Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the sociological dimension of the creation of cultural objects. Contrary to the production perspective, creation is understood as the ideational process in the conception of a cultural object, shifting the focus toward the socio-cognitive processes involved in actors’ creational work. In addition, it is presupposed that actors work within a cultural sphere, a configuration where traditional rules establish what things are done and how they are done and where contemporary actors either maintain or modify such rules. Thus, creation may follow established rules --traditional creation-- or it may break those rules --innovative creation. Three dimensions that affect, and are affected by, creation of cultural objects are identified: socio-cognitive patterns, cultural practices and the institutional configuration. Being these dimensions usually not connected in sociological research, I briefly discuss literature on each of them and propose a conceptual framework consisting of the interconnection among the three dimensions. I apply this framework for the analysis of the individual level of cultural creation using data from ethnographic research with chefs in mid- to high-end restaurants in New York City and San Francisco. I focus on the sociological forces at play in the individual’s decision to do a given type of creation --one that ranges from traditional to innovative.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper pays close attention to the dynamics of education and self-employment for two reasons: 1) increasing employability is not enough to absorb excess labor supply and 2) the relationship between entrepreneurship and education is still unknown. Youth unemployment has been growing, especially in the developing countries, because population growth outstrips economic growth, and young people are discriminated against in the labor market due to their limited skills. The widely suggested educational solution is to increase employability. However, another imperative approach is job creation, considering the saturated state of the labor market. From this standpoint, addressing a self-employment mechanism from an educational perspective is critical as a basis of any comparative study
This paper analyzes theoretical debates of education and employment. First, it discusses two main theories of education and employment—human capital and screening. It addresses how theories conceptualize the function of education toward employability and self-employment productivities. Second, in order to understand the mechanism of self-employment and education, it deconstructs firm creation and management process, and maps specific types of human capital required in a particular period. Appropriate teaching methods and relevance of social capitals in the process are also included in the conceptual map.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Do parties create ideologies to rationalize their electoral coalitions? Or do ideologies shape parties, even against the re-election incentives of party leaders? In other words, how should we understand the relationship between ideology and party? These questions require a measure of ideology that is distinct from the partisan behavior of elected politicians. This paper develops such a model, coding the positions taken by intellectual thinkers around 1850. I find that ideological writers divided into two camps on slavery and on the other major issues of the day at a time when slavery cross-cut the two main camps in Congress. This division matches the one that develops in Congress a decade later, suggesting that the parties responded not just to electoral incentives, but also to this elite division. Ideology was accepted, even though it undermined longstanding attempts to hold together intersectional alliances and brought on a division that led to the Civil War.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Though the term is widely used by social scientists, theory and research on social capital has an ad-hoc quality, i.e., social relationships “matter” but it is unclear which aspects of relationships matter for what types of outcomes. I use research on social networks and social control norms to examine how, when and why members of micro-credit borrowing groups use social control to create social capital. Using unique ethnographic, survey and loan data from approximately 100 borrowing groups operating in the U.S., I examine the conditions under which group members use social relationships in micro-credit borrowing groups. I find that peers do actively evaluate and screen fellow members before approving them as borrowers, though not always effectively. Moreover, different aspects of social relationships lead to social control, which provides members with adequate social capital to increase their financial capital through micro-credit.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The globalization of information technology, capital and investments with the movement of educated labor ‘brain drain” from periphery to core economies, has affected the way people network and negotiate across institutions for economic advantage. Since MNC IT firms, have comprehensive training for their employees, they do not need to hire people only from the elite schools. This is also a demand and supply issue, as in India there is an undersupply of engineers for the IT firms. International standards of human resources and skill training in IT firms compensates for the differences in education standards. However the reputed IT firms hire the crème from the labor queues by imposing stringent entrance criterion. Hence entering a well known international IT firm and building a resume on achieved status are some rational choices affecting professional and social reputation of IT professionals from India. Also high attrition rates in the IT firms and the influx of FDI investments act as push and pull factors to build networks across boundaries to form enclaves based on professional reputation.