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About Patricia Snell Herzog
Herzog's interests include social scientific investigations of charitable giving, youth and emerging adults, and religiosity. Her research focuses on how people are shaped by and shape their organizational contexts, with particular emphasis on understanding motivations and social supports for voluntary participation in religious and charitable organizations, including generational changes in organizational values.
With a commitment to informing practitioners and the general public, Herzog's research has received media attention in the New York Times, CNBC, ABC News, Seattle Times, The Atlantic, The Foundation Review, Philanthropy News Digest, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Nonprofit Times, and NPR.
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Blog postAs part of the virtual American Sociological Association annual meeting, on August 8-11, 2020, the Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity (AMSS) section is hosting 3 virtual engagement events.Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity (AMSS) Section Award CeremonyThe first event is a virtual award ceremony for the AMSS section that features award committee chair remarks and award presentations for the prestigious winners of the section's lifetime achievement, distinguished book, outstanding ar9 months ago Read more
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Blog postHere at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy we have been talking about building more bridges between academics and practitioners. Image Source: https://managemagazine.com/article-bank/theory-and-practice/building-bridges-between-theory-and-practice/Building bridges is certainly not a new idea. Indeed, despite the wide diversity of approaches taken in different academic circles, there are many examples of this exact language in publications from a range of disciplines. For example, authors ca2 years ago Read more
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Blog postThe other day, I was talking with a colleague who studies gratitude, Patrick Dwyer. In the midst of chatting at an event we were attending, we got to talking about the art of thank you cards. I asked Patrick if he was aware of any research on gratitude that focuses on the effect of thank you cards. Patrick is a social psychologist, and I am a sociologist. Naturally then, we both began thinking about the social effects of reading thank you cards, which led us to conjecture that the kinds of senti2 years ago Read more
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Blog postAs a follow-up to my recent blog on donor fatigue, I want to share one of the email responses I received from a philanthropic practitioner. This practitioner agreed to share the response, and we anonymized the referenced organization to: regional grantmaker associations."I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed reading your “Donor Fatigue” blog post. Through my consulting work, I spend a significant portion of my time working with members of a regional grantmaker association, which ha2 years ago Read more
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Blog postHere is a somewhat amusing question that I pose with a smile on my face, but which I also think provides an interesting example to think through some complex ideas on what generosity is. Is honking generous, or is the lack of honking generous? Image Source: https://www.memecenter.com/fun/7185967/honkers-gonna-honkTo unpack this question, I first need to provide some background. This idea originated from a conversation I had with a buddy at Rice University. We had both just transplanted ourselves2 years ago Read more
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Blog postIn meeting with a donor recently, I was reminded of an important and under-attended to concept: donor fatigue. This particular donor was obviously tired of “the ask.” Image Source: https://blog.winspireme.com/16-fundraising-best-practices-for-preventing-donor-fatigueAs a wealthy person who has the means to help with a wide variety of issues, and to make a significant contribution when helping, most of this person’s interactions entail an ask for (big) money. Wealthy people often get a bad rap to2 years ago Read more
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Blog post"Charitable giving by individuals is an important social phenomenon that is to date understudied by sociologists." This is the opening assertion of the article that I and co-author Song Yang published recently in the peer-reviewed journal: Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. Why is charitable giving understudied by sociologists? I answer that question below. In addition to providing background on our new publication, I also offer this blog as context for burgeoning social scienti2 years ago Read more
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Blog postOne of my students recently shared with me this gif of "adulting," the process of having to figure out how to become an adult and beginning to act like an adult, whether one really wants to or not. Here are the three things I love about this gif:1. The word adulting is a verb, a process of doing certain actions that signify a transition into adult roles. That this gif is about an escalator in motion is the perfect visual for the action of adulting.2. Adulting and the life stage of emer2 years ago Read more
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Blog post"The significance of citations goes far beyond energising and rewarding academic competition" (Dunleavy 2017). Read more in this blog called, "Citations are more than merely assigning credit - their inclusion (or not) conditions how colleagues regard and evaluate your work." Source:http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2017/04/06/citations-are-more-than-merely-assigning-credit/?utm_content=buffer5e17c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=b3 years ago Read more
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Blog post"A social fact is to be recognized by the power of external coercion which it exercises or is capable of exercising over individuals, and the presence of this power may be recognized in its turn either by the existence of some specific sanction or by the resistance offered against every individual effort that tends to violate it." - Emile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological MethodWhat does it mean to say there are "social facts"?3 years ago Read more
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Blog postCheck out these top 15 tips for revising journal articles...15 top tips for revising journal articles by Deborah Luptonhttps://simplysociology.wordpress.com/2017/01/10/15-top-tips-for-revising-journal-articles/?utm_content=buffer9b1e5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=bufferImage Source:http://gwosdow.com/2015/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Writing-Tips.jpg3 years ago Read more
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Blog post"In an immediate sense just as in a symbolic sense, in a physical as well as a spiritual sense we are, at each moment, the ones who separate what is connected and connect what is separate."-Simmel, Bridge & Door3 years ago Read more
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Blog postIn teaching online, I have decided I must find ways to integrate some of my favorite aspects of teaching in class in an electronic environment. One of the things I love the most is seeing all the students' faces and getting to interact with them in ways that reveal who they are. Here is an assignment that I adapted from similar assignments I found on the internet in order to get to see a bit of who my students are in e-format...Note that this assignment was given as the very first thing students3 years ago Read more
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Blog postAt this time of year, I am reminded of the need for students to be taught the peer review process.Image Source: https://redlink.com/challenges-in-peer-review/I must admit that I am still repeatedly surprised by how deeply some students resist the notion of peer review. That said, I am cognitively aware of American culture, including the predominant assumption that individuals act independently and should thus be evaluated independently. Yet, at a more visceral and emotive level, I remain taken a3 years ago Read more
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Blog post“I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.”-award winning author James A. MichenerRevising is so critical to the art of writing!3 years ago Read more
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Blog postEveryday reminders for why I do this gig...and if you are a student - a reminder for how far a thank you email goes in making your professor's day, month, or year:)4 years ago Read more
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Blog postHere is an assignment I have given in class as a way to help students visualize themselves in social contexts and express their social identity in a format likely to be more familiar to them...Social Identity Collage: Make a photo collage of your social identity and upload it here.It must be uploaded as a picture file (jpeg, tiff, png), and it must incorporate your avatar (the same one you uploaded to the avatar introduction forum).Also include visual images that represent your social roles, cul4 years ago Read more
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Blog postHere is an assignment I had in class and some examples of my favorite student responses...Have you ever felt different, like a social "other"? A social theorist named Georg Simmel once said: "The stranger is close to us insofar as we feel between him and ourselves similarities of nationality or social position, of occupation or of general human nature. He is far from us insofar as these similarities extend beyond him and us, and connect us only because they connect a great many pe4 years ago Read more
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Blog postSomething I have been thinking about lately, an interesting typology of 7 career communities developed by Fulbright College of Arts & Science's Shane Barker, Director of the Advising, and Erica Estes, Employee Relations, in conjunction with O*Net https://www.onetonline.org/.Big Data, Energy & InnovationSECTORS / Big Data Analytics / Oil & Gas / Alternative Energy Sciences / Computer Programming / Research & DevelopmentProfessionals within this career community utilize mathematica4 years ago Read more
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Blog postThis semester I have been experimenting with creative ways for my students to work through social theory by onnecting more directly with their daily life. For their final group project assignment I asked them to make Youtube videos designed with the average Youtube viewer in mind. The dual goals were to create a video that was entertaining, broadly construed, and informative to someone without a prior background in social theory. Below are my simple written instructions to them, and copied below4 years ago Read more
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Blog postAs a way to engage students in thinking about the classical social theorists through mediums they are already accustomed to, I gave them a group assignment to come up with the spoof posters called "demotivators" which poke fun at the typical motivational posters hanging in most offices.Their assignment was to come up with a "sociological demotivator" for each of the three classical theorists we have covered so far - Marx, Durkheim, Weber (we have not gotten to Simmel yet). Th5 years ago Read more
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Christian Smith's Souls in Transition explores these questions and many others as it tells the definitive story of the religious and spiritual lives of emerging adults, ages 18 to 24, in the U.S. today. This is the much-anticipated follow-up study to the landmark book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Based on candid interviews with thousands of young people tracked over a five-year period, Souls in Transition reveals how the religious practices of the teenagers portrayed in Soul Searching have been strengthened, challenged, and often changed as they have moved into adulthood. The book vividly describes as well the broader cultural world of today's emerging adults, how that culture shapes their religious outlooks, and what the consequences are for religious faith and practice in America more generally. Some of Smith's findings are surprising. Parents turn out to be the single most important influence on the religious outcomes in the lives of young adults. On the other hand, teenage participation in evangelization missions and youth groups does not predict a high level of religiosity just a few years later. Moreover, the common wisdom that religiosity declines sharply during the young adult years is shown to be greatly exaggerated.
Painstakingly researched and filled with remarkable findings, Souls in Transition will be essential reading for youth ministers, pastors, parents, teachers and students at church-related schools, and anyone who wishes to know how religious practice is affected by the transition into adulthood in America today.
Patricia Snell Herzog and Heather E. Price, sociologists who focus on philanthropy, draw on findings from the groundbreaking Science of Generosity initiative, which combines a nationally representative survey of adult Americans with in-depth interviews and case studies. For most Americans, they find, the important forms of giving are: donating money, volunteering time, and taking political action. Focusing on these three types of activity, the authors go on to examine and analyze multiple dimensions of resources, social status, regional cultural norms, different approaches to giving, social-psychological orientation, and the relational contexts of generosity. Herzog and Price conclude that giving is supported by "circles of generosity," which ripple outward in their reach to targets of giving. The book offers not just analysis, but practical tips for readers who want to increase their own giving, for parents modeling giving to their children, spouses desiring alignment in their giving, and friends and community members seeking to support giving by others. The authors also provide explicit fundraising ideas for nonprofits, foundations, and religious leaders.
Thought-provoking and accessibly written, American Generosity lays out a broad yet nuanced explanation of giving that sheds important new light on a topic that touches all of us in one way or another.
In Lost in Transition, Christian Smith and his collaborators draw on 230 in-depth interviews with a broad cross-section of emerging adults (ages 18-23) to investigate the difficulties young people face today, the underlying causes of those difficulties, and the consequences both for individuals and for American society as a whole. Rampant consumer capitalism, ongoing failures in education, hyper-individualism, postmodernist moral relativism, and other aspects of American culture are all contributing to the chaotic terrain that emerging adults must cross. Smith identifies five major problems facing very many young people today: confused moral reasoning, routine intoxication, materialistic life goals, regrettable sexual experiences, and disengagement from civic and political life. The trouble does not lie only with the emerging adults or their poor individual decisions but has much deeper roots in mainstream American culture--a culture which emerging adults have largely inherited rather than created. Older adults, Smith argues, must recognize that much of the responsibility for the pain and confusion young people face lies with them. Rejecting both sky-is-falling alarmism on the one hand and complacent disregard on the other, Smith suggests the need for what he calls "realistic concern"--and a reconsideration of our cultural priorities and practices--that will help emerging adults more skillfully engage unique challenges they face.
Even-handed, engagingly written, and based on comprehensive research, Lost in Transition brings much needed attention to the darker side of the transition to adulthood.
This book advances understanding of the manifestations, causes, and consequences of generosity. Synthesizing the findings of the 14 research projects conducted by the Science of Generosity Initiative and offering an appendix of methods for studying generosity, this comprehensive account integrates insights from disparate disciplines to facilitate a broader understanding of giving—ultimately creating a compendium of not only the latest research in the field of altruistic behaviors, but also a research roadmap for the future. As the author sequentially explores the manifestations, causes, and consequences of generosity, Patricia Snell Herzog here also offers analyses ranging from the micro- to macro-level to paint a full picture of the individual, interpersonal and familial, and collective (inter)actions involved in altruism and generosity. The author concludes with a call to stimulate further interdisciplinary generosity studies, describing the implications for emerging scholars and practitioners across sociology, economics, political science, religious studies, and beyond.
This edited volume is the result of a special issue that invited social scientific insights on responses to these questions. The background for this volume, summarized below, is the evolving life course developmental processes, as well as the culmination of numerous social and cultural changes in recent decades and their implications for socialization of religiosity, spirituality, and generosity. The included chapters focus on the faith and giving of youth and emerging adults, in the United States and internationally. The emphasis is on research that contributes breadth to social scientific understandings of religion, charitable giving, volunteering, generosity, youth, and emerging adults. We are especially interested in trends related to participation in religious and civic organizations, including changing cultural structures, beliefs, and orientations to faith and giving in less formal or non-organizational contexts.
There is no single template for student success. Yet, this book highlights common issues that many students face and provides science-based advice for how to navigate college. Each topic covered is geared towards the life stage that most college students are in: emerging adulthood. In addition to the student-focused chapters, the book includes appendixes with activities for students, tips for parents, and methods information for faculty. Supplemental website materials suggest classroom activities for instructors who adopt this book within first-year seminars and general education courses.
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.