Chad Broughton | University of Chicago (original) (raw)
Books by Chad Broughton
Oxford University Press, Jan 2, 2015
cuts straight through a flat landscape of corn and soybean fields that turn a lush myrtle-green i... more cuts straight through a flat landscape of corn and soybean fields that turn a lush myrtle-green in late summer. After you pass the last farmhouse on this southern approach to town, you may hear the metallic clang of rail cars being jostled into place in the switching yard. A modest wood sign proclaims, "Welcome to Galesburg. " Behind the welcome sign is a vacant parking lot scattered with concrete blockades and rubble. And behind the parking lot rises a massive white-gray box of a building. A stylish cobalt-blue line wraps around its roof like a gigantic ribbon around a gift box. Several years ago you could have made out "MAYTAG," but the outlines of the letters have faded. Now there is only a pockmarked facade with spots of flaking paint, discolored exterior panels, and two big "Available" signs one with an 1-800 number and another advertising what remains of the empty giant, "Plus or Minus 707,624 Square Feet." Most Galesburg residents still remember this place as a source of pride and bustle. It went by many names Coulter Disc, Midwest Manufacturing, Admiral, Galesburg Refrigeration Products but "Appliance City" fit it best. That was the nickname of its heyday, when the factory itself had a population of 5,000. For over a century, men and women in the factory assembled farm equipment, kitchen cabinets, freezers, war munitions, military aircraft parts, microwaves, air conditioners, and millions tens of millions of refrigerators. If you bought a Maytag refrigerator in the 1990s or early 2000s, it was designed, manufactured, and trucked to your Sears or Home Depot from this spot. Before Maytag, products from Admiral, Rockwell International, and Magic Chef emerged from Appliance City, which buzzed with continuous vitality in the heady postwar decades of heavy kitchen consumption. It drew
Other Publications by Chad Broughton
Black Friday has become American ritual, as American as the day that precedes it. Each year, the ... more Black Friday has become American ritual, as American as the day that precedes it. Each year, the shopping extravaganza brings schadenfreude-worthy videos and news photos of greedy stampeders jostling each another. And things have gotten rough: The website "Black Friday Death Count" lists seven deaths and 90 injuries related to the festivities in the past eight years.
3 0 Labor Day online specials at Walmart this year "celebrate hard work with big savings." For br... more 3 0 Labor Day online specials at Walmart this year "celebrate hard work with big savings." For brick-and-mortar shoppers near my home in Chicago, several Walmart stores are open all 24 hours of Labor Day. Remember, this is a company so famously anti-union that it shut down a Canadian store rather than countenance the union its workers had just voted in. The fact that Walmart "celebrates" Labor Day should draw laughter, derision, or at least a few eye-rolls.
Papers by Chad Broughton
We report the results of simulations of rigid colloidal helices suspended in a shear flow, using ... more We report the results of simulations of rigid colloidal helices suspended in a shear flow, using dissipative particle dynamics for a coarse-grained representation of the suspending fluid, as well as deterministic trajectories of non-Brownian helices calculated from the resistance tensor derived under the slender-body approximation. The shear flow produces nonuniform rotation of the helices, similarly to other high aspect ratio particles, such that more elongated helices spend more time aligned with the fluid velocity. We introduce a geometric effective aspect ratio calculated directly from the helix geometry and a dynamical effective aspect ratio derived from the trajectories of the particles and find that the two effective aspect ratios are approximately equal over the entire parameter range tested. We also describe observed transient deflections of the helical axis into the vorticity direction that can occur when the helix is rotating through the gradient direction and that depend on the rotation of the helix about its axis.
American Journal of Sociology
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 2010
Welfare reform legislation in the late 1990s lead to rapid declines in state welfare caseloads. I... more Welfare reform legislation in the late 1990s lead to rapid declines in state welfare caseloads. In contrast to prevailing accounts that emphasize rapid job creation and those that pin caseload declines on successful work incentives and behavioral sanctions, this article argues that organizational rationing mechanisms explain a large portion of the sharp initial declines in Illinois. The article first highlights how street-level bureaucratic practices oriented toward caseload reduction arose in TANF implementing bodies from a reordered and narrow set of organizational incentives that had little to do with the symbolic goals of welfare reform. Based on an analysis of state-level administrative statistics and formal interviewing and fieldwork in welfare offices and community-based organizations, this article finds that bureaucratic churning, gate-keeping, and other forms of service rationing significantly sped exits from and slowed entrances to welfare in the decisive first three years of TANF implementation.
Berkeley Journal of Sociology a Critical Review, 2001
Teaching Sociology, Jan 2011
This article examines the opportunities and limitations presented by organizing an undergraduate ... more This article examines the opportunities and limitations presented by organizing an undergraduate field research methods class as a policy think tank working for a government client. Organized as such, the course had both the learning objectives of a traditional undergraduate methods class and the corporate objectives of a policy think tank (i.e., to produce a high-quality presentation and report for its client). This article finds that the learning and corporate objectives were largely aligned rather than conflicting, leading to anticipated and some unanticipated pedagogical benefits for learning sociological research methods, substantive sociological and policy areas, how to work effectively in goal-directed group work, and public policy generally. Finally, this article considers the pedagogical and ethical concerns with the course-based production of ‘‘policy-relevant’’ knowledge in the context of stark social divisions between student and research subject.
Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, Sep 2010
Welfare reform legislation in the late 1990s lead to rapid declines in state welfare caseloads. I... more Welfare reform legislation in the late 1990s lead to rapid declines in state welfare caseloads. In contrast to prevailing accounts that emphasize rapid job creation and those that pin caseload declines on successful work incentives and behavioral sanctions, this article argues that organizational rationing mechanisms explain a large portion of the sharp initial declines in Illinois. The article first highlights how street-level bureaucratic practices oriented toward caseload reduction arose in TANF implementing bodies from a reordered and narrow set of organizational incentives that had little to do with the symbolic goals of welfare reform. Based on an analysis of state-level administrative statistics and formal interviewing and fieldwork in welfare offices and community-based organizations, this article finds that bureaucratic churning, gate-keeping, and other forms of service rationing significantly sped exits from and slowed entrances to welfare in the decisive first three years of TANF implementation.
Gender & Society, Jan 1, 2008
As Mexico endures the far-reaching economic and social dislocations wrought by neoliberalism, man... more As Mexico endures the far-reaching economic and social dislocations wrought by neoliberalism, many predominantly rural states in southern Mexico have witnessed an unprecedented northward exodus of working age men and women. This article argues that in response to these intense pressures to emigrate, poor men from rural Mexico do more than make instrumental calculations about migration to the border; they must negotiate masculine ideals and adopt strategic gendered practices in relation to the migration experience and the dynamic economic, social and cultural conditions of the border region. This article finds that men adopt one or a hybrid of three fluid masculine stances—traditionalist, adventurer, and breadwinner—in response to migration pressures in neoliberal Mexico.
Anthropology of Work Review, Jan 1, 2006
This paper employs interviewing of and participant observation among laid-off and soon to be laid... more This paper employs interviewing of and participant observation among laid-off and soon to be laid-off industrial workers to explore how conceptions of masculinity, fatherhood, and family are negotiated during the traumatic and transitory period of a plant closing. As economic globalization erodes the industrial base of the Rust Belt, traditional ideas about masculinity, fatherhood and family—including the notion of a sole provider or “breadwinner”—become increasingly impracticable. This study finds that industrial workers adapt to the realities of downward mobility by discarding elements of the “breadwinner ideal”while clinging to others, including beliefs about the American dream and fatherhood.
This article employs participant observation and interviewing at a community-based job readiness ... more This article employs participant observation and interviewing at a community-based job readiness program operating under welfare reform to explore how attempts at cultural retraining (that is, bringing presumably deviant behavior in line with dominant cultural norms) are delivered, received, and interpreted by welfare-reliant women. This study finds that poor women—the targets of these reforms—largely resist cultural retraining, but, ironically, assert its usefulness for welfare-reliant women generally. These ethnographic data support and expand upon previous interview and focus group studies that have encountered the same attribution paradox among welfare-reliant women.
Book Reviews by Chad Broughton
American Journal of Sociology, 2020
Contemporary Sociology, 2020
Contemporary Sociology, 2019
Oxford University Press, Jan 2, 2015
cuts straight through a flat landscape of corn and soybean fields that turn a lush myrtle-green i... more cuts straight through a flat landscape of corn and soybean fields that turn a lush myrtle-green in late summer. After you pass the last farmhouse on this southern approach to town, you may hear the metallic clang of rail cars being jostled into place in the switching yard. A modest wood sign proclaims, "Welcome to Galesburg. " Behind the welcome sign is a vacant parking lot scattered with concrete blockades and rubble. And behind the parking lot rises a massive white-gray box of a building. A stylish cobalt-blue line wraps around its roof like a gigantic ribbon around a gift box. Several years ago you could have made out "MAYTAG," but the outlines of the letters have faded. Now there is only a pockmarked facade with spots of flaking paint, discolored exterior panels, and two big "Available" signs one with an 1-800 number and another advertising what remains of the empty giant, "Plus or Minus 707,624 Square Feet." Most Galesburg residents still remember this place as a source of pride and bustle. It went by many names Coulter Disc, Midwest Manufacturing, Admiral, Galesburg Refrigeration Products but "Appliance City" fit it best. That was the nickname of its heyday, when the factory itself had a population of 5,000. For over a century, men and women in the factory assembled farm equipment, kitchen cabinets, freezers, war munitions, military aircraft parts, microwaves, air conditioners, and millions tens of millions of refrigerators. If you bought a Maytag refrigerator in the 1990s or early 2000s, it was designed, manufactured, and trucked to your Sears or Home Depot from this spot. Before Maytag, products from Admiral, Rockwell International, and Magic Chef emerged from Appliance City, which buzzed with continuous vitality in the heady postwar decades of heavy kitchen consumption. It drew
Black Friday has become American ritual, as American as the day that precedes it. Each year, the ... more Black Friday has become American ritual, as American as the day that precedes it. Each year, the shopping extravaganza brings schadenfreude-worthy videos and news photos of greedy stampeders jostling each another. And things have gotten rough: The website "Black Friday Death Count" lists seven deaths and 90 injuries related to the festivities in the past eight years.
3 0 Labor Day online specials at Walmart this year "celebrate hard work with big savings." For br... more 3 0 Labor Day online specials at Walmart this year "celebrate hard work with big savings." For brick-and-mortar shoppers near my home in Chicago, several Walmart stores are open all 24 hours of Labor Day. Remember, this is a company so famously anti-union that it shut down a Canadian store rather than countenance the union its workers had just voted in. The fact that Walmart "celebrates" Labor Day should draw laughter, derision, or at least a few eye-rolls.
We report the results of simulations of rigid colloidal helices suspended in a shear flow, using ... more We report the results of simulations of rigid colloidal helices suspended in a shear flow, using dissipative particle dynamics for a coarse-grained representation of the suspending fluid, as well as deterministic trajectories of non-Brownian helices calculated from the resistance tensor derived under the slender-body approximation. The shear flow produces nonuniform rotation of the helices, similarly to other high aspect ratio particles, such that more elongated helices spend more time aligned with the fluid velocity. We introduce a geometric effective aspect ratio calculated directly from the helix geometry and a dynamical effective aspect ratio derived from the trajectories of the particles and find that the two effective aspect ratios are approximately equal over the entire parameter range tested. We also describe observed transient deflections of the helical axis into the vorticity direction that can occur when the helix is rotating through the gradient direction and that depend on the rotation of the helix about its axis.
American Journal of Sociology
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 2010
Welfare reform legislation in the late 1990s lead to rapid declines in state welfare caseloads. I... more Welfare reform legislation in the late 1990s lead to rapid declines in state welfare caseloads. In contrast to prevailing accounts that emphasize rapid job creation and those that pin caseload declines on successful work incentives and behavioral sanctions, this article argues that organizational rationing mechanisms explain a large portion of the sharp initial declines in Illinois. The article first highlights how street-level bureaucratic practices oriented toward caseload reduction arose in TANF implementing bodies from a reordered and narrow set of organizational incentives that had little to do with the symbolic goals of welfare reform. Based on an analysis of state-level administrative statistics and formal interviewing and fieldwork in welfare offices and community-based organizations, this article finds that bureaucratic churning, gate-keeping, and other forms of service rationing significantly sped exits from and slowed entrances to welfare in the decisive first three years of TANF implementation.
Berkeley Journal of Sociology a Critical Review, 2001
Teaching Sociology, Jan 2011
This article examines the opportunities and limitations presented by organizing an undergraduate ... more This article examines the opportunities and limitations presented by organizing an undergraduate field research methods class as a policy think tank working for a government client. Organized as such, the course had both the learning objectives of a traditional undergraduate methods class and the corporate objectives of a policy think tank (i.e., to produce a high-quality presentation and report for its client). This article finds that the learning and corporate objectives were largely aligned rather than conflicting, leading to anticipated and some unanticipated pedagogical benefits for learning sociological research methods, substantive sociological and policy areas, how to work effectively in goal-directed group work, and public policy generally. Finally, this article considers the pedagogical and ethical concerns with the course-based production of ‘‘policy-relevant’’ knowledge in the context of stark social divisions between student and research subject.
Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, Sep 2010
Welfare reform legislation in the late 1990s lead to rapid declines in state welfare caseloads. I... more Welfare reform legislation in the late 1990s lead to rapid declines in state welfare caseloads. In contrast to prevailing accounts that emphasize rapid job creation and those that pin caseload declines on successful work incentives and behavioral sanctions, this article argues that organizational rationing mechanisms explain a large portion of the sharp initial declines in Illinois. The article first highlights how street-level bureaucratic practices oriented toward caseload reduction arose in TANF implementing bodies from a reordered and narrow set of organizational incentives that had little to do with the symbolic goals of welfare reform. Based on an analysis of state-level administrative statistics and formal interviewing and fieldwork in welfare offices and community-based organizations, this article finds that bureaucratic churning, gate-keeping, and other forms of service rationing significantly sped exits from and slowed entrances to welfare in the decisive first three years of TANF implementation.
Gender & Society, Jan 1, 2008
As Mexico endures the far-reaching economic and social dislocations wrought by neoliberalism, man... more As Mexico endures the far-reaching economic and social dislocations wrought by neoliberalism, many predominantly rural states in southern Mexico have witnessed an unprecedented northward exodus of working age men and women. This article argues that in response to these intense pressures to emigrate, poor men from rural Mexico do more than make instrumental calculations about migration to the border; they must negotiate masculine ideals and adopt strategic gendered practices in relation to the migration experience and the dynamic economic, social and cultural conditions of the border region. This article finds that men adopt one or a hybrid of three fluid masculine stances—traditionalist, adventurer, and breadwinner—in response to migration pressures in neoliberal Mexico.
Anthropology of Work Review, Jan 1, 2006
This paper employs interviewing of and participant observation among laid-off and soon to be laid... more This paper employs interviewing of and participant observation among laid-off and soon to be laid-off industrial workers to explore how conceptions of masculinity, fatherhood, and family are negotiated during the traumatic and transitory period of a plant closing. As economic globalization erodes the industrial base of the Rust Belt, traditional ideas about masculinity, fatherhood and family—including the notion of a sole provider or “breadwinner”—become increasingly impracticable. This study finds that industrial workers adapt to the realities of downward mobility by discarding elements of the “breadwinner ideal”while clinging to others, including beliefs about the American dream and fatherhood.
This article employs participant observation and interviewing at a community-based job readiness ... more This article employs participant observation and interviewing at a community-based job readiness program operating under welfare reform to explore how attempts at cultural retraining (that is, bringing presumably deviant behavior in line with dominant cultural norms) are delivered, received, and interpreted by welfare-reliant women. This study finds that poor women—the targets of these reforms—largely resist cultural retraining, but, ironically, assert its usefulness for welfare-reliant women generally. These ethnographic data support and expand upon previous interview and focus group studies that have encountered the same attribution paradox among welfare-reliant women.