Podcast appearances and mentions of Robert I Goldman

The study of stigma, is, says Michèle Lamont, a “booming field.” That assessment can be both sad and hopeful, and in this Social Science Bites podcast the Harvard sociologist explains stigma’s manifestations and ways to combat it, as well as what it takes a for a researcher to actually study stigma. Lamont defines stigma “as the negative characterization of any social attribute,” and offers examples such as mental illness, social status, or obesity as conditions routinely stigmatized. And while stigma can attach itself to an individual or to a group, stigma requires intersubjective agreement for it to function. As that intersubjectivity would suggest, the specifics of stigma varies by culture, a point brought home by Lamont’s own research among stigmatized groups in the United States, Brazil, Israel (and which saw her 2016 co-authored book, the coauthored book Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil, and Israel). The work involved more than 400 interviews, conducted by members of the stigmatized groups, in the three countries, and Lamont offered some insights into how stigma plays out by sharing anecdotes about the methodology. The project paid people $20 in the U.S. to be interviewed, but the Brazilian team said Brazilians would be insulted if they were offered money to participate. In Israel, Palestinians being surveyed didn’t trust Tel Aviv University, so that created obstacles even though the team members were themselves Palestinian She offered this anecdote drawn from the interviews her teams – all in-group interviewers in each country –  conducted in the United States, “The interviewers were African American, but they were also graduate students at Harvard. The interviews were in New Jersey and the women who were doing the interviews would always be welcome by their other African Americans, and they would be told how proud the other interviewees were to have young African American women studying at Harvard – which suggests a high degree of social distance but also of kinship among them.” Regardless of locale, the biggest marker of being stigmatized is being ignored and lacking access to what others routinely accept as standard. And while these is a societal effect from stigma, much of the quotidian heavy lifting associated with naturally falls on those stigmatized. Lamont cites the work of Erving Goffman, who studied this experience of having a negative mark, and how to manage one’s life when you have a negative mark. (See this earlier Social Science Bites podcast for a look at Goffman’s legacy.) One key concept is the concept of “front stage” and “back stage,” where someone manages their life in a public way (the domain of stigma) but also in a private way. Lamont, professor of sociology and of African and African American studies and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard, directs the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. She was president  of the American Sociological Association in 2016-17 and chaired the Council for European Studies from 2006-09. She received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996, a Gutenberg research award in 2014, the 2017 Erasmus Prize, and an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship for 2019-21.

This week's guest is someone very special. Michèle Lamont has had a huge impact on my own thinking as a psychologist. She is the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and a Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Harvard University. The first time I encountered her work was in a book she wrote, published in 2000, called the Dignity of Working Men. It's a work of comparative sociology in which she interviews working class men in both New York and France, both black and white individuals, and essentially allows them to tell their story of the way they see the world while providing some sociological interpretation. It's a brilliant work, and has only become more relevant over time. I highly recommend to anyone interested in understanding more about a huge section of the population that isn't as well represented in typical academic discourse. At any rate, it was a huge honor to talk to her. She has a number of other books that you can check out. In this episode we talk a lot about how her ideas have built on top of one another over time, to really become a truly holistic comparative sociology covering a big part of our world. Here is the interview she mentioned in our conversation: https://sociologiskforskning.se/sf/article/view/19754 Oh, and the movie she was trying to think of was Mephisto by Werner Herzog. Michèle's website: http://www.michelelamont.org/ Michèle's Twitter: https://twitter.com/mlamont6 My newsletter: https://www.codykommers.com/newsletter My Twitter: https://twitter.com/__cek

Spätestens seit Aristoteles gehören Fragen des Charakters und der Moral zu den Grundlagen der Ethik. Die Psychologie, und hier vor allem die Entwicklungspsychologie, interessiert sich für die emotionale, moralische und soziale Entwicklung bei Kindern und untersucht die Entstehung von Altruismus, Empathie und prosozialem Verhalten. Und auch in der Volkswirtschaftslehre spielt die Motivation von Entscheidungen traditionell eine große Rolle, deren Durchdringung es erlaubt, das Menschenbild hinter ökonomischen Modellen besser zu verstehen. Für die Rechtswissenschaft sind moralphilosophische Fragen insofern von Bedeutung, als sie die Grundlage für die Bindungs- und Geltungskraft von Gesetzen bilden. In diesem Schwerpunkt adressieren neben der Philosophie Wissenschaftler aus so unterschiedlichen Disziplinen wie der Psychologie, Ökonomie, Politikwissenschaft und der Rechtswissenschaft moralphilosophische Fragen. | David Laibson ist Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics an der Harvard University.

Spätestens seit Aristoteles gehören Fragen des Charakters und der Moral zu den Grundlagen der Ethik. Die Psychologie, und hier vor allem die Entwicklungspsychologie, interessiert sich für die emotionale, moralische und soziale Entwicklung bei Kindern und untersucht die Entstehung von Altruismus, Empathie und prosozialem Verhalten. Und auch in der Volkswirtschaftslehre spielt die Motivation von Entscheidungen traditionell eine große Rolle, deren Durchdringung es erlaubt, das Menschenbild hinter ökonomischen Modellen besser zu verstehen. Für die Rechtswissenschaft sind moralphilosophische Fragen insofern von Bedeutung, als sie die Grundlage für die Bindungs- und Geltungskraft von Gesetzen bilden. In diesem Schwerpunkt adressieren neben der Philosophie Wissenschaftler aus so unterschiedlichen Disziplinen wie der Psychologie, Ökonomie, Politikwissenschaft und der Rechtswissenschaft moralphilosophische Fragen. | David Laibson ist Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics an der Harvard University.

David Laibson's Fathauer Lecture in Political Economy was presented on December 7, 2009. David Laibson is a Harvard College Professor and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Laibson is also a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he is Research Associate in the Asset Pricing, Economic Fluctuations, and Aging Working Groups. Laibson serves on numerous editorial boards, as well as the boards of the Health and Retirement Survey and the Pension Research Council. He is a recipient of a Marshall Scholarship and grants from the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the National Institute on Aging, the Sloan Foundation, the Social Security Administration, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Laibson co-organizes the Russell Sage Foundation’s Summer School in Behavioral Economics. He has received the PBK Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Laibson’s research focuses on the topic of psychology and economics and his work is frequently discussed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, the Economist, Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, Money, Wired Magazine, the New Yorker, and on the PBS program Wealthtrack. In 2005, Fortune named Laibson one of ten people to watch. In 2008, Wired Magazine included Laibson on the “2008 Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To.” In 2006 Laibson served as an external reviewer for the Department of Labor regulations that implement the Pension Protection Act. Laibson holds degrees from Harvard University (BA in Economics, summa cum laude), the London School of Economic (MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D. in Economics).