The credential phenomena in the labor market have been given competing theoretical interpretations in the sociological literature, notably structural-functionalism and the conflict theories. Education as an institutionalized form of socialization allocates people with differential talents into appropriate positions, motivating achievement in meritocratic selection. Yet the functions of educatio...

Everyday, a person can have numerous opportunities to connect with strangers or acquaintances around him/her. In this paper, we demonstrate how pervasive computing can help a person connect with others by initiating communication, and how (s)he can take advantage of these connections. We envision a future mobile information space (called the MobiSpace) that is constructed based on ad hoc collab...

In this article, I extend recent macro-comparative empirical research on the developmental implications of global production networks. I draw from theories of commodity/value chains, global production networks and economic sociology to identify three contending theoretical perspectives for exactly how the developmental returns to network participants should be distributed—cooperation, exploitat...

Social capital is a concept that can facilitate a friendly merger between sociological and economic theories of political behavior. Rational-choice theories emphasize resources and constraints, and political-cultural theories focus on normative rules and habitual behavior; social capital integrates both. Mutual obligations instituted among members of society function as “credit slips” which are...

This article reports on the results of a recent practitioner survey in which respondents were asked to identify the three most important issues facing the discipline of sociology at that time and five years into the future. Respondents were drawn primarily from the Sociological Practice Association and the Sociological Practice section of the American Sociological Association. Responses are dis...

Rational choice or action theory may be understood as one possible interpretation of Weber's program, though it must be said a rather special one in that it invites us to adopt the least complex conception of social action that we can analytically get away with in arriving at a "causal explanation of its course and effects." It thus departs from many post-Weberian (and for that matter pre-Weber...