an important now, not ever.” culinity, quotes such as the above 19 will be discussed, debated, and conceptual backdrop to understand While minimizing risks associ- demonstrate women who were empirically tracked for many years some of the data. One father, for ated with COVID-19, some of the challenging hegemonic feminin- to come. Finally, as we read reports instance, talked about putting his fathers interviewed also played on ity. This would parallel arguments about how food procurement and “extra time to work” during lock- those heightened risks to justify made elsewhere, looking specifically family feeding have changed since down by learning to bake because engaging in practices that were at females in rural agricultural the start of the pandemic, let us be his wife “just can’t do it anymore” previously not their responsibility. settings, such as an earlier study of sure to ask how these changes are due to all of her other new house- The virus, you could say, helped to French women farmers. distributed within those homes. n

6 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Feature

Foodie Tensions chicken is certainly not recorded between 10 percent and evidence on this point, various From Page 6 bought at a budget super- 52 percent in different areas of the trends indicate some significant market, but its ethical and country, hitting as high as three shifts along lines of racial awareness, to manage the balancing environmental credentials times that of the Great Recession sexism, and class politics—espe- act between democratic matter: it is a chicken that early in this period. cially compared to when we first inclusion and exclusionary is free-range, cage-free, Importantly, this phenomenon is started immersing ourselves in distinction in a time of grown without the use of not felt equally. Food insecurity has foodie discourse 15 years ago. hardship. Cultural sociolo- antibiotics, and prefera- been shown to disproportionately To be sure, unease with the stark Merin Oleschuk gists since Pierre Bourdieu bly raised by empowered affectBIPOC communities, and is racial-economic inequalities high- have recognized that food workers. This chicken, not especially challenging for families lighted by the pandemic did not has a deep, enduring rela- surprisingly, tends to be with children, where mothers dis- occur in a vacuum; the pandemic tionship to status, inequal- valued by groups with high proportionately incur its burden. catalyzed already building anger ity, and social class. levels of economic and with xenophobia, sexism, and clas- A Shift in the Cultural Terrain Food is classed, cultural capital. Crucially, sism embedded in foodie culture. for instance, through the ethical concerns we The statistics are distressing to Questions about cultural appro- differences in access to see among foodies are read. The proportion of eaters who priation in elite food have been the food—especially whole rely on assistance to meet their daily Josée Johnston circumscribed, prioritiz- subject of conversation for several foods—and differences in ing some issues, such as food needs are deeply disturbing. years; however, the Black Lives consumption patterns and farmer livelihood, animal Under these conditions, where food Matter movement and, in particular, tastes. Class differences welfare, and sustainability, insecurity and economic hardship its momentum over the summer of in food preferences and with less attention to others are even more prevalent, how do 2020, provoked many within food consumption are widely like wealth inequality, the cultural meanings of high-status media to explicitly reflect on racism recognized, and food’s role farm workers’ rights, and food appear to be shifting? within their own organizations and in status signaling is firmly systemic racism. Even during the pandemic, many fueled a racial reckoning in many established. Elite dining Foodie discourse has elite opportunities for foodie dis- areas of the industry. has a long history, and the Shyon Baumann been open to acknowl- tinction have evolved and persisted. This led to the expulsion of a contemporary iteration of edging environmental The foodways of the economically number of former gatekeepers and high-end restaurants and expensive, problems in the food system, stable and elites are still there, and elites within food media, including fashionable ingredients are a contin- favoring organic and local foods, high-end options remain available Bon Appétit’s former editor-in-chief, uation of this tradition. but has tended to exist in a class- for consumption (e.g., takeout Adam Rapoport, who was initially The classed stratification of food, less bubble, relatively oblivious to from Eataly, to-go meals from criticized for excluding BIPOC however, is complicated in an age of issues such as poverty, inequality, Alinea, and a Sunday Market at food writers at the magazine and cultural omnivorousness where out- sexism, and institutionalized racism Chez Panisse). Indeed, as has been later shown in brownface, as well as right snobbery is shunned. In our (with some important exceptions). the case with health outcomes, Alison Roman, who was swiftly cut early work on foodies, we describe Only recently have stories about the pandemic has had an uneven down after criticizing two BIPOC this as a tension between “democ- the exploitation of farm workers impact on economic livelihoods, women (Chrissy Teigen and Marie racy versus distinction.” The core of (in the U.S. and Canada) and meat with financially stable individuals Kondo) for capitalizing on their that tension involved the paradoxi- packers, and racism and sexism in bearing a much smaller share of the fame. Food media’s racial reckoning cal drive of foodie culture: to create the restaurant industry hit the press. pandemic’s worst affronts—health, falls alongside heightened aware- a sense of democratic openness By and large, foodie discourse has security, and safety. ness of sexism within the restaurant to new foods, cuisines, and ideas tended to exist far away from the Yet as much as cultural inequal- industry that was provoked by the (against the orthodox elitism of mouths of the hungry or food inse- ity has predictably persisted, the #metoo movement that rose to French food snobbery), alongside a cure and has been largely oblivious cultural terrain seems to be shifting. prominence in 2018. This movement persistent drive to distinguish and to the ironies of serving a humble It seems harder now for foodies fueled a litany of stories exposing legitimate foods of privilege. With “hamburger” stuffed with foie gras to have their cake and eat it too. misogyny and sexual harassment in the “democracy versus distinction” and shaved truffles. Cooking and eating with foodie the restaurant industry, including by tension, we have seen the elevation In recent times, the apolitical abandon can come across as false industry giants such as Mario Batali, of the foods of less privileged folks bubble of foodie culture has been and out of touch within pandemic John Besh, and Ken Friedman. (e.g., re-creating Oaxaca street foods harder to maintain as the pandemic circumstances. In the early days of A Time for Critical Reflection at home or romantically rhapsodiz- has shone light on social inequalities foodie culture, it seemed relatively ing about the sweet tea of Indian exacerbated in pandemic condi- easy for privileged eaters to dabble While much remains to be done chai sellers), alongside the fetishi- tions, including those embedded in in poor and/or racialized peoples’ to address the issues raised by these zation of expensive items, like aged food production, distribution, and food cultures and not be called movements, they do seem to have balsamic vinegar, high-end cooking consumption. For example, food out for it. While cracks in the fostered an atmosphere of critical ranges, pricey Japanese chef knives, insecurity is a major social problem seams were appearing prior to the reflection within foodie culture. and tasting menus of the world’s that has noticeably worsened during pandemic, the extreme inequalities They have provoked questions acclaimed chefs. the pandemic due to job losses of the contemporary foodscape are that will hopefully propel contin- Our most recent research on stemming from the economic reces- harder to paper over today. It now ued changes to our food system: culinary capital shows that more sion, school closures, and unstable seems more problematic for privi- is the pull to enjoy authentic and ethical choices and preferences childcare arrangements. During leged people to celebrate the plea- exotic foods so powerful that we are themselves ways to signal elite the pandemic, food insecurity rates sures valorized in foodie culture. can excuse the lack of attention status through food. A high-status in the United States have been Although we don’t have systematic Continued on Page 8 footnotes Winter 2021 7 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Feature Why Refusing the Empire’s Sugar Still Matters for Abolition

Anthony Ryan Hatch, Chair and servitude and figurative stand-ins sugar. Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety, or Sugar Consumption: It’s Associate Professor of Science in Society, for the institutionalized violence the Marvelous Sugar Baby” faced Complicated Wesleyan University. of food apartheid in the U.S. more backlash than Domino Sugar. Measured in Black lives and limbs he pandemic has They are now culturally Walker’s art raises urgent questions lost, sugar has played a leading role Tbrought the absurdities repackaged to suit woke about the patterns of institutional as one of the most racist actants of America’s food apart- consumers who had finally and cultural racism that accom- that has ever been rolled out of the heid into sharp relief. had enough of America’s pany the ongoing hyper-produc- colonial factory of white supremacy. Food commodity chains violence against Black tion and consumption of sugar. Sugar is responsible for a lion’s share are operating as super- people, consumers who Given all of this, how have Black of Black pain and death. The current highways for the trans- would enjoy industrial and people not cancelled sugar itself? system forces us to binge on a stag- mission of COVID-19, genetically modified rice Media scholar Meredith D. Clark gering amount of sugar. Americans carting the virus through Anthony Ryan Hatch and artificially flavored defines canceling as “an expression eat 22 teaspoons of added sugar groups of agricultural high fructose corn syrup of agency, a choice to withdraw every day, far more than the recom- workers—especially in industrial if it had a less racist face. Not only one’s attention from someone or mended six per day for women and animal manufacturing—and food were Aunt Jemima and Uncle something whose values, (in)action, nine for men. Only 26 percent of service workers in warehouses, Ben harmful culturally, because or speech are so offensive, one no Black youth and 34 percent of Black grocery stores, and restaurants. New syrup and rice are metabolized as longer wishes to grace them with adults meet the standard for eating arrangements now enable well- sugars in the body, they are also their presence, time, and money.” fewer than 10 percent of their daily to-do customers to pay low-wage biologically harmful. Yet, changing Black people have cancelled celeb- calories from added sugars. the cultural face of empire often workers to deliver their food and rity chefs, clothing manufacturers, Themore available sugar is in any allows the material technologies of put it away in their kitchens. cosmetic companies, media com- given food environment, the higher empire to remain intact. Pandemic-related job losses lay- panies, sports leagues and teams, the prevalence of diabetes in that It is easier to protest the empire’s ered on top of extreme economic pseudo-scientists and universities, environment. Black people of all image rather than change the inequality have increased both police officers, and elected politi- ages disproportionately suffer the empire that is the inspiration for food scarcity and hunger as well as cians for their contributions to anti- negative health effects associated the image and requires its mass disordered eating. People suffer- black racism. Yet, no contemporary with surplus sugar consumption, acceptance for cultural legitimacy ing from pre-existing conditions mass movement fighting for the particularly in terms of diabetes and and profit-taking. While the (many of which result directly heart disease, two major pre-ex- two icons got the boot, no one health of Black people has cancelled from consuming sugar-rich isting conditions that magnify the called for mass boycotts of Mars, or refused sugar specifically because processed foods) are in especially dangers of COVID-19. Incorporated or the Quaker Oats it is antiracist and abolitionist to do grave danger from COVID-19. The so, but perhaps it should. Continued on Page 9 Trump administration’s actions Company as a response to the and inactions in this area have racist imagery of their brands. only made a bad situation terrible. Changing the image and structure of the empire involves both cultural As Karen Washington’s language wardly restricted to self-described criticism and consciousness-raising Foodie Tensions of food apartheid suggests, scholars foodies or upper-middle class white that expose the lies of the pow- From Page 7 across the social and environmental eaters. In a world of tremendous erful and institutional analysis sciences are reframing the conver- to pressing social problems in the uncertainty and risk, preparing that reveals how power worked to sation about food justice in terms food system? Can we enjoy take- produce the lie in the first place. and enjoying food can feel deeply of environmental racism and racial out restaurant food without also For example, Cristin Kearns and comforting, providing a soothing justice (see the empirically rich and doing something to help improve her colleagues uncovered how balm against the hardships of the well theorized volume Black Food the employment conditions of the the so-called Sugar Research outside world. We would also note Matters edited by Hanna Garth and workers who made it, or help them that elements of foodie culture have Ashanté M. Reese). Perhaps it is the Foundation (now the Sugar get paid a living wage? Can we worked to expose the harms of systemic nature of the food system Association, Inc.), a pseudo-sci- cook and consume abundant meals commonplace foods, like burgers, itself that permits individual cor- entific creation of the modern-day without advocating for the millions and to valorize the foodwork that porate actors (or sectors organized sugar barons, paid Harvard of people for whom such a meal is many people (especially women) around particular commodities) to University nutritionists to publish impossible? Amid the pandemic, enjoy and take pride in. We don’t fly under the moral radar. The tactic false claims that consumption of the usual foodie practices and val- believe that foodie culture is deserv- has allowed food corporations to dietary fat is responsible for heart ues bump up against a reminder to ing of totalizing scorn or simplistic shirk responsibility for collective disease and downplay the truth at least momentarily consider one’s backlash, but what is clear is that the biological harms. about sugar’s links to heart disease. Other obfuscations remain buried. privilege before tucking into dinner. apoliticism and false universality of Canceling Sugar As Khalil Gibran Muhammad To be clear, we do not intend here foodie discourse no longer seems as After decades of criticism, Aunt reminded us in the 1619 Project, to ham-handedly pathologize the palatable to eaters in a pandemic. Jemima and Uncle Ben finally got there is nothing “post” about the pleasures, comfort, and pride that When the stark inequalities of our phased out in the middle of the colonial food system that pro- many people enjoy when baking food system are laid bare across our pandemic in summer 2020. George duces sugar. In 2020, racialized bread or cooking a nice dinner. collective dining table, the joys of a Floyd’s murder proved too much slave labor still produces sugar These experiences involve privi- delicious home-cooked meal cannot for the two cultural icons of Black and racialized peasantry eats that lege, but they are not straightfor- help but taste a little bittersweet. n

8 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Feature The Pandemic and the Distribution of Choice

Laura J. Miller, Professor and Chair of the last several decades. There are a food; schools, hospitals, prisons, Meanwhile, labor costs in the Sociology, Brandeis University number of dimensions of this sys- corporate campuses, and other domestic food sector are held down through mechanization and the low mong the tem that the pandemic has allowed institutional food service providers; wages that characterize jobs in agri- many surreal us to see more clearly. What they grocery stores, bakeries, butchers, A culture, food processing, retail, and scenes of the highlight is a system of enormous farmers markets, and other retailers food service. Government subsidies pandemic complexity and interdependence with physical outlets serving con- for some commodities make the during spring that in maximizing consumer sumers; online retailers and home economics work for some (mostly 2020 were those choice, increasingly makes interme- delivery services; and food banks, large) growers, as do economies of of empty shelves diaries responsible for sourcing and food pantries, meal programs, and scale that, again, benefit large grow- in supermar- preparing food. gleaners who bring food to people ers as well as large retailers such as kets and long Laura J. Miller It is perhaps helpful to identify without the means to purchase it in Walmart and Costco. lines of people the various players involved in the consumer market. waiting to enter grocery stores and food distribution—how food is This complex network of Essential Goods food pantries alike. An American moved from producers to the eating intermediaries plays a key role in When it comes to basic necessi- population, for the most part, too public. They include food brokers providing an enormous quantity ties, Americans’ spending patterns young to have experienced the who help producers find retail or and variety of food to much of are different from those of the past; widespread destitution of the Great wholesale buyers for their products; the American population. And Americans now spend much of Depression or the ration cards of companies engaged in importing considering all the labor involved, their income on housing and rela- World War II, fell back on references and exporting food; wholesalers the miles of travel, the extensive tively little on food. According to to those historical events to make who aggregate purchases from packaging to stave off spoilage, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, sense of their predicament. producers and then ship out to retail the layers of handlers who each take in 2017, 13 percent of the average But the comparison with these outlets or food service providers; a share of the final price, this food household’s expenditures went to earlier eras has its limits. The wholesale markets for produce, fish, is cheap. The globalization of supply food (eaten both in and away from disruptions to habitual patterns of etc., which retail buyers can visit chains is one reason for inexpensive home) compared to 30 percent in food procurement, which continue in order to select items; shippers food in the United States. With 1950. At the same time, accord- as the pandemic drags on, can find with their temperature-controlled buyers scouring the entire world ing to the U.S. Department of many of their sources within the carriers to protect perishable goods; for products, farmers and proces- Agriculture, this state of abundance largely invisible system of food restaurants, caterers, food trucks, sors find themselves competing left 10.5 percent of households food distribution that has developed over and other vendors of prepared with counterparts across the globe. Continued on Page 10

Empire’s Sugar into the domain white, middle-class itics that had everything to do with he is the original cause, the first From Page 8 healthism. Feminist, indigenous, and ending slavery. The Anti-saccharites mover in the horrid process; critical race scholars have engaged devised a powerful new tactic to put and every distinction is done As opposed to America’s food the idea of refusal as a guide for anal- pressure on the transatlantic slave away by the moral maxim. That ecology comprising “food deserts” ysis and political action (see Audra trade and colonial slavery. Refuse whatever we do by another, we or “food swamps,” we should use Simpson, Ruha Benjamin, and Kim to buy or consume anything that do ourselves (p. 4). metaphors that reference engi- had been made by enslaved people, TallBear for starters). How might Whereas moral appeals to the neered environments like landfills especially sugar and rum. communities collectively refuse fundamental humanity of slaves to describe Americans’ relationship In 1791, William Fox published sugar as a part of an antiracist plan of could be debated endlessly or to food and sugar. a blistering abolitionist pamphlet action? As suffragettes and prisoners ignored wholesale by slave traders Strangely, neither the American titled An Address to the People of have demonstrated via the hunger and owners, direct action against Diabetes Association nor the strike, an individual endeavor of Great Britain, on the Propriety of the financial interests of these American Heart Association—the refusal to eat the empire’s food takes Abstaining from West India Sugar proto-racial capitalists was both two professional medical organi- on additional power and moral force and Rum. In it, Fox castigated his an urgent and necessary tactic to zations that have the most at stake through collective action. fellow Britishers for their participa- over the mass consumption of tion in the crime of transnational achieve structural change. Civil sugar—take the position that we Go After the Profits slavery as practiced throughout the rights leaders later applied this should eat less than these recommen- People didn’t always abstain British colonies. He writes, principle in the Birmingham Bus dations. Popular diets, from Atkins from eating the empire’s sugar just If we purchase the commodity, Boycott, a year-long abstention from to Paleo to keto, encourage people because it was unhealthy. In the we participate in the crime. The the segregated public transportation to abstain from eating sugar-based 1790s, British abolitionists called slave-dealer, the slave-holder, system. Perhaps the central lesson foods principally on scientific ideas the Anti-saccharites refused to and the slave driver, are all vir- from the Birmingham Bus Boycott about what constitutes a healthy diet eat (or buy) sugar because it was tually agents of the consumer, ought to be revisited—when social and knowledge of the real biological produced by slave labor. The very and may be considered as movements go after the empire’s risks of sugar consumption. But sugar first mass movement designed to employed and hired by him to ill-gotten profits, you are going after abstinence, as Karen Throsby’swork promote the abstention from sugar procure the commodity. For, something it values and will defend suggests, is unequal, falling primarily was grounded in an abolitionist pol- by holding out the temptation, at any cost. n footnotes Winter 2021 9 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Feature

Pandemic and Distribution the health and safety of their work- brought additional packaging into lishments reopened. According to From Page 9 force time and again became centers circulation. the Hartman Group, by summer of coronavirus outbreaks, leading The flip side of a production sys- 2020, consumers were acquiring insecure in 2019, meaning that to shutdowns and scaled-back tem geared to institutional buyers food from restaurants at almost the household members did not have operations. However, many other is how dependent food relief efforts same levels they did the previous enough food for an active, healthy problems came from the fact that so have become on waste generated year. The major difference was that life throughout the year. many producers do not orient their from institutional sources. One of people were now more likely to eat The pandemic and resulting operations to individual consumers, the achievements in food recovery takeout at home rather than dining unemployment greatly exacerbated but instead serve various segments operations during the last 25 years at a restaurant. Meanwhile, indus- the problem of limited access to of the distribution system. has been the loosening of restric- try members speak of “building nutritious, affordable, culturally tions on the ability to donate excess resiliency” and “mitigating risk” Institutional and Restaurant relevant food, with some estimates supplies of food to organizations in supply chains by using standard Buyers placing the proportion of the popu- that process or repackage it for measures such as sophisticated lation experiencing food insecurity One of the surprises to those re-distribution to people facing food technology and enhanced commu- at some point during 2020 at more of us who had not been paying insecurity. The federal Bill Emerson nication within and across networks. than double pre-pandemic rates. attention is how much supply chains Good Samaritan Food Donation The focus is on fine-tuning rather As sociologists know, issues of food have become focused on serving Act of 1996, and a range of state and than overhauling the system. insecurity are closely connected institutional and restaurant buyers local laws that give liability protec- Although we are likely to return to inequality and the inadequa- rather than individual households. tions to donors, helped to increase to the food landscape that prevailed cies of public programs like the To use the well-known example of the amount, variety, and quality of before the pandemic, we might still Supplemental Nutrition Assistance a nonfood item shortage, it was not donated food. But at the same time pause and ask what is gained and Program (SNAP). But for now, I simply that people were hoard- as unemployment, health crises, lost by doing so. The pandemic will focus on what happened to the ing months’ worth of toilet paper and other effects of the pandemic highlights how important institu- abundance of food that is usually (though they were). It was also that increased, the amount of food relief tional food providers, such as school characteristic of the larger food toilet paper producers were not and supplies dried up with the shut- lunch programs, are in providing system that has appeared to serve so equipped to suddenly retool and tering of restaurants, cancellation of food to people who otherwise may many so well. make household-grade and size rolls catered events, and low inventory not be able to access it. For those The extent to which a domestic of toilet paper rather than the types of grocery stores. As a consequence, with stable incomes, a complex market depends on global sources used by workplaces, schools, hotels, food relief organizations have had to system of sourcing food from all of food products became apparent and other larger buyers. rely on inadequate cash donations over the world ensures that tens of when transportation disruptions The same held true for all kinds to purchase food. thousands of items are regularly cut off supply chains. Despite food of food items. Rather than institu- available in the average supermar- being deemed an “essential” good, tional and restaurant bakers who The State of the Food Supply ket, with additional options found food distribution is not self-con- would reliably buy 50 pound sacks Chain in specialty stores and online. tained, but is integrated into a of flour, demand came from indi- Now that many months have Commercial food providers sell global transportation system that vidual households on a baking kick passed since the pandemic began, a great variety of tasty, prepared runs at full capacity, and therefore searching for 5 pound packages. we can consider whether the food options, especially in urban areas. profitably, by handling countless When cooking for themselves, distribution system is showing signs But the downsides of this system unrelated goods and people. When consumers seek out different kinds of major long-term change. For also loom large, including the passenger airplanes (which also of food than in restaurants, with the the most part, the answer appears uneven benefits to a population, carry freight) were not flying, and result that demand for canned soups to be no. The centrality of long both domestic and abroad, marked ships were not allowed to dock or outpaced supplies while farmers supply chains, global sourcing, and by great inequality; the vulnera- let crews disembark, food sup- could no longer be assured of a commercial and institutional food bilities of complex supply chains; plies were deeply affected. Halted restaurant purchasing an entire crop purveyors may have been tempo- the resulting amount of waste and production of nonfood items and of arugula. Cuts of beef were out of rarily shaken, but these defining environmental degradation; and new sanitation and inspection balance since consumers stopped features of a distribution system a reliance on other people’s labor, measures also caused major delays ordering steaks in restaurants and have not been dislodged. much of it poorly compensated, in in transportation. What had been a instead increased their purchases of To take the case of commercial order to make food affordable to finely calibrated system—in which ground beef in grocery stores. food preparation, the pandemic American consumers. Numerous carriers always traveled with full Along with temporary food underscored just how much recent books, by sociologists and loads, and containers and trucks shortages resulting from an Americans have moved away from others, document these vari- were scheduled to be available at a inability to meet retail demand cooking for themselves and how ous aspects of food distribution, particular place when goods were came adverse (and probably more large a role the commercial food sec- including Andrew Deener’s The ready to be loaded and shipped— long-lasting) environmental tor plays in the economy. Closures Problem with Feeding Cities, Laresh fell into disarray. effects. The sudden refocusing on and diminished operations of food Jayasanker’s Sameness in Diversity, As we focus on the domestic the household level necessitated services and drinking places were and Benjamin Lorr’s The Secret Life front, other issues emerge. Certainly, greater amounts of packaging at responsible for 59 percent of the of Groceries. some of the food shortages during the same time that grocery stores jobs lost in March 2020. Although Can we imagine alternatives to the pandemic, exemplified by were required to stop selling bulk people initially shopped and cooked the current system? Indeed, we meat, stemmed from problems in items that involve common usage for themselves at greatly increased can, and the food sector is already production rather than distribution. of bins or implements. A surge levels, these new habits were quickly replete with examples of producer Meatpackers who did little to ensure in restaurant take-out similarly relinquished once eating estab- Continued on Page 11

10 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Feature Freedom Farmers: Black Agriculture and the Origins of Food Justice

Monica M. White, Associate Professor would have access to nutrient-rich the wealth of farming expertise of members of the organization, as of Environmental Justice, University of foods during quarantine. While 1.2 million Black farmers. With well as community residents, could Wisconsin-Madison not everyone accepted the new trading posts in every southern feed their families healthy food. n the early COVID-19 protocol, members state, members pooled resources to The Black Panther Party spon- Idays of and volunteers continued to work ensure freed people would eat in a sored free breakfast programs in COVID-19’s the 7-acre, organic farm known society reluctant to give them the predominantly Black cities that wrath, Detroit as D-Town Farm, the largest of tools to survive. were wildly successful and that are Detroit’s many gardens and farms. was a hot spot. Food Justice credited as the precursor for today’s Black Detroiters They started a seed-sharing pro- public school breakfast and lunch Civil rights and social justice were dispro- gram, distributing packages con- programs. These organizations rec- organizations have engaged in portionately taining 6 to 10 common vegetable ognized the importance of healthy seeds and video tutorials detailing what we now call food justice since impacted, Monica M. White food access and demonstrated that how to start a garden. The mem- emancipation. They viewed healthy especially those self-provisioning is critical to and bers collaborated with Alkebu-lan food access as an important strategy most vulnerable due to pre-exist- an essential part of a liberation Village, which provides educational, of a healthy Black community and ing, diet-related illnesses. The city’s framework. cultural, and recreational programs as a way to be liberated from social, health-care system was unprepared Access to public accommoda- to Detroit youth and their families, political, and economic oppression. and unable to manage the influx of tion—the direct-action campaigns to create a raised-bed distribution Marcus Garvey viewed Booker patients in need of life-saving med- such as sit-ins and boycotts at the of 4’ x 4’ garden beds, compost, and T. Washington as a mentor and was ical care. Lack of access to equip- establishments that denied Black topsoil to 100 Detroiters. Oakland committed to including agriculture ment and medical personnel in an people service—have been better Avenue Urban Farm and DBCFSN in the form of “industrial farming” under-resourced community created remembered as strategies of resis- teamed up to provide safe, curb- as a strategy for the Universal Negro a preventable catastrophic event tance in social movements. The fact side, contactless sale and produce Improvement Association, the larg- devastating to the Black community. that they are also forms of what we pick-up through a joint online est political movement in African Historical disinvestment and lack now call food justice has not been ordering platform. American history. of access to preventative health care emphasized. In addition to refusing The food-based resilience The Nation of Islam (NOI) pur- and nutrient-rich foods was the fuel to vacate lunch counters, civil practices of DBCFSN, Alkebu-lan sued food justice programs to edu- and the virus was the fire. Village, and Oakland Avenue Urban cate the Black community about the rights activists demanded an end At the same time, the virus Farm can be traced to African importance of health and well-being to hiring discrimination and that exposed the vulnerability of the women braiding rice and other in food consumption. NOI’s Farms supermarkets and grocery stores nation’s food supply. Farm laborers, seeds in their hair before enduring held 13,000 acres in Georgia and hire Black employees. The lens and food processers, and those employed the Middle Passage and demand- Alabama and supplied food through language of food justice brings in food distribution were hit espe- ing access to small plots of land to the organization’s distribution these strategies together and unites cially hard. The nation saw bare grow foods from their homelands arm, Salaam Agricultural Systems, them with the work of DBCFSN, grocery store shelves and declared and other crops. These provision which owned grocery stores and Alkebu-lan Village, and Oakland store clerks to be essential workers. grounds or “slave gardens” became restaurants in predominantly Black Avenue Urban Farm. These jobs pay minimum wage, are an ongoing strategy of resistance neighborhoods and ensured that Continued on Page 12 physically demanding, and often and survival, providing nutri- employ those who are impoverished ent-rich food to supplement the and vulnerable. Food systems’ work- meager diets enslavers were willing Pandemic and Distribution truly self-sufficient or communal in ers have always been essential. to supply as well as products that From Page 10 food provisioning. Similarly, with In this environment, Black could be bartered, sold, and traded historical failures in the back- Detroiters drew strength from the between enslaved people. New cooperatives, local food net- ground, one does not hear calls for city’s rich history of urban agricul- Orleans retains the memory of the works, worker-owned restaurants, a centralized state apparatus of food ture and African Americans’ long marketplace at Congo Square, where Community Supported Agriculture, production or distribution. history of food production as a and other direct-to-consumer enslaved Africans shared music, Second, we need to grapple with strategy of community health and religion, and food on Sunday—the operations. But in order to make not only the entrenched interests of a wellness. While some are willing only day when enslaved people did profound changes in the food market system, but the expectations to talk about Detroit as a city that not toil sunup to sundown. system, we need to keep a couple of of an eating public for lots of choices, was—one ready for autopsy, food Denied the 40 acres and a mule things in mind. First, it is important at relatively low prices. Too often, justice voices in Detroit declare that should have been the least of to recognize that even with increases the city to be compost—a rich soil their compensation for centuries in cooperative ventures, government analysts focus on either the struggles for organizing, cooperation and of drudgery, dehumanization, and regulation, and public subsidies, of food laborers or the struggles of mutual aid. endurance, Black farmers orga- food provision will largely remain a public trying to adequately feed Based upon their years of nized collectives and cooperatives a market-based activity. Despite a itself. We should not forget that organizing in food policy, security, throughout the south after eman- run on home canning supplies this these struggles are connected, and and sovereignty, members of the cipation. Among the largest, the past fall, there is little indication that they often conflict with one another. Detroit Black Community Food Colored Farmers’ National Alliance Americans have the desire—not to Perhaps a greater focus on the inter- Security Network (DBCFSN) took and Cooperative Union, brought mention the ability—to withdraw mediaries will enable us to better action to ensure residents in Detroit together the meager earnings and from a market system and become address these conundrums. n footnotes Winter 2021 11 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Feature

Freedom Farmers students and bringing the excess to support of the importance of crop community gardens, commercial From Page 11 a farmers market that fed many area rotation, composting, and the use of kitchens, community kitchens, food families. Students who learned these cover crops to protect arable land. preservation and preparation, coop- Black intellectual traditions that skills and trades returned to their The findings of his experiments erative purchases, and many acres paid particular attention to the home counties, where they farmed were distributed near and far in of food crops—all familiar to today’s importance of agriculture as the and purchased land. Many started a regularly published pamphlet food justice work. cornerstone of Black community Tuskegee-like educational institu- through the agricultural experiment Freedom Farm produced development complemented these tions. The proportion of land owned station. One of the most visual thousands of pounds of produce, applied approaches for food security, by Black people was highest in the examples of meeting the “farmers in 10 percent of which went to the sovereignty, and increased healthy country in the counties where these the field” is Carver’s work with the “food bank,” a poverty amelioration food access. These traditions can be institutions were located. moveable school. Instead of expect- program to serve the needs of those attributed to Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee is also the birthplace ing farmers to travel to Tuskegee, most vulnerable. Cash crops were George Washington Carver, and of Black cooperative extension. It both Washington and Carver met sold for land mortgage payments. W.E.B. Du Bois—three “race” men began when the U.S. Department Black farmers where they were. Freedom Farm represented a com- who, over a century ago, led the of Agriculture (USDA) sent Supplied with state-of-the-art, mitment to mutual aid, community Black community’s understanding of demonstration agents to the South hands-on equipment, these mobile care, and engaging food production agriculture as a strategy of commu- to address a ravenous boll weevil schools demonstrated a variety of and distribution for communities nity self-sufficiency and community infestation farming techniques, including ani- often excluded from the nutritious resilience. that was mal inoculation and best farming food supply. They fed and employed Each was a destroying practices to maximize yield while many, showing on the ground that, crucial trans- Du Bois suggested that while Jim the cotton protecting the health and productiv- as she once said, “with a pig and lator of what Crow segregation was the law of the crop, there- ity of the soil. a garden, no one can tell me what we now call land, African Americans would do fore threaten- W.E.B. Du Bois’ legacy in food to do.” food justice. well to create a systems approach, ing the entire justice has been even less remem- What stands between Freedom Each drew based on food production, that southern bered than Washington’s and Farm and D-Town Farm is five on the legacy economy. Carver’s. He, in fact, did extensive decades and thousands of miles. would allow one sector of the Black of places For years, work on the liberatory capacity of However, what connects them like Congo community to provision the needs of white agents economic cooperatives and their is the belief in the connection Square. Each the others. ignored development. His work offers us among land, food, and freedom. contributed to Black farmers one of the earliest articulations of a Hamer’s demonstration of agency our engage- and land systems analysis. Du Bois suggested in knowing that food was necessary ment with workers, but that while Jim Crow segregation for political, social, and economic agriculture, what the community Washington referred Tuskegee was the law of the land, African participation and freedom has been knew, and the connection to what alum Thomas Moore to the USDA, Americans would do well to create an inspiration to today’s generation people needed in order to build and he became the first Black field a systems approach, based on food as they turn to food production, community health and wellness. agent in 1903. Black farmers in production, that would allow one provisioning, and community care Tuskegee Normal and Macon County, where Tuskegee sector of the Black community to as strategies of survival in a time of Industrial Institute is located, learned to control the provision the needs of the others. neglect and crisis. Before establishing the Tuskegee boll weevil and other important Du Bois said that Black people Black tenant farmers and share- Normal and Industrial Institute, agricultural lessons from Moore. could achieve “economic indepen- croppers who were evicted and fired Booker T. Washington traveled by George Washington Carver dence” by “letting Negro farmers for registering to vote, and laid off horseback throughout the Alabama taught at Tuskegee for almost feed Negro artisans, and Negro and unemployed autoworkers in Black Belt—an area known for the 50 years. Most often remembered technicians guide Negro home Detroit whose labor was rendered richness of its soil and the pre- for his inventions with soybeans and industries, and Negro thinkers plan no longer useful both participated dominance of Black people among peanuts, Carver was actually the this integration of cooperation, in and established a communi- its residents. In what we now call founder of sustainable agriculture while Negro artists dramatize and ty-based food system as a strategy fieldwork, Washington sought to as we now know it. Affectionately beautify the struggle.” of resistance and resilience. These called the “poor man’s scientist,” origins and examples of food incorporate the needs of Black farm Fannie Lou Hamer families to shape Tuskegee such that Carver committed his scholarship justice have been overlooked and it would support the self-sufficiency to improving the lives of Black These intellectual contribu- overshadowed. Yet through the gen- of its students, their families, and farmers by making sure they had the tions to the importance of Black erations we have understood that, as the broader community. means to provide nutritious food for agriculture as part of a freedom Rev. Wendell Paris, a generational The resulting curriculum sought their families during and after the strategy, these early articulations of Black farmer and organizer of a to cover everything needed for growing season. He often referenced a food justice frame, reached their Black agricultural cooperatives for survival, including training in the medicinal value of the daily con- greatest expression in the work of decades, says, “You can free your- 33 different trades that spanned sumption of fruits and vegetables, a Fannie Lou Hamer. After many in self, when you can feed yourself.” agriculture, horticulture, livestock, clear connection to food justice. her community, Sunflower County, As the COVID-19 pandemic rages and dairying. The school had a In support of sustainable MS, had been evicted for seeking to on, we will draw strength from these student-run farm that was 2,300 agriculture practices, a contem- participate in the political process, examples of collective agency and acres by 1915, producing enough porary marker of the food justice Hamer established Freedom Farm community resilience for this newest food for the faculty, staff, and movement, Carver’s inventions and in 1969. At its peak, the farm was assault, remembering our ancestors experiments provided findings in 680 acres of affordable housing, and their model of resistance. n

12 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Feature Urban Farming: Tell All the Stories

Sara Shostak, Associate Professor of the more recent histories of these as soon as she could, so we could and farm stand in Springfield, Sociology, Brandeis University places, and the aspirations and hopes have the life she wanted for us.” MA, Qamaria observes that “a lot s sociologist Robert of the people living there Nonetheless, she explains, there has of the residents here came from AWuthnow observes in today, who may find them- been a consistent “need for country, down south. They came up north In the Blood: Understanding selves not only excluded a need to be close to the ground” to get away from farming back in America’s Farm Families, in these narratives, but at (Field notes, February 2016). the day…because they didn’t want increased risk of being dis- Like Demita, many of the Black “The way to gain an to have that struggle anymore.” placed by gentrification. urban farmers and gardeners whom understanding of what Initially, she tells me, “they moved The stories I heard I interviewed opened their narratives farm life means, short of up here, and they enjoyed…going from urban farmers in with the extraordinary suffering, farming oneself, is to listen to a grocery store and buying their Massachusetts also draw on trauma, and cultural disruption that to farmers tell their stories.” Sara Shostak vegetables and produce.” Over time, the past. They make con- began when millions of people were Understanding urban however, Springfield—like cities nections, however, not to romanti- torn from their homes in Africa and farming, as well, requires that we lis- across the Northeast—was deci- cized local agricultural histories, but subjected to generations of slavery, ten to farmers tell their stories. For mated by deindustrialization and to the deep roots of inequality that sharecropping, legalized oppression, while the stories that cities tell about white flight: “Springfield…was so are the contexts for many contem- and violence in the American South. urban farming are often intertwined wealthy, for a century…up until… porary urban agriculture projects. In In their stories, the land and the dirt with urban branding and gentrifica- the 1970s, when industry kind of their stories, urban farmers center are described as holding both collec- tion, the narratives of urban farmers went downhill. Globalization started long-standing racial injustices, tive trauma and pain and tremendous highlight reclamation, reparations, at that time, so there was a lot of including the legacies of slavery possibilities for healing. In the words and resistance. manufacturing that took place in and sharecropping in the South and of farmer, author, and activist Leah Sociologists have been at the fore- Springfield that left. And for the city residential racial segregation in the Penniman: “Our families fled the red front of documenting associations itself, there was a very large, white, North. They also emphasize the clays of Georgia for good reason— between urban agriculture and gen- middle-class affluent community, importance of “telling all the stories,” the memories of chattel slavery, trification as they unfold through that—just like across the country— especially as a corrective to emerg- sharecropping, convict leasing, and economic processes, such as the went to the suburbs.” As Springfield ing narratives that make urban agri- lynching were bound up with our revalorization of land, and cultural “changed,” Qamaria explains, culture “look white and yuppie” and relationship to the earth. For many of processes, such as urban branding. grocery stores disappeared, and thereby erase “the people doing this our ancestors, freedom from terror As I studied urban agriculture in with them, access to fresh produce. work for so many years, with their and separation from the soil were Massachusetts cities, I was struck The African American families that hands in the dirt, in the ground” synonymous.” However, Penniman by the use of agricultural histories remained faced not only food apart- (Field notes, March 2016). continues, while the land was “the in urban branding campaigns. For heid, but also environmental haz- scene of the crime…she was never example, the history of “Clapp’s “This Goes Back Generations” ards in the vacant lots left behind by the criminal.” the collapse of industry. favorite pear,” first cultivated in the At an Urban Farming Institute of Thisnarrative contends that Stories like Qamaria’s make Boston neighborhood of Dorchester Boston event on the history of Black reclaiming “reverent connection connections between contempo- in 1840, has been hailed as “a urban farmers and “food as healing,” between Black people and soil” rary urban agriculture and the symbol of the agricultural history Demita hands out plates of a deli- and cultural knowledge about food community gardening movement. of Dorchester” and celebrated in cious root vegetable salad, dressed and herbs, offers possibility of deep As Ruth, a longtime advocate, tells public art projects. Similar efforts with homemade honey vinaigrette. healing from the trauma of slavery me: “If you go way back, it’s Victory have centered on the Roxbury She explains that she cooks “how and its many contemporary health Gardens, but really, the modern Russet apple, named for the Boston her grandma and mom cooked— consequences. From this perspective, neighborhood of Roxbury, which is this goes back generations,” and urban ag movement comes out of the urban farming and gardening is also community gardening movement, believed to be the oldest apple culti- recalls the beauty of their long, about reclaiming the sovereignty that var bred in the United States. brown fingers rolling dough, which which [was a response to]...urban comes from being in relationship disinvestment.” Like Qamaria, Ruth These agriculture-centric narra- she watched, as a young girl, from with the land. As Nataka, put it, to be tives are consistent with the selective her perch atop a phone book. highlights especially the experiences “in control of the land” is to be “in of African American families who capitalization of local histories that Demita offers us her health charge of our food, our health” (Field is often part of branding campaigns. history as testimony to the healing came to northern cities as part of the notes, February 2016). From a policy Great Migration, and then dispro- In Boston—and elsewhere—such power of whole foods. Demita’s perspective, this narrative highlights, narratives deploy bucolic imagery, story, however, is not just about her portionately suffered the effects of in particular, the importance of repa- urban disinvestment and decline. She in part, to elide the aspects of place own health. Rather, she states clearly rations to support Black, Indigenous also points to their role in reclaiming identities that don’t serve the interest that healthy eating is “our birth- and People of Color farmers, not vacant lots, remediating the soil, and of growth coalitions. As documented right, as a people…our health and only in the Northeast but across the establishing thriving community gar- in cities, including Washington, DC, our right to eat delicious food.” She United States. New York City, and St. Louis, and as points to the brutalities of the South dens, in neighborhoods where food well as in smaller towns, highlight- in accounting for how this inheri- “There Wasn’t A Grocery Store access was direly limited: “There’s a ing the “golden age” of a location tance was disrupted, “…we have a lot for Miles” huge history of African American may support its claims to historical of pain in us about the dirt. Painful Reflecting on her experi- urban farmers in those communities importance, authenticity, and charm. things happened in dark hollows.… ence working at Gardening the who were originally from the South, However, it often does so by erasing My Mom got us out of Mississippi Community’s farmers markets Continued on Page 14 footnotes Winter 2021 13 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Feature Hops across Time and Space

Jennifer A. Jordan, Professor and erosion—the slow wearing away of classic German Hallertauer grown south of England in the 14th century, Chair of Sociology, University of stone by water. The water moves and in the Hallertau, or a piney Cascade and that taste migrated outward to Wisconsin-Milwaukee changes as do the people and goods from the shadow of the Cascades English drinkers as well, as hopped ’ve taken liberty with the and vessels that navigate the in the Pacific Northwest. Today’s beer went from being the drink of Itheme of this Footnotes waterways. high-performance hop fields— supposed outsiders to a beloved issue, turning my atten- Hops, too, are both with their mechanized harvesters, beverage interwoven with regional tion to the hop—a plant rooted in place and in con- boutique varieties, and high-tech and national identity. Then and that is only edible for stant motion. During their drying facilities—bear little resem- now, hop cultivation often happens a brief moment in the brief growing season on blance to past ways of growing and to satisfy the tastes of far-off people. spring, in the form of its either side of the summer picking hops, but the old rhizomes Century after century, humans tender early shoots, and solstice, they shoot out of lurk in the earth along the edges of have loaded up hops with financial is otherwise far more Jennifer A. Jordan their dusty resting place in modern fields. and social value, with wild swings in the earth, reaching lengths the literal and figurative fortunes of drinkable than comestible. Consumers The plant’s inedible blossoms—and of up to 25 feet between late spring the plant. The hop is a quintessential For the thousand or so years the all-important waxy yellow and late summer. Hops are rhizom- cultural object. It has, on the one that hops have been used in beer, lupulin at the base of each flower’s atic, and most often new plants are hand, unchangeable physical limits. It farmers have cultivated them for bracts—ripen in late August or early generated by chopping up existing mostly grows between 35 and one primary reason—to flavor beer September in the northern hemi- hop roots. Those roots are highly 55 degrees latitude. It almost sphere and in March in the southern mobile, capable of being shipped (and, before pasteurization, to add exclusively twines in a clockwise hemisphere. That lupulin produces around the world long before refrig- some level of resistance to bacterial direction, and the summer solstice the bitterness that balances out the erated trucking. Indeed, hop roots infection of the brew). There are triggers a shift to the production of sweetness of the malt in much of the were shipped around the Baltic Sea also anecdotes about the medicinal its reproductive elements. Quickly, in late August or early September, beer the world drinks today. and the North Sea in the holds of use of hops, a close relative of can- the vessels of the Hanseatic League. nabis, but brewing is far and away the tiny burrs turn to plump, papery Flow Hop farmers in medieval the dominant use. cones. Each day the yellow lupulin in Like the canals in Chandra Baltic regions grew hops for their Just as the plant’s roots and the heart of the cone grows yellower, Mukerji’s work, hops flow through Hanseatic trading partners, and flowers are mobile, the people who less grassy, ever closer to the ideal time and space. The walls of the today hop pellets and extracts jet care for them and consume them balance of acids and oils preferred canals stay put, although in ways around the world to meet brewers’ have experienced layers of mobility by brewers and beer drinkers. that are also always changing—con- and consumers’ demands for a as well. Flemish weavers brought Harvest too soon, and the lupulin struction, reconstruction, repair, particular sensory experience—a their taste for hopped beer to the Continued on Page 15

Urban Farming industrial waste, illegal dumping, Recollecting and Reckoning for justice, even if you’re growing From Page 13 and environmental racism. In Massachusetts and beyond, food…” (Field notes, March 2018). In Boston, urban farmers point urban farmers are reclaiming cul- Urban farmers reclaim and extend and came north, and [grew] food… to the cornerstones of houses that tural traditions linked to food, farm- the tradition of Black agrarianism because…there wasn’t a grocery store once stood where they now are ing, and health; challenging systemic and thereby challenge invidious for miles.” Ruth is concerned that growing vegetables, as they connect racism and injustice in the food cultural assumptions about “what a if we “forget where the movement the patterning of vacant lots to system; remediating local legacies farmer looks like” and “who belongs comes from,” it is more likely to fail to local histories of arson in neighbor- of municipal neglect and environ- on the land.” They lift up urban address “the issues now of gentrifica- hoods that were never rebuilt. Their mental racism; and moving toward agriculture as a practice of what tion and displacement…” narratives raise urgent questions their visions of more equitable urban sociologist Monica White theorizes These stories, like many that I about “who pays for the past?”— futures. As they explore and estab- as collective agency and commu- gathered in postindustrial cities especially when that past includes lish new relationships between land, nity resilience. They insist that we across Massachusetts, highlight the decades of inequities, disinvestment, food, and community sovereignty historicize the social determinants legacies of racialized urban social and municipal neglect—and have of health and stop telling stories processes, including deindustrial- motivated community organizing to and survival, today’s urban farmers that naturalize health inequities. ization, white flight, redlining, and ensure that urban agriculture serves insist that “we can’t start from now arson. As I dug rows, planted spin- the needs and interests of the people and pretend that the past didn’t hap- That is, they engage with the past, ach seedlings, and weeded raised in the neighborhoods where vacant pen” (Field notes, June 2019). not to romanticize or commodify beds alongside urban farmers, I was lots are available to farm. Likewise, The pasts that urban farmers it, but because, in the words of struck by the ways in which they the narratives of urban farmers are raise, however, are quite different Kimberlé Crenshaw, “The work of call on the urban environment itself part of the rationale for the founding from those generated by urban social justice is the work of narrative as a “witness” to these inequities. of land trusts for urban farmland, branders and boosters. Rather, they reconstruction, building new stories For example, while public health which aim to protect land tenure for remind us that “our agricultural sys- around facts that are often disre- experts acknowledge that urban long-term residents of the neighbor- tem is built on stolen land and stolen garded, invisibilized, and taken for soil often is “contaminated,” urban hoods where lots are available and labor. If you aren’t willing to have granted as acceptable and unre- farmers describe it as “poisoned,” by ensure community stewardship. this conversation, you aren’t working markable features of social life.” n

14 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Feature

Hops Until the 20th century, growing quential to the big picture of hop to find. It is impossible to recreate the From Page 14 hops for beer meant securing cultivation—emerged: Wisconsin precise interactions of hops and their enough hands to pick hops in and California. The hop industries landscapes and tenders in this period, will be underdeveloped and not up the brief moment between being of these two states receive only but it is possible to begin to under- to the task of delivering its bittering under-ripe and risking it all with passing mention in the many fine stand some of the details. Doing so and aromatic properties to the rot or another catastrophe. For accounts of beer and hop history offers a rich portrait of ways that beer. Harvest too late, and you may commercial crops, family members in the United States, while many people and places make each other, lose the entire crop to aphids, hail, were not enough to get the job stories focus on the alpha and omega and in particular of how taste shapes mildew, or rot. done. Legions of hands arrived in of U.S. hop growing—New York place. That taste for bitterness among Yet the blossoms resulting from the fields to strip the flowers and State in the 19th century and the beer drinkers has led to special that shift can take on myriad send them to the kiln, and then Pacific Northwest in the 20th and attention for this quirky plant, and meanings and forms. Today, brew- onward to breweries near and far. 21st centuries. Despite growing up in particular landscapes, such as tam- ers and beer drinkers celebrate The work of picking was (and still California, living in Wisconsin, and arack hop poles packed into loamy particular hop varieties as minor can be) joyful, deadly, monotonous, spending a lot of time in northern Wisconsin soil or early trellis systems celebrities, heralding newly bred well-paid, or undervalued. Hop pick- Germany, until quite recently I had in California’s Central Valley. varieties like Cashmere or Zappa, ers died of cholera and drownings in never known hops grew in any of The book I am writing asks a set or returning to the classics like 19th century England and succumbed these places. Yet each had once been of seemingly simple questions: What Saaz or East Kent Golding. Hops to heatstroke in 19th and 20th century a thriving center of hop cultivation. were the causes and the conse- are a way to turn sunshine and soil California and Wisconsin. But some of There are other crucial, “forgotten” quences of the arrival of Humulus not into food, but into flavor and, them also danced late into the night, sites of hop cultivation, beyond my lupulus var. lupulus in Wisconsin in many cases, money. met new sweethearts, earned money linguistic reach—France, Belgium, (and, space permitting, California)? Hops, ultimately, are non-essen- to send home, or joined with kin Slovakia, and Poland. How did the rise and fall of this plant tial. They provide no real nutrition for rituals, games, and celebrations, In the U.S., while the Pacific affect people, plants, and places? for humans, nor do they intoxicate. as described by Bauer in his work Northwest quickly took over from Wisconsin goes from no Humulus But throughout human history, the on Pomo hop pickers in Northern New York as the dominant produc- lupulus var. l. to millions of pounds pursuit of flavor and the plea- California. Most of the hop fields of ing region as the 19th century drew harvested, to almost nothing. This sure that comes from flavor has human history have now vanished, to a close, first Wisconsin and then once-great hop industry is often just propelled all kinds of horticulture, and the fields that thrive today in California played vital roles in the a moment glanced over with a sen- exploration, conquest, coloniza- Oregon, New Zealand, Xinjiang, or production of hops for the world’s tence or two in the histories of hops tion, and labor. They are there to Bavaria may turn to other crops as brew kettles. White settler farmers that focus on places with larger and pleasure (or trigger) the sensors these locations face warming tempera- and the people they hired altered more sustained hop histories. on the beer drinkers’ tongue tures and shifts in rainfall patterns. the landscape with their plans and Plants don’t speak, and every and the infinitely more complex their bodies. In Wisconsin, they person involved in this story is dead, aromas that waft across the palate Forgotten Hop Fields drained wetlands, chopped down at least in Wisconsin (California is and toward the olfactory bulb. The book I am writing began forests, and plowed up prairie a different story). What’s left? The The pursuit of that experience has when I first read of hops growing in grasses central to the livelihoods scant archival traces, a few family driven an enormous amount of the outskirts of northern German of Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi, stories, gravestones, and wild hop work, radical alterations of existing towns in the 13th century, in Menominee, and other Native plants escaped from the bounds of landscapes, great networks of Richard Unger’s work on medieval nations. They introduced hop roots their fields. This is, ultimately, a story global trade, and flows of workers and Renaissance brewing. This so imported from New York, England, of failure. and commodities. surprised me—knowing just a little and (here and there) Germany, But that story repeats itself over Hops sweep across the globe and about hops and thinking of German killed plants that they categorized and over in agriculture, and the they settle in specific plains and hops growing exclusively in south- as weeds, and chopped down tam- landscapes we see around us today valleys. They generate particular ern Germany—that I began to dig arack and birch saplings to make will eventually meet the same fates ecologies—skunks that creep about deeper. I discovered a web of lost hop poles. As with other types of as the hop fields of 1860s Wisconsin. the hills eating grubs attracted to the landscapes of hop cultivation. I ini- 19th century agriculture in the U.S., Taste is part of the story. Today’s plants. Piles of startling red and black tially planned a book that covered most of this production would have preferred hop profiles bifurcate into ladybug larvae that writhe on the a thousand years of hop history, been impossible without violent hops mild enough for the wildly vines in search of aphid infestations. while focusing on the places where theft of native land, the often popular lagers that dominate global And rhizomes deep in the earth that hops once grew and then disap- unpaid labor of a diverse array of industrial beer production and push upward every spring on the peared. As I continued my research, women, and the underpaid labor hops unique and variable enough to edges of the fields where they once entire lost agricultural Atlantises of a racially and ethnically diverse satisfy the significant segment of the reigned, now supplanted by corn and emerged before me, rising up out workforce, especially in California market that is craft beer. Craft beer soy and black & white spotted cows. of the depths of Google Books, and the Pacific Northwest. consumers are generally willing and Landscapes of cultivated hops the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Through the Wisconsin Historical able to spend more on their beer and are made possible by the varied well-kept archives, and digitized Society’s archive, I have found nearly a search for some combination of laborscapes that make them—the census rolls. 2,000 hop farmers in just three novelty, authenticity (a la Johnston range of people who plant the roots, Two places once utterly funda- Wisconsin counties from 1840 to and Baumann), rarity, and specific twine the young plants clockwise mental to the global trade in hops 1870. There are gaping silences in this flavors and aromas. The variation in around trellises or poles, and har- (and thus to the supply of 19th and archive, but still far more information tastes produces a variation in land- vest the sticky blossoms in the heat early 20th century beer around the about hop farmers and the landscapes scapes and laborscapes across time of August. world)—but now entirely inconse- they produced than I ever expected and place as well. n footnotes Winter 2021 15 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Feature Care and Feeding during the Pandemic

Alison Hope Alkon, Professor of While some scholars use a food feed us all. Moreover, the pandemic In spring 2020, Feeding America, Sociology, University of the Pacific; Kara justice lens to examine government has increased many Americans’ reli- the nation’s largest domestic hun- Young, Independent Scholar; and Yuki programs and emergency food ance on the gig economy, as poorly ger-relief organization, projected a Kato, Assistant Professor of Sociology, systems, others look to nonprofit paid workers increasingly deliver $1.4 billion dollar shortfall. Amazon Georgetown University. and community-based responses our food, again, without hazard pay CEO Jeff Bezos’ much-celebrated ince March, haunting that have arisen to fill the or, in some cases, even basic safety $100 million donation is not only Simages have appeared gaps created by meager and protections, despite the sky-high far less than this need, but glosses across mainstream media declining state funding for profits garnered by their employers. over the role of global inequalities basic sustenance. Much of and labor practices in creating food showing long lines of The Safety Net cars waiting to receive this research assesses the insecurity. Amazon’s online grocery emergency food donations. abilities of these programs Sociologists know well that sales tripled during summer 2020. to address—or failure to the social safety net in the U.S. is These staggering visuals NGO Responses demonstrate the severity address—the inequalities at thin and tattered, especially when and the scope of COVID- Alison Hope Alkon hand by focusing on power compared with other industrialized In her address at the ASA 19’s impacts on one of our and structural causes of countries. Even with the passage Annual Meeting in 2004, novelist most basic needs. injustices around food of the CARES Act, unemployment and activist Arundhati Roy argued The USDAdefines production, distribution, insurance in the U.S. is far less poignantly that “NGOs are the food insecurity as the and consumption. generous than in Europe, and health indicator species of a declining “lack of access to enough The pandemic has insurance is not guaranteed. U.S. state.” In the face of a tattered safety food to live an active, essentialized the already poverty rose by about 2 percent net, nonprofits have mobilized to healthy life.” In the U.S., undervalued and during the summer of 2020, fill the fraying holes. Perhaps the just over 10 percent of underpaid work of food with about 7 million additional most prominent of these is chef Americans falling below the line as José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen families experienced food Kara Young chain laborers. These 20 insecurity in 2019, but that million workers— federal benefits began to run out, (WCK). Founded to address the number has skyrocketed 14 percent of the nation’s leaving less to spend on food. devastating 2010 earthquake in to 25 percent in 2020. By workforce—are paid the The CARES Act did include Haiti, WCK works with chefs one estimate, as of October lowest hourly median wage approximately $16 billion in around the world to provide meals 2020, nearly 23 million of any frontline workers funding for supplemental nutri- in the wake of natural and man- adults and 11 million in the United States, tion programs, allowing for some made disasters, and to address children did not have and 82 percent of food increasing benefits. In addition, this ongoing issues of hunger. enough to eat. chain jobs are frontline policy allowed states to temporarily Within the U.S., WCK has served As sociologists whose positions. Even absent the suspend the usual 3-month limit on food to victims of hurricanes in Yuki Kato research explores the pandemic, many of these benefits and to simplify the appli- Houston, Charleston, and Puerto concept of food justice— jobs are also extremely cation and eligibility-verification Rico, and fires in California. the ways that inequalities includ- dangerous. Farm work ranks as processes. However, the more than The organization has also called ing race, class, and gender affect more hazardous than firefighting 7 million households that received attention to the human impacts of the production, distribution, and or law enforcement. People of color the maximum allotment prior to political turmoil by feeding workers consumption of food—we know and women comprise the majority the pandemic are ineligible for in Washington, DC, furloughed by that these dire circumstances are of these low-wage workers. Even increased benefits, leaving a gaping the government shutdown of 2019 most directly experienced by poor before the pandemic, food workers hole through which the poorest and citizens waiting to vote in the people, people of color, and female- were more likely than those in households can easily tumble. 2020 elections. During the pan- headed households. The causes of all other industries to experience As a result of this insufficient demic, World Central Kitchen first food insecurity are complex but food insecurity and rely on food assistance, charitable food banks and fed the passengers quarantined on generally rooted in the combination assistance. Approximately food pantries have seen skyrocket- the Grand Princess Cruise ship, and of un- and underemployment and 70 percent of those receiving federal ing demand. While we could not later turned many of Andrés and the lack of an adequate social safety food assistance work full time, with locate systematic national data, food his colleagues’ restaurants into soup net. Black, Latinx, Southeast Asian McDonalds and Walmart (which pantries across the country report kitchens and sources of food to be and Native American households, supplies the most groceries in the long lines, as well as a decline in key delivered to frontline workers. women, trans people, rural com- U.S.) among the top five employers. resources such as donations from Andrés has also advocated for a munities and families with children For those in the restaurant restaurants and the volunteer labor New Deal-style program where the are disproportionately likely to industry, the pandemic has meant of retirees who must now stay home government would pay restaurants to experience poverty, unemployment, massive layoffs and unemployment. to protect their own health. As the provide food to those in need, creat- and work that does not provide an Farm and food processing workers public initially stocked up, food dona- ing both sustenance and employment adequate wage. These disparities have been deemed essential and tions fell. And according to sociolo- for restaurant workers. For his efforts, have only increased during the pan- experience higher-than-average gist Jan Poppendieck, supermarkets Andrés has been rewarded with the demic. But the dominant response rates of infection, illness, and death. dealing with these initial shortages National Humanities Medal, the to this massive food insecurity has For those food chain workers who and ongoing safety standards have coveted James Beard Award, and generally been to bring food to remain healthy, there is no hazard less time to cull their shelves for favorable coverage in the food and people, rather than to address its pay, meaning that food insecurity the foods that serve as food banks’ general media. structural causes. persists despite the risks they take to primary source of donations. Continued on Page 17

16 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Feature The Social Context of Healthy Eating

Tom VanHeuvelen, Assistant Professor of pollution—food choices of indi- is a way for food consumption to Sociology, University of Minnesota; and consumption is viduals. Among translate into lower health outcomes. Jane VanHeuvelen, Contract Assistant often depicted these sources, While dietary advice varies substan- Professor, University of Minnesota as a place where messages tially around this simplified scheme, we can directly surrounding many pieces of advice one observes he food that we consume is, in apply our what constitutes for choices of food consumption many ways, a very personal deci- T willpower and a healthy diet emphasize the importance of eating sion. When an individual is interested fresh fruits and vegetables. agency to affect Tom VanHeuvelen Jane VanHeuvelen vary. However, in improving their health, we often our health. It it has largely In our research, we were drawn see food consumption and dietary is unsurprising then that food and been established that a diet based in to think about health behaviors change as a key health behavior that diet decisions are the focus of a a high proportion of fresh fruits and surrounding food consumption can be successfully addressed. substantial amount of popular atten- vegetables is associated with more because of food’s unique existence Unlike many forces in our lives tion—from blogs and news stories positive health outcomes, while the across multiple levels of society. On that feel or are beyond our control— to recipes and TV shows—with an “Western” style diet rooted in sugars, the one hand, food consumption from genetics to health care access to emphasis placed on the agency and animal fats, and processed foods Continued on Page 18

Care and Feeding Andrés’ successful high-end dining long-standing work of neighbor- as unworthy and untrustworthy, From Page 16 restaurants’ contributions to the hood associations and communi- can seep into these well-intentioned city’s gentrification. In other words, ty-based organizations. efforts. Like the nonprofit example Despite the far reaching efforts even though the nonprofit charity Rooted in the writings of anarchist above, when people try to give with- of national organizations such as organization may be providing Peter Kropotkin, mutual aid differs out a deep understanding of com- World Central Kitchen and Feeding some jobs and feeding people, from charity in its inherently political munities’ needs, they can become America, it is essential that we prob- it is funded partly through the belief that everyone has contributions patronizing and create additional lematize these (male) savior heroes capitalistic mechanisms that cause to offer and needs to be fulfilled, and unnecessary barriers for those of the nonprofit industrial complex the displacement of long-term and that the giving and receiving of receiving aid. The distinction and their dominance in the field of residents and rely on vulnerable aid must be a step toward ongoing between mutual aid and charity can food security solutions. One com- essential workers. More broadly, by social transformation. It has been be lost. Moreover, without external mon insight offered by food justice creating their own programs, rather conceptualized as a decolonizing support, local groups can face dwin- research has been the realization than supporting existing grassroots approach, a praxis of care in which dling funds and volunteer burnout that large, foundation-funded non- organizations, organizations like those who receive aid are vital and as the pandemic drags on. profits often fail to connect to, and World Central Kitchen fail to share equal members of their communities. Sociologists studying inequali- garner support from, the frontline resources with those who have In contrast to foundation-funded ties have much to gain from taking communities they aim to serve. direct experience with hunger, nonprofits, mutual aid groups tend food seriously. It is among our most Our own research has pro- and who know the landscape best. to operate as voluntary organizations basic human needs, and the ways vided evidence of this in Oakland At best, these efforts fall short of with scant resources and little-to-no that a society organizes to feed its and New Orleans. There is often empowering the communities paid staff. Many are aware of the members has much to say about a racialized dimension to these so that they no longer need the racialized disparities in COVID-19 how social life is organized and circumstances. Geographers Kristin external help; at worst, nationally infections, illnesses, and care, as well valued. Food is at once a mate- Reynolds and Nevin Cohen have funded organizations can compete as broader social, economic, and rial necessity and a set of cultural with and stifle local, grassroots found that, among food justice health disparities, and explicitly ori- practices, and offers the opportunity efforts to address food insecurity. organizations in New York City, ent their work towards BIPOC com- to better understand the relation- white-led organizations are better Community-led Responses munities, trans people, individuals ship between the work we do to funded and more politically con- Around the world, small, nimble in hard-hit industries, and unhoused survive, the work we do to care for nected than those led by people of groups have come together to care people. Some are linked to ongoing one another, and the work we do to color, while BIPOC activists have for one another, mainstreaming food justice and community farming develop and express our individual called for big structural changes and extending the idea of soli- efforts, as well as activism aiming to and collective sense of who we are in mainstream foundations’ roles darity-based “mutual aid” that address the unequal distribution of within complex circumstances. in promoting certain types of has long permeated social justice land and other resources necessary Food overlaps with many more white-centered nonprofit work. activism. Food is among the most for food production. established areas of sociology, While it has not been common necessities around which These groups make valiant efforts including race, class and gender, systemically studied (and would communities are organizing. Some to feed and care for those experienc- social movements, labor, and urban make an excellent dissertation topic groups offer free grocery delivery to ing food insecurity but are unable and rural (under)development. This for an interested student) some those in need. Others donate food, to operate at the scale necessary to is a particularly dire time to focus activists have called into question supplies, and funds directly. Some address the crisis. In addition, the on hunger and health disparities, the role that World Central Kitchen are new networks that have come micropolitics of racial and other but the sociological insights to be plays in the city, for its ties to together to address the pandemic, privileges, and the meritocracy nar- gained will last far beyond this ICE, internal labor practices, and while others have grown out of the rative that characterizes poor people historical moment. n footnotes Winter 2021 17 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Feature

Healthy Eating structural inequality across coun- We examined how the consump- stronger among higher-income indi- From Page 17 tries and publics. tion of fresh fruits and vegetables viduals in higher-income countries. The reach of such inequality is varied across and within countries, The further away one moves from is very much highly personal and captured in recent estimates, which using nationally representative either one of these socioeconomic agentic. On the other hand, food suggest that global consumption samples from 31 countries ranging pillars, the association diminishes. consumption decisions, knowledge of fresh fruits and vegetables falls from middle-income countries Similarly, we find interesting gender of food healthiness, preferences for short by as much as 50 percent such as the Philippines and Chile differences in the relationship certain types of food, and paths to of goals set by the World Health to high-income countries such as between healthy eating and health follow that enable food consump- Organization. In fact, under-con- the United States and Norway. We outcomes. Women who infrequently tion decisions are also connected to sumption of fresh fruits and vege- examined the frequency that indi- eat healthily in poorer countries have such broader social systems as one’s tables is one of the highest-ranked viduals in these countries consumed worse health than men who infre- culture, social and kinship networks, risk factors for attributable fresh fruits and vegetables, as well quently eat healthily in poorer coun- and the system of institutions that mortality, and is responsible for as the magnitude of the association tries, while women who eat healthily produce and distribute different upwards of 3 percent of all deaths between healthy eating and health frequently have better health than types of food to local populations. worldwide (WHO 2020). Notably, outcomes. We examined how these comparable men in richer countries. Food deserts are a now classic these deaths are disproportion- factors varied across richer and In total, we found that to explain who example of the popularization of ately concentrated in middle- and poorer countries, and how these eats fresh fruits and vegetables more this way of thinking about the com- low-income nations. Despite this, differences frequently, plexity and structural characteristics a central feature of modern global affected class and what that constrain and enable individual food systems is the increased provi- and gender While food consumption health benefits dynam- food consumption. This is all to say sion of energy-dense and unhealthy does involve personal agency, are associated ics within that while food consumption does food options, such as animal fats, with these countries. the decisions about what involve personal agency, the deci- vegetable oils, sugars, and cereals. consumption Our findings foods to eat and how are sions about what foods to eat and In response, governments and patterns, we suggest fundamentally influenced by how are fundamentally influenced intergovernmental organizations had to think that social institutions and systems beyond by institutions and systems beyond have initiated policy reforms and about how context— one’s immediate control. public health campaigns to increase one’s immediate control. individuals are both within the share of fresh fruits and veg- parts of mul- Population Health, Population and between etables in population diets. Thus, tilevel systems Food, and Global Food Systems countries— beyond individual choices, or even that open and restrict opportunities Fruit and vegetable consumption has a strong influence on who par- an individual-centered analysis of for health behaviors. Simply put, the is the focus of political, health, and structure and agency, food con- ticipates in, and who benefits from, social movements, which translate healthy eating habits. benefits and payoffs to similar people sumption represents a central pillar making similar food consumption into sometimes sizable health dif- of population-level issues of health. We found that individuals in ferences between national publics. richer countries ate fresh fruits and decisions depends on a broader Over the past several decades, Where Are People Eating a vegetables more frequently than national context. changes in the global food system “Healthy Diet” and Who Benefits? individuals in poorer countries, and Two sociological theories can help have resulted in altering diets based These examples all suggest that that individuals in richer countries us understand why this is the case. on changes in the availability and the decisions to consume fresh tended to have better health than First, the work of Bruce G. Link and accessibility of certain food bundles. fruits and vegetables, and the conse- individuals in poorer countries. Jo Phelan (1995) suggests that cer- Availability calls attention to the quences of these food consumption Access and availability to healthier tain social structures—in particular very presence—or lack thereof—of decisions, may be at least partially food options tend to be greater socioeconomic status—may operate food options in a particular setting, influenced by broader social among richer countries, suggesting as “fundamental causes” of health and accessibility has to do with the systems. In some of our published that this broader social context and illness. As a fundamental cause, resources necessary for acquiring work, we examined the questions provides greater opportunities socioeconomic status impacts access available foods. Many governments, of who consumed fresh fruits and for individuals to pursue healthy to key resources that may be utilized volunteer groups, and intergov- vegetables more frequently, and who eating. At the same time, we found through multiple mechanisms, ernmental organizations devote was especially likely to benefit from individual structural factors to also serving to mitigate risk or the overall a substantial amount of attention such decisions. impact healthy eating. Individuals consequences of illness. While indi- to the task of shifting individual To examine the multileveled with higher incomes tended to eat viduals may make decisions that are diets through improved access and nature of food consumption, we fresh fruits and vegetables more fre- not health promoting, for those with availability of food, and through examined patterns across differ- quently than individuals with lower higher levels of socioeconomic sta- shifting individual preferences and ent countries, and we considered incomes, and that women tended to tus, their greater access to resources knowledge about food consump- how individual-level associations eat healthily more frequently than generally translates into improved tion. Furthermore, issues of access systematically vary by a country’s men. However, we find a substantial health outcomes. and availability highlight unique but level of economic development. amount of variation among these Second, William C. Cockerham interconnected structural factors We find this approach to consump- broad trends. (2005) draws attention to how health that impact dietary behaviors. tion decisions exciting because it For example, while we find lifestyles are impacted by structural Because of their association with highlights how food consumption that more frequent consumption factors beyond social class, including health outcomes, the inability to decisions, and even the benefits of of healthy fruits and vegetables is social identities, roles, and living access or have available fresh fruits healthy eating decisions, are situated associated with more positive health conditions. Our findings of gender and vegetables represents important in a wide variety of contexts. outcomes, this association is much Continued on Page 19

18 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Feature Food and Resilience during the Pandemic: Narratives from Around the World Emilia Cordero Oceguera, Doctoral own bread because of the essential ing food with women, part Student, North Carolina State University workers—supermarket stockers and each other. of the increase (from Mexico City); Heather McCarty cashiers, farmworkers and meat- Although she is because Johnson, Doctoral Student, North packing workers—who risk their had known families can Carolina State University, and Exchange lives to make sure that the food her neighbors no longer Student, Ghent University, Belgium; chain keeps running. for years, it G. Solorzano, Doctoral Student, North pay someone Carolina State University; and Sarah Over the last six months, we have was not until else to do conducted interviews with families the quaran- this work. Bowen, Professor of Sociology, North Emilia G. Solorzano Carolina State University from varying social locations and tine that they Cordero Oceguera Previously, from different parts of the world— started really Cristina and uring times of crises and Belgium, Mexico, and the U.S.—in talking. her husband struggle, food can be a source of D an effort to understand how the One night, employed a resilience, creativity, and even joy. pandemic has changed the way Cristina woman, Isabel, Dishes such as the Depression-era people eat, shop, cook, and gather brought her who came to water pie, made from hot water, for meals. neighbor their house vanilla, sugar, margarine, and flour, The “food stories” in this essay some lasagna, five days a are rooted in people’s ability to make are narratives about uncertainty, a dish she week to do a few simple ingredients stretch. For had learned Heather McCarty Sarah Bowen stress, exhaustion, and gratitude. Johnson the cooking immigrant families, specific dishes They show us how people use food to cook as and ingredients are often a way to and cleaning. to keep connections alive. They also a result of the extra time she had There are 2.5 milliondomestic connect with the places and people gained while working from home. show us that people’s resilience is workers in Mexico, and 90 percent left behind. A few nights later, her neighbor interconnected and defined by class. are women—often indigenous It’s not surprising, then, that dropped off a casserole. For the And social policies that support women from rural areas who come people have turned to cooking for next few weeks, they shared food or ignore people during crises can to cities to find work. sustenance and reassurance during reduce or exacerbate stark inequal- with each other as a way to interact Middle-class women like Cristina the pandemic. Comfort foods— ities in how people experience the during a strange time. have made their lives work in part warm, hearty, reminiscent of easier pandemic and its consequences. Cristina, a part-time college pro- by relying on other women (often times—have boomed. No longer fessor, and her husband Eduardo, a Cristina, Mexico City, Mexico poor women of color and immi- able to travel, some people have consultant for the local government, learned to make dishes from far-off “Fíjate que sí cambió mi relación are both in their 70s and live in the grant women) to perform some of places. To avoid going to the store, con mis vecinos (you know, my home they bought 35 years ago. the most intimate tasks for their others have developed creative ways relationship with my neighbors did Their daughter, in her 20s, lives families. The disruption of these ties of using the miscellaneous ingredi- change),” Cristina says. She recalls nearby and comes to visit almost during the pandemic has imposed ents in their pantries. The resilience how during the first few months daily. When COVID-19 began to costs on both the care workers and of one person is dependent on the of the pandemic, she and her spread in Mexico in mid-March, their employers. labor of others. It is only possible for neighbors in her Mexico City mid- Cristina and her husband began During Mexico’s stay-at-home people to stay home and bake their dle-class neighborhood began shar- working from home. order, Cristina paid Isabel to stay Cristina no longer spends the home. Cristina is now doing most morning battling Mexico City traffic of the cooking and cleaning in her and has more time to enjoy her household, while her work hours Healthy Eating improve our health undoubtedly meals. Her daughter comes to have have not decreased. Her husband From Page 18 contribute to our ability to live breakfast with them every morning, has not taken on additional house- healthier lives. Yet the ability to and Cristina cooks things such as work. Cristina says she appreciates differences in eating behaviors and make these health positive choices, huevos con tortilla. In contrast, having the time to learn to bake new health benefits may be explained, and the payoffs to these choices, before the pandemic, she would things, like pan dulce and conchitas in part, by a broader examination vary based on our social position guzzle a cup of coffee as she rushed (traditional sweet bread) that she of the way gender operates at a and the economic conditions of our out the door, grabbing a nutrition previously would have bought at the structural level, influencing dietary broader national context. bar and yogurt for lunch. bakery. But fusing her professional choice through gender socialization, Our research highlights the But the work Cristina does work and home routines is stressful. norms, roles, economic power, and importance of considering food around the house has also increased. It is now common for her to be practices surrounding fruit and consumption choices as part of a Data from the United Nations show giving lectures and cooking at the vegetable consumption. system of fundamental causes that that women around the world are same time, she laughs. This work highlights the dynamic operate at individual, country, and spending more time doing unpaid Luisa, Raleigh, United States interplay between individual agency cross-national levels as individu- “care work” during the pandemic, and broader structural constraints als, advocates, and policymakers including spending more time “Toca comer lo que hay (you for a health behavior that many attempts to adjust individuals’ diets cooking, cleaning, and caring for have to eat what is there),” says people perceive to be individual- and food consumption behaviors to children. In Cristina’s case, and Luisa of cooking with the unfamil- istic. The choices that we make to improve population health. n in the case of many middle-class Continued on Page 20 footnotes Winter 2021 19 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Feature

Food and Resilience to use coupons. It’s not enough, From Page 19 though. With Luisa no longer working, her family is forced to iar ingredients she gets from the choose between paying rent or food pantry. Prior to the pan- buying groceries. Relying on food demic, Luisa cleaned houses for pantries often means relying on middle-class families in Raleigh— unfamiliar or unappetizing foods. one of the limited job opportuni- Sometimes, Luisa gave the foods ties available to immigrants who she received from the pantry to her do not have legal documentation. neighbors because she didn’t know Luisa is proud of her work, but what to do with them. it comes with unstable hours, no After trying unsuccessfully to job security, and no benefits. And, find a food pantry offering foods like many domestic workers, Luisa that were familiar to Luisa and her lost her job at the beginning of the family, she turned to her network pandemic, with no compensation. of volunteers to ask where to go. It A National Domestic Workers was difficult for Luisa to seek help; Alliance survey found that by she was used to helping others. late March, more than 90 percent “Desafortunadamente me toco something to eat together makes during the pandemic, although of domestic workers in the U.S. a mi” (Unfortunately it was my you happy.” not nearly as dramatic as what has had lost jobs due to COVID-19. turn),” she says. Despite the legal Elif’s experience sounds like that happened in the U.S. One of Elif’s Six months later, the percentage and health risks, Luisa now drives of many professional workers who roommates does not belong to a of workers without any jobs was over 30 minutes to a food pantry have been insulated from some of union, and experienced minor food still nearly four times the percent- in Durham because it is organized the pandemic’s worst effects as they shortages when she lost her job. age before the pandemic. Nearly by and serves mostly Latino/a/x/e have shifted to working from home. However, Elif’s experience shows three-quarters of workers received immigrants. While many non- But Elif works in retail; when the that the way countries protect—or no compensation when their jobs profit organizations have been pandemic began, she was employed fail to protect—workers is a choice. were eliminated. working diligently to keep food as an hourly worker at a clothing After losing her job, Luisa, a Conclusions pantries stocked during a period store. Supported by a labor union as Mexican immigrant who has been The devastating effects of the of unprecedented demand, less well as a government that provided living in the U.S. for 15 years, was pandemic—its effects on health and attention has been given to the stimulus money and bill deferral, forced to rely on food pantries to well-being, poverty and food inse- particular foods provided. many non-essential retail workers feed her family of three, which curity, and even social relations— in Belgium were allowed to do just includes Luisa, her husband, and Elif, Ghent, Belgium will reverberate for years to come. what epidemiologists and some their 14-year-old daughter. They Elif glances at the photo of a During these hard times, food and policymakers have advocated: they are ineligible for most of the social stack of pancakes with three types cooking have served as meaningful were paid to stay home. Once the assistance programs that have of berries, bananas, and delicate sources of comfort for many people. helped other chocolate shops reopened and Elif went back At the same time, food has also U.S. families shavings. to work in June, her hours were cut been a source of stress and strain, to 12 per week, but her labor union during the Many non-essential retail Although it with rising rates of food insecurity pandemic; looks like it made sure that her wages wouldn’t and long lines at food pantries. workers in Belgium were allowed to Luisa’s family was taken in be reduced to below the amount In the face of all of this, people didn’t receive do just what epidemiologists and a restaurant, stipulated in her contract. are resilient, finding new ways to unemploy- some policymakers have advocated: Elif, a 27-year- Rather than having to choose connect with others, share food in a between risking her health or facing ment, a they were paid to stay home. old Turkish- socially distanced way, and support stimulus Belgian food insecurity or eviction, Elif those who are struggling. But this check, or the woman, made stayed home. And for the first time resilience is linked to inequality. Supplemental it herself. in a while, she had the time to slow Sociologist Alison Alkon and col- Nutrition Assistance Program Because they have been working down. “Before this, it was always leagues argue that during the pan- benefits. An Urban Institutereport less during the pandemic, Elif and like rush, rush, rush,” she says. “You demic, it has become abundantly found that there had been an her boyfriend have more time have to work, go to school, and do clear that many countries, including increase in unmet basic needs in to cook. They started making stuff. But [during that time], every- the U.S., do not have adequate immigrant communities because new dishes for themselves and thing stopped. So, you have more resources to support food-insecure immigrant families are ineligible to share with Elif’s three room- time to read books and watch some households or work protections for or reluctant to use key federal mates. When asked if cooking documentaries. And a lot of people to ensure that our lowest paid relief programs. new things is one of the ways she [did] that and I think that’s a good workers can make it through this Growing up in Mexico, Luisa’s has dealt with isolation and lack thing for the future.” crisis safely. During this crisis and family experienced frequent food of routine during the pandemic, Elif’s experience is not universal, beyond, we must build up our social shortages, and she learned to be Elif replies, “Exactly. I watched a even in Belgium or other parts of safety net, to support all people and resourceful and flexible with food. lot of YouTube, [to find] recipes. Europe. Poverty and food insecurity allow everyone the freedom to find Recently, she started shopping with I also made a lot of banana bread exist in Belgium, with food pantries spaces of creativity and connection, a friend who is teaching her how just for all the roommates. Having reporting an increase in demand and care and comfort. n

20 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association ASA News 2022 Annual Meeting Theme: Bureaucracies of Displacement ach year, ASA’s President-elect that we as sociologists must grapple Therefore,Displacement refers policing and the criminal justice Echooses a theme on which to with. The theme for the 2022 ASA to a lens through which to examine system, health care system policies, focus some of the programming Annual Meeting, Bureaucracies social, legal, economic, political, policies that devastate the environ- for the ASA Annual Meeting—a of Displacement, will offer the physical, geographic, intellec- ment, expulsions from lands and tradition that ensures our meet- opportunity to assess sociologically tual, and similar dislocations and physical spaces, and the erosion of ings reflect the rich diversity of the depth of the issues we are facing exclusions. Bureaucracies centers Indigenous rights and lands. perspectives and subject mat- today and their long-term effects. state actions (past and present) that Thus, the program commit- ter in our discipline. 2022 ASA As we do so, the 2022 ASA produce and reproduce exclusions, tee envisions Bureaucracies of President-elect Cecilia Menjívar Program Committee invites sociol- expulsions, and marginalizations, Displacement as a capacious theme has chosen the theme Bureaucracies ogists to consider the role of the as well as state inactions (such as that can involve many sub-fields of Displacement. Her conception of state in creating and amplifying the disavowal, deregulation, neglect, of the discipline as it also opens the theme is below. inequalities and inequities that a cri- and abandonment). This angle the opportunity to attend to how sis makes so visible, and to provide permits a focus on the manifesta- groups and organizations respond Bureaucracies of Displacement a lens to examine long-term effects. tions of state power in everyday to and resist state actions and inac- The COVID-19 pandemic, as it Through laws and policies, and in life, including but not limited to, tions. This approach also has a crit- is the case with crises in general, multiple ways, the state—with its immigration/detention/enforce- ical policy-related component. This has exposed and amplified multiple attendant institutions and everyday ment, undermining of reproduc- lens can generate concrete evalu- inequalities and assaults on vulner- bureaucratic practices—actively tive rights, workplace regulations ations of existing structures that able populations. The pandemic, pushes out certain groups, mar- and the encroachment of work- displace and marginalize certain along with the economic and politi- ginalizing, excluding, and contain- ers’ rights, school policies that groups, but also those structures cal crises today, has brought to light ing them, and involving in these disproportionately disadvantage that may integrate, and to invite inequities in access to a wide range processes a wide array of non-state certain groups, urban/city policies thinking about tangible avenues for of benefits, resources, and rights actors. and housing policies, red-lining, reform and social change. n

Meet Art Alderson and Dina Okamoto, the New American Sociological Review Editors Brian Powell and Clem Brooks, Indiana a brilliant job with the selection year. Okamoto also is an affiliated val, observational, survey, event, University of Indiana University professors faculty member in the university’s and text data, and uses both qualita- Art Alderson and Dina Asian American Studies, Latino tive and quantitative methods. eing a journal editor Okamoto as the new Studies, and Southeast Asian Studies Alderson and Okamoto may can be a tricky job. B co-editors of the American programs. differ in their substantive interests, Editors act as the judge, Sociological Review. Alderson works in the areas but they share an enviable record jury, and—in the minds Alderson is a lifer of social stratification, economic of scholarship and leadership in the of some sociologists— (we hope) at Indiana and political sociology, compara- discipline. Few scholars can match executioner. But editors University. He joined the tive and historical sociology, and their publication record or their also serve as mentors and institution as an assistant international development. He ability to contribute to multiple cheerleaders. They are Art Alderson professor in 1997, went is currently doing quantitative literatures and to generate novel, visionary, fiercely pro- through the ranks, and research on income inequality; programmatic insights. Few scholars tective of the discipline, was appointed the Allen intercity relations and the global have demonstrated their lifelong genuinely appreciative of D. and Polly S. Grimshaw urban hierarchy; status, subjective commitment to the editorial process. the diverse substantive Professor of Sociology in well-being, and consumption; and In fact, even as graduate students, areas and methodologies 2016. Okamoto, the Class the causes and social consequences the two served as editors (associate in sociology, impeccably of 1948 Herman B. Wells of globalization. editor of Social Forces and student organized, incredibly Professor, is a relatively Okamoto’s interests lie in the editor of Social Psychology Quarterly, patient, and extremely recent addition to Indiana areas of race and ethnicity, immi- respectively). generous in their time, University. After spending gration, social movements, and Both Alderson and Okamoto are Dina Okamoto making decisions regard- a dozen years (2001- social psychology. Her research well known for their hands-on and ing an average of about 2013) as a professor at the has addressed intergroup conflict committed graduate mentorship. 750 manuscripts each year. University of California-Davis, she and cooperation, group forma- Graduate students—current and Selecting journal editors who can joined the sociology department at tion and collective action, as well formers—hold both in high regard. resourcefully navigate the many Indiana University in 2013 and took as immigrant civic and political One former student of Alderson responsibilities can be compli- on the directorship of the Center incorporation. She is a true believer says: “I’ll sing Art’s praises for as cated. But the ASA Publications for Research on Race and Ethnicity in methodological diversity: her long as anyone cares to listen. Art Committee and Council have done in Society (CRRES) the following research draws on interview, archi- Continued on Page 22 footnotes Winter 2021 21 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org ASA News ASA Awards Five FAD Grants to Advance Sociology

SA is pleased to announce five COVID-19 has profoundly will inform theoretical development nomically? In what ways do black AFund for the Advancement of disrupted the lives of nearly every on the gendered division of labor women respond to the incarcera- the Discipline program awards from American household, fundamen- and work-family policy, and identify tion and release of partners? And, the June 2020 round of proposals. tally altering paid and unpaid topics that are likely to become the how does the criminalization of a The FAD is a small grants pro- domestic labor in families. Stay- subject of research for years. partner intersect with the criminal- gram funded by National Science at-home orders and the sudden Lucius Couloute, Suffolk ization of Black women themselves? Foundation’s Sociology Program removal of care and domestic University, and Yolanda Wiggins, This qualitative research project will through which ASA has supported support providers have created San Jose State University, for help to unpack the hidden social nearly 400 research projects and a crisis of role conflicts among Black Women and Secondary and economic implications of the conferences. Applications are parents, threatening 60 years of Criminalization: Understanding rise of mass incarceration and deter- reviewed by an advisory panel progress toward gender equality. the Diffuse Impacts of Mass mine the extent to which its reach is composed of ASA Council This study aims to understand how Incarceration ($8,000). wider than previously recognized. members-at-large. parents have responded to meet the Although we know much about Angela R. Dixon, Emory The program focuses on support- challenges of the pandemic and how the collateral consequences of University, for A Deadly Inheritance: ing innovative proposals that have this response will shape the gen- justice system contact for those Intergenerational Impacts of Kinship potential to advance the discipline dered division of labor over the long directly experiencing it, we know and Household Mortality ($8,000). of sociology, with special encour- term. It does so by administering a less about how our criminal justice Blacks are more likely than whites agement given to individuals who survey questionnaire to a panel of system affects broader networks to experience the deaths of multiple are in their early careers at commu- partnered U.S. parents at six-month of people who are dealing with the family members and experience nity colleges or institutions without intervals until at least two years after criminalization of a family member. them at earlier ages. While a great extensive support for research. the pandemic ends. Preliminary Drawing on in-depth interviews deal of alarm has been raised about Grant recipients include: results from the first survey round with Black women who have experi- recent declines in life expectancy Daniel L. Carlson, University of demonstrate that the pandemic has enced a partner’s incarceration, this among whites, Blacks still live on Utah, Richard J. Petts, Ball State both exacerbated and reduced gen- study asks: how do black women average four years less than whites. University, and Joanna R. Pepin, der inequalities in couples’ divisions conceptualize and make meaning of Though research indicates that University of Buffalo, forThe Long- of labor. Gender inequality is a per- their experiences with the criminal- experiencing death within one’s Term Consequences of the COVID- sistent and fundamental sociological ization of partners? How has the rise family shapes survivors’ health, 19 Pandemic for Household Gender issue that permeates all aspects of of mass criminalization impacted relatively little research has analyzed Equality ($8,000). society. The findings from this study this group, both socially and eco- Continued on Page 23

ASR Editors level-headed, even-keeled, low- hard, is so productive, and is also hierarchies over time is crucial for From Page 21 blood-pressure, mild-mannered, genuinely passionate, optimistic, our field of sociology.” chill, grounded. I am sure co-editing supportive, and encouraging. She is Through theirproposal to co-edit was a caring and dedicated advisor. ASR will challenge that character- particularly inspiring as a woman ASR, it’s clear that Alderson and The number of pages of my papers, istic. The depth of Art’s coolness is faculty of color who has dedicated Okamoto believe in the journal, dissertation chapters, reviewer such that he can easily take the heat.” her career to supporting graduate sociology, and sociologists. “The responses, etc., he carefully edited Okamoto’s former student says: students of color and other faculty ASR editors play a role in shaping line by line during graduate school “Dina is an extremely generous of color. Her focus on bringing the journal’s content and practices, may not have equaled those in War collaborator—encouraging and together different fields and sub- but the journal belongs to the disci- and Peace, but they’re close. Art was inspiring her colleagues to put for- fields to better understand the social pline and its members,” they say in always available and supportive to ward the best version of themselves. construction of race and racial their vision statement. n discuss everything from big picture I can’t say how many times I’ve gone to minor modeling issues. He cared into a meeting with Dina lost and for his students…I found Art’s unmotivated, and by the end of Candidates for 2021 ASA balancing of roles as a parent and an the meeting, I feel totally differ- academic deeply inspirational. His ent—completely excited about the Elections Announced care and support for his family and research project…Before I worked kids were apparent during my time with her, I dreaded writing, but she e are pleased to announce the names of 2021 ASA election at Indiana, and I admired that he was always so complimentary and Wcandidates running for the offices of president-elect, vice presi- could be such a successful sociolo- reassuring, [it] vastly improved dent-elect, secretary-treasurer-elect, Council members-at-large, and gist while also being so devoted as my relationship with the writing members of the Committee on Committees, Nominating Committee, a father. I thought of him often and process. I’m so grateful.” and Publications Committee. Ballots for the elections will be distrib- drew inspiration from him when I Another former student notes: uted in April 2021. became a father.” “Dina is one of the hardest-working All members as of March 31, 2021, with the exception of affiliates, Another former student: “Art academics, as well as one of the will receive ballots and are eligible to vote in the ASA-wide elections Alderson is one of the coolest people most positive and uplifting academ- and in the elections for the sections in which they have membership. n I know—not ‘cool’ as in stylish, ics out there. I’ve found that it is rare Click here for more information. though he often is, but ‘cool’ as in to meet an academic who works so

22 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association ASA News

FAD Grants the technology used for self-de- ogies that better serve those on the replaced by part-time, low-wage, From Page 22 fense, reporting, investigation, and social, economic, and legal margins. and contingent work. These trends punishment. The institutionalization Preliminary findings show that have been compounded in the how network death contributes to of these technologies is signaling a although well-meaning activists 21st century, first by the 2008 health inequities. The objective of shift in the dominant paradigm from design these technologies to mobi- recession and more recently by this study is to quantify Black-white a legal to a techno-legal response lize survivors and foster institutional the COVID-19 pandemic. While disparities in familial and proximate to violence. Yet, few studies have accountability, they are a crucial site research has documented the broad deaths and their relationship to engaged survivor, activist, and legal of enacting whiteness and uphold impact of economic uncertainty health disparities using longitu- voices to identify the social and legal the racially unequal practices of the on higher education institutions, dinal survey data. This project is consequences of these objects, or punishment industry. Addressing little is known about how individ- innovative in its focus on: 1) racial examined how, if at all, anti-violence these inequalities through an uals are experiencing this type of disparities in death from broader technologies could be redesigned anti-oppression lens is necessary to uncertainty within colleges and social network ties outside of the to meet a broad spectrum of justice universities. By analyzing in-depth sustain long-term change. nuclear family, and 2) the examina- needs and contest the reproduction interviews with 80 college stu- tion of the pathways through which of racial injustice. The project traces Blake R. Silver, George Mason dents, this project will explore exposure to death can contribute to this paradigm shift and examines University, for Labor Market Precarity how students navigate economic adverse health for survivors. its impact on racial justice, rape law, and Higher Education ($7,840). uncertainty within higher educa- Renee Shelby, Georgia Institute of and social movement organizing. How does economic uncer- tion. Moreover, with the support Technology, for Designing Justice: Through close examination of new tainty shape the ways students of an intersectional lens, the study Sexual Violence, Technology, and the narrative and participatory design navigate higher education? The will examine how the mutual Law ($8,000). sources, this analysis will analyze last 50 years have witnessed a constitution of race, class, and Since the 1970s, citizen-activists the legal implications of anti-vio- shift from relative stability to gender shapes experiences with have challenged how the justice sys- lence technology, and articulates a precarity in the labor market as and resources for managing labor tem neglects assault by redesigning framework for designing technol- steady, well-paying jobs have been market precarity. n

Research Snapshot: Sociology Faculty Salaries Comparable to Other Social Sciences

ver the past 10 years, faculty 1 Osalaries in sociology, anthro- Mean Faculty Salaries by Discipline in Adjusted U.S. Dollars pology, and political science have been comparable, while economics salaries have been consistently higher, according to data collected by CUPA-HR, the association for Human Resources professionals in higher education. After adjusting for inflation, the data show that after several years of decline, salaries across the disciplines saw a slight rebound between AY 2018-19 and AY 2019-20. Salaries in sociology increased by 1 percent to $85,072, virtually making up for the loss experienced from the previous year. Economics experi- enced the most growth, but only by 1.75 percent. Additional com- parisons of sociology salaries—by rank and institution types—are available on the ASA website. n

1Average salary of full-time assistant, S A s See ee associate, and full professors at 4-year institutions; ‘Adjusted U.S. Dollars’ were calculated for inflation using the Source: College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). Faculty in Higher 2019 Consumer Price Index. Education Survey, 2009-2020. Analysis by ASA. footnotes Winter 2021 23 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Announcements

Encourage Students to Apply to the ASA Honors Program SA encourages faculty members to invite undergraduate sociology students to apply for the 2021 Honors Program, which helps students get intro- Aduced to the professional life of the discipline. Accepted students will benefit from experiencing the virtual 2021 ASA Annual Meeting and develop- ing long-lasting networks with sociologists. Sponsoring departments can provide a wonderful opportunity for their students to engage nationally. Nominations from sociology faculty members are required for students to participate in the Honors Program. Students are required to submit online their completed applications, including the faculty nomination letter, by February 18, 2021. The Honors Program is proud of its partnership with Alpha Kappa Delta, the International Sociology Honor Society. The three winners of the AKD Undergraduate Student Paper Competition are automatically eligible to be part of the Honors Program. Click here for more information on the ASA Honors Program and email your questions to [email protected]. Click here for more information on the AKD Undergraduate Student Paper Competition and other opportunities. n

to a three-page précis (800-1,000 funded. Applications must be received carbon footprints helps shift blame Calls for Papers words). The précis should include in their entirety no later than 11:59 p.m. from industry to consumers; and in Publications the key theoretical contribution of (Eastern Time) on February 1, 2021. an October 11 interview with German the paper and a general outline of Applicants will be notified of the results National Radio on climate change de- Contemporary Perspectives in Family the argument. We invite submissions by July 15, 2021. All applicants must be nial. His online Environmental Politics Research, an annual series that focuses from all substantive areas of a current SSSP member at the time of article analyzing partisan differences on cutting-edge topics in family sociology, especially papers that are their application. With the exception of in congressional speeches on climate research around the globe, is seeking works-in-progress and would benefit DACA students, who are also eligible, ap- change with Deborah Guber and Jer- manuscript submissions for a special from the discussions at JTS. Sarah plicants must be a citizen or permanent emiah Bohr was discussed in Climate volume. The volume, with the theme Brothers, Yale University, and Laura resident of the United States. Contact Wire on July 21, Climate Nexus on “Police, Courts, and Incarceration: The Halcomb, University of California- Dr. Anthony A. Peguero, chair, with July 24, and Grist on July 28. Justice System and the Family,” seeks Santa Barbara will review the questions concerning the fellowship: Charles Gallagher, La Salle University, articles that cover a wide array of anonymized submissions. Send an [email protected] or visit www. was interviewed regarding the power topics, including how policing, arrest, email to the-at juniortheorists@gmail. sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/261/Racial/Eth- dynamics of a mayor overcrowding his jail and court processes impact family com with questions. By mid-March, nic_Minority_Graduate_Fellowship/ bar and the implications for COVID-19, members and their support networks; we will extend up to 12 invitations to “No Action will be taken after video how prolonged incarceration impacts present at JTS 2021. Plan to share a In the News shows bar owned by Sea Isle City mayor children and parenting processes and full paper by July 6, 2021. Deadline: not following COVID-19 restrictions family coping; how intimate relation- February 19, 2021. docs.google.com/ Elizabeth Popp Berman, University over the summer” on CBS3 (Philadel- ships are impacted during and after forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJXFAaPBzTuwuR of Michigan, wrote an article, “Biden’s Transition Teams Mix Centrists and phia) on September 17. Gallagher was incarceration, including marriage and 84fZ3FckXYfrPwQ30zJqJNzbFTo2Ppcf Progressives. But Keep an Eye on this also interviewed about Philadelphia’s divorce and partner violence; and, dA/viewform Obscure White House Office,” that desire to move a homeless encamp- whether system involvement leads to appeared in the November 20, 2020, ment “Sources: Philadelphia Police give unintended consequences among fam- Meetings Washington Post “Monkey Cage” blog. homeless encampment ‘final warning’ ily members. This volume will be coedit- March 18-21, 2021. Midwest So- to leave as stalemate with city contin- ed by Sheila Royo Maxwell, Michigan Jessica Calarco, Indiana Universi- ciological Society Annual Meeting. ues” on CBS3 on September 12. State University, and Sampson Lee Blair, Theme: “Precarity and Inequality: ty-Bloomington, wrote an opinion Lanora Johnson, University of Mich- University at Buffalo-SUNY. Deadline: COVID-19, Neoliberalism and the piece for CNN, “The U.S. Social Safety March 15, 2021. Send questions to the Future of Faculty.” Virtual meeting. Net Has Been Ripped to Shreds—And igan, and W. Carson Byrd, University editors at [email protected] and Women Are Paying the Price,” that of Louisville, wrote an article, “Search- [email protected]. August 6-8, 2021. The Society for the appeared on November 18, 2020. ing for the Real Appalachia in Netflix’s Study of Social Problems (SSSP) An- ‘Hillbilly Elegy’,” that appeared in the Richard Carpiano, University of Sustainability plans to publish a spe- nual Meeting, Theme: “Revolutionary Washington Post on November 20. cial issue on “Moving toward Sustain- Sociology: Truth, Healing, Reparations California-Riverside, was quoted in a ability: Rethinking Gender Structures and Restructuring.” SSSP is an inter- November 19, 2020, Sacramento Bee David G. Smith, U.S. Naval War in Education and Occupation Systems.” disciplinary community of scholars, article, “California’s Vaccine Plan Will College, co-authored an op-ed, Guest Editors are Sandra L. Hanson, practitioners, advocates, and students Prioritize Blacks and Latinos, Among “Too many women are leaving the the Catholic University of America interested in the application of critical, Others. Here’s Why.” workforce during the pandemic. It’s ([email protected]), and Enrique Pu- scientific, and humanistic perspectives Benjamin Dowd-Arrow, Florida time for men to lean in and help,” mar, Santa Clara University (epumar@ to the study of vital social problems. State University, Andrew Whitehead, that appeared in the December 3 Los scu.edu). Sustainability is a scholarly, Click here for more information. Indiana University-Purdue University Angeles Times. international, cross-disciplinary, peer- Indianapolis, and David Yamane, Margaret Somers, University of Mich- reviewed, open-access journal. Click Funding Wake Forest University, were quoted igan, wrote an op-ed that appeared in here for more information. in a December 3, 2020, Desert News The Guardian on September 14, “Even The Society for the Study of Social article, “Understanding America: Is the Republican ‘Skinny’ Bill Didn’t Pass. Problems (SSSP) Racial/Ethnic Mi- Meetings there a Connection Between Faith and How Do They Justify Such Suffering?” nority Graduate Fellowship. Persons Firearms?” 2021 Junior Theorists Symposium, identified as American Indian/Alaska Gregory D. Squires, George Washing- held over Zoom on August 6 (additional Native, Arab/Middle Eastern/North Riley E. Dunlap, Oklahoma State ton University, wrote an article, “HUD’s dates TBD), invites submissions of African, Asian/Asian-American, Black/ University, was quoted in a January 7 Disparate Impact Rule Is a ‘Get Out of précis for the 15th Junior Theorists African American, Hispanic/Latino, article in Canada’s National Observer Jail Free’ Card,” for American Banker Symposium (JTS). The JTS conference Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, about climate change misinformation; that appeared on October 2. features the work of up-and-coming and, including Deferred Action for in a February 20 column on the hy- Paige Sweet, University of Michigan, sociologists, sponsored in part by the Childhood Arrivals (DACA) from one of per-partisan nature of climate change was quoted in a November 24 BBC Theory Section of ASA. The symposium the aforementioned groups, accepted and in a May 20 one about how Future article, “The Hidden Victims of invites all ABD graduate students, into an accredited doctoral program in mask wearing has become a partisan Gaslighting.” recent PhDs, postdocs, and assistant any one of the social and/or behavioral issue, both in the New York Times; in professors who received their PhDs sciences are invited to apply for the an August 26 report in Grist about Stacy Torres, University of Califor- from 2017 onwards to submit up $15,000 fellowship. Two students will be how a device to measure individuals’ nia-San Francisco, co-authored an

24 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Announcements op-ed that appeared in the Novem- Kelly H. Chong, University of Kansas, fore he retired, Birenbaum published ber 23, 2020, Los Angeles Times on Love Across Borders: Asian Americans, Summer Programs more than 40 articles in peer-reviewed the necessity of adding nurses to Race, and the Politics of Intermarriage 28th Annual RAND Summer journals and 15 books. An early career the Biden-Harris COVID-19 advisory and Family-Making (Routledge, 2020). Institute, July 12-15, 2021, Santa highlight was an anthology “People in board. She wrote an opinion piece Monica, CA. Two conferences will Places; The Sociology of the Familiar” William C. Cockerham, University of about celebrating Día de Los Muertos address critical issues facing our aging (Praeger, 1973) co-edited with his Alabama at Birmingham and College in a year of loss that appeared in the population: Mini-Medical School for colleague Edward Sagarin. of William & Mary, Social Causes of November 2, 2020, San Francisco Social Scientists; and Workshop on the Health and Disease, 3rd edition (Polity, Birenbaum first became associated Chronicle. In her first column as a new Demography, Economics, Psychology, 2021); Sociology of Mental Disorder, with the Albert Einstein College of member of USA Today’s Board of Con- and Epidemiology of Aging. Interested 11th edition (Routledge, 2021); and The Medicine early in his career when he tributors, she wrote about isolation researchers can apply for financial Wiley Blackwell Companion to Medical was invited to participate in a research and senior citizens on October 20, support covering travel and accom- Sociology (Wiley Blackwell, 2021). project at the Children’s Evaluation 2020, “Isolation kills, especially seniors. modations. More information and & Rehabilitation Center. Over the Community spaces can be a vaccine William C. Cockerham, University application form. years, he served as a consultant on for COVID loneliness.” of Alabama at Birmingham and projects there, and in 1993, accepted College of William & Mary, and Deaths the position of Associate Director, Geoffrey B. Cockerham, Utah Michael Blain, Boise State University, Rose F. Kennedy University Children’s Awards Valley University, Eds., The COVID-19 passed away on July 21 at the age of Evaluation & Rehabilitation Center. Elizabeth Cooksey, The Ohio State Reader: The Science and What It Says 77. He joined Boise State in 1981 and As a medical sociologist/healthcare University, Joane P. Nagel, University About the Social (Routledge, 2021). served four terms as chair of the so- analyst, he wrote grants; presented of Kansas, Kristen Olson, Universi- papers; collaborated with peers at ty of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Susan Joseph E. Davis, University of Virginia, ciology department during his tenure. Paul Scherz, Catholic University of other university centers; participated E. Short, Brown University, were Philip G. Olson died on August 5, America, Eds., The Evening of Life: The in professional conferences and local, elected as 2020 American Associa- 2020, at the age of 86. He came to the Challenges of Aging and Dying Well national and international meetings; tion for the Advancement of Science University of Missouri-Kansas City in (Notre Dame Press, 2020). and occasionally offered lectures Fellows. The AAAS fellowship honors 1969 from Clark University as Chair on healthcare financing for medical members whose efforts on behalf Kathleen J. Fitzgerald, University of and Professor of Sociology. He shaped students and allied professionals. of the advancement of science or its North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Race and the department to reflect a strong Although he was not a medical doctor, applications in service to society have Society: The Essentials (SAGE, 2020). commitment to public advocacy, Birenbaum’s title was Professor of distinguished them among their peers Don Grant, University of Colora- community development, and urban Pediatrics. He retired in 2015. and colleagues. The award was pre- do-Boulder, Andrew Jorgenson, Bos- research. His research and writing Birenbaum studied contemporary sented by the AAAS Section on Social, ton College, and Wesley Longhofer, focused most prominently on urban healthcare issues, including the Economic and Political Sciences. Emory University, Super Polluters: neighborhoods. Olson was president development of new healthcare Brian Gran, Case Western Reserve Tackling the World’s Largest Sites of Cli- of the Midwest Sociological Society, providers such as nurse practitioners University, was named as a Jeffer- mate-Disrupting Emissions (Columbia 2002-03. He retired in 2011. and clinical pharmacists; providing son Science Fellow of the National University Press, 2020). services to people with disabilities; Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and ways managed care works in the Kathy Merlock Jackson, Kathy Obituaries and Medicine. He will work for the United States. Shepherd Stolley, and Lisa Lyon U.S. Department of State. In June, he Arnold Birenbaum Payne, Virginia Wesleyan University, Long before it became fashionable received a NSF-RAPID grant to under- 1939-2020 Eds., Animals and Ourselves: Essays to promote the need for healthcare take research on derogation of human Arnold Birenbaum, Emeritus Profes- on Connections and Blurred Boundar- reform, he was addressing the topic rights during the COVID-19 pandemic. sor of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein Col- in his writings. A few important exam- ies (McFarland, 2020). lege of Medicine, Yeshiva University Yuko Hara, University of Mary- ples include Resettling Retarded Adults Fred L. Pincus, University of Mary- (NY) passed away on August 18, 2020, land-College Park, received the 2020 in a Managed Community with Samuel land-Baltimore County, Confessions after waging a three-year battle with DC Sociological Society (DCSS) Irene Seiffer (Praeger, 1976);Community of a Radical Academic: A Memoir (Ade- kidney cancer. B. Taeuber Graduate Student Paper Services for the Mentally Retarded laide, 2020). Award. She is the PhD recipient for Birenbaum was born in the Bronx, with Herbert J. Cohen, (Rowman & “Changes in Family Roles and Sub- Sara Kärkkäinen Terian, retired, NY, on September 19, 1939. He Littlefield, 1983);Managed Care: Made jective Well Being among Japanese Positive Prejudice as Interpersonal Ethics attended local public schools and in America (Praeger, 1997); and Putting Adults.” (Lexington, 2020). Stuyvesant High School; earned a BA Health Care on the National Agenda in Sociology from the City College (Praeger, 1993, 1995). Marley Henschen, Catholic Universi- of New York (CCNY) in 1960; and, in After retiring, Birenbaum returned ty, received the 2020 DC Sociological People 1968, a doctorate in Sociology from to his early and deep interest in social Society (DCSS) Irene B. Taeuber Grad- Roberto Gonzales’, Harvard Universi- Columbia University, where he stud- conflict and wroteA Nation Apart: The uate Student Paper Award. She is the ty, book, Lives in Limbo, is being adapt- ied with such luminaries as Robert African-American Experience and White MA recipient for “Union History and ed into a musical production that will Merton, Daniel Bell, and William (Si) Nationalism (Routledge, 2019), which Child Death in the Global South.” dramatize its stories of coming of age Goode. draws on sociology, history, literature, Felice Levine, American Educational undocumented in America. His first teaching job was at CCNY, film, and contemporary journalism Research Association, received the A. James McKeever, Los Angeles followed by an appointment at to examine systemic racism in the 2020 DC Sociological Society (DCSS) Pierce College, has been hosting a pod- Wheaton College (MA). He became a United States. Stuart A. Rice Merit Award for Career cast since August 4, 2020, Sociologists tenured professor at St. John’s Uni- Birenbaum’s cultural interests includ- Achievements. Talking Real Sh*t, on practicing public versity (NY), where he spent 22 years ed literature, music and films. He was teaching undergraduate and graduate Rashawn Ray, Lab for Applied Social sociology by speaking with sociologists a congenial traveler and had a nose courses to Sociology and Clinical for unassuming restaurants and shops Science Research and University of about everyday issues and interests. Pharmacy students. Birenbaum’s per- that served delicious food. A lifelong Maryland-College Park, received the Anna Mueller, Indiana University- sonal warmth and engaging manner playground athlete, he played touch 2020 DC Sociological Society (DCSS) Bloomington, was named one of led to decades-long relationships football, basketball, and, until his mid- Morris Rosenberg Award for Out- Science News’ 2020 10 early- and mid- with former students, some of whom 70s, softball wherever he lived. He was standing Sociological Achievement. career scientists who are pushing the became colleagues. proud to become a marathon runner boundaries of scientific inquiry for her Birenbaum was greatly influenced in middle age. research on preventing teen suicide. New Books by sociologist Erving Goffman and his Birenbaum is survived by Caro- Siobhan Brooks, California State Laura Beth Nielsen, American Bar early article “On Managing a Courtesy line, his wife of 56 years; elder son University-Fullerton, Everyday Violence Foundation and Northwestern Univer- Stigma,” which appeared in the Journal Jonathan, wife Elizabeth, and their in Black and Latinx LGBT Communities sity, has been elected president of the of Health and Social Behavior in 1970, two children, Samuel and Hannah; (Lexington, 2020). Law and Society Association. continues to be cited to this day. Be- and younger son Steven, wife Emily, footnotes Winter 2021 25 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Announcements and their two children, Naomi and Medical Failure (University of Chicago nography (University of Chicago Press, ing Program, died of cancer on July Rebecca. Their close family enjoyed Press, 1979; expanded edition, 2003), 2008), after becoming an invited 26, 2020 at home with husband Steve vacationing together on Cape Cod provided an ethnographic account fellow on bioethics at the Institute Charmaz, friend Fran Bedingfeld, each summer. of how attending physicians deal for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, and home hospice caregivers by her In addition to all his academic with the inevitable mistakes made 2003-2004. His work challenged side. She was known internationally writings, Birenbaum contributed to by surgeons-in-training. His incisive social scientists to take seriously the for developing and widely teaching various newspapers and magazines analysis not only became deeply in- perplexity of qualitative research with constructivist grounded theory (CGT) op-eds and letters to editors. I found fluential within sociology, but in the and among fellow human beings. as a method of qualitative inquiry and his proclivity for writing letters to be medical profession as well. The book Bosk was a gifted teacher who made analysis; people flocked to the many one of his most endearing qualities. has been a bestseller in medical a deep imprint on generations of un- CGT talks and workshops she did schools since its publication; gen- each year. As his health declined, Birenbaum dergraduate and graduate students. erations of surgical residents have periodically updated family and He received the Provost’s Award for Despite teaching in a department turned to the book to make sense of friends about his health challenges. Distinguished Graduate Teaching and without graduate students, Char- their own experiences. His emails always expressed admira- Mentoring from Penn in 2006. Bosk maz was also well known as among tion and appreciation for the help and His second book, All God’s Mistakes: had a long-time affiliation with the the most available and remarkable support he received from his family, Genetic Counseling in a Pediatric Hospi- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation— mentors in qualitative methods and friends, and a myriad of health provid- tal (University of Chicago Press, 1992) as a core faculty member for the RWJF medical sociology in the ASA, the ers. Implicit within his letters was the explored the emerging field of prena- Clinical Scholars Faculty Program, a Society for the Study of Symbolic belief that a well-expressed word or tal genetic counseling. Most recently, member of the RWJF Health & Society Interaction, the Pacific Sociological thought could be a helpful antidote Bosk was working on how hospitals Scholars Program’s Steering Commit- Association, and far beyond. Twenty to the person who was ill and those might improve safety by address- tee at Penn, and as a mentor for many people have confirmed contribution involved in the person’s life. Indeed, ing the culture in which healthcare graduate students who went on to to a festschrift in her honor that will this was the case for Birenbaum and providers work, rather than relying become RWJF post-docs and scholars. be published in Studies in Symbolic for those of us who witnessed his in- on technological solutions such Bosk is mourned by a wide and deep Interaction. It will be edited by Antony domitable spirit and successful efforts as checklists. In 2006, Bosk began network of colleagues and former Bryant and Linda Liska Belgrave at the to continue living as full a life as possi- an ambitious study, funded by the students, who cherish his many invitation of Norman Denzin. About ble, steadfastly refusing to succumb Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “Chuckisms” and pass them along to half of the contributors are Charmaz to a “sick role.” Investigator Awards Program, which their own students. Olga Shevchen- mentees. re-examined the system’s approach ko (Williams College) remembers, Charmaz was widely honored, William Feigelman, Nassau Community to reducing error in medicine. This “What’s the point of being an author receiving the Lifetime Achievement College project eventually grew into a large if you are afraid to assume authority?” Award in Qualitative Inquiry from the multi-sited ethnography funded by Charles L. Bosk Laura Carpenter (Vanderbilt) holds International Congress of Qualitative the Agency for Healthcare Research onto this gem: “Never tell a reader Inquiry, the Leo G. Reeder Award 1948-2020 and Quality. In 2018, Bosk received a what’s wrong with your work before for Distinguished Contributions to Charles L. Bosk, 72, an influential Guggenheim Fellowship to continue they read it, because they might not Medical Sociology from the ASA Med- medical sociologist who spent his his work. At the time of his death, otherwise notice.” Carla Keirns (Kansas) ical Sociology Section in 2017, and career working at the University of he was working on a book, The Price recalls Chuck commiserating with her the George Herbert Mead Lifetime Pennsylvania, died of a heart attack at of Perfection: The Cost of Error, which about the frustrations of working in a Achievement Award from the Society home on August 30. promised to transform how we think hospital: “We as a society don’t seem for the Study of Symbolic Interaction Chuck, as he was called by all, about medical errors. to be able to figure out that doing the in 2006. possessed a dazzling sociological Bosk was an authoritative voice in right thing is often cheaper.” Although She became a Distinguished Pro- imagination. He was also a true academic and policy debates about we, the authors of this obituary, have fessor at Sonoma State in 1998 and mensch, whose deeply ingrained patient safety and quality improve- too many Chuckisms to share, Betsy received several awards for outstand- contrarianism was balanced by a wry ment, publishing widely within the offers “Learn from your mistakes. ing mentorship. Unfortunately, there’s an infinite wit and pure devotion to his family, medical literature and serving on Charmaz was born in Wisconsin number of mistakes you can make for which included many of his former multiple task forces, including at to Robert and Lorraine Calkins. Her the first time.” Joanna loved Chuck’s students and mentees. the Agency for Healthcare Research father, a civil engineer, soon moved most irreverent tips. On presenting A Baltimore native, Chuck earned and Quality, the Hastings Center, the the family to Pennsylvania where she at an ASA conference, “Don’t worry. his BA at Wesleyan University and American Society for Bioethics and spent her early life. She received her Nobody will remember what you said completed a PhD at the University of Humanities, and the Children’s Hospi- bachelor’s degree in fine arts and 15 minutes later.” Chicago before joining the Univer- tal of Philadelphia. occupational therapy in 1962 from sity of Pennsylvania (Penn) in 1976, He was an active member of the ASA Bosk is survived by his wife, Marjo- the University of Kansas and worked with appointments in Sociology, Medical Sociology section, chairing the rie, children Abigail and Emily Bosk in that field in San Francisco for the Center for Bioethics, and the section from 2002-2003. In 2013, the (Ethan Schoolman), two grandchil- several years. dren (Milo and Finn), and his younger School of Medicine. His foundational section awarded him the Leo G. Reeder Charmaz then went to San Fran- brother, Harry (Dana). Friends and col- work on medical education, medical Award. That same year, he was elected cisco State University for an MA in leagues are invited to share memories errors and patient safety, the medical to the Institute of Medicine at the sociology where she fell in love with or send condolences to his family at profession, social problems, bioethics, National Academy of Sciences. social theory and for which she did [email protected]. The Bosks and the ethics of social science re- Bosk was a deeply reflective scholar, an ethnography of a rehab unit. have established the Charles Bosk search spanned fine-grained, closely whose ethnographic writing is In 1968, she entered the brand- Memorial Scholarship Fund observed ethnography and richly rea- marked by an engagement with the new Sociology Doctoral Program (www.plumfund.com) for a first-gen- soned, elegantly argued theory. His difficulties of representation and a at the University of California, San eration college student from Balti- wide-ranging influence in sociology, genuine humility about the limita- Francisco, receiving her PhD in 1973 more City College in honor of Chuck’s medicine, and bioethics was apparent tions of the craft. His experience with with a dissertation on chronic illness. own experiences as a first-generation in his appointments as a visiting pro- ethnography in ethically fraught This became her first and still most college student. fessor at numerous medical schools, medical settings propelled his schol- famous medical sociology book, including Johns Hopkins University, arly attention to the ethics of social Elizabeth Mitchell Armstrong, Princeton Good Days, Bad Days: The Self in and as a fellow at the Hastings Center. science research more broadly. He University; and Joanna Kempner, Chronic Illness and Time (Rutgers Uni- Bosk was one of those rare sociol- published two books on the ethical Rutgers University versity Press, 1991). It centered on ogists who managed to influence complexity of research, The View from transformations of self engendered medical culture. He was an astute Here: Bioethics and the Social Sciences Kathy C. Charmaz by different chronic conditions, observer of specialized worlds, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), co-edited 1939–2020 their limitations, and affordances. with a knack for questioning widely with Raymond De Vries, Leigh Turner, Kathy Charmaz, Professor Emerita of Charmaz was especially entranced by accepted knowledge. His first book, and Kristina Orfali, and What Would Sociology at Sonoma State University stories people told and silences they Forgive and Remember: Managing You Do? Juggling Bioethics and Eth- and former director of its Faculty Writ- maintained, researching and writing

26 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Announcements on disclosure and self in chronic the care, concern, sensitivity, and labor movement and the emerging End (Connecticut Health Services illness for decades. thoughtfulness with which Charmaz environmental movement. He noted Research Series, 1974), and the recent She began teaching at Sonoma mentored so very many of us— that compared to the general public, collaborative Unhealthy Work: Causes, State College in 1972, moving up to faculty and students alike. For Char- workers were at far greater risk for Consequences, Cures (Routledge, Full Professor in 1981, and Professor maz, being a colleague and mentee exposure to chemicals and other 2017). Emerita on retirement in 2016. At was blurred. She read and reread our hazards. Elling led one of the first Based on his passion for teaching, El- Sonoma State, she made important chapters, articles, and books; wrote OSHA grants (based at UConn Health) ling leaves behind two generations of contributions in sociology, geron- letter after letter on our behalves to provide worker education on occu- researchers, academicians, and prac- pational health (The New Directions tology, and research methods, also for jobs or graduate programs; and titioners. His final academic position Program) in 1978, leading to the creating professional development nominated us for awards. She always was as a founding faculty member of said yes, and I suspect that even training of thousands of Connecticut courses for faculty researchers locally, the University of Connecticut Medical during her last days, she was thinking workers. Later, he created a model nationally, and internationally. School. Even in retirement, Elling Building upon yet also challenging of ways she could help someone. for connecting medical students, graduate students, and physicians to worked to make sure that UConn Straussian grounded theory, circa Charmaz is survived by her husband medical students were well instructed 2000, Charmaz began developing Steve, niece Michelle Harbeck, workers and unions, which provided important education for all. in the needs of the underserved and constructivist grounded theory, which grandniece Liz Peterson, nieces Nancy marginalized. became the second heart of her Juarez and Linda Schmitt, and neph- He was also instrumental in found- Though never a “politician” in the career and which she continued to ews Dave Harbeck and Bob Harbeck. ing the labor-based advocacy group, common sense of that word, Elling refine. First and foremost, she distin- She is deeply missed. the Connecticut Council on Occupa- guished her constructivist approach tional Safety and Health (COSH), Inc., consistently engaged in politics. A Adele E. Clarke, University of California- one of the first COSH groups in the long-time resident of Farmington, from others’ objectivist tendencies in San Francisco grounded theory, developing the cen- country. Elling always reminded us to CT, he served on its Human Relations trality of constructivist interpretive Ray H. Elling recognize the progressive possibilities Commission and the Democratic Town Committee. But it was activism sociology to the qualitative endeavor, 1929-2018 here based on his appreciation of ad- including in Strauss’ legacy. Charmaz’s vanced occupational health programs on behalf of the downtrodden and Ray Elling, a remarkable person who in other countries such as Sweden. the oppressed that really engaged version of CGT also made interaction- influenced people worldwide through ist and feminist assumptions, and him in his private life. From his his work in medical sociology, com- Elling was a prolific researcher and her exemplars of good CGT vividly earliest years, he was an ardent parative health policy analysis, and an accomplished writer and editor. demonstrated how it was taken up peace activist, supporter of women’s activism, died peacefully on Novem- His scholarly works included Tradi- across many disciplinary boundaries rights, champion of ethnic and race ber 23, 2018, at age 89. tional and Modern Medical Systems and transnationally. As an interaction- (Elsevier, 1981), Struggle for Workers’ relations, and lately, an advocate for ist, Charmaz was especially intrigued Born to immigrant Swedish parents Health: A Study of Six Industrialized disability rights (partly stemming with the theoretical promise offered who lived in Minnesota, Elling was Countries (Baywood Pub Co, 1986), from his own problems of mobility by CGT, and she wrote and taught the youngest of three sons and Health and Health Care for the Urban following some complications of seminars about using CGT analytics became an avid and accomplished Poor: A Study of Hartford’s North surgery). in interpretive theory-building. The outdoorsman, fisherman, hunter, power of stories and the potential of skier, and conservationist. His love for theorizing for social justice studies and interaction with nature contin- and for critical inquiry were also high- ued throughout his life; he was an ly important in her work. active member of Trout Unlimited’s Farmington Valley, CT chapter. CGT is today a major research method in qualitative inquiry inter- In early adulthood, Elling joined the nationally and across disciplines and U.S. Army and served in the recon- professions in both social sciences struction efforts in Japan, and then and humanities. Charmaz published in Austria where he met and married two award-winning editions of her Margit Schreiber in 1952. He returned Constructing Grounded Theory: A to the U.S. with Margit, began a fam- Practical Guide through Qualitative ily, and pursued graduate studies in Analysis (SAGE, 2006, 2014) translat- the nascent field of medical sociology. ed into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, He received his master’s degree from Polish, and Portuguese. Charmaz the University of Chicago and his PhD also co-edited with Tony Bryant two from Yale University. ambitious editions of The Handbooks Elling’s deep devotion to the dignity of Grounded Theory (SAGE, 2007, of all, but especially of marginalized 2019) involving scholars from many and oppressed individuals and groups, countries. She developed her own found its professional expression in his interests through applying CGT in research and teaching in comparative critical social justice research. sociology, anthropology, and public Charmaz served as editor of Symbol- health. Always one to build bridges, ic Interaction, president of the Society Elling sparked the development of for the Study of Symbolic Interaction several interdisciplinary graduate and the Pacific Sociological Associ- programs that introduced physicians, ation, and served on the editorial nurses, social workers, sociologists, boards of 23 journals in qualitative epidemiologists, psychologists, and inquiry and medical sociology. She more to one another and to the published 14 books, 63 chapters, 33 people whom they sought to serve. articles, 16 encyclopedia entries, and His studies of health care systems over 30 book reviews, while very ac- and outcomes in a variety of cultures tively mentoring many researchers in resulted in a two-year appointment in the U.S. and internationally. She was the early 1970s as a consultant to the an invited guest professor at universi- World Health Organization. ties in Australia, Norway, Netherlands, Elling was one of the first academics Austria, New Zealand, and Japan. to delve into the political economy While all these facts and figures of occupational health, which he are important, they do not convey regarded as the intersection of the footnotes Winter 2021 27 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Announcements

In this latest role, he was an officer in Ellings’s work and his life touched study structural features of observed theoretical sociology comprises a the Citizens Coalition for Equal Access and benefited so many, most of social networks. single research tradition, that what (CC=A) and successfully pushed local whom he did not know. So we can Appointed an assistant professor at appear as conflicting theoretical branches of the U.S. Postal Service to say of him, as he often said to others, Syracuse, Fararo applied for and was traditions are in effect “intersecting make its services properly accessible “Good on ya, mate!” awarded a three-year NIH postdoc- and communicating subtraditions” to people with disabilities. These of the single tradition (p. 342). The Ron Elling, Ray’s son; and Howard toral fellowship for advanced studies successes led to concurrent resolu- key substantive questions concern Waitzkin, University of New Mexico in pure and applied mathematics tions calling for automatic doors in all at Stanford University from 1964 to the “emergence, maintenance, federally funded buildings, which the Thomas J. Fararo 1967, to build his skills in mathe- comparison, and transformation of U.S. Senate unanimously approved. 1933-2020 matical model building. During the social structures” (p. 62). To study Not content with federal buildings, El- these basic questions, he proposes a Thomas J. Fararo, one of the postdoc, he studied various branches ling moved on to push for mandating “process worldview” whose key idea pioneers of mathematical sociology, of mathematics and published papers the use of accessible “universal de- is “recursive generativity”: “The in- died on August 20, 2020. Professor that used abstract algebra, absorbing sign” in all federally funded projects. teractive nexus of human organisms Fararo was born in 1933 and spent his Markov chain theory and nonlinear generates transformations in both In the ASA, Elling was active in the academic career at the University of systems of differential equations to the individual humans as such and Medical Sociology and Marxist Sociol- Pittsburgh (Pitt). His book Mathe- study status-related phenomena. He the advancing nexus they constitute” ogy sections. He often made construc- matical Sociology: An Introduction to also developed long-standing ties to (pp. 47-53). tive suggestions within those two Fundamentals (Wiley, 1973), was one Joseph Berger and Buzz Zelditch, the sections, including a successful attempt of the first three foundational books founding figures in expectation states The process worldview leads to sponsor joint sessions that used on mathematical sociology published theory at Stanford University. naturally to a set of methods whose Marxist analysis and methods to study in that era (Coleman in 1964 and Leik In 1967, Fararo joined Pitt as an centerpiece is a nonlinear dynam- questions in health and medical care. and Meeker 1975 were the other two). associate professor and, in 1970, ical social systems framework. This These joint sessions took place on stim- He viewed mathematical sociology as he was promoted to the rank of consists of dynamical variables that ulating topics during two ASA annual first and foremost a theoretical activ- full professor. In 1998, based on define the states of the system and meetings. In his extensive contributions ity, an activity whose driving concern his scholarly contributions, the its possible trajectories through time to the International Sociological Asso- should be the unification of disparate university honored him with the title and parametric variables that capture ciation and International Association of theories and theoretical frame- of Distinguished Service Professor of the relatively fixed conditions in Health Policy, he also initiated a creative works. Fararo set out these ideas in Sociology. He retired in 2006. During which the system labors. interweaving of medical sociology and two books The Meaning of General his time at Pitt, Fararo served as di- Within this framework, a principal Marxist analysis. Theoretical Sociology: Tradition and rector of graduate studies for several goal is to formulate mechanisms that Elling consistently fought for academ- Formalization (Cambridge University years in the 1970s and as depart- generate changes of state from which ic freedom. For instance, when one of Press, 1992) and Social Action Systems: ment chair from 1980 to 1985. Over the possible trajectories are derived us (Howard) was fired from an academ- Foundation and Synthesis in Sociologi- the years, he served on the editorial and then prove four types of theorems. ic job due to the political orientation cal Theory (Praeger, 2001). boards of leading journals, including The first two are the existence and the American Sociological Review, of his teaching and research, Elling After an undergraduate career at stability of equilibrium states, states of the American Journal of Sociology, provided crucial support. Elling led an City College of New York, majoring in the system in which the mechanisms Social Networks, Sociological Theory, investigative committee for the ASA history and political science, Fararo postulated to produce change are and Sociological Forum. In addition, that led to a censure of the university did his graduate work in sociology at balanced, and the conditions for which for academic freedom violations. for many years he was an associate depend on the parametric variables Syracuse University and participated editor of The Journal of Mathematical He is survived by his wife of defining the system. in empirical studies of community Sociology. In the 1990s, he was elect- 27 years, Marilyn, his eldest son, Ron, The other two questions involve power structure, both under the men- ed to the Sociological Research Asso- his youngest son, Martin, his daugh- the relationship between parametric torship of Linton Freeman. During ciation. In 1998, he was elected chair ter-in-law, Xenia, his grandchildren, and dynamical variables: how stable the years at Syracuse University, he of the ASA Mathematical Sociology Tyson, Jessica, Jason, and Kristofer, equilibrium states vary with variation developed interests in symbolic logic, section and in 2004 he received that in values of the parametric variables, and six great grandchildren. He was finite mathematics, cybernetics, and section’s James S. Coleman Distin- the comparative statics problem; preceded in death by his wife of 38 general systems. In his dissertation, guished Career Award. years, Margit, and his second son, he applied Anatol Rapaport’s biased and how dynamic outcomes vary Gerard. net theory mathematical model to Fararo’s early authoritative text on if parametric conditions change, mathematical sociology, Mathe- the structural stability or structural matical Sociology: An Introduction to change problem. In the context of Fundamentals explored three main dynamical social systems, these are ideas, all of which are of fundamental the four fundamental problems of so- importance to the development not cial structure at the heart of scientific only of mathematical sociology but sociology: the existence and forms of also of sociology and, more broad- social structure, the stability of social ly, social science. The first theme structures, the comparative statics of pertains to theoretical sociology social structures, and the change of and involves the idea that the most social structures (p. 109). Editorial Director: Nancy Kidd, Executive Director effective theory is mathematically expressed. The second pertains to Fararo was an inspiration to many, admired for his straightforward and Editor in Chief: Preeti Vasishtha, Director of Communications rigorous mathematical modeling of a vast array of processes at all levels of incisive intellect. He will be missed. Managing Editor: Johanna Olexy, Assistant Director of Communica- analysis and generality. The third idea John Skvoretz, University of South tions pertains to cultivation of the tools Florida necessary for successful mathemati- All Footnotes communications can be directed to: American Sociological zation of sociological theory. These François A. Joseph Association, 1430 K Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005; (202) three themes recur in all of his work. 1961-2020 383-9005; email [email protected]. Obituaries are limited up to In his masterpiece, The Meaning François A. Joseph, ABD in Sociology 600 words and Announcements, 200 words. of General Theoretical Sociology: from the Graduate Center of the City Tradition and Formalization, Fararo University of New York (CUNY), was a Copyright © 2021, American Sociological Association. Any opinions provides a cogent and compre- former senator and former Minister of expressed in the articles in this publication are those of the authors hensive examination of theoretical the Interior and Territorial Commu- and not the American Sociological Association. sociology, its roots and traditions, nities in Haiti, his birthplace and methods, and key substantive home. He was also a husband and questions. Fararo argues that father of two daughters.

28 Winter 2021 footnotes footnotes.asanet.org American Sociological Association Announcements

A true organic intellectual, its beauty and the resilience of ministering professional affairs in the cal Seminary in Lexington, KY, where Joseph, a former priest, studied its people. His mission in life was discipline through his management he taught classes on Greek and New sociology with the goal of advancing always to serve his home. To interact of scholarly associations; and serving Testament. The following year he was social change in the place he called with François was to interact with Christian believers as a member of ordained to the priesthood in the Ayiti (Haiti). His dissertation project the Ayiti. RIP my Caribbean neighbor.” the ordained ministry. Episcopal Church and began serving a was titled “Religious Practices in —Carlene Buchanan Turner, Norfolk In the first pursuit, Swatos authored series of congregations of that denom- the Construction and Negotiation State University or co-authored eight books, compiled ination, first in Kentucky and then in of Diaspora Identity among Haitian He will also be fondly remembered 21 anthologies alone or in collabo- the border area between southwestern Immigrants in New York City,” and and missed by his other graduate ration, and contributed more than Virginia and east Tennessee. His longest William Helmreich, who also passed school cohort members and friends: 70 articles and chapters to religious period of pastoral ministry, more than away in 2020, chaired the disserta- Lauren Jade Martin, Andrea Siegel, or sociological publishers. He was tion committee. a dozen years, was as vicar of St. Mark’s Danielle Jackson, Kate Jenkins, John always careful in his edited volumes Episcopal Church in Silvis, IL. Rather than choose a more not only to feature the work of estab- Andrews, Jules Netherland, Patrick A move to the Gulf coast of Florida in comfortable life in the academy, Jo- lished figures, but to also encourage Inglis, Aaron Weeks, Soniya Munshi, 1997 found Father Bill filling in as clergy seph chose to work at the forefront and others who were with him during and cultivate the participation of in parishes in Clearwater, Lakeland, of political action: he was an elected his time at CUNY. rising younger scholars. Personal and representative affiliated with a party and New Port Richey, among other François achieved and experienced institutional prestige mattered little in Haiti called the Organization of communities. He returned to Illinois so much in his short time on the to Swatos: he was as happy (maybe the People in Struggle. Joseph was a in 2004, but his unit of the Episcopal planet. Those who knew him loved happier) to recognize the research deep thinker and read heavy philos- Church there, the Diocese of Quincy, in him and learned from him. His exam- of a lesser-known individual as to ophy tomes for fun, and yet he had a 2008 withdrew from the denomination ple encourages us to apply socio- publish a new manuscript from a wonderful sense of humor, creating prominent contributor. in reaction to perceived departures a sense of camaraderie among logical understandings to improve As an editor, Swatos helmed from theological orthodoxy. Swatos his graduate school classmates. the lives of those in need, and to appreciate the value of both theory between 1989 and 1994 Sociology went with it, and with it he eventu- His fellow students, particularly and practice. of Religion (formerly Sociological ally affiliated with the new Anglican his cohort, which entered the doc- Analysis), the official journal of the Church in North America. With the toral program in 2004, shared their Compiled by Erynn Masi de Casanova, Association for the Sociology of Anglicans, he took charge of historic recollections. American Sociological Association Religion (ASR). After relinquishing Christ Church, Limestone, in Hanna City, “I was struck immediately by William H. Swatos, Jr. that post, he revived and edited for a IL, for a decade while acting as Canon our classmate François’ immense 1946–2020 decade (2005-2015) Religion and the Theologian for the Diocese. He also brilliance and generosity of spirit. Social Order, ASR’s long-running book was President of the American Region William H. (Bill) Swatos, former exec- We don’t need more soulless academ- series with Brill Academic Publishers. utive officer of the Association for the of the Society of King Charles the ics; we need more soulful academics At the same time, he was managing Sociology of Religion, passed away Martyr, an Anglo-Catholic devotional like François whose research was editor (2004-2016) of the Interdisci- on November 9, 2020, at the CGH organization. guided by social justice and a refined plinary Journal of Research on Religion, Medical Center in Sterling, IL. He was Swatos was born in West Milford, ethical compass. He will be deeply a pioneering online outlet sponsored 74 years old. The immediate cause NJ. His marriage to Priscilla Lampman missed. Sociology has lost a great by the Institute for Studies of Religion of death was complications from scholar and human being.” at Baylor University. ended in divorce. He was preceded COVID-19, although Swatos had been in death in 2017 by his second wife, —Kim Cunningham, Fashion Insti- As substantial as all these accom- struggling for several years with neu- Joy Anne Longstreet Swatos, and is tute of Technology plishments were, most sociologists rological impairment and the onset of survived by two sons: Giles S. Swatos “François was a gentle soul and who knew Swatos probably could memory loss and dementia. of Tampa, FL; and Eric B. (Elizabeth) more observant than anyone in grad- trace their acquaintance with him to Swatos received his bachelor’s uate school. I remember sitting in an a friendly greeting that they received Swatos of Prophetstown, IL; and degree in sociology with honors ethnography class with him, where from behind the registration desk at by four grandchildren. The Swatos (1966) from Transylvania University in he knew I was studying Caribbean a professional meeting. Swatos was family recommends that any memo- Kentucky, and his MA (1969) and PhD childcare providers. He wanted me to the first executive director of the rial contributions be directed to the (1973) in the same subject from the challenge my own gender norms as Religious Research Association, an Alzheimer’s Association. University of Kentucky. The Depart- a researcher and asked if I would let organization that he served in that ment of Sociology at Kentucky named Much of what Swatos achieved him babysit my kids. I gave him a con- capacity from 1994 to 2015. Over- Swatos its distinguished alumnus in in life he did behind the scenes, in fused look, and we both just laughed lapping that service were his efforts 1989. Across five decades, he taught undertakings that would be noticed because I knew he just wanted to see as the ASR executive officer of from sociology, philosophy and religious only if they were fumbled. Because if I would indulge my social norm. He 1996 to 2012. In these jobs, Swatos studies—along with occasional such mishaps were rare, he risked will be missed!” handled a myriad of organizational courses in anthropology, geography missing the fullness of credit for all duties, from managing money and —Tamara Mose, Brooklyn College and speech—at a succession of that he accomplished. This account is and American Sociological Associa- institutions. These ranged widely in balancing budgets, to maintaining an attempt to rectify that imbalance tion size and character: from the small and mailing lists, to selecting menu items and to suggest why—among schol- for meals and receptions at annual “François radiated calm and denominational (King College—now ars, academic readers, conference-go- conferences. Few models preceded warmth. A large part of grad school King University—in Bristol, TN, and ers, and people in the pews—he will him in this work, and few then or involves collective stressing over Augustana College in Rock Island, IL), be greatly missed. exams, requirements, and research, to the small and public (Black Hawk now could exceed his standards for but he was unflappable. François sup- College in Moline, IL), to the large and timeliness and efficiency. Kevin J. Christiano, University of ported others who were struggling, public (Northern Illinois University At the start of his ecclesiastical career, Notre Dame; Barbara Jones Denison, always ready to walk us through in DeKalb, IL, and the University of Swatos graduated with an MDiv degree Shippensburg University; and Peter some complicated theoretical South Florida in Tampa). In 1982, in 1969 from the Episcopal Theologi- Kivisto, Augustana College argument that he had mastered (his Swatos received a Fulbright grant knowledge was encyclopedic). He to perform research and lecture on knew his sociological education had a religion in Iceland. higher purpose—to serve the people Swatos’ working life combined four Send Us Your News of Haiti. I think that’s what kept him simultaneous yet distinct careers: Were you recently promoted? Have a book published? Or were you grounded and optimistic.” research and writing on the sociology quoted in the news? Did you win an award? Or maybe you know —Erynn Masi de Casanova, Ameri- of religion, often with a noticeable about a funding opportunity or want to promote your meeting can Sociological Association Weberian bent; shepherding socio- to other sociologists? Send your announcements to Footnotes at “François’ love for Haiti was unques- logical articles and books by others [email protected]. tionable. He made you believe in into print as an academic editor; ad- footnotes Winter 2021 29