Here is a sample of my published research.
“No Laughter Among Thieves: Authenticity and the Enforcement of Community Norms in Stand-Up Comedy”
2018
American Sociological Review 83:933-958.
Click here for the article on the journal’s website. Science featured this article as an “Editors’ Choice” in the October 5, 2018 issue.
Why might observers label one social actor’s questionable act a norm violation even as they seem to excuse similar behavior by others? To answer this question, I use participant-observer data on Los Angeles stand-up comics to explore the phenomenon of joke theft. Informal, community-based systems govern the property rights pertaining to jokes. Most instances of possible joke theft are ambiguous owing to the potential for simultaneous and coincidental discovery. I find that accusations are not strongly coupled to jokes’ similarity, and enforcement depends mainly on the extent to which insiders view the comic in question as being authentic to the community. Comics who are oriented toward external rewards, have a track record of anti-social behavior, and exhibit lackluster on-stage craft are vulnerable to joke theft accusations even in borderline cases because those inauthentic characteristics are typical of transgressors. Vulnerability is greatest for comics who enjoy commercial success despite low peer esteem. Authenticity protects comics because it reflects community-based status, which yields halo effects while encouraging relationships predicated on respect. In exploring accusations of joke theft and their outcomes, this study illustrates how norms function more as framing devices than as hard-and-fast rules, and how authenticity shapes their enforcement.
This article won the 2019 ASA Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity Section’s Outstanding Published Article Award.
“The Layers of a Clown: Career Development in Cultural Production Industries”
2017
Academy of Management Discoveries 3(2):145-164.
Academy of Management members can download the paper here. To watch a neat whiteboard animation that briefly explains the paper, click here.
Drawing from a roughly 5-year participant-observation study of stand-up comedians in Los Angeles, CA, this article investigates the career development of artists within cultural production industries. This article introduces and defines the model of a layered career. In the case of stand-up comedy, individuals progressively move through three layers. Each exhibits its own distinctive organizational bases, core challenges, interactional processes, relationship types, and rewards. While development involves an individual matriculating through layers, it also requires artists to maintain their participation in prior layers, because each layer is ideally suited for different aspects of practice, creativity, and social support. Careers in these contexts involve building a durable infrastructure rather than a simple passage through discrete statuses. Furthermore, one’s career progress depends on the formation of relationships, particularly tight mentorships and arm’s length endorsements. This article ties the layered career model to cultural production industries wherein development typically involves informal institutions, decentralized organizations, the accumulation of tacit knowledge, and the cultivation of novel creative identities. This article emphasizes the applicability of the layered career model to the study of artistic careers. It also suggests this framework’s wider implications for research into contingent and informal employment.
This paper was a runner-up for Academy of Management Discoveries’ Best Paper in 2018 and earned honorable mention for the ASA’s James D. Thompson Graduate Student Paper Award in 2017. An earlier version was the runner-up for the AOM OMT Division’s Louis Pondy Prize for the best dissertation-based paper.
Working Papers
(Copies Provided upon Request)
Patrick Reilly. (2023) [paper about creative workers and their audiences]. Under Review
Kelly Patterson & Patrick Reilly. (2023) Unfocused or unemployed: Career histories as screening criteria in the hiring of broadcast television writers. Working Paper.
Spencer Harrison, Yanbo Song, & Patrick Reilly. (2023) Point Break: The impact of creative differences on directors’ careers and the process of creative vitrification. Working Paper.
Kelly Patterson, Patrick Reilly & Keyvan Kashkooli. (2023) Survival through staffing: Team composition and creative performance in television. Working Paper.
Pascale Frické, Natalya Alonso, & Patrick Reilly. (2021) Living the dream? Unpacking the causes and consequences of unforeseen work realities. Working paper.