Dalton Conley
Encyclopedia
Dalton Clark Conley is an American
sociologist
. He is University Professor of the Social Sciences and the Chair of the Department of Sociology at New York University
. He also holds appointments at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service, as an Adjunct Professor of Community Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
, and as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research
(NBER). In 2005, Conley became the first sociologist to win the National Science Foundation
's Alan T. Waterman Award
.
He is a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow.
He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley
with a B.A. in Humanities, and from Columbia University
with and an M.A. in Public Policy, and a Ph.D. in Sociology.
is transmitted across generations.
His first book, Being Black, Living in the Red (1999), showed the important role of family wealth in perpetuating class advantages and racial inequalities in the post-Civil Rights era.
He has also studied the role of health in the status attainment process. A seminal article entitled, "Is Biology Destiny: Birth Weight and Life Chances" (with Neil G. Bennett, American Sociological Review 1999) and his second book, which emerged from this and related pieces, The Starting Gate: Birth Weight and Life Chances (with Kate Strully and Neil G. Bennett, 2003) showed the importance of birth weight
and prenatal health to later socioeconomic outcomes, reversing the typical way sociologists viewed the health-economics relationship and anticipated a robust research literature on early life health conditions as they affect later socioeconomic processes and outcomes.
The Pecking Order, which followed in 2004, showed the importance of within-family, ascriptive factors in determining sibling differences in socioeconomic success, thereby challenging the usual association of intra-household differences with the greater salience of achievement and/or meritocracy.
In addition to these works, Conley is the author of the acclaimed sociological memoir Honky (2001), which examines Conley's own childhood growing up white in the inner city projects of New York City. Honky explores the intersection of race and class
in America, outlining the subtle but profoundly important privileges even an impoverished white boy enjoys over his darker-skinned peers.
Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms and Economic Anxiety (2009) is Conley's latest book, chronicling how American society has moved from embodying Max Weber
's Protestant ethic in the 19th and early 20th Centuries to William H. Whyte
's "social ethic" during the mid-20th Century to today's "elsewhere ethic."
He argues that thanks to the combination of technological changes, rising economic inequality, market logics and the wholesale entry of mothers into the labor force, we have transformed from a 9-to-5 culture that had clear delineations between work and leisure to the modern 24-hour workday culture that combines home and office as well as a number of other once-bounded and sacred spheres of social life. Conley coins the terms weisure to describe activities that combine work and leisure such as social networking with colleagues who are also friends or contributing to open source products or gambling or other activities that are both instrumental and pleasurable. Likewise, he suggests the portmanteau convestment to describe purchases, or consumption, often viewed and written off as investments or serve both purposes.
Finally, he argues that we have gone from a culture of American individualism—in which the imperative was to find our true, backstage self through disconnected time alone and then let that authentic self guide our life choices as a lodestar of sorts—to American "intravidualism", where the moral imperative is to manage multiple external and internal data streams (and selves) that compete for attention, with little concern for the notion of an authentic core or true, single self as our guide. In this vein, the frontstage / backstage dichotomy that formed the basis of intimacy in an earlier epoch has been erased by the delocalized social economy and network-society where a new form of "privacy" is obtained via a metaphorical "fun house of mirrors" where once-personal information is now part of a hyperlinked, recursive data overload—which may, in fact, offer its own form of protection.
Conley's work has also appeared in Salon.com
, Feed Magazine
. He has written several op-ed pieces for the New York Times and is frequently interviewed for articles on race, family, and socioeconomic status.
He has two children: E and Yo Xing Heyno Augustus Eisner Alexander Weiser Knuckles Jeremijenko-Conley.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sociologist
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
. He is University Professor of the Social Sciences and the Chair of the Department of Sociology at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. He also holds appointments at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service, as an Adjunct Professor of Community Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine is an American medical school in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, currently ranked among the top 20 medical schools in the United States. It was chartered by Mount Sinai Hospital in 1963....
, and as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research
National Bureau of Economic Research
The National Bureau of Economic Research is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community." The NBER is well known for providing start and end...
(NBER). In 2005, Conley became the first sociologist to win the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
's Alan T. Waterman Award
Alan T. Waterman Award
The Alan T. Waterman Award is the United States's highest honorary award for scientists no older than 35. It is awarded on a yearly basis by the National Science Foundation. In addition to the medal, the awardee receives a grant of $500,000 to be used for advanced scientific research at the...
.
He is a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow.
He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
with a B.A. in Humanities, and from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
with and an M.A. in Public Policy, and a Ph.D. in Sociology.
Career
Conley is best known for his contributions to understanding how socioeconomic statusSocioeconomic status
Socioeconomic status is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation...
is transmitted across generations.
His first book, Being Black, Living in the Red (1999), showed the important role of family wealth in perpetuating class advantages and racial inequalities in the post-Civil Rights era.
He has also studied the role of health in the status attainment process. A seminal article entitled, "Is Biology Destiny: Birth Weight and Life Chances" (with Neil G. Bennett, American Sociological Review 1999) and his second book, which emerged from this and related pieces, The Starting Gate: Birth Weight and Life Chances (with Kate Strully and Neil G. Bennett, 2003) showed the importance of birth weight
Birth weight
Birth weight is the body weight of a baby at its birth.There have been numerous studies that have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to show links between birth weight and later-life conditions, including diabetes, obesity, tobacco smoking and intelligence.-Determinants:There are...
and prenatal health to later socioeconomic outcomes, reversing the typical way sociologists viewed the health-economics relationship and anticipated a robust research literature on early life health conditions as they affect later socioeconomic processes and outcomes.
The Pecking Order, which followed in 2004, showed the importance of within-family, ascriptive factors in determining sibling differences in socioeconomic success, thereby challenging the usual association of intra-household differences with the greater salience of achievement and/or meritocracy.
In addition to these works, Conley is the author of the acclaimed sociological memoir Honky (2001), which examines Conley's own childhood growing up white in the inner city projects of New York City. Honky explores the intersection of race and class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
in America, outlining the subtle but profoundly important privileges even an impoverished white boy enjoys over his darker-skinned peers.
Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms and Economic Anxiety (2009) is Conley's latest book, chronicling how American society has moved from embodying Max Weber
Max Weber
Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
's Protestant ethic in the 19th and early 20th Centuries to William H. Whyte
William H. Whyte
William Hollingsworth "Holly" Whyte was an American urbanist, organizational analyst, journalist and people-watcher.Whyte was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1917 and died in New York City in 1999. An early graduate of St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware, he graduated from Princeton...
's "social ethic" during the mid-20th Century to today's "elsewhere ethic."
He argues that thanks to the combination of technological changes, rising economic inequality, market logics and the wholesale entry of mothers into the labor force, we have transformed from a 9-to-5 culture that had clear delineations between work and leisure to the modern 24-hour workday culture that combines home and office as well as a number of other once-bounded and sacred spheres of social life. Conley coins the terms weisure to describe activities that combine work and leisure such as social networking with colleagues who are also friends or contributing to open source products or gambling or other activities that are both instrumental and pleasurable. Likewise, he suggests the portmanteau convestment to describe purchases, or consumption, often viewed and written off as investments or serve both purposes.
Finally, he argues that we have gone from a culture of American individualism—in which the imperative was to find our true, backstage self through disconnected time alone and then let that authentic self guide our life choices as a lodestar of sorts—to American "intravidualism", where the moral imperative is to manage multiple external and internal data streams (and selves) that compete for attention, with little concern for the notion of an authentic core or true, single self as our guide. In this vein, the frontstage / backstage dichotomy that formed the basis of intimacy in an earlier epoch has been erased by the delocalized social economy and network-society where a new form of "privacy" is obtained via a metaphorical "fun house of mirrors" where once-personal information is now part of a hyperlinked, recursive data overload—which may, in fact, offer its own form of protection.
Conley's work has also appeared in Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, Feed Magazine
Feed Magazine
Feed or feedmag.com was one of the earliest e-zines that relied entirely on its original online content. Feed was founded by Stefanie Syman and Steven Johnson in 1995, and soon found a devoted online following. The zine had daily content, and focused on media, pop culture, technology, science and...
. He has written several op-ed pieces for the New York Times and is frequently interviewed for articles on race, family, and socioeconomic status.
He has two children: E and Yo Xing Heyno Augustus Eisner Alexander Weiser Knuckles Jeremijenko-Conley.