Masking, the practice of hiding or distorting identifying information about people, places, and organizations, is usually considered a requisite feature of ethnographic research and writing. This is justified both as an ethical obligation to one’s subjects and as a scientifically neutral position (as readers are enjoined to treat a case’s idiosyncrasies as sociologically insignificant). We question both justifications, highlighting potential ethical dilemmas and obstacles to constructing cumulative social science that can arise through masking. Regarding ethics, we show, on the one hand, how masking may give subjects a false sense of security because it implies a promise of confidentiality that it often cannot guarantee and, on the other hand, how naming may sometimes be what subjects want and expect. Regarding scientific tradeoffs, we argue that masking can reify ethnographic authority, exaggerate the universality of the case (e.g., “Middletown”), and inhibit replicability (or “revisits”) and sociological comparison. While some degree of masking is ethically and practically warranted in many cases and the value of disclosure varies across ethnographies, we conclude that masking should no longer be the default option that ethnographers unquestioningly choose.

This work builds on past research through a critical discussion of individuals' resistant actions, that is, their ability to enact change within their social systems. Although employees may appear to comply fully with constraining organizational policies and meanings in public discourse, alternative meanings may be constructed in private. Using examples of flight attendant resistance, the author analyzes hidden transcripts-the interactions, stories, myths, and rituals in which employees participate beyond the direct observation of power holders to provide an avenue to identify resistance and change in the organizing process. Such an understanding challenges the outdated ideal of transmissional meaning, questions organizational power by including the potential for resistance and change, and surfaces hidden constraints and resistances in employee discourse.

In the mid-1990s, changes to law enforcement strategies in New York City pushed many women working in the sex trade off of the streets and into the indoors. Increasing numbers of women began advertising sexual services in bars, over the Internet, and in print media, and conducting their work in their homes, hotels, and brothels. This study uses indepth interviews and participant observation to examine the impact of this change on the life and work of women working in New York's indoor sex trade. A critical finding is that as women move their work indoors, they begin to conceive of sex work as a profession and a career, rather than just a short-term means of employment. This "professional and careerist orientation" may have significant implications for the length of women's tenure in sex work and ultimately, for their ability to exit the trade completely.

Objectives. Given the recent rise of poverty in U.S. suburbs, this study asks: What poor neighborhoods are most disadvantageous, those in the city or those in the suburbs? Building on recent urban sociological work demonstrating the importance of neighborhood organizations for the poor, we are concerned with one aspect of disadvantage—the lack of availability of organizational resources oriented toward the poor. By breaking down organizations into those that promote mobility versus those that help individuals meet their daily subsistence needs, we seek to explore potential variations in the type of disadvantage that may exist.Methods. We test whether poor urban or suburban neighborhoods are more likely to be organizationally deprived by breaking down organizations into three types: hardship organizations, educational organizations, and employment organizations. We use data from the 2000 U.S. County Business Patterns and the 2000 U.S. Census and test neighborhood deprivation using logistic regression models.Results. We find that suburban poor neighborhoods are more likely to be organizationally deprived than are urban poor neighborhoods, especially with respect to organizations that promote upward mobility. Interesting racial and ethnic composition factors shape this more general finding.Conclusion. Our findings suggest that if a poor individual is to live in a poor neighborhood, with respect to access to organizational resources, he or she would be better off living in the central city. Suburban residence engenders isolation from organizations that will help meet one's daily needs and even more so from those offering opportunities for mobility.

Reports based on data collected from the 2000 U.S. Census reveal a dramatic transformation in the landscape of poverty and inequality in the United States in the 1990s. U.S. central city areas have witnessed considerable decreases in rates of poverty while, at the same time, suburbs have experienced significant increases in rates of poverty. Indeed, the outcome of this shift has resulted in demographic trends, quality of life issues, economic and social outcomes, and signs of physical deterioration that we often associate with deteriorating inner cities now being found in a number of American suburbs. Beyond basic demographic information, however, little is known about daily life in these areas. This paper explores the conceptual, analytical, and methodological contributions of Herbert Gans, specifically, his ethnographic study of the suburban community Levittown, for the study of these changes. The paper reviews the literature on suburban poverty in order to identify the ways in which Gans's work contributes to future suburban scholarship as students of the suburb grapple with trying to understand and examine this transformation and the impact that this suburban change has had on the daily lives of the poor living in these recently turned poor suburbs.