Imagined futures, once a vital topic of theoretical inquiry within the sociology culture, have been sidelined in recent decades. Rational choice models cannot explain seemingly irrational optimism youth aspirations, pointing to need explore other alternatives. This article incorporates insights from pragmatist theory and cognitive examine relationship between imagined futures present actions experiences rural Malawi, where future appears particularly unfounded. Drawing in-depth interviews...

Several challenges (e.g., sexism, parental leave, the glass ceiling, etc.) disproportionately affect women in academia (and beyond), and thus perpetuate leaky pipeline metaphor for who opt-out of an academic career. Although this pattern can be seen at all levels hierarchy, a critical time facing such is during postdoctoral stage, when personal life transitions professional ambitions collide. Using social identity approach, we explore factors affecting mental health women, including...

The recent flood of research concerning pollutants in personal environmental and biological samples-blood, urine, breastmilk, household dust air, umbilical cord blood, other media-raises questions about whether how to report results individual study participants. Clinical medicine provides an expert-driven framework, whereas community-based participatory emphasizes participants' right know the potential inform action even when health effects are uncertain. Activist efforts offer models. We...

Three studies explored the relative importance of various manipulations social environment on appreciation humor in college males. The experimental situations included hostility-arousal, individual versus group administration, and a laughing non-laughing confederate (CE). Overt laughter was more responsive to manipulation than rating jokes; however, both responses were clearly influenced. Group administration by CE resulted facilitation responsiveness humor, while hostility-arousal CE's...

How can cultural understandings simultaneously diverge from and contribute to aggregate patterns of action? On one hand, shared cognitive associations guide people’s everyday actions, these actions comprise the behavioral trends that sociologists seek measure understand. other often contradict trends. I address this theoretical puzzle by considering empirical case sexual relationships school dropout in Malawi. Moving recursively between longitudinal survey data in-depth interviews, compare...

Chang, C. H., M. L. Barnes, Frye, Zhang, R.-C. Quan, G. Reisman, S. A. Levin, and D. Wilcove. 2017. The pleasure of pursuit: recreational hunters in rural Southwest China exhibit low exit rates response to declining catch. Ecology Society 22(1):43. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09072-220143

Abstract As educational access has expanded across Africa, birth timing remained quite stable. Using data representing 51 years and 34 countries, we show that these modest aggregate changes mask more dramatic within groups. Over time, attainment become an increasingly salient predictor of timing, as highly educated women have delayed first births lengthened subsequent intervals more. The differentiation also varies contextual factors (educational family planning effort). In recent cohorts,...

Research on young-adult sexuality in sub-Saharan Africa typically conceptualizes sex as an individual-level risk behavior. We introduce a new approach that connects the conditions surrounding initiation of with subsequent relationship well-being, examines relationships sequences interdependent events, and indexes experiences to individually held ideals. New card-sort data from southern Malawi capture young women’s their ideals sequential framework. Using optimal matching, we measure distance...

Improving the timeliness and completion of vaccination is key to reducing under-5 childhood mortality. This study examines prevalence delayed for doses administered at birth age 6 weeks, 10 14 9 months its association with undervaccination among infants in Sub-Saharan Africa.Pooling data across 33 Africa countries, timing series were assessed children aged 12-35 who included immunization module Demographic Health Surveys conducted between 2010 2019. Survey design-adjusted logistic regression...

Background: Automated text analysis is widely used across the social sciences, yet application of these methods has largely proceeded independently qualitative analysis.

Abstract Although intimate partner violence (IPV) is inherently a relational event shaped by couple-level factors, most empirical examinations of IPV-related attitudes have used individuals as the unit analysis. We apply dyadic perspective to study about acceptability IPV, harnessing data from 33 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, region characterized particularly high levels both incidence and acceptance IPV. document considerable geographic heterogeneity distribution attitudinal concordance...

This paper examines the decline in non-numeric responses to questions about fertility preferences among women developing world. These types of response-such as 'don't know' or 'it's up God'-have often been interpreted through lens transition theory an indication that reproduction has not yet entered women's 'calculus conscious choice'. However, this be investigated cross-nationally and over time. Using 19 years data from 32 countries, we find most substantially early stages a country's...

The worldwide expansion of female educational opportunities in recent decades has prompted demographers to assess the frequency with which women marry up (hypergamy) or down (hypogamy) regard education. A series articles documented dramatic and nearly universal declines hypergamy over time across advantage. However, this previous work investigated only context unequal pairings, excluding couples equal levels education (homogamy) from their analysis. Here, we argue that prevalence should...

A paradox exists in modern schooling: students are simultaneously more positive about the future and depressed than ever. We suggest that these two phenomena may be linked. Two studies demonstrated likely to when educational aspirations exceed expectations. In Study 1 (N = 85) aspiring a thesis grade higher one expected predicted greater depression at beginning end of academic year. 2 2820) level education (e.g., attending college) achieve cross-sectionally five years later. both cases...

The AIDS epidemic in sub‐Saharan Africa is fertile ground for examining how moral evaluations evolve over time and across different settings. We compare the discourse on Malawi as presented media with that of everyday conversations. Drawing two sets texts, newspaper articles conversational journals, produced a ten‐year period from 1999 through 2008, we analyze their injunctions, or what individuals should not do response to epidemic. predominant injunctions early years both sources were...

Objective: This article documents how intramarital differences in educational status vary across Africa's heterogeneous expansion, which has encompassed an enormous breadth of opportunities during the past 50 years. Background: Educational expansion influences both by altering composition men and women reconfiguring social conventions associated with a given context. Status differentials between marital partners can influence spousal well‐being and, aggregate, determine extent to marriage...

We argue that an important item on the agenda for ongoing dialogue between cognitive scientists and microsociologists is how to replace Cartesian mind-body dualism. Although we agree strict dualism should be laid rest, believe replacing this dichotomy with a holistic theory risks making it harder researchers see analytic distinctions make real difference. use examples from Loic Wacquant's Body Soul illustrate our argument sociologists old new, improved one incorporates science regarding...

Sociologists have shown that moral understandings of market exchanges can differ between historical periods and institutional settings, but they paid less attention to how producers’ frameworks vary depending on their unequal positions within both markets institutions. We use interviews ethnographic observations examine the vibrant research shops selling academic work students around two Uganda’s top universities. identify three groups researchers—Knowledge Producers, Entrepreneurs,...

This figure depicts the gendered patterns of educational expansion across Africa. The horizontal axis displays access, and vertical lines represent gender gaps for 267 country-specific birth cohorts, representing adults born between 1941 1992 in 32 African countries. take on an almond shape. In early stages expansion, boys enter school at higher rates than girls; female enrollment begins to catch up only when least half cohort attends school. Cohorts with lowest access are disproportionately...

In Uganda, the cultural norm of hypergamy, which dictates that husbands should have higher economic and social status than wives, is pervasive influential. Yet hypergamy has recently been challenged by women's gains in education relative to men an unemployment crisis leaving educated young unable find steady work. Using interviews with recent university graduates Kampala, we investigate how highly-educated adults navigate frictions between ideal these transformations gendered status. Some...

How can cultural understandings simultaneously diverge from and contribute to aggregate patterns of action? On one hand, shared cognitive associations guide people’s everyday actions, these actions comprise the behavioral trends that sociologists seek measure understand. other often contradict trends. I address this theoretical puzzle by considering empirical case sexual relationships school dropout in Malawi. Moving recursively between longitudinal survey data in-depth interviews, compare...

In Africa and elsewhere, educated women tend to marry later than their less peers. Beyond being an attribute of individual women, education is also aggregate phenomenon: the social meaning a woman’s educational attainment depends on attainments her agemates. Using data from 30 countries 246 birth cohorts across sub-Saharan Africa, we investigate impact context (the percent in country cohort who ever attended school) relationship between own marital timing. contexts where access prevalent,...