Matthew Clair
Biographic Data
| ID | 3812688 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Clair |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Clair |
| SIGNATURE | CLAIR M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stanford University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 201 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Gendered expectations of future work-family conflict in the legal profession
The Cultural Study of Law and Social Crisis
This article reviews cultural sociological approaches to law and considers how they may sharpen analysis of social crises. As the United States faces myriad law-related crises, such as rising authoritarianism, regulatory capture, and police violence, the cultural study of law has become an urgent endeavor. Culture constitutes and shapes law, especially in unsettled times. Five concepts have dominated the cultural study of law: rules, norms, frame…
A Relational Theory of Inequality in the Criminal Legal System
This article outlines a relational theory of legal inequality through a review of recent studies of crime, law, and deviance. I argue that three relational mechanisms—claims‐making, social closure, and exploitation—sharpen insight into the way material (e.g., police services, jobs in prison) and symbolic (e.g., legal recognition, dignity) resources are unequally distributed within and between organizations in the criminal legal system. While the …
Courthouse funneling
Many legal disputes are resolved through settlement. The dominant theory explaining settlements – known as “bargaining in the shadow of the law” – assumes that litigants are informed, rational actors inclined to bargain toward a settlement prior to court proceedings. Yet many settlements are negotiated after litigants have appeared in court expecting to go to trial. This article argues that court organizational mechanisms play an undertheorized r…
Moral reconciling at career launch
Recent research suggests that college-educated young adults, especially those who are politically liberal and/or racially marginalized, exhibit moral reservations about their intended occupations. How do they justify entering occupations that conflict with their morals, and with what consequences? This article examines the case of 74 mostly liberal prospective law school students from a range of racial backgrounds followed over 2 years. In interv…
Black Sociology in the Era of Black Lives Matter
In 1973, on the heels of the hard-fought gains of the Civil Rights Movement, sociologist and civil rights activist Joyce A. Ladner edited a collection titled The Death of White Sociology: Essays on Race and Culture. Bringing together an impressive set of Black writers and academics, the essays sought to make “an early statement on the development of Black sociology [...and] to examine some of the historical forces which have acted upon Black soci…
Being a Disadvantaged Criminal Defendant
Researchers have documented the power of legal officials to administer sanctions, from arrest to court surveillance and incarceration. How do those subject to punishment interact with officials and attempt to subvert their power? Drawing on interviews and ethnographic observations among 63 criminal defendants and 42 legal officials in the Boston-area court system, this article considers how socioeconomically and racially disadvantaged defendants …
Black Intellectuals and White Audiences
Racism
The study of racism in sociology entails an examination of the social construction of “racial” groups and racial inequalities. Defined as an ideology of racial group superiority that justifies or prescribes a system of racial domination or exploitation, racism is perpetuated by the beliefs and behaviors of individuals and by the institutions in which they are embedded. In the post‐civil rights period, many scholars have focused on the shift from …
Racialized legal status as a social determinant of health
Chapter 2. The University as a Living Laboratory for Climate Solutions
The story of the University of California’s institutional goal of de-carbonization by 2025, already years in the making, was a key feature of a systemwide Summit on carbon neutrality and climate mitigation in the Fall of 2015. This report, commissioned by the Summit, represents a unique multi-campus, interdisciplinary collaboration, an attempt by one university system to harness its diverse intellectual resources to address the crisis of global c…
Destigmatization and health
Racism, Sociology of
Racialized legal status as a social determinant of health
Destigmatization and health
Moral reconciling at career launch
Recent research suggests that college-educated young adults, especially those who are politically liberal and/or racially marginalized, exhibit moral reservations about their intended occupations. How do they justify entering occupations that conflict with their morals, and with what consequences? This article examines the case of 74 mostly liberal prospective law school students from a range of racial backgrounds followed over 2 years. In interv…
Racism, Sociology of
Chapter 2. The University as a Living Laboratory for Climate Solutions
The story of the University of California’s institutional goal of de-carbonization by 2025, already years in the making, was a key feature of a systemwide Summit on carbon neutrality and climate mitigation in the Fall of 2015. This report, commissioned by the Summit, represents a unique multi-campus, interdisciplinary collaboration, an attempt by one university system to harness its diverse intellectual resources to address the crisis of global c…
Destigmatization and health
Racialized legal status as a social determinant of health
Black Intellectuals and White Audiences
Racism
The study of racism in sociology entails an examination of the social construction of “racial” groups and racial inequalities. Defined as an ideology of racial group superiority that justifies or prescribes a system of racial domination or exploitation, racism is perpetuated by the beliefs and behaviors of individuals and by the institutions in which they are embedded. In the post‐civil rights period, many scholars have focused on the shift from …
Being a Disadvantaged Criminal Defendant
Researchers have documented the power of legal officials to administer sanctions, from arrest to court surveillance and incarceration. How do those subject to punishment interact with officials and attempt to subvert their power? Drawing on interviews and ethnographic observations among 63 criminal defendants and 42 legal officials in the Boston-area court system, this article considers how socioeconomically and racially disadvantaged defendants …
Black Sociology in the Era of Black Lives Matter
In 1973, on the heels of the hard-fought gains of the Civil Rights Movement, sociologist and civil rights activist Joyce A. Ladner edited a collection titled The Death of White Sociology: Essays on Race and Culture. Bringing together an impressive set of Black writers and academics, the essays sought to make “an early statement on the development of Black sociology [...and] to examine some of the historical forces which have acted upon Black soci…
Moral reconciling at career launch
Recent research suggests that college-educated young adults, especially those who are politically liberal and/or racially marginalized, exhibit moral reservations about their intended occupations. How do they justify entering occupations that conflict with their morals, and with what consequences? This article examines the case of 74 mostly liberal prospective law school students from a range of racial backgrounds followed over 2 years. In interv…
Gendered expectations of future work-family conflict in the legal profession
The Cultural Study of Law and Social Crisis
This article reviews cultural sociological approaches to law and considers how they may sharpen analysis of social crises. As the United States faces myriad law-related crises, such as rising authoritarianism, regulatory capture, and police violence, the cultural study of law has become an urgent endeavor. Culture constitutes and shapes law, especially in unsettled times. Five concepts have dominated the cultural study of law: rules, norms, frame…
A Relational Theory of Inequality in the Criminal Legal System
This article outlines a relational theory of legal inequality through a review of recent studies of crime, law, and deviance. I argue that three relational mechanisms—claims‐making, social closure, and exploitation—sharpen insight into the way material (e.g., police services, jobs in prison) and symbolic (e.g., legal recognition, dignity) resources are unequally distributed within and between organizations in the criminal legal system. While the …
Courthouse funneling
Many legal disputes are resolved through settlement. The dominant theory explaining settlements – known as “bargaining in the shadow of the law” – assumes that litigants are informed, rational actors inclined to bargain toward a settlement prior to court proceedings. Yet many settlements are negotiated after litigants have appeared in court expecting to go to trial. This article argues that court organizational mechanisms play an undertheorized r…
Sociology (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Law (5 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (3 works) · Politics (3 works) · Racism (3 works)