About

Jason Beckfield is the Robert G. Stone Jr. Professor of Sociology at Harvard University and the Associate Director of the Center for Population and Development Studies. He earned his PhD in Sociology in 2005 from Indiana University in Bloomington and taught at the University of Chicago before joining Harvard's faculty in 2007. His research and teaching focus on social stratification, political sociology, population health, and climate change. Currently, Beckfield investigates the sociology of energy transitions, particularly in the petrochemical-rich region of the United States Gulf Coast. His work explores sociological dimensions of energy transition, including indigenous energy transitions on the US Gulf Coast, community engagement for energy transition and climate resilience on Cape Ann, and the social mechanisms involved in decarbonizing transportation. Beckfield leads the Climate Sociology Lab, which addresses sociological causes and consequences of energy transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, the social processes affecting the speed and success of decarbonization and resilience projects, and the relationship of indigenous communities in the United States to energy transition. His recent collaborative article in the Annual Review of Sociology sets an agenda for the sociology of energy transitions, extending his earlier research on the US Gulf Coast. He partners with the Lowlander Center of Louisiana on participatory action research on indigenous energy transitions, supported by various institutes and prizes. Additionally, Beckfield collaborates with colleagues at the Graduate School of Design on energy transition and resilience on Cape Ann and with the US Department of Transportation's Climate Change Research and Technology Program on the social science of decarbonizing transportation. Beckfield's climate sociology research builds on his earlier work on institutional change and social inequality. His scholarship includes influential articles and books such as an article in the American Journal of Sociology on inequality in the world polity, the book Unequal Europe on European integration and inequality published by Oxford University Press, and Political Sociology and the People's Health, also published by Oxford University Press. Since joining Harvard's Department of Sociology in 2006, he has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses and served in various administrative roles including Chair of Sociology, Director of Graduate Studies, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Associate Director of the Center for Population and Development Studies.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Demography
• Geography
• Environmental health
• Demographic economics
• Economics
• Medicine
• Nursing
• Economic growth
• Development economics

Selected publications

• Health, Climate Change, and Stratification

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2025-12-18

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This chapter motivates, defines, and illustrates new research agendas connecting social stratification, population health, and climate change. The authors use the cases of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change to illustrate how macroscopic ecological shocks work through and change systems of social stratification. They approach the question of how social stratification, population health, and climate change relate from the perspective of institutional pragmatism and focus on institutional arrangements—the “rules of the game”—as macroscopic causes of distributional outcomes. The authors analyze social action with Neil Gross’s pragmatist theory of social mechanisms and follow Nancy Krieger’s ecosocial theory of disease distribution. Developing an analytical conversation among these theories generates new research questions and new hypotheses for advancing the field of social stratification by answering urgent questions about the distribution of population health in climate change.

  PublisherDOI

• When trusting the state is not enough: broader institutional trust and public support for energy transition policies

  Environmental Sociology · 2024-07-26 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The Social Impacts of Supply-Side Decarbonization

  Annual Review of Sociology · 2023-07-31 · 21 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  From the earliest studies examining the impacts of the coal-powered Industrial Revolution, the field of sociology has possessed an intimate, if often implicit, interest in the interconnectedness of fossil fuels and modernity. With the looming climate crisis, the world must rapidly wean itself from these resources in favor of others that emit little to no greenhouse gasses. And while this energy transition will likely have profound social implications, it has only recently begun to receive sustained attention from sociologists across subfields. Consequently, although debates have emphasized the technological and market dimensions of this shift, its relational dimensions and human aspects have remained relatively marginal. In this article, we review research on the social impacts of fossil fuel production and transitions to renewables. Such work is critical and urgent, since the main barriers to combating the climate crisis are neither technological nor economic; they are, instead, deeply social.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Novel Use of Latent Class Analysis to Identify Patterns of Workplace Hazards among Informally Employed Domestic Workers in 14 Cities, United States, 2011–2012

  Annals of Work Exposures and Health · 2022-04-14 · 9 citations

  article

  INTRODUCTION: Few studies, mostly descriptive, have quantitatively analyzed the working conditions of domestic workers (DWers) informally employed by private households in the USA. These workers are explicitly or effectively excluded from numerous workplace protections, and scant data exist on their exposures or how best to categorize them. METHODS: We analyzed data from the sole nationwide survey of informally employed US DWers with work-related hazards data, conducted by the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the University of Illinois Chicago Center for Urban Economic Development, and the DataCenter in 14 US cities (2011-2012; N = 2086). We used exploratory latent class analysis to identify groups of DWers with distinct patterns of exposure to 21 self-reported economic, social, and occupational workplace hazards (e.g. pay violations, verbal abuse, heavy lifting). We then used multinomial logistic latent class regression to examine associations between workers' individual, household, and occupational characteristics and latent class membership. RESULTS: Among the 2086 DWers, mean age was 42.6 years, 97.3% were women, 56.0% Latina/o, 26.5% White, 33.2% undocumented immigrants, and 11.7% live-in. 53.5%, 32.0%, and 14.5% primarily worked doing housecleaning, child care, and adult care, respectively. 49.9% of workers reported ≥3 hazards. Latent class analysis identified four groups of DWers doing: 'Low hazard domestic work' (lowest exposure to all hazards), 'Demanding care work' (moderate exposure to pay violations [item response probability (IRP) = 0.42] and contagious illness care [IRP = 0.39]), 'Strenuous cleaning work' (high exposure to cleaning-related occupational hazards, such as climbing to clean [IRP = 0.87]), and 'Hazardous domestic work' (highest exposure to all but one hazard). Covariates were strongly associated, in many cases, with latent class membership. For example, compared to other DWers, DWers doing 'hazardous domestic work' had the largest predicted probability of being economically insecure (0.53) and living-in with their employers (0.17). CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that informally employed US DWers experience distinct patterns of workplace hazards, and that it is informative to characterize DWers' exposures to different sets of multiple hazards using latent class analysis.

  PublisherDOI

• Workplace hazards and health among informally employed domestic workers in 14 cities, United States, 2011-2012: using four approaches to characterize workers’ patterns of exposures

  medRxiv · 2022-06-27

  preprintOpen access

  ABSTRACT Objectives We characterized informally employed US domestic workers’ (DWers) exposure to patterns of workplace hazards, as well as singular hazards, and examined associations with DWers’ work-related and general health. Methods We analyzed cross-sectional data from the sole nationwide survey of informally employed US DWers with work-related hazards data, conducted in 14 cities (2011-2012; N=2,086). We characterized DWers’ exposures using four approaches: single exposures (n=19 hazards), composite exposure to hazards selected a priori , classification trees, and latent class analysis. We used city fixed effects regression to estimate the risk ratio (RR) of work-related back injury, work-related illness, and fair-to-poor self-rated health associated with exposure as defined by each approach. Results Across all four approaches—net of individual, household, and occupational characteristics and city fixed effects—exposure to workplace hazards was associated with increased risk of the three health outcomes. For work-related back injury, the estimated RR associated with heavy lifting (the single hazard with the largest RR), exposure to all three hazards selected a priori (did heavy lifting, climbed to clean, worked long hours) versus none, exposure to the two hazards identified by classification trees (heavy lifting, verbally abused) versus “No heavy lifting,” and membership in the most-versus least-exposed latent class were, respectively, 3.4 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.7 to 4.1); 6.5 (95% CI 4.8 to 8.7); 4.4 (95% CI 3.6 to 5.3), and 6.6 (95% CI 4.6 to 9.4). Conclusions Measures of joint work-related exposures were more strongly associated than single exposures with informally employed US DWers’ health profiles. KEY MESSAGES What is already known on this topic Informally employed domestic workers in the US and internationally are frequently exposed to physical and social hazards at work, but only two studies have quantitatively assessed these workers’ exposures to joint patterns of hazards, and neither examined such patterns in relation to health. What this study adds We characterized informally employed US domestic workers’ exposure to 19 single hazards and to combinations of these hazards, using three distinct approaches: composite exposure to hazards selected a priori , classification trees, and latent class analysis. Across all approaches to defining exposure, domestic workers exposed to worse joint patterns of workplace hazards, as well as to certain single hazards, experienced greater risk of work-related back injury, work-related illness, and fair-to-poor self-rated health. How this study might affect research, practice, or policy Results underscore the importance of conceptualizing and operationalizing measures that capture domestic workers’ patterns of exposures. Moreover, results support the use of a latent class approach for identifying potential subgroups of workers unduly burdened and—across multiple health metrics—harmed by employer practices.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Workplace hazards and health among informally employed domestic workers in 14 cities, United States, 2011–2012: Using four approaches to characterize workers’ patterns of exposures

  American Journal of Industrial Medicine · 2022-10-12 · 3 citations

  article

  BACKGROUND: We characterized informally employed US domestic workers' (DWers) exposure to patterns of workplace hazards, as well as to single hazards, and examined associations with DWers' work-related and general health. METHODS: We analyzed cross-sectional data from the sole nationwide survey of informally employed US DWers with work-related hazards data, conducted in 14 cities (2011-2012; N = 2086). We characterized DWers' exposures using four approaches: single exposures (n = 19 hazards), composite exposure to hazards selected a priori, classification trees, and latent class analysis. We used city fixed effects regression to estimate the risk ratio (RR) of work-related back injury, work-related illness, and fair-to-poor self-rated health associated with exposure as defined by each approach. RESULTS: Across all four approaches-net of individual, household, and occupational characteristics, and city fixed effects-exposure to workplace hazards was associated with increased risk of the three health outcomes. For work-related back injury, the estimated RR associated with heavy lifting (the single hazard with the largest RR), exposure to all three hazards selected a priori (worker did heavy lifting, climbed to clean, and worked long hours) versus none, exposure to the two hazards identified by classification trees (heavy lifting, verbally abused) versus "no heavy lifting," and membership in the most- versus least-exposed latent class were, respectively, 3.4 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.7-4.1); 6.5 (95% CI 4.8-8.7); 4.4 (95% CI 3.6-5.3), and 6.6 (95% CI 4.6-9.4). CONCLUSIONS: Measures of joint work-related exposures were more strongly associated than single exposures with informally employed US DWers' health profiles.

  PublisherDOI

• U.S. state policy contexts and mortality of working-age adults

  PLoS ONE · 2022 · 41 citations

  • Sociology
  • Demography
  • Medicine

  The rise in working-age mortality rates in the United States in recent decades largely reflects stalled declines in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality alongside rising mortality from alcohol-induced causes, suicide, and drug poisoning; and it has been especially severe in some U.S. states. Building on recent work, this study examined whether U.S. state policy contexts may be a central explanation. We modeled the associations between working-age mortality rates and state policies during 1999 to 2019. We used annual data from the 1999-2019 National Vital Statistics System to calculate state-level age-adjusted mortality rates for deaths from all causes and from CVD, alcohol-induced causes, suicide, and drug poisoning among adults ages 25-64 years. We merged that data with annual state-level data on eight policy domains, such as labor and taxes, where each domain was scored on a 0-1 conservative-to-liberal continuum. Results show that the policy domains were associated with working-age mortality. More conservative marijuana policies and more liberal policies on the environment, gun safety, labor, economic taxes, and tobacco taxes in a state were associated with lower mortality in that state. Especially strong associations were observed between certain domains and specific causes of death: between the gun safety domain and suicide mortality among men, between the labor domain and alcohol-induced mortality, and between both the economic tax and tobacco tax domains and CVD mortality. Simulations indicate that changing all policy domains in all states to a fully liberal orientation might have saved 171,030 lives in 2019, while changing them to a fully conservative orientation might have cost 217,635 lives.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Inequality in Place: Effects of Exposure to Neighborhood-Level Economic Inequality on Mortality

  Demography · 2021-09-03 · 16 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This study contributes to the debate on whether income inequality is harmful for health by addressing several analytical weaknesses of previous studies. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics in combination with tract-level measures of income inequality in the United States, we estimate the effects of differential exposure to income inequality during three decades of the life course on mortality. Our study is among the first to consider the implications of income inequality within U.S. tracts for mortality using longitudinal and individual-level data. In addition, we improve upon prior work by accounting for the dynamic relationship between local areas and individuals' health, using marginal structural models to account for changes in exposure to local income inequality. In contrast to other studies that found no significant relation between income inequality and mortality, we find that recent exposure to higher local inequality predicts higher relative risk of mortality among individuals at ages 45 or older.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• New Measures of Economic Insecurity Reveal its Expansion Into EU Middle Classes and Welfare States

  Social Indicators Research · 2021-05-20 · 30 citations

  articleOpen access

  Economic instability, social changes, and new social policies place economic insecurity high on the scholarly and political agenda. We contribute to these debates by proposing a new multidimensional, intertemporal measure of economic insecurity that accounts for both its multiplicity and its dynamism. First, we develop three theory-driven, multidimensional measures of economic insecurity. Principal Components Analysis validates the measure. Second, we develop a dynamic approach to insecurity, using longitudinal data and a newly revised headcount method. Third, we then use our new measures to analyze the distribution of insecurity in Europe. Our analysis shows that insecurity is widespread across Europe, even in low-inequality, encompassing welfare states. Moreover, it extends across income groups and occupational classes, reaching into the middle classes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Julia Lynch (2020), Regimes of Inequality: The Political Economy of Health and Wealth, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, £75.00, pp. 294, hbk.

  Journal of Social Policy · 2021-05-21

  article1st authorCorresponding

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Nancy Krieger

  27 shared

• Jarvis T. Chen

  Harvard University

  15 shared

• Sofia Gruskin

  University of Southern California

  13 shared

• Pamela D. Waterman

  Harvard University

  13 shared

• Sigrún Ólafsdóttir

  University of Iceland

  11 shared

• Mathew V. Kiang

  Stanford University

  10 shared

• Arthur S. Alderson

  Indiana University Bloomington

  10 shared

• Brent A. Coull

  Boston University

  9 shared

Labs

• Climate Sociology LabPI

  Investigating the sociology of energy transitions, including indigenous energy transitions on the US Gulf Coast, community engagement for energy transition and climate resilience on Cape Ann, and the pragmatist social mechanisms of decarbonizing transportation.