Lauren B. Edelman - Working Law: Courts, Corporations, and Symbolic Civil Rights

The Chicago Series in Law and Society

Edited by John M. Conley and Lynn Mather

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LAUREN B. EDELMAN

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

CHICAGO & LONDON

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

2016 by The University of Chicago

All rights reserved. Published 2016.

Printed in the United States of America

25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN -13: 978-0-226-40062-4 (cloth)

ISBN -13: 978-0-226-40076-1 (paper)

ISBN -13: 978-0-226-40093-8 (e-book)

DOI : 10.7208/chicago/9780226400938.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Edelman, Lauren B., author.

Title: Working law : courts, corporations, and symbolic civil rights / Lauren B. Edelman.

Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016020355 | ISBN 9780226400624 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226400761 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226400938 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH : Civil rightsUnited States. | Discrimination in employmentLaw and legislationUnited States. | Discrimination in employmentUnited States. | Affirmative action programsLaw and legislationUnited States. | Affirmative action programsLaw and legislationSocial aspects. | Corporate governanceUnited States. | Corporate governanceLaw and legislationSocial aspects. | Sociological jurisprudence.

Classification: LCC KF 3464 . E 34 2016 | DDC 344.7301/133dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016020355

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI / NISO Z 39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

The paradox at the heart of this book is that discrimination and inequality based on race and gender persist in the workplace a half century after the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. My interest in this problem stems in part from growing up during the civil rights movement and the early implementation of civil rights law. Workplace inequality became my focus during graduate school at Stanford, where I was fortunate to study the sociology of law with Lawrence Friedman and the sociology of organizations with Dick Scott and then to collaborate on a project examining due process in organizations with Dick Scott, John Meyer, Ann Swidler, and Frank Dobbin. I recall that Ann Swidler lent me her well-worn copy of Philip Selznicks Law, Society, and Industrial Justice, and I was fascinated by his theorization of the role of legal ideals in shaping organizational governance. First as a student and years later as his colleague at Berkeley, I would have many conversations with Philip Selznick about the interplay of law and organizational governance. Although our perspectives differed, my research and thinking owes much to the wisdom he shared with me. Partly due to Selznicks influence, I decided to attend law school at Berkeley. There I began to read employment discrimination cases and was struck by the differences between sociological and judicial conceptions of organizational behavior. This apparent incongruity eventually led me to a series of research projects focusing on how social reform law shapes the governance of organizations and how organizations, in turn, shape the meaning of law. This book represents the culmination of that research, integrating its findings and developing a perspective that I call