Research: Development and Norm Diffusion
*Indicates graduate student coauthor
Peer-Reviewed Articles |
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2026
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Utility and the Attention Commodity: Contradictions in Mobile ICT Use in the Global South
Kim, Jessica and Aarushi Bhandari Sociology of Development Abstract
While scholarship on information and communication technologies for development (commonly referred to as ICT4D) emphasizes the technological utility of information and communication technology (ICT) expansion for fostering global development and solving global poverty, critical approaches highlight the technologies’ adverse effects. Although these perspectives have been historically placed in opposition to each other, in this paper, we use a novel data set on mobile phone use patterns in 27 Global South countries to evaluate both perspectives simultaneously. We draw from data produced by the GSMA, an organization of mobile phone network providers with access to granular data on Global South mobile phone use, ranging from social networking to agricultural support. Descriptive usage patterns and multivariate regression analyses reveal an intriguing contradiction: while people with greater access to ICTs are more likely to enjoy previously inaccessible utilities like healthcare information and government services, they are also more likely to contribute their attention as a commodity for the profit of tech companies. This suggests that reaping the development benefits of ICTs is not possible without accepting the political-economic risks—unless ICT companies and organizations are more thoroughly regulated to prevent extractive practices. |
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2026
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The Global Rise in Children’s ADHD Prevalence: A Macro-Sociological Explanation
Tuncer-Ebetürk, Irem, Jessica Kim, and Yasemin Nuhoğlu Soysal (equal authorship) Social Forces 104(4):1607-1629 Abstract
In the past three decades, the global diagnosis rate of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has grown drastically. While existing sociological studies demonstrate the complexity of ADHD diagnoses and treatment in specific national contexts, their ability to explain ADHD’s global growth is limited. In this article, starting from a macro-sociological perspective and drawing on world society theory, we empirically investigate the prevalence of ADHD diagnosis rates across 135 countries from 1996 to 2019. We find that the increasing rates of ADHD diagnosis worldwide since the 1990s are linked to two interconnected global cultural processes: (1) the global rise and institutionalization of child-centered cultural perspectives and (2) the global diffusion of narratives that define ADHD as a health condition impairing children’s well- being and development. Our findings do not support alternative explanations such as a nation’s level of development (measured by GDP, poverty, democracy, and tertiary enrollment rates) or healthcare quality and universal access. These findings highlight the substantial inf luence of global conceptions of childhood and health on ADHD prevalence rates worldwide, while downplaying the importance of national conditions. We contribute to the existing sociological literature on ADHD in two key ways. First, by conducting the first cross-national, longitudinal study of ADHD worldwide we provide novel insights about ADHD prevalence at the world level while identifying the key global factors driving this trend. Second, in merging the existing ADHD literature with the analytical frameworks advanced by world society theory, we introduce a new conceptualization of ADHD as not only a medical disability but also a global cultural phenomenon and institutional priority. |
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2025
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Adopting Gender-Based-Violence Legislation, 1980–2015: The Role of Norm Cascades, Women’s Movements, and Level of Development
Seida, Kimberly, Candice Shaw, Jessica Kim, Sam Shirazi, and Kathleen M. Fallon Sociology of Development 11(4): 309–340 Abstract
Research suggests that the global passage of gender-based-violence legislation (GBVL) is linked to transnational women’s movements, alongside CEDAW ratification and regional diffusion. Unfortunately, most studies are qualitative, limiting the number of case comparisons. The few existing quantitative studies incorporate both developed and developing countries and do not focus on broad factors further contributing to faster passage of specific kinds of GBVL. Also, both qualitative and quantitative studies tend to focus on the primary decade of women’s transnational activism, the 1990s. Using event history models, we build on the world society literature by exploring the effects of norm cascades and women’s movements on the passage of two types of GBVL (protections and criminalization) in two time periods (1980–2003 and 1980–2015) and across three tiers of developing countries (upper- middle income, lower-middle income, and low income). We find strong support that CEDAW and regional diffusion of GBVL facilitate policy adoption and limited support that women’s movements do so. While the effects of regional diffusion are robust across laws, time periods, and income levels, the effects of CEDAW vary by position in the global economy, and the effects of women’s movement are significant only in CEDAW-ratifying countries for protections legislation during the full time period. |
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2024
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Inhibiting or Contributing? How Global Liberal Forces Impact Climate Change Skepticism
Kim, Jessica, Yasemin Nuhoğlu Soysal, Hector Cebolla Boado, and Laura Schimmöller* International Journal of Sociology 54(5-6): 530–564 Abstract
Although climate change remains a top environmental threat, significant portions of the global population continue to exhibit climate change skepticism. Currently, an extensive literature identifies the micro-level determinants of climate skepticism, often manifesting as a form of populist “backlash” to the adverse effects of globalization. However, the potential of macro-level global cultural forces—particularly embeddedness in liberal world society—to counter such pushback is unclear. Using multilevel modeling to analyze International Social Survey Program data spanning 37 countries from 2000 to 2020, we find that in general, increased embeddedness is linked to reduced climate skepticism. However, when global liberal forces encounter anti-liberal undercurrents within nation-states, a situation we refer to as cultural dissonance, the impact of liberal world society on tempering skepticism varies. Embeddedness mitigates skepticism at the national level, particularly within authoritarian regimes, but not at the individual level, especially among right-wing individuals. Paradoxically, world society also heightens ideological polarization of individual worldviews on climate change. By illuminating the contradictory role of liberal world society, which simultaneously exacerbates and inhibits anti-liberal, populist attitudes about climate change, we advance existing work examining the post-liberal turn and holds promise for making sense of other issue domains where liberal perspectives are contested. |
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2023
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Patterns of Global Democracy Promotion: Centrality in DINGO Networks, 1981-2015
Kim, Jessica and Andrew Collins* Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 9:1-4. Abstract
Despite the long-recognized role of international organizational networks in spreading global norms, including democracy, democracy-promoting international nongovernmental organizations (DINGOs) remain understudied. This visualization addresses this gap by plotting nations’ degree centrality within various DINGO networks over time from 1981 to 2015, thereby quantifying, for the first time, the configuration of nonstate democracy promotion networks. The results indicate that all networks are extremely dense, and nations’ mean centrality increases over time. Although dispersion tends to decrease over time, particularly after 2000, relatively high dispersion persists for one network: civil liberties. Thus, although more nations are increasingly integrated within DINGO networks overall, this trend is not uniform. The authors suspect that this difference reflects nations’ growing disillusionment with an enterprise that condemns civil liberties only when geopolitics allow and the subsequently declining traction of civil liberties norms. The results suggest a pivotal yet potentially controversial role of DINGO networks and motivate further research exploring their effects. |
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2020
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The Diffusion of International Women’s Rights Norms to Individual Attitudes: The Differential Roles of World Polity and World Society
Kim, Jessica Sociology of Development 6(4): 459-492 Abstract
Although existing studies of international women’s rights norm diffusion demonstrate the importance of international linkages for fostering change, few examine their influence on individual attitudes. Of those that do, none consider how ties to different world cultural domains—world polity vs. world society—impact this process, despite their divergent roots. Whereas world polity via CEDAW facilitates diffusion by holding states accountable, world society via women’s international NGOs (WINGOs) appeals to citizens by encouraging activism and awareness. Focusing on trends in developing nations, which remain underexamined but theoretically relevant, I assess the unique effect of each on diffusion to attitudes. I further expand the literature to examine the direct and interactive effects of national-level compliance (quotas) on this process. Using a multilevel analysis of World Values Survey data from 31 developing nations, I demonstrate that the duration of CEDAW ratification (world polity) and nationally mandated legislative quotas (national-level compliance) directly facilitate this diffusion, but WINGOs (world society) alone do not. Yet, where quotas exist and global ties are sufficient, WINGOs become significant, and CEDAW’s effectiveness increases. These results suggest that world polity and world society are both salient for diffusion to attitudes but should be considered separately and in conjunction with national-level outcomes that moderate their effects. |
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2020
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Democracy, Aid, and Diffusion: A Normative Approach to the Hybrid Regime
Kim, Jessica Sociology Compass 14(2): 1-16 Abstract
Despite its increased prioritization over the past several decades, democracy remains an elusive feat for many nations. This is due, in part, to a recent uptick in hybrid regimes, which possess qualities of both democracy and authoritarianism simultaneously. Among others, one especially salient explanation for hybrid formation is democracy aid itself, which often engenders superficial democratization while masking ongoing authoritarian practices. Still, despite considerable research examining how various factors—including aid—impact hybrid regimes, relatively little headway has been made. This is due primarily to continued disagreement over how to best measure and situate hybrids within the broader democracy literature. In this review, I demonstrate the role sociology can play in addressing this issue while advancing research on democracy, hybrids, and aid in a productive way. I argue that using sociological theories explaining the spread of global norms—such as democracy—to analyze hybrid regimes will facilitate improved understanding of democracy and the factors which shape it across the social sciences. |
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2018
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Decoupling International Agreements from Domestic Policy: The State and Soft Repression
Fallon, Kathleen M., Anna-Liisa Aunio, and, Jessica Kim. Human Rights Quarterly 40(4): 932-961 Abstract
Despite a dramatic expansion in states' adoption of UN agreements to protect human rights, these efforts often fail to deliver on the full promise of compliance within national contexts. In this paper, we examine the process and mechanisms behind this hypocrisy paradox—when states sign onto yet fail to comply with international agreements. Borrowing from repression and social movement literature, we identify one central process that states draw on to avoid garnering international condemnation while maintaining non-compliance nationally: soft repression. We highlight two mechanisms of soft repression: the mobilization of state resources (working at the macro-level to silence activists) and counterframing techniques (working at the meso-level to stigmatize activists and their goals). Using Ghana as a case study, we demonstrate how proposed domestic violence legislation lost ground when state actors mobilized resources to stall the bill and successfully counterframed the law as a foreign import and a threat to Ghanaian nationalism and families. |
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
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2020
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The Political Sociology of Democracy: From Measurement to Rights
Kim, Jessica and Kathleen Fallon In The New Handbook of Political Sociology edited by T. Janoski, C. de Leon, J. Misra, and I.W. Martin. Cambridge University Press. Abstract
What is the political sociology of democratization? Political scientists and sociologists alike have long theorized about democratic transitions, though their focus has changed signifcantly over time. Although early models of democracy and democratization were largely based upon the experiences of today’s advanced industrialized nations, more recent frameworks offer an updated paradigm to account for the circumstances late democratizers face. Factors that were once considered irrelevant to democratization are now deemed part and parcel of the literature, including issues of power, inequality, history, state capacity, and globalization. A political sociology of democratization, then, is the study of the inherently political process of regime change that employs a sociological analysis of the circumstances and actors that surround and shape transitions, such as those mentioned above. This chapter seeks to provide an overview of the literature that addresses issues key to the political sociology of democratization. We rst ground our discussion in the ever-changing international and historical circumstances that work to mold the contextual backdrop for de ning democratization. We then move to examine recent discussions within the literature that further provide nuances to measuring democratic citizenship. We conclude by discussing how local and transnational actors work together through social movements and global norm cascades to promote democratization |