The dramatic transformation of family patterns in advanced capitalist societies has received much attention in both academia and the popular press. News coverage of family change in East Asia, especially, is fueling alarm and anxiety with frequent stories about how low-fertility rates are contributing to rapidly aging populations, an unsustainable trend given the fragility of pension programs specifically, and welfare systems generally.... Read more about Faculty Spotlight: The Rise of Non-Normative Households in South Korea

Orlando Patterson's newest work "Stability and Change in Americans' Perception of Freedom" has been featured in Contexts.  Patterson's new book,...

Although traditionally known as “the world’s factory,” China’s economy has changed immensely in recent years. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the number of jobs in the manufacturing sector has been declining since 2012, whereas jobs in the service sector have been increasing. As the country’s economy and primary industries have changed, so too have its labor conflicts. Ya-Wen Lei, Assistant Professor of Sociology, investigates the labor organizing of drivers for China’s fast-growing food-delivery platforms.... Read more about Faculty Spotlight: Labor Contention in China’s Changing Economy

Michèle Lamont, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies, Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies, served as the 108th president of the American Sociological Association in 2016-17. Her term took an unexpected turn with the election of Donald Trump in November 2016: it befell on her to take a leadership role in defending the professional interests of sociologists and the conditions for academic freedom.... Read more about Faculty Spotlight: Lamont Presidential Lecture out in American Sociological Review

Mary Brinton has been studying gender inequality for a long time, motivated in particular by the high level of gender inequality in Japan and other East Asian societies. Her current project considers gender inequality in light of what many social demographers consider a crisis of the family as an institution—namely, the emergence of historically low birth rates throughout the postindustrial world.... Read more about Gender Inequality, Employment, and Family in Postindustrial Societies