Doctoral Dissertation Research - The Face of the State: The Role of Social Status and Official Position in the Mobilization of Authority

博士论文研究——国家的面貌：社会地位和官方职位在权力动员中的作用

• 批准号: 0715298
• 负责人: Charles Epp
• 金额: $ 0.8万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-01 至 2009-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0715298&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Face; State

Primary Investigators: Charles Epp and Shannon PortilloTitle: Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Face of the State: The Role of Social Status and Official Position in the Mobilization of Authority 0715298AbstractThe observation that social identity and status influence how people conceptualize rights and mobilize the law has significantly influenced how scholars think about law. This project aims to extend research on the mobilization of law in a new direction by examining how social identity and status influences the conceptualization and mobilization of authority. As government employment becomes more diverse, a growing number of public officials confront what may be called a power paradox, a condition in which a person has high official status but lacks traditional social status and in which the mobilization of authority may be especially problematic. The law and society tradition offers rich insights into how rights and law interact with identity and social status. First, although rights and law offer potentially powerful resources on behalf of the disadvantaged, they also constrain the range of options and strategies available to the disadvantaged. Second, although a wide range of people mobilize rights and law, those with lower social status may be especially hesitant to do so, or may do so in ways different from those with higher status. This project will study the mobilization of authority and its interaction with social status in two contexts, policing and city management. Police officers convey iconic images of authority in America: they carry the trappings of official status and exercise authority on the street in interactions with ordinary citizens. City managers exercise their authority over complex public bureaucracies; they typically do not have the visual cues of authority enjoyed by police officers, but, within their organizations, their official status is well known to all employees. In each setting, employment is increasingly diverse. This project uses open-ended interviews and close-ended surveys of city administrators and police officers to examine variations in the frequency and types of challenges to authority, conceptualizations of authority, and the range and types of strategies for mobilizing authority, particularly in relation to officials' social status. The results may have important implications for how we think about official status, authority, and, ultimately, the state itself. The results will enhance understanding of how members of underrepresented groups cope with challenges to their legal authority. As preliminary data indicate that coping strategies include invocation of the law or legal rules, a possible implication of the proposed research is that, as state employment becomes more diverse, the face of the state may become more "legalized" as officials lacking traditional social status cope with challenges to their authority by invoking the law or legal rules. There may also be implications for policy and for training of government officials.

主要研究者：Charles Epp and Shannon PortilloTitle：博士论文研究：国家的面貌：社会地位和官方职位在权力动员中的作用0715298摘要社会身份和地位影响人们如何概念化权利和动员法律的观察结果显着影响了学者们对法律的看法。该项目旨在通过审查社会身份和地位如何影响权力的概念化和动员，以新的方向扩大关于法律动员的研究。随着政府就业变得更加多样化，越来越多的公职人员面临着所谓的权力悖论，即一个人拥有很高的官方地位，但缺乏传统的社会地位，在这种情况下，权力的调动可能特别成问题。法律和社会传统为权利和法律如何与身份和社会地位相互作用提供了丰富的见解。 首先，虽然权利和法律为处境不利者提供了潜在的强大资源，但它们也限制了处境不利者可利用的选择和战略的范围。第二，虽然动员权利和法律的人范围很广，但社会地位较低的人可能特别犹豫，或者可能采取与社会地位较高的人不同的方式。本项目将研究在维持治安和城市管理这两个背景下权力的调动及其与社会地位的相互作用。在美国，警察传达着权威的标志性形象：他们穿着官方身份的服饰，在街上与普通公民互动时行使权威。城市管理者在复杂的公共官僚机构中行使权力;他们通常没有警察所享有的权力的视觉暗示，但是，在他们的组织内，他们的官方地位是所有员工都知道的。在每一种情况下，就业越来越多样化。该项目采用对城市管理人员和警察的开放式访谈和封闭式调查，以审查对权力的挑战的频率和类型、权力的概念化以及调动权力的战略的范围和类型的差异，特别是与官员的社会地位有关的战略。这些结果可能对我们如何看待官方地位、权威以及最终国家本身具有重要意义。调查结果将有助于了解代表性不足群体的成员如何科普对其法律的权威的挑战。由于初步数据表明，应对策略包括援引法律或法律的规则，拟议的研究的一个可能的含义是，随着国家就业变得更加多样化，国家的面貌可能会变得更加“合法化”，因为缺乏传统社会地位的官员通过援引法律或法律的规则来科普对其权威的挑战。这也可能对政策和政府官员的培训产生影响。