IDEOLOGIES AND

INEQUALITIES
Tressie McMillan Cottom
Sociology I Emory University
Microsoft Research I Social Media Collective
@tressiemcphd
www.tressiemc.com
Inequality Regimes


An analytic approach to understanding the interlocked
practices and processes that create and reproduce class,
gender, and racial inequality in various combinations.
Democratization


Imagine a world in which every single person on the
planet is given free access to the sum of all human
knowledge. Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia
The Roaming Autodidact
The roaming autodidact is a self-motivated, able learner
that is simultaneously embedded in technocratic futures
and disembedded from place, culture, history, and markets.
When You Cannot Roam, You Roost


One in 20 students at degree-granting institutions attends a
for-profit, 1 in 10 black students, 1 in 14 Latino students,
and 1 in 14 first generation college students is enrolled at a
for-profit college (calculated from NCES 2012 data)
When The Question is Inequality:
Methods, Ethics and Future Directions
Social media content as event history diaries
University content as institutional ethnographies
Composite renderings of group identities combine
quantitative and qualitative data
Multiple permissions and research sharing
Longitudinal and comparative case studies
Ethnographic content analysis
Quantitative narrative analysis
References
Acker, Joan. "Inequality regimes gender, class, and race in organizations." Gender & Society 20, no. 4 (2006): 441-464.
Boellstorff, Tom, Bonnie Nardi, Celia Pearce, and T. L. Taylor. Ethnography and virtual worlds: A handbook of method. Princeton
University Press, 2012.
Duriau, Vincent J., Rhonda K. Reger, and Michael D. Pfarrer. "A content analysis of the content analysis literature in organization
studies: Research themes, data sources, and methodological refinements." Organizational Research Methods 10, no. 1
(2007): 5-34.
Fourcade, Marion, and Kieran Healy. "Classification situations: Life-chances in the neoliberal era." Accounting, Organizations and
Society 38, no. 8 (2013): 559-572.
Kinser, Kevin. From Main Street to Wall Street: The transformation of for-profit higher education. Vol. 31. Jossey-Bass Inc Pub,
2006.
McMillan Cottom, Tressie. 2013. Are All Your Education Disruptors White? http://tressiemc.com/2013/05/31/are-all-of-your-
education-disruptors-white/ Accessed July 28, 2014.
Reich, Justin. 2014. MOOCs and the Science of Learning. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2014/07/07/justin-reich-on-
moocs-and-the-science-of-learning/ Accessed July 27, 2014.
Sosnowy, Collette. 2014. Using Hybrid Methods to Study Digital Media.
http://justpublics365.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2014/07/22/using-hybrid-methods-study-digital-media/ Accessed July 28,
2014.