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How a new “woke” elite uses the language of social justice to gain more power and status—without helping the marginalized and disadvantagedSociety has never been more egalitarian—in theory. Prejudice is taboo, and diversity is strongly valued. At the same time, social and economic inequality have exploded. In We Have Never Been Woke, Musa al-Gharbi argues that these trends are closely related, each tied to the rise of a new elite—the symbolic capitalists. In education, media, nonprofits, and beyond, members of this elite work primarily with words, ideas, images, and data, and are very likely to identify as allies of antiracist, feminist, LGBTQ, and other progressive causes. Their dominant ideology is “wokeness” and, while their commitment to equality is sincere, they actively benefit from and perpetuate the inequalities they decry. Indeed, their egalitarian credentials help them gain more power and status, often at the expense of the marginalized and disadvantaged.We Have Never Been Woke details how the language of social justice is increasingly used to justify this elite—and to portray the losers in the knowledge economy as deserving their lot because they think or say the “wrong” things about race, gender, and sexuality. Al-Gharbi's point is not to accuse symbolic capitalists of hypocrisy or cynicism. Rather, he examines how their genuine beliefs prevent them from recognizing how they contribute to social problems—or how their actions regularly provoke backlash against the social justice causes they champion.A powerful critique, We Have Never Been Woke reveals that only by challenging this elite's self-serving narratives can we hope to address social and economic inequality effectively.

How do Chinese enterprise groups navigate their growth, evolution, and restructuring in the age of globalization? The author provides profound insights into this question in his pivotal book.Central to this book is a deep dive into the characteristics and patterns shaping the growth and restructuring of Chinese enterprise groups in the global economic landscape. It outlines the goals, advantages, pathways, and strategies vital for these groups to amplify their international competitiveness. Drawing from a diverse research toolkit—ranging from literature reviews and theoretical explorations to comparative analyses, historical examinations, structured case studies, and empirical research based on empirical data— the author offers a comprehensive perspective. This monograph, already generating notable academic influence and societal impact, promises to be an invaluable resource for scholars, policymakers, and business leaders.It beckons readers to delve deep and decode the complexities of China's enterprise vigor in today's globalized world.

Entrepreneurs in Contemporary China explores emerging business practices and related phenomena in contemporary China. It examines new forms of business practices and argues that an emerging strata of private entrepreneurs has entered the economy in recent decades, an under-researched sector of Chinese society. It draws on extensive interviews with business founders and CEOs in present-day China and shows why business-related themes are important to understanding society itself, the forces that underpin social relationships more broadly, and the basis and nature of social change. In capturing the experiences of individuals and their companies amid social and economic challenges, and by uncovering innovative strategies employed by business owners, this book makes a significant contribution to the sociological as well as the business studies literature both through its empirical richness and theoretical innovation regarding considerations of trust, social networks, crisis, gender, and social exchange.

In a nation lacking a comprehensive social safety net, people often scramble to find private solutions to structural problems. While existing scholarship primarily focuses on how adults, particularly mothers, navigate systematic gaps in social support, Language Brokers shifts our attention to bilingual children securing crucial resources for their families. Drawing upon interviews with working-class Mexican and Korean American language brokers, as well as healthcare providers, and months of participant observation in a Southern California police station, Hyeyoung Kwon reveals how children of immigrants translate more than simple verbal exchanges. Living at the intersection of multiple forms of inequality, these youth creatively use their in-between status to resolve structural problems to ensure their families'basic citizenship rights are upheld in interactions with teachers, social workers, landlords, doctors, and police officers. In an era of widespread racialized nativism, Language Brokers provides a critical examination of American culture, laying bare the contradictions between the ideals of equality and the exclusion of immigrants. Kwon underscores that dichotomous and racialized understandings of'deserving'and'undeserving'immigrants—which are embedded in everyday interactions and institutional practices—inform the routine ways in which immigrant youth attempt to cultivate belonging for their families.

This book offers a timely and compelling look at religion and poverty, focusing primarily on the two largest world religions, Christianity and Islam, and considering religion and poverty in the United States and international contexts.Written by social scientists, the book incorporates relevant theology with a focus on how theology is lived in relation to issues of poverty. Topics include religion as it relates to social service provision, lived religion, philanthropy, faith-based social movements, public policy, and more. This volume synthesizes existing research on religion and poverty and includes new original research.It is an essential resource for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses focused on religion and poverty and is also an outstanding supplementary text for broader courses in religion, poverty, social welfare, philanthropy, and non-profit organizations.

This volume of the Annual Review for the Sociology of Religion adresses the challenges of the diversity and complexity of sociological approaches to Asian forms and dynamics of Asian or Asian-inpired ascetic ideas and practices. Eleven papers, written by scholars conducting researches in different geographic and cultural contexts, all contribute to enrich discussion on the relevance of sociological studies of Yoga, meditation and other ascetic techniques and traditions. Contributors are: Zuzana Bártová, Loïc Bawidamann, Jørn Borup, Sally SJ Brown, Ugo Dessì, Marianne Qvortrup Fibiger, Marc Lebranchu, Patrick S.D. McCartney, Lionel Obadia, Matteo Di Placido, Alexandros Sakellariou, João Paulo P. Silveira, and Rafael Walthert.