University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tag: Max Besbris

Housing and Consumption: Existing Tensions and Future Directions in Understanding Housing Search and Selection

Research Handbook on the Sociology of Consumption (ed. Jennifer Smith Maguire) (2026) Author: Max Besbris

Family Work Among the Astors

British Journal of Sociology (2026) Authors: Shamus Khan, Max Besbris, Estela Diaz Abstract: Within classical sociological accounts of capitalism, families are curious remnants of the past. Contemporary elite sociology dismisses the family in a different way: by primarily focusing on individual men. When the family does appear within elite studies, scholars frequently follow a stratification framework, …

Inclusive but Not Integrative: Ethnoracial Boundaries and the Use of Spanish in the Market for Rental Housing

Sociological Science (2023) Authors: Ariela Schachter, John Kuk, Max Besbris, Garrett Pekarek Abstract: Increasing Spanish fluency in the United States likely shapes ethnoracial group boundaries and inequality. We study a key site for group boundary negotiations—the housing market—where Spanish usage may represent a key source of information exchange between landlords and prospective renters. Specifically, we examine the use …

A Rapidly Changing Ecology of Aid: Accepting Help and Stigma in the Aftermath of Disaster

Qualitative Sociology (2024) Authors: Anna Rhodes, Max Besbris Abstract: Drawing on the human ecology framework, which describes social structure as dynamic and social action as environmentally contingent, this article examines behavior and attitudes around accepting help after disaster. Through two years of longitudinal in-depth interviews with 59 households in one community whose homes flooded during Hurricane Harvey, …

Pandemic Housing: The Role of Landlords, Social Networks, and Social Policy in Mitigating Housing Insecurity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

RSF: The Russel Sage Foundation Journal of Social Sciences (2024) Authors: Max Besbris, Sadie Dempsey, Brian McCabe, Eva Rosen Abstract: This article uses a subsample of low-income American Voices Project respondents who rent their homes to examine how households coped with housing insecurity at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, some renters reported more housing stability because …

Besbris and Walsh Receive Romnes Faculty Fellowships

IDS affiliates Max Besbris (Sociology) and Kate Walsh (Psychology, Gender and Women’s Studies) were recently awarded H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowships. The Romnes Fellowships recognize University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty who have had exceptional research contributions within their first six years of tenure. Max Besbris is associate professor of sociology and associate chair of the Department of …

Home Price Change and Ethno-racial Residential Segregation: Temporal Relationships at the Metro Level

Socius (2024) Authors: Alex Mikulas, Brenden Beck, and Max Besbris Abstract: Although rates of residential racial segregation and home prices are undoubtedly related, the temporal nature of the relationship has rarely been studied. Using fixed effects models in a cross-lagged framework, we examine how prior changes in segregation and home prices at the metro level …

Diversity Science Podcast: Max Besbris on How Housing Advertisements Might Impact Residential Segregation

  People who are looking for an apartment or other rental housing often start their search online, looking at websites like Craigslist to find a place to live. In this episode, we hear from sociologist Max Besbris about two studies he did with colleagues from Washington University and Michigan State. The studies look at how …

Marketplace: Max Besbris on Homebuying Among Members of Gen Z

IDS affiliate Max Besbris recently spoke to Marketplace about home-buying progress among members of Gen Z. Besbris, a sociologist who studies access issues in the housing and rental markets spoke about how Gen Z both benefitted from the low interest rates homebuyers saw through 2020, but have also been hurt by high housing costs. “The …