Brief Account of Research Interests

My scholarship makes significant contributions in three research areas. The first is economic sociology and the sociology of markets. I introduced the sociology of work and occupations as a viable theoretical framework to study capitalist markets and market exchange. My unique perspective produced scholarship on sales work, sales workers and a novel focus on sales interactions as a venue for understanding the social infrastructure of capitalist markets.  Another major contribution of my research to the sociology of markets is the discovery of the meaningful entwining of gift and commodity exchange in advanced capitalist markets, the typology of gifts in markets which I developed, and my original focus on the cooptation of the socio-cultural institution of gift-giving by advanced capitalist markets. I’m considered a leading expert on gift economy in contemporary markets. My second major contribution is to the field of technology and work organization. My study of expert work in technical sales and particularly my conceptualization of the technicization of sales work in the information age, had a real impact on this field. My work played a part in the development of a distinct research stream called the sociology of work practice. My third significant scholarly contribution is the discovery of a new arena for the study of inter-ethnic relations in war torn countries – the workplace. Specifically, I engaged in a wide comparative study of workplace relations between Palestinian and Jewish workers in the Israeli workplace. My findings are applicable to a wide range of countries experiencing fierce ethno-national and religious conflicts, and also contribute to a more political sociology of work. My forthcoming book in Cornell Press serves )July 15, 0223) is a public recognition of my achievements in this area. In the following few paragraphs I elaborate on my research contribution in each area and point to the main publications that emerge from my scholarship. Then, I briefly present my future research plans.  

A. The sociology of markets: The sociology of markets is a small yet fast-growing area of expertise within the new economic sociology. For the past 15 years I have been active in research in this area. Most of my research is devoted to the study of economic structures and processes in various markets from the occupational and organizational perspective, and through the daily experiences and interactions of sales workers. Sales work has been neglected by both the sociology of occupations and the sociology of markets, although salespersons and buyers are the agents who constitute the market through their daily interactions. My dissertation and subsequent studies focus on sales interactions and seek to document the micro-structuring of markets, uncertainty and trust, obligation networks and the constitution of fairness and legitimacy on the sales floor.

A particular interest of mine is the persistent entwining of gift and commodity exchanges in contemporary capitalist markets. I have collected rich interactional and interview data and have published extensively on gift giving in capitalist markets. My studies demonstrate the role of gift giving in constituting the social infrastructure of trade, constructing networks of social obligation, and providing a venue for expressing identity and social distance, as well as emotions in market exchanges. For example, my work with Prof. Trevor Pinch from Cornell University yielded a 2013 publication in a leading academic journal Organizational Studies. There, we develop a dramaturgical analysis of economic exchanges and present the sales floor as an arena where buyers and sellers participate in a demonstration of social status, economic might, and moral attitudes. My latest publication in Social Media & Society (2022), presents gifting as a “conversion device” that allows buyers and sellers to oscillate between a distinct moral economy that co-exists with the socio-cultural institution of gift-giving.

B. Technology and work organization and the technical workforce

My studies in this area focused on sales engineers and described what I call the technicization of sales work. I was interested in understanding the sales of emergent technology, and the role played by highly qualified engineers in this process. The main question that I addressed in my research was: When do salespeople and sales work become technical in nature? To address these questions I developed a typology of markets and compared the impact of the structure of knowledge on the organization of sales practices in the mass market and in a non-standard market for emergent technology in the electronics industry. I found that the technicization of sales is manifested in a larger percentage of engineers in the sales force, an infusion of engineering knowledge into initial sales interactions, and a greater dependence on social and interactive skills. The technicization of sales is further compounded by the need to communicate contextual knowledge in order to customize cutting edge technologies. My first book, Selling Technology: The Changing Shape of Sales in an Information Economy, published by Cornell University Press in 2006, presents the main findings and theoretical arguments that emerged from this stream of research. In later years my studies within this field shifted their focus to the question of technological control and employee resistance in various work settings.

C. Inter-ethnic relations at work in war torn-countries: While the manifestations of the Palestinian-Jewish conflict in the political sphere have been thoroughly analyzed, the encounters between Jews and Palestinians in contemporary workplaces remain an important yet neglected area of research. In this ongoing project I explore how the fierce ethno-national, religious struggle between Jews and Palestinian Arabs in Israel affects the relations in ethnically mixed work teams in medicine, production and high-tech work. One of the project’s main theoretical contributions is the emphasis on the grassroots coping strategies employed by both Jewish and Palestinian-Arab workers in response to the workplace manifestations of the broader ethno-national, religious conflict. The grass-roots strategy of split ascription is an important finding that challenges both Contact Theory and Diversity Management (see my forthcoming book Between Conflict and Collegiality: Palestinian Arab and Jews in the Israeli Workplace, July 15, 2023). What type of grass roots coping strategies to minority group workers develop to deal with external ethno-national and religious pressures? Is the broader ethno-national conflict reflected in the career expectations and trajectories of minority group members? DO Jewish and Palestinian-Arab workers develop friendships at work? Does the minority group members’ use of their own language at work become a point of contestation? How is religion manifested in the workplace? Answers to these and other important theoretical questions are at the heart of my current research on this topic.