Dissertation Research: Conceptions of Gender-Based Harassment in France and the United States

在包括文化社会学、社会问题和社会运动框架分析在内的社会学几个子领域的理论指导下，这一博士论文研究项目将考察法国和美国对性骚扰的定义方式的巨大差异。它提出了四个核心问题：1)每个国家的性骚扰定义之间的主要差异是什么？2)如何解释这种国际差异？3)如何在不同的话语层面，如法律、媒体、公司和社会运动中对性骚扰进行不同的定义？4)如何解释这种国内差异？为了回答这些问题，将进行多种类型的数据分析，包括法律法规、判例、内部法规和媒体报道的内容分析。这项研究进一步利用了对一系列性骚扰“专家”的58次深入采访，这些专家在定义公共领域的性骚扰问题方面发挥了重要作用：律师、活动家、公众人物、人力资源人员和工会活动家。访谈将决定受访者如何对性骚扰进行概念化。这项研究还应有助于文化社会学、比较社会学和性别社会学的理论建设。它应该提高人们对公民权利和法律错误是如何集体确定的理解。它的跨国项目设计将有助于对国家法律制度、政治结构、社会历史和文化期望在这一进程中所起作用的新见解。

Guided by theories from several subfields of sociology including the sociology of culture, social problems, and social movement framing analysis, this doctoral dissertation research project will examine the dramatic differences in the way "sexual harassment" is defined in France and the United States. It asks four central questions: 1) What are the major differences between sexual harassment definitions in each country? 2) How can such international variation be explained? 3) How is sexual harassment defined differently across distinct levels of discourse, e.g. law, media, corporations, and social movements? 4) How can such intra-national variation be explained? To answer these questions, multiple several types of data analysis will be performed, including content analysis of legal statutes, jurisprudence, internal regulation, and media reports. The study further draws on 58 in-depth interviews with a series of sexual harassment "specialists," or people who play an important role in defining this issue in the public realm: lawyers, activists, public figures, human resource personnel and union activists. Interviews will determine how respondents conceptualize sexual harassment. The study should also contribute to theory-building in cultural sociology, comparative sociology and sociology of gender. It should improve understanding of how civil rights and legal wrongs are collectively determined. Its cross-national project design will facilitate new insights regarding the role national legal systems, political structures, social history and cultural expectations play in this process.