A study at a Midwestern elementary school found the insults subtle and the conversations unpredictable.
Sociology
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NYT: Sociology
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Can You Believe How Mean Office Gossip Can Be?
2 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm -
Memphis
1 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmChuck Berry’s “Memphis, Tennessee” has been haunting me the metrical precision of the lyrics, its emotional realism and, of course, the revelation in the penultimate line. -
French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality
30 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pmParis’s bike-rental system has inspired a new urban ethos, along with some old urban curses: vandalism and theft. -
For Some Parents, Shouting Is the New Spanking
21 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pmMany in today’s generation of parents would never spank their children. But, incongruously and with regularity, this is a generation that yells. -
The Young and the Neuro
12 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pmThe work being done by members of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society isn’t dehumanizing at all, and it is leading to a host of revelations about how people interact.
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Google News: Sociology
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Texas State academic center design OK'd - Bizjournals.com
20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pmThe San Marcos MercuryTexas State academic center design OK'dBizjournals.comThe center will house the Psychology, Political Science and Sociology departments. It will also be home to various programs, including the Personalized Texas State regents approve design of new Undergraduate Academic CenterThe San Marcos Mercuryall 5 news articles » -
Educating on climate change - Newberg Graphic
20 Nov 2009 | 1:24 pmEducating on climate changeNewberg Graphic8-17 conference on climate change in Copenhagen, a group of students from the school's sociology department organized a local awareness event as part of a and more » -
Today's Living on 'Today's THV at 5': Networking's Glass Ceiling - Today's THV
20 Nov 2009 | 12:49 pmToday's Living on 'Today's THV at 5': Networking's Glass CeilingToday's THVMany professional women don't find out about top level job openings in their own workplace, according to Dr. Lisa Torres, a sociology professor at george and more » -
Seven receive Equity Awards - Clarion University News
20 Nov 2009 | 12:33 pmClarion University NewsSeven receive Equity AwardsClarion University News2009 Equity Award: Dr. Robert Girvan, professor of sociology at Clarion University since 1973, who plans to retire at the conclusion of the Spring 2010 -
'Fear of Food' Sociology of Food Pioneer - NewsBlaze
20 Nov 2009 | 10:27 am'Fear of Food' Sociology of Food PioneerNewsBlazeProfessor Stephen Mennell of University College, Dublin, will deliver a visiting speaker seminar on the 'Fear of Food and Fear of the Sociology of Food' on
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Yahoo! News: Sociology
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Darwin and Gods — for Kids (Forward)
20 Nov 2009 | 2:26 pmChildren’s book author Deborah Heiligman has been interested in religion since she was a teenager, majoring in religious studies in college. “When you look at a people and its religion, you’re looking at sociology, psychology, history, anthropology,” she said. -
Cultural factors help limit recession's impact (USA Today)
20 Nov 2009 | 12:25 pmUntil this summer, Loc Tran, 59, was a technician at Nortel, a global communications company that has facilities at Research Triangle Park here. Then she left and opened Pho' Cali, a Vietnamese restaurant. -
Anger and anxiety over fee hike at University of California (The Christian Science Monitor)
20 Nov 2009 | 10:06 amThe University of California Thursday decided on a 32 percent fee hike to make up for slashed state funding. Student protests flare on campuses. -
From Simple Noun to Handy Partisan Put-Down (New York Times)
20 Nov 2009 | 9:11 amThe suffix -er has become a marker of conspiracy theorists and fringe politics. -
AP IMPACT: Some lawmakers send few to academies (AP via Yahoo! News)
20 Nov 2009 | 7:28 amAs the nation's military academies try to recruit more minorities, they aren't getting much help from members of Congress from big-city districts with large numbers of blacks, Hispanics and Asians.
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Sociology Eye
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Wikipedia’s ‘increasing focus on quality and referencing’
20 Nov 2009 | 3:02 pmby paulabowles Many lecturers and teachers will recognise the feeling of disheartenment when confronted by an undergraduate essay containing multiple references to Wikipedia. Despite regular exhortations for students to resist its charms, its appeal seems almost overwhelming. Although the site is loved by many, its major selling point of completely open access (i.e. ‘anyone can contribute to or edit’ its entries) is precisely why academics shake their heads in frustration. However, in a recent interview with Emma Barnett of The Telegraph, Jimmy Wales (co-founder) appears to suggest that… -
Portable pornography in the public sphere: Convenient, offensive or hazardous?
17 Nov 2009 | 7:27 pmBy Rachael Liberman It’s one thing to experience the pornification of culture through public advertising (billboards, subway adverts), among other mediated formats. But what if someone sitting next to you on the subway is watching pornography on their iPod? In a recent Washington Post article, Staff Writer Monica Hesse questions the acceptability of portable porn, also known as “secondhand porn” to those experiencing forced exposure. Due to technological (portable) advancements, the consumption of digital pornography has moved from the domestic to the public. Instead of being subjected… -
Consequences of terror trials in NY: Re-traumatization and Revenge
16 Nov 2009 | 7:27 pmBy Dena T. Smith The announcement that several terror suspects, including Khalid Saikh Mohammed, implicated in the 9/11 attacks, will have their day in New York City courts was released last week. This news sparked fervent debate both between and within political parties for a range of reasons. Why civilian courts? Why in New York City? And what will the ramifications be? One of the possible consequences that has been relatively overlooked is how the incessant coverage of these trials will affect New Yorkers who, eight years ago, were arguably most directly affected by the 9/11 attacks due to… -
conference summary part 2: the internet as playground and factory
15 Nov 2009 | 11:46 pmby nathan jurgenson Following PJ Rey’s excellent summary of the Internet as Playground and Factory yesterday, I offer a few additional observations from the conference this past weekend, focusing on Web 2.0 capitalism, and Google as the primary target. The roughly 100 presenters were not joined by Google, as the company said that the conference content seemed “slightly anti-capitalist.” Much of the content, indeed, took the corporate ownership of our productive labor online to task. A common theme was how to discuss Marx’s Labor Theory of Value with respect to Web 2.0. Clearly,… -
Conference Summary Part I: The Internet as Playground and Factory
15 Nov 2009 | 12:26 amby pj.rey The New School held a conference last week that may be of interest to many Sociology Lens readers, so I have decided to devote this week’s entry to sharing some notes from the conference. The implosion of work and play was the most recurrent theme in the panels that I attended. The term “playbor” was frequently used to describe the product of this implosion. Panelists generally seemed to assume that playbor was a relatively new and increasingly prevalent phenomenon. However, one dissenter, an artist named Stephanie Rothenberg, argued that play and…
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Everyday Sociology Blog
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Solidarity: What Brings Us Together
19 Nov 2009 | 12:00 amBy Sally Raskoff Are you a member of a club? Have you joined any organizations and spent any time or money with the group and the other members? You might be experiencing something that Emile Durkheim wrote about. Durkheim’s concepts of organic and mechanical solidarity are fun to think about. Organic solidarity is based on interdependence and is the social glue that keeps society together in complex societies. Mechanical solidarity, based on homogeneity and similarity, is the social glue that keeps society cohesive in less complex societies. Durkheim saw in growing societies an… -
Everyday Sociology Talk: Majoring in Sociology
18 Nov 2009 | 8:33 amThinking of majoring in sociology? Members of USC's sociology club talk about why they became sociology majors. -
Losing Confidence: Americans and Social Institutions
16 Nov 2009 | 10:29 amBy Karen Sternheimer Do you feel less confidence in the government? In corporations? In the press? If so, your feelings reflect a general trend found in the most recent data from the General Social Survey, a nationally representative household survey taken every other year of American attitudes on a variety of issues. Since 1973 the survey has asked respondents how much confidence they have in a variety of American social institutions. Their 2008 survey results suggest that the public has less confidence in every major social institution (except the military) compared with 2006. Looking at… -
False Alarms and Copy Cats
12 Nov 2009 | 12:00 amBy Janis Prince Inniss MoBull Messenger is the University of South Florida (USF) emergency text messaging system that faculty, staff, and students can register for, in order to receive emergency notices. As I mentioned in a previous post, on the principle of not wishing to further enrich my cell phone provider, I do not have a texting plan. Yet, on October 5 I received 7 MoBull texts on my cell phone. I received the following text at 1:47 pm: “Alert Tampa Campus- EMERGENCY: Armed intruder on campus. Stay inside. Lock doors. Emergency personnel responding.” About 20 minutes later, the… -
War, Suicide, and Emotional Labor
9 Nov 2009 | 12:18 pmBy Sally Raskoff Janis Prince Inniss recently blogged about the cost of war and mentioned the rising rate of military suicides. As the New York Times reported, the suicide rate within the military is higher than that in the general population. The graph on the right shows the “self-inflicted death” rates from the Department of Defense from 1980 through 2008. While the peak in 1995 is disturbing, it is clear that the rates have been increasing since 2001. Military bases overseas and at home, including Fort Hood and Fort Bragg, have seen tremendous rates of – and been in the news for –…
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The Global Sociology Blog
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Bad Week For Afghanistan… When It Rains, It Pours
20 Nov 2009 | 11:56 amSo, first, Afghanistan is declared the most corrupt country after Somalia (which barely qualifies as a country anyway), then, this: Unicef’s state of the world’s children report 2009: Where is the worst place in the world to grow up? Afghanistan | News | guardian.co.uk via kwout What a shocking surprise that eight years of war have not improved the standard of living of the population, especially women and children. Oh, and on a related topic, this was interesting: Unicef’s state of the world’s children report 2009: Where is the worst place in the world to grow up? -
Fall From Grace – Sports and Stigma
20 Nov 2009 | 12:31 amAny fan of football (soccer for Americans) has heard of it – the infamy: The hand that gave France its qualification for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. For non-soccer fan, especially on this side of the Atlantic, that move is not allowed. It’s cheating. And this started a storm. Remember Howard Becker, deviance only matters if it is seen and noticed by the audience. In the age of widespread media and the Internet, this particular act of deviance did not go unnoticed even if the referee did not see it. And once deviance is noticed, sanctions follow. But what kinds of… -
Re-post – When Corruption Sustains Institutions
18 Nov 2009 | 11:26 pmIn light of yesterday’s post on the publication of the latest Corruption Perception Index, and the sorry state of affairs in Afghanistan (which earned the next to last spot with only Somalia faring worse) as described in the BBC today. One notes three traits in corrupt practices in Afghanistan: BBC News : Afghan corruption a political obstacle via kwout And the second one BBC News : Afghan corruption a political obstacle via kwout And the third one BBC News : Afghan corruption a political obstacle via kwout To broaden the discussion, let me re-post my summary of Keith Darden’s… -
The REALLY Cool Visualization Du Jour – Declining Empires
18 Nov 2009 | 1:16 pmVia Sean Carroll on Twitter, The 1960s make it all really visually cool but those were brutal years for the Global South. And yes, where are the non-Western Empires? -
The Depressing Graph Du Jour – Food Insecurity in the US
18 Nov 2009 | 12:32 amHungry America: food insecurity, state by state | News | guardian.co.uk via kwout And here are some more specific data about this appalling state of affairs and what should be the shame of the nation considering how much money have been funneled to financial institutions and will be funneled to the health insurance sector: Record numbers go hungry in households in the US | World news | guardian.co.uk via kwout Maybe it is time for the UN to send some food aid to the United States? Because heaven forbid that this country reconsider its economic organization of food production and distribution,…
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American Sociological Assn.
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Men's Masculinity Beliefs Are a Barrier to Preventative Healthcare
Middle-aged men who strongly idealize masculinity are almost 50 percent less likely than other men to seek preventative healthcare services, according to a study—the first population-based analysis of men’s masculinity beliefs and preventative healthcare compliance—to be presented at the 104th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. -
Household Financial Contributions by Adult Live-in Children Are Influenced by Family Structure
Single parents are more likely than parents in nuclear families to receive financial help from their grown, live-in children, according to research to be presented at the 104th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. -
Temp Work Strains Employee Mental Health
Workers hired for temporary, contract, casual or fixed-term positions are at risk for increased mental health problems, according to research to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. -
Mothers, But Not Fathers, Follow Their Own Moms' Parenting Practices
When it comes to how they raise their children, mothers today tend to follow the same practices their own mothers did, according to a new study that looked at parenting practices across two generations. -
Study: Higher Education Playing Bigger Role in Gender Wage Gap
While higher education has helped women narrow their long-running wage gap with men, there is one college-related factor that has becoming increasingly important in perpetuating that gap, according to new research.
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Intute: Social Sciences
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Intute service downtime
18 Nov 2009 | 1:37 amThe Intute service, including Informs will be unavailable on Tuesday 24th November 2009 between the hours of 8am and 12 noon, while we carry out essential server maintenance. The Virtual Training Suite will be available as normal. Apologies for any inconvenience caused. -
Oil rigs and oil spills
17 Nov 2009 | 3:42 amOil rig bursts into flames after massive spill (The Times) Fire on Australian oil rig delays plans to stop leak into Timor Sea (Guardian) Australia oil well leak ‘plugged’ (BBC) The Australian government is investigating the operator of the West Atlas oil rig, PTTEP to see if it caused the disaster. Exploration and Production in the Marine Environment (Australian policy) Workshop on oil spill response (Ghanaian Government) see also: How Oil Drilling Works Oil Platform (Wikipedia) HSE : Offshore Oil and Gas Resources -
Should the Queens Speech be cancelled?
17 Nov 2009 | 12:47 amThis week Nick Clegg sparked a storm by suggesting that it wasnt worth having a Queen’s speech. See some more on this topic via his blog. But what is the real purpose of the Queens speech- what role does it serve? Find out more from these Intute selected resources. The Parliament site has a good FAQ section which explains the process. You can find the timetables of events for tomorrow and read transcripts of previous speeches. The new BBC democracy Live site will have coverage. Also providing good coverage and discussion is the Guardian newspaper and as events unfold during the day. It… -
Where can I find business statistics?
16 Nov 2009 | 7:56 amHelp! You have an assignment which includes statistics but are not sure where to find reliable information. Google just found 600 million results! What to do? Intute can suggest some good starting points. It has a Business Statistics section with some useful websites. Looking for UK statistics? The key website is National Statistics Online, the official UK government website. It’s divided up by category – eg. crime, economy, children and population. It publishes the latest reports on the economy, for example the Economic & Labour Market Review. There ’s… -
Deal or No Deal for economics teaching
13 Nov 2009 | 8:48 amThe popular TV game show Deal or No Deal has been turned into an economics classroom experiment by John Sloman, Director of the Economics Network. The game can be used to demonstrate expected value and risk attitudes and students can use it to make calculations. It can also demonstrate the diminishing marginal utility of income. An Excel file can be used by the lecturer to control the game and play the part of the banker, while students discuss the risks, psychology and odds at each stage of the game. Deal or No Deal has been a topic for a number of popular economics articles available via…
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Routledge Sociology Arena
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The Routledge Companion to Social Theory
20 Nov 2009 | 12:20 pmThe Routledge Companion to Social Theory Edited by Anthony Elliott The Routledge Companion to Social Theory provides an authoritative, comprehensive and provocative introduction to the key traditions of thought in social theory today. This ground-breaking reference work brings together major contributors, both established and emergent new voices, to reflect on the ways in which social theory sheds light on the contemporary social world. Represented are: the traditions of classical social thought symbolic interactionism psychoanalysis structuralism, post-structuralism and postmodernism… -
Models in Statistical Social Research
20 Nov 2009 | 12:20 pmModels in Statistical Social Research By G¨otz Rohwer Models in Statistical Social Research provides a comprehensive insight of models used in statistical social research based on statistical data and methods. While traditionally understood statistical models relate to data generating processes which presuppose facts, this book focuses on analytical models which relate to substantial processes generating social facts. It formally develops individual-level, population-level, and multilevel versions of such models and uses these models as frameworks for the definition of notions of functional… -
Persistent Inequality
18 Nov 2009 | 10:18 amPersistent Inequality Contemporary Realities in the Education of Undocumented Latina/o Students By Maria Pabon Lopez, Gerardo R. Lopez The children of undocumented migrants in the U.S. are trapped at the intersection of two systems in crisis: the public education system and the immigration law system. Based on a long tradition of scholarship in Latino education and on newer critical race theory ideas, Persistent Inequality answers burning questions about how educational policy has to rise to meet the unique challenges of undocumented students’ lives as well as those which face nearly all… -
Legislating Creativity
18 Nov 2009 | 10:18 amLegislating Creativity The Intersections of Art and Politics By Dustin Kidd How does political policy-making shape the creative activities of artists? Do the political interests of artists influence actual political practices in any way? Legislating Creativity examines the relationship between art and politics through an analysis of controversial art projects tied to the National Endowment for the Arts during the Culture Wars (late 1980s-1990s). Though there have always been tensions in government funding for the arts, these controversies intensified the public debates surrounding… -
Socialism the Active Utopia (Routledge Revivals)
18 Nov 2009 | 10:18 amSocialism the Active Utopia (Routledge Revivals) By Zygmunt Bauman Rather than contributing to the long-standing discussion about the characteristics of the society that socialism proposes to establish, this Routledge Revival, initially published in 1976, aims to explore the impact of the ‘living utopia’ of socialism on the development of modern society. It begins with an analysis of the role of utopia in general, and of the socialist utopia in particular; Bauman considers the opposition between ‘utopian’ and ‘scientific’ social thought; He presents socialism as the…
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Metafilter: Sociology
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Sharif wore a cape, and other soch bio's.
25 Oct 2009 | 2:33 pmAre there books on the history of sociology (or social psycology) told through the sociologists? I finished Bill Brysons book "A brief history of everything" a few months back and enjoyed it. Today I heard an anicdote about my first love, social psycology. It mentioned that a snide remark from Freud to Gordon Allport about Allport being a dirt fetisisht helped to speed up the movement away from Freudian psych in America. I want more! Does a book like this exist? -
Por favor: help me find "cultural immersion" podcasts
15 Oct 2009 | 10:34 pmI used to enjoy a podcast titled "Josh in Japan" produced by an ordinary guy living in Japan who talked about his daily experiences adjusting to Japanese culture. I am looking for other podcasts in this vein. I'm looking for podcasts in English, preferably by Americans living in foreign countries during the time of their podcasts (although I'd enjoy podcasts by non-Americans adjusting to U.S. culture as well). I don't want travel guides, documentary-style podcasts or those styled as lessons, nor do I want to listen to inanity or immaturity. Josh's podcasts ranged from funny to serious, and… -
Uh...hang on, just give me a minute.
12 Oct 2009 | 11:34 amWhat is the most important scientific question of our time? I volunteer at an observatory for a local amateur astronomers' society and one of the guests at a recent star party came up and asked, "What do you think is the most important question science has to answer right now?" Obviously, there is no right or wrong answer, but after the party was over a lot of us were still talking about this question and I ended up learning a great deal from my fellow club members that I might otherwise not have. The next time this question gets asked I want to be prepared to offer a variety of answers from… -
Soch. Programs studying us and me
8 Oct 2009 | 7:50 amWhat are some sociology phd programs where I would be supported in (where research is already being done) studying the interaction between social-psycology (micro-interaction) and culture. I am specifically looking for programs that will allow empirical and pragmatic research along side critical research, and has cultural sociologists and social psychologists. I focus on the functions of social conflict and how individual conflict styles transform society. I would feel remiss if I did not produce research that could be used by practitioners and policy makers. This is why empirical and… -
Baby fish mouth
23 Sep 2009 | 7:06 amWhat are the traits documented to be universal across all cultures? Trying to google it, but with no luck. I was talking about baby talk with someone recently and he said that baby talk was one of the 13 things found in every culture. [Not sure about the number.] Meaning, we all do it. I thought was really interesting and would like to know more. He said he couldn't remember the other ones but thinks he read it somewhere. Does this ring a bell with anyone? I'd like to know the others. Thanks.
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Our Society Today
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Is America still the world’s policeman?
2 Nov 2009 | 7:12 amSince the invasion of Iraq, US foreign policy has been subject to much criticism. During the Cold War American hegemony was largely accepted by the West, whilst in the 1990s America was perceived to be acting as a force for good in the world, leading campaigns of humanitarian intervention. The Iraqi debacle has led to a great deal of criticism not least from firm allies in Europe, with calls for a return to the more multilateral approach that was argued to have characterised the 1990s and for regional and emerging powers such as Brazil to be given permanent seats on the UN Security Council. -
Undergoing Maintenance
6 May 2009 | 4:51 amWelcome to the Our Society Today blog. We are currently undergoing maintenance and upgrade work, please come back again soon! -
What do card tricks have to do with Psychology?
2 Apr 2009 | 9:00 amWhat do card tricks have to do with Psychology? - April 2nd, 2009 Our Society Today, Psychology Take a look at the video, by Professor David and while you watch think: what has Psychology got to do with this? Then scroll down to find out what you are really seeing. Here the colour changing card trick shows an odd event called change blindness. Research from the 1970s looked at why people can not see changes in flim or two rapidly shown photos. So I wanted to know why we can not spot the different when the images are moving! This is what Richard Wiseman had to say: “The plot of the card… -
Give us all absolute freedom: chaos or order?
16 Mar 2009 | 9:00 amTurn on the TV and you’ll hear it. Pop on your favourite radio station and its there too. In fact it’s everywhere you look. The banks have collapsed. The UK is in recession. Those at the top wanted too much money at the expense of the UK population. But is this view accurate? It seems quite fitting that given all of the talk around economics, some research has come to light that looks at how individual behaviour affects society. If you have studied politics or travelled a lot, you might have seen that different countries have different forms of social government - some are capitalist,… -
Sisters and Brothers
13 Mar 2009 | 9:00 amPointless arguing over who was going to get the better looking Barbie doll, building a protection fort in my back garden and planning to ‘run away from home’ for no apparent reason. These are some of the bizarre and fond memories I can think of experiencing with my siblings. Like many people, I have found that I love to talk about the silly moments I’ve had with my brother and sister while growing up - which helped make me into the person I am today. With research from the Open University exploring the ways in which ‘siblings are important for children and young people’s social and…
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Keele University: Sociology Staff
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Sex trafficking: facts and fictions
12 Nov 2009 | 6:24 amBy Kelly Prince, PhD candidate in Criminology, Research Institute for Law, Politics & Justice, Keele UniversityOn 20th October, Nick Davies wrote an article for The Guardian which compared sex trafficking with the reports of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. An issue which is slowly developing a high profile in the UK, sex trafficking is just one form of human trafficking, a transnational crime which has attracted increased international attention in the last ten years. So, what can we learn from Davies’ article and the subsequent debate?Human trafficking is defined by the United… -
What is Sociology FOR? Part 2
11 Nov 2009 | 4:38 amBy Dr Dana RosenfeldDespite the muted grumbles of many outside of academia, sociological scholarship is relevant to a range of contemporary issues, is often readable and interesting to those within and without academia, and often has a deep impact upon how we view our own lives and social worlds. Sociologists are also private citizens engaged with social and political issues, and some mesh their academic and their political lives to good effect. A strong example is Alice S. Rossi, whose scholarship and political work deeply shaped the face of gender politics in the USA and beyond, and whose… -
The BNP, Racism, and Contemporary Europe
27 Oct 2009 | 1:57 pmMark FeatherstoneOn Thursday night 8 million people watched Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, appear on the BBC’s premier political debating programme, Question Time. The immediate reaction to Griffin’s appearance in the national press may have led one to believe that it was a complete failure for the racist right – on Friday 23rd October The Daily Express explained that ‘BNP Leader Nick Griffin is...A Complete Disgrace to Humanity’ while The Independent wrote that ‘The BBC gave him the oxygen of publicity. He choked’ – but my own reaction to his moment… -
New articles from Pnina Werbner
14 Oct 2009 | 6:39 amOur distinguished professor of social anthropology, Prof Pnina Werbner, has also published some new pieces recently. You can find more about her work by following the links:New article on the Public Sphere in a time of terror in the South Asian Diaspora journalNew article on dialogical subjectivities and ethical leadership among women in Botswana in the African Identities journalNew article on Tswana girls' puberty rituals and the problem of history in the American Ethnologist journal -
Sociology update: New academic year, new ideas...
14 Oct 2009 | 3:35 amWe have been busy over the last few weeks, settling in nearly 300 new students in Sociology and Criminology, and making sure the rest are back in the saddle. We have a big Open Day weekend coming up this weekend, so if you're thinking about studying Sociology or Criminology, please do come and visit us.Meanwhile, Sociology staff have also been busy teaching option modules this semester on Urban Cultures, Witchcraft, Sociology of the Body, Women and Global Activism, Transnational Cultures and the Information Society. I'll let the Criminology staff do their own update - unlike lots of…
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Online Classroom: Sociology
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Analyse That!
13 Nov 2009 | 5:48 amAnalyse That! -
Ethnicity and Educational Achievement
13 Nov 2009 | 1:43 amEthnicity and Educational Achievement -
Religion and Social Change
13 Nov 2009 | 1:34 amReligion and Social Change -
Family Study Pack: Other Household Structures
13 Nov 2009 | 1:30 amFamily Study Pack: Other Household Structures -
Lads and Ladettes
13 Nov 2009 | 1:19 amLads and Ladettes
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wicked anomie
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Barbie, Eat a Sandwich
18 Nov 2009 | 2:15 pmThere's an interesting comment thread at Feministing regarding this video. Is it awesome or offensive? Does it subvert the Cult of Thinness or just shift the policing of women's bodies from a derogation of one size extreme to the other? And now I will grace you with my thoughts:The fights over whether it's worse to be the thin person constantly harrassed to "eat a sandwich," or the fat person constantly harrassed to "put the sandwich down," or the average woman who constantly worries that sandwich will make her fat, is divisive and beside the point. This isn't about who is more oppressed. -
Undergraduates and Feminism
14 Nov 2009 | 9:54 amThis week in Social Problems we covered inequalities of sex and gender. To conclude the week, I talked a bit about feminism and showed different examples of feminist sites and arguments. Then I asked my students to reflect on feminism. Do they call themselves feminists? Is feminism still necessary? Why or why not?Nobody claimed the feminist label, but 69% (18/26) argued that feminism is still important and useful. Of those who said it was important but did not claim the label for themselves, about half indicated it's because they personally do not fight for gender equality. They believe there… -
My [insert relevant dimension] Privilege Statement
12 Nov 2009 | 7:57 amOver on My BackStage, Pitse1eh expresses her joy at not having to teach inequalities again for a while, because paying constant attention to existing societal inequalities is just so damn depressing. And she's right.I'm teaching Social Problems for the first time right now, and a big chunk of that is inequality. I'm teaching it again next semester. To high school students (egads). The privileged nature of this orientation to teaching inequality is rooted in the fact that we, due to our social location, can ignore most inequalities if we want to. We can blithely go through our lives completely… -
I love these guys
8 Nov 2009 | 1:52 pm -
Where's OUR avalance of wtf?
7 Nov 2009 | 5:03 amMindhacks recently posted about the "giant avalanche of wtf" that ensues if you Google "says psychologist." Clearly, someone needed to Google "says sociologist." Here's the top 10:1. Turkish Public Mostly Against Establishing Relations with Armenia, says sociologist2. Climate change offers Europe a chance to change the way the world solves problems by drawing in poorer countries, says sociologist3. "Make no mistake, there is a new economy," says sociologist 4. Puppy love should be avoided 'to make later relationships easier', says sociologist5. Turkish Schools World's Most Global Movement,…
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thinking difference
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Consuming Diversity
17 Nov 2009 | 6:52 amOne of things I like when visiting a metropolis is its diversity: you can have lunch in Chinatown and dinner in Little Italy. Everywhere you walk, diversity surrounds you. I qualify as a 'diversity-seeker', a person who actively looks for diversity.But what exactly do I do with this diversity? And how does this inclination of seeking diversity translate in terms of social engagement, social practices and social ties? Well, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, diversity-seeking may translate into ... well, consumption of diversity. But from… -
The need to classify
13 Nov 2009 | 11:46 amWe classify. Maybe because we want to master the world around us, by putting order into it. Maybe because our brains work with a tree-like structure, placing things into categories and drawing branch like relations between them. We classify, and in this process we buy into the order of things*: we accommodate things within a pre-determined system of beliefs and interests that underlies every classificatory order. No classification is innocent. - I'm going to a concert tonight. There's a famous piano-player from Canada playing. - What's her name?- Sarah Cheung.- Oh, she's Asian then. - She's… -
Personal Globalization
12 Nov 2009 | 6:40 amWarning: The following notes smell like middle-class, I-have-it-all, I-can-afford-to-be-cosmopolitan bragging... not my intention, but the smell persists... The other day, a friend from Romania asked her network on Facebook to vote for a band in Germany. She's dating one of the members of the band, who's also from Turkey. Funny things is, me and this friend met in Turkey... the Westernized, touristic part of Turkey where people go to forget their frustrations and enjoy life by the sea, sipping on a margarita. That part of Turkey where's water in abundance and where everything is white and… -
Be polite, or we'll know exactly which group you belong to...
9 Nov 2009 | 6:41 amI went to a see a play the other day. Though marketed as a comedy, the play was in fact quite heavy: troubled relationships, troubled lives and the past haunting the present, delivered to the audience in a funny wrapping. And the thirty-something people in the audience laughed here and there, whenever appropriate. Except one. One person laughed at the... er... wrong times?You know the type: usually in the middle of the room, this person has obviously got it all wrong. They never laugh when everyone else is laughing; they laugh on their own, as loud as they can, enjoying themselves, oblivious… -
Will you work for a chick?
2 Nov 2009 | 6:38 amI know someone who didn't get along with their boss. A female boss, I should add. So, when he was fired, he said "I will never work for a chick again". I have to confess this comment stayed with me; its derogatory labeling of women as 'chicks' kept bothering me. Women in power, that's even worse! Chicks in power sounds so much less threatening! Chicks are cute, chicks are innocent, chicks are brainless... A recent TIME issue was devoted to the the state of women in America today. I didn't know there was no female FBI agent in the early 1970s, when TIME first covered this topic. From the 1970s…
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scatterplot
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so far, so good…
17 Nov 2009 | 6:24 amUnexpectedly, my wife and I lucked into receiving H1N1 vaccines yesterday. I say “lucked into” because it was pretty much exactly that- we were receiving treatment for an unrelated issue, got to talking with the professionals and discovered that they had both doses and the inclination to use them. The purpose of this post is not to brag- particularly given that there’s no point bragging about dumb luck- but rather to make an observation: So far, as a result of the H1N1 vaccine, we have NOT had strokes, heart attacks, neurological distress, developed autism, died, or been… -
happy birthday, scatterplot!
12 Nov 2009 | 6:30 amWe turn 2 today! -
i’m off to long beach
12 Nov 2009 | 5:19 amIf you’re going to SSHA too, say hi! -
my jaw dropped
12 Nov 2009 | 1:04 amI study racial disparities in criminal justice, but this still completely blew me away. I started clicking around and have ended up collecting links to a large number of quite amazing videos of racial interactions that would be great discussion-starters in class. The two segments that just make my jaw drop were broadcast last February on ABC 20-20’s “What Would You Do?” series last February. They are a little over six minutes each after a 15 second commercial*. The setup is a parking lot in a public park in a White suburb. In part 1, for several hours three White boys… -
intro
10 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amI’m scheduled to teach intro to sociology next term for the first time in 30 years. It will be a small (15-20 students) honors section (targeting freshmen), so I’m thinking of centering the course around sociology’s most important ideas (rather than the “little bit of everything” approach) and the reading on 4-6 good books interspersed with a relatively small number of key articles. Do Scatterplotters have nominations for (1) big ideas, (2) good books for motivated but young undergraduates, (3) good articles ditto? Drop them in the comments, please.
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potlatch
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more receipts
20 Nov 2009 | 1:40 amIf you get your hands on the new edition of Prospect, you'll discover that my pointless whitterings don't always come to nowt. Sometimes they grow into bigger, more widely-read pointless whitterings. This post on receipts grew up to become this article on receipts. -
digital exuberance in space
14 Nov 2009 | 7:40 amLast week, I experienced two separate moments of bitterness regarding our contemporary cultural geography. Depending on your levels of Benjaminian pomposity, you might even call them moments of mourning for what capitalism discards unthinkingly. The first occurred on a train from Birmingham to London, a journey of a mere 70 minutes. I am not one of those enviable people who find it easy to lose themselves in books (that's why I became an academic: to turn reading into a professional obligation), but I find that a combination of a train journey and super-ego provides the perfect… -
advertising catchup
7 Nov 2009 | 8:13 amIt's been a while since we caught up with the boys in the advertising studio loft pod. Here's an update:Rex: guys, there's a problem with the Egyptian Tourism Board gigNed: what is it? [sniff]Rex: the focus group hasn't turned up.Kris: So who are all those people outside?Rex: oh, forget them - they're all moronsNed: is that a problem? [snort]Rex: no, believe me, they're proper morons. We can't use them. Alix: But they can't be as stupid as the ones who told us to compare a photocopier to a footballer or the ones who persuaded us to convert Tower Bridge… -
the economic sociology of receipts
22 Oct 2009 | 2:55 amWhen someone comes to write a cultural history of Britain, post-Thatcher, they should dedicate a chapter to data collection. The political arguments for and against surveillance are well rehearsed, with the Home Office on one side and Henry Porter on the other. The economic arguments for and against back office restructuring and knowledge management technologies are equally well rehearsed. But none of these analyses quite manages to explain why the production of data, evidence, a trace occupies such a prominent place in our contemporary national psyche. This is a cultural issue.This… -
'consumer-experts'
19 Oct 2009 | 2:46 amThursday saw Tim Mitchell visit the LSE, to give a superb lecture on the politics of oil. I don't know of anyone who is so theoretically and empirically interesting, while at the same time impossible to place in terms of discipline. Following the politics of oil involved everything from the nature of money (dematerialised notions of economic growth that emerged in the 1930s implicitly assumed infinite energy resources), the impact of different energy forms on labour politics (coal requires greater manpower to extract and circulate, thereby empowering labour across society; oil undoes…
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orgtheory.net
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sadam hussein’s management style
20 Nov 2009 | 8:35 amLoyal orghead Thorfinn draws my attention to the following post about the Baathist dictatorship in Iraq. The blog Cheap Talk reports on a talk by Kevin Woods of the Institute for Defense Analysis about what was learned about Saddam Hussein by US gov’t investigators after Gulf War II: Delusions At a meeting in the mid-ninetees with leading generals and strategic thinkers, one officer offered a subtle and nuanced theory of how an invading army might be forestalled and defeated by an attrition strategy using small, fast-moving decentralized groups (a little like the fedayeen that plagued… -
mobilizing participation from the top down: does it matter?
19 Nov 2009 | 7:07 amLast week I posted about my interest in the apparently increasing interest of many formal organizations in encouraging stakeholder participation, whether in participatory governance, formal deliberation, or, as in my own work, political participation. What followed was, as I see it, the seed of an interesting conversation on the conditional role of democracy in organizations (which reminds me that it’s time to return to Lipset, Trow, and Coleman 1956), the (potential) limits of engagement facilitated from the top down, and Brayden’s interesting question on how we can distinguish… -
michigan social theory conference – call for abstracts
19 Nov 2009 | 2:54 amCALL FOR PAPERS MICHIGAN SOCIAL THEORY CONFERENCE MARCH 12-13, 2010 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN ABSTRACT DEADLINE: December 15, 2009 The aim of the Michigan Social Theory Conference is to showcase graduate student work that integrates theoretical and practical aspects of the analysis of social problems and puzzles. We solicit papers from graduate students interested in using theory to illuminate observable aspects of social, political and economic behaviors and practices. In sum, we seek new ways of thinking about how theory and empirical data work together to inform social… -
youtube clips for teaching strategy
17 Nov 2009 | 8:15 pmWe’ve been highlighting youtube clips for teaching (and for various other purposes) —- so here’s another teaching-related resource: Mason Carpenter has put together a list of forty or so youtube clips to highlight various concepts related to strategy. Here’s his BPS teaching tool-kit that many are probably already familiar with. -
sustainable practices and profit
17 Nov 2009 | 7:27 amLast night I attended a Northwestern domain dinner for faculty on campus interested in sustainability issues. The talks, including one by my colleague Klaus Weber about the role of social movements in encouraging sustainable practices in the market, were interesting and sought to cross disciplinary boundaries. One of the issues that always comes up when talking about sustainability is the link between corporate environmental/social performance and profitability. I’ve been thinking about this lately since my PhD class is reading David Vogel’s excellent The Market for Virtue. One…
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Not Your Typical Sociologist
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30 Oct 2009 | 7:16 am
30 Oct 2009 | 7:16 amthere ain't no escaping itI would argue that any human being that has been subjected to a socialization process can never move beyond social control. This is an unavoidable outcome of living in groups and the fundamental requirement of having to learn things in order to survive. Learning is the same as social control...both are about behavior change in response to group pressures/forces/dynamics. Couple those dynamics with the educational system we have today and IMO, it is evident that there is no way to move beyond social control -- this is why I use the example of being nude in the summer. -
29 Oct 2009 | 8:11 am
29 Oct 2009 | 8:11 amThe bible, science, and evolution..oh my!my post to a sociology listCouple of responses...If you read my initial email on this topic, I don't say that any traditional story should be/is accepted as source material for scientific inquiries. To be sure, myths, fables, fairy tales, etc., are just more data for analysis from a sociological perspective.I also know that the scientific method, too, is subject to the same kind of analysis, i.e., it is behavior that humans engage in (both verbal and non-verbal) and, as such is available for analysis. I say this to acknowledge that although I endorse… -
27 Oct 2009 | 9:12 am
27 Oct 2009 | 9:12 amignorance truly is a social diseasesent this to a sociology list in response to a colleague getting some grief about using "upsetting" material in the classroom...I have to admit that I find it odd that anyone would suggest that any practitioner within a scientific discipline would employ specific pedagogical techniques designed to "shock or upset" -- sounds like your Dean is confusing reporting scientific information in creative ways with the idiocy that passes as substantive commentary in the media (think Glenn Beck et al).I find it particularly ironic that a biologist would question (or… -
13 Oct 2009 | 9:04 am
13 Oct 2009 | 9:04 amIt is all so disturbingly simple...I approach the discussion of social inequality by providing a fairly simple definition that seems to permit most, if not all students, the ability to grasp the meaning without any personal association. It is a blend of several different concepts that are covered within our discipline:Social inequality is the categorization and ranking of people that result in an unequal distribution of valuable social resources.Starting here, I can then discuss and demonstrate how this process results in differential life outcomes based on a person's categories and… -
23 May 2009 | 12:26 pm
23 May 2009 | 12:26 pmcan't i enjoy just a little payback every now and again?posted to a sociology list...Sometime last year when it was finally coming to light how complicit our beloved gov't was in the use of torture, there was a discussion on this list as to whether certain practices constituted torture or not and/or whether or not it would be appropriate for the U.S. to use these methods. I found it incredulous that an issue such as torture could be considered a reasonable topic of debate among any behavioral scientists, let applied sociologists list, but I know I am subject to fits of naievte. I recall at…
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Montclair SocioBlog
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Journalism Out to Lunch
20 Nov 2009 | 7:21 amNovember 20, 2009Posted by Jay LivingstonInteresting line-up on the Times op-ed page today. David Brooks’s column is on the left, Paul Krugman’s on the right. They’re both writing about Timothy Geithner. Krugmankey officials — most notably Timothy Geithner, who was president of the New York Fed in 2008 and is now Treasury secretary — have shied away from doing anything that might rattle Wall Street. And the bitter paradox is that this play-it-safe approach has ended up undermining prospects for economic recovery.Brooks:Well, the evidence of the past eight months suggests that… -
M*A*S*H-Up
18 Nov 2009 | 5:21 amNovember 18, 2009Posted by Jay LivingstonThe Men Who Stare at Goats, now playing at a theater near you, is a military comedy. It’s not M*A*S*H. It’s a mash-up – two mentalities: military and hippie.Comedies are about mismatches. In military comedies, one of the mismatched elements is bureaucracy, especially its rule-bound lack of imagination, impersonality, and inability to adapt to novel events. These qualities are usually embodied by an authority, a high-ranking officer. Sometimes the authorities are benevolent, as in the fish-out-of water scenario. Here, the mismatch is that someone… -
Mad Men and Me
14 Nov 2009 | 2:46 amNovember 14, 2009Posted by Jay LivingstonMad Men closed out its season (spoiler alert). The agency is about to be sold to a huge firm, so the key players slip off to regroup as a new, independent firm, taking as many accounts as they can with them. The final scenes contrast the spacious and elegant offices, now deserted, with their new venue – a suite in the Hotel Pierre. Instead of an office, each person gets an area of the living room. The media guy goes over his files on the bed in the bedroom.(Click on the picture for a larger view.)Is it realistic, this social organization of ad… -
Spreading the Lack of Wealth Around
13 Nov 2009 | 6:56 amNovember 13, 2009Posted by Jay LivingstonSuppose a company in these hard times has to cut its payroll by 10%. It has two choices: fire 10% of the workers fire nobody, but reduce everyone’s hours and pay by 10% Asked about this, Larry Summers, a top economic advisor to Obama, said, It may be desirable to have a given amount of work shared among more people. But that’s not as desirable as expanding the total amount of work.This is a policy non-sequitur – how the work is divided is a separate issue from how much work there is. And as Paul Krugman points out today after quoting this line,… -
Comments Galore
11 Nov 2009 | 4:51 amNovember 11, 2009Posted by Jay LivingstonThe previous post brought an unusually high number of comments for this blog, most of them not highly complimentary. But for the most part, the commenters and I agreed on the basic idea that what was at issue. I phrased it offensively: using a gun to stop someone else from doing something you don’t like. There’s another way to phrase it. As I said in the original post, “Gun advocates put this in terms of self-defense.” Oh boy, did they. Check out the comments. I also said that distrust of the government was a common theme. The comments also…
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Larvatus Prodeo
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The East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU) hacking scandal
20 Nov 2009 | 3:52 pmThis is the BBC’s report of the great hacking scandal, whereby hackers breached the security of East Anglia University and stole a vast amount of private email communication. You will note that an East Anglia representative said: “Because of the volume of this information we cannot currently confirm that all of this material is genuine.” So it is not possible to say whether any of the information has been ‘tricked up’ to make it look bad. It would be well within the MO of anti-AGW activists, to choose a neutral term, if it had. But maybe not. It seems that the… -
Saturday Salon
20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amAn open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like. -
On Movember, Tim Soutphommasane and civics
19 Nov 2009 | 11:03 pmA while back I wrote – in rather skeptical vein – about Tim Soutphommasane’s claim that progressives should be reclaiming patriotism. Guy Rundle has now reviewed Soutphommasane’s book, Reclaiming Patriotism: nation building for Australian progressives, for Crikey (of which more later). I’m largely in agreement with Rundle’s thoughts, and I think he adds another piece to the puzzle of what’s missing in this sort of ‘progressive’ discourse. And there’s another one in an article Soutphommasane published in The Australian the other day. -
All clear in McGurk inquiry
19 Nov 2009 | 7:58 pmAs Imre Salusinszky noted a few days ago, the McGurk inquiry into planning decisions made for land in the Badgery’s Creek area of western Sydney has found that, ‘no NSW Labor politician or government official has acted corruptly.’ In handing down its report, the inquiry said it found no corrupt activity in relation to the land. “It’s correct to say that we did not find any corrupt activity in that regard,” inquiry chair and Nationals MP Jenny Gardiner said. However, the inquiry, which included two days of public hearings, more generally put the spotlight on… -
Road to nowhere
19 Nov 2009 | 5:17 pmIn the wake of his avowal of climate change denialism on Four Corners, Nick Minchin has spent the second last week of the Parliamentary year stoking the fires of Coalition opposition to the CPRS. Tony Abbott, previously a ’skeptic’ who argued that the opposition should nevertheless support the legislation to remove a political headache for the Liberals, has now turned tail, claiming “the politics have changed”. In some quarters of the Coalition, the news that Copenhagen is unlikely to see a legally binding deal agreed has been seized on to claim that there is less…
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Kieran Healy's Weblog
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Facts and Values
2 Nov 2009 | 8:26 amI recall a short but striking conversation with the formidable Piero Sraffa at the Economics Faculty cocktail party after Dennis Robertson’s Marshall Lectures. I well knew that it was Sraffa whom Wittgenstein had described as his mentor during the gestation of the Philosophical Investigations, but I still ventured a rather simple-minded remark about the obvious importance of the fact-value distinction to the social sciences. He turned on me his charming smile and glittering eyes. Did I really suppose that one could switch from fact to value as if simply moving a handle? His voice rose… -
Bach and before, Ives and after
19 Oct 2009 | 11:28 amFrom a 1949 issue of Life Magazine, your guide to the “three basic categories of a new U.S. social structure—and the high brows have the whip hand”. With the rise of the cultural omnivore still well off in the distance, this is your must-have guide for the vagaries of mainstream culture in postwar America. Click for a larger version. -
Pissing off the other crowd
17 Oct 2009 | 5:41 pmAndrew Gelman discusses Superfreakonomics saying, The interesting question to me is why is it that “pissing off liberals” is delightfully transgressive and oh-so-fun, whereas “pissing off conservatives” is boring and earnest? Several years ago bumper stickers appeared that read “Annoy a Liberal. Work hard. Succeed. Be happy.” I was living in Arizona at the time, so they became a routine part of my commute. Possessing neither the blunt empirical thesis of “Guns Bought Your Freedom” nor the slow fuse of “Body Piercing Saved My Life”,… -
Looking at Data
13 Oct 2009 | 5:49 amJeremy Freese is doing some analysis: So, the General Social Survey reinterviewed a large subset of 2006 respondents in 2008. They have released the data that combines into one file the respondents interviewed for the first time in 2008 and the 2008 reinterviews of the respondents originally interviewed in 2006. In a separate file, of course, you can get the original 2006 interviews for the latter people. What has not yet been released, however, is the variable that would identify what row in the first file corresponds to what row in the second file. In other words, you know that person #438… -
Make Shift-Enter do a lot in ESS
12 Oct 2009 | 7:05 pmIf you use Emacs and ESS to run R, then here’s a nice tweak I found on the Emacs Wiki. The following bit of elisp goes in your .emacs file (or equivalent). Starting with an R file in the buffer, hitting shift-enter vertically splits the window and starts R in the right-side buffer. If R is running and a region is highlighted, shift-enter sends the region over to R to be evaluated. If R is running and no region is highlighted, shift-enter sends the current line over to R. Repeatedly hitting shift-enter in an R file steps through each line (sending it to R), skipping commented lines. The…
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chris uggen's weblog
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sick as a dog
19 Nov 2009 | 10:27 pmi don't mind being sick, as long as i've got hopes of getting better. top-5 sick songs:5. love sick4. touch me i'm sick3. "feel like hell so you might as well go out and sell your smart ass door to door"2. sick as a dog1. sick of myself -
a sociologist with "scary power"
31 Oct 2009 | 10:26 pmLook who is featured on Fortune's scary power list of people business hates to see coming -- a scary-smart and highly-respected sociologist fighting the good fight in employment discrimination cases.Bill BielbySociologist, University of Illinois at ChicagoBielby has become a key plaintiffs expert in dozens of employment-discrimination class-action suits. Among his targets: Wal-Mart, Merrill Lynch, MetLife, and FedEx.Knowing Bill, he'd much prefer a mention in Rolling Stone, Spin, or Guitar Player... -
be safe: keep one in your purse or wallet
29 Oct 2009 | 8:16 amNow that our enterprising grad board has established a contexts facebook group, I'm meeting new friends and supporters. We don't have much to offer in the way of swag, but I can at least send out a context.org guitar pick to anyone requesting one (via a comment or email with a snail mail address).For those who haven't heard, I made these to herald the new website before the annual sociology meetings in August. In honor of our web editor/shredder, I made them to Smajdian specifications -- medium heavy (1mm), non-slip, and virtually unbreakable. The picks seemed popular among our core contexts… -
super bowl, schmuper bowl
28 Oct 2009 | 10:25 pmSome competitions start out as a lighthearted goof, but grow intense once the games begin. As the battle-scarred veteran of putatively friendly games that end in bloodshed, I love ESPN's rebroadcast of a classic Vikes-Steelers battle from the superstars and battle of the network stars era: Superteams!And yes, that's current MN Supreme Court Justice Alan Page anchoring the men in powder blue. As Steve Rushin put it,As I recall it, Page more or less pulled the entire Steelers team across the line -- they appeared to be barefoot water-skiing in the sand --- and then both teams collapsed in a… -
of poe and paisley
27 Oct 2009 | 5:05 pmAccording to my sources at Lula, you'll be seeing lots of Mad Men costumes this weekend. Hmm. I'd need to rein in the hair, but with a little work I might be able to pull off a passable Roger Sterling.If you are looking for something more literary, I'd suggest assembling one of these fine costumes from poets.org. Poe and Emily Dickinson seem do-able, but I've sort of got my eye on that WC Williams -- maybe fill that red wheelbarrow with almond joy bars and dots. Though I love the velvet blazer look, I've never been much for Poe this time of year. As an alternative, I'll offer this seriously…
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Amitai Etzioni Notes
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The Deficit Trap
9 Nov 2009 | 6:56 amThe Obama Administration is planning to start cutting the deficit soon for economic and political reasons. To now even merely discuss tax raises, expenditure cuts, and increases in interest rates that are entailed will slow the recovery. We know what must be done; it does not require long preparations. And there is no sign that the feared inflation that deficits are said to cause is anywhere in sight. True, once inflation settles in, it is difficult to eliminate -- but it starts slowly. There is plenty of time. Note that both Carter and Clinton fought to balance the budget and cut or capped… -
Canary in the Coal Mine: Student Loans
22 Oct 2009 | 12:07 pmThe Democrats are caught between the need to set up structures that will prevent future meltdowns and the pressures they face from well-heeled Wall Street-based interest groups. They are under cross-pressure to act in the public interest and to survive in the political system: those who displease groups with deep pockets face tough re-election campaigns, as their opponents will get the large amounts of funds needed these days to run for office. Hence, despite all the talk about new regulations, surprisingly little is happening. Student loans serve as a sort of a canary in the dark… -
Love the bomb?
25 Sep 2009 | 1:21 pmSome years back I wrote an essay for Time magazine. When I met with the editor, he told me that wanted “a forehead slapping piece.” When I meekly replied that I did not know what this meant, he explained that he wanted the “reader to exclaim ‘Wow, why did I not think about that?!’” The editor was much less keen to find out whether the idea could be well supported. All this came to mind when I read an article in a recent issue of Newsweek by a journalist, one Jonathan Tepperman. Time magazine would have loved his essay. Mr. Tepperman announced that we are all dead wrong:… -
Three cheers for Israel?!
25 Sep 2009 | 1:18 pmThe media is full of stories critical of the way Israel deals with the Palestinians. There is indeed a lot to criticize, which, by the way, Israelis often do. However, when Israel does something right — and in a big way — that too should be noted. After all, one cannot expect a nation that is boxed around the ears every time it strays, but not rewarded when it gets it right, to mend its ways. Here what happened which got next to no coverage, except — thanks — in the Washington Post. The Dead Sea is dying. Since 1960, its water level has decreased by 75 feet and its surface area… -
Make Health, Not War
11 Sep 2009 | 11:23 amAfghanistan needs more sociologists, not more troops. Sociologists would point out that Americans tend to see this country as one nation, with a central government and national security forces. But it actually is a collection of tribes—(including Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara). The first loyalty of most members of these tribes is to their own kind, not to the national government. Most Afghans correctly perceive the national government as corrupt to the core, in cahoots with drug lords, promoted by foreign powers, and the beneficiary of fraudulent elections. We have been trying for eight years to…
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European Sociological Review
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Labour Market Flexibilization and its Consequences in Italy
16 Nov 2009 | 7:12 amLabor market ‘flexibilization’ or ‘deregulation’ is seen by many as a requirement for economic and occupational growth. As one route towards more flexibility, many European countries increased the so-called atypical or non-standard forms of employment while leaving the regulation of existing employment relations largely unchanged. In Italy, this led to a strong segmentation of the labour market. As employment is the only connection to a series of welfare entitlements, this praxis might lead to strong cleavages in the society. In this paper, we investigate the ongoing… -
United But Divided: Welfare Regimes and the Level and Variance in Public Support for Redistribution
16 Nov 2009 | 7:12 amPrevious studies find little evidence that welfare regimes affect public support for welfare state principles, policies, and programmes in any systematic way. This article argues that limitations in operational definitions of welfare regimes might explain why previous studies do not find any link between regimes and attitudes. Furthermore, the article suggests that welfare regimes should affect both mean levels of support for the welfare state and the variance in attitudes. The article develops a new conceptualization of welfare regimes based on a set of regime-type indicators measured at the… -
Ethnic Residential Segregation, Social Contacts, and Anti-Minority Attitudes in European Societies
16 Nov 2009 | 7:12 amEthnic residential segregation has long been viewed as a major structural mechanism through which ethnic and racial minorities are denied equal access to opportunities, rewards, and amenities. Residential segregation also decreases opportunities for establishment and development of social ties and contacts between members of ethnic minorities and members of the majority population. This article examines the complex inter-relations between ethnic residential segregation, inter-ethnic social contacts and attitudes toward minorities within the context of European societies. It specifically… -
The Effects of Non-Employment in Early Work-Life on Subsequent Employment Chances of Individuals in The Netherlands
16 Nov 2009 | 7:12 amIn this article, the effects of non-employment in early work-life on subsequent employment chances of individuals in the Netherlands are examined. A main concern is whether the experience of non-employment in the beginning of the career (permanently) damages a worker's later employment opportunities (that is, the likelihood of exit out of and re-entry into employment). The empirical analysis is based on five retrospective life-history surveys collected in the Netherlands in the period 1992–2003, with full information on employment histories of individuals. The analytic sample consists… -
Sebastian Sattler: Plagiate in Hausarbeiten. Erklarungsmodelle mit Hilfe der Rational Choice Theorie.
16 Nov 2009 | 7:12 am
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IU News: Social Sciences
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WFIU radio to feature Jill Bolte Taylor on 'Noon Edition'
3 Nov 2009 | 11:14 pmWFIU Public Radio kicks off its annual fund drive Friday (Nov. 6) with guest Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist IU Professor Jill Bolte Taylor on Noon Edition. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey and was chosen as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2008. -
Tocqueville Program at IU Bloomington to launch with Nov. 6 lecture
3 Nov 2009 | 5:36 amA new Indiana University academic program will focus on the work of French political thinker and author Alexis de Tocqueville, who died 150 years ago but whose insights into American democracy remain as fresh and vital as when they were written. The Tocqueville Program, directed by Associate Professor of political science Aurelian Craiutu, will launch with a lecture on Nov. 6 by Matthew Mancini of Saint Louis University. -
Research explores social behavioral dimensions of national security
3 Nov 2009 | 4:59 amIndiana University sociologist Stephen Benard is co-recipient of a new National Science Foundation award to study how dominant members of groups behave when a group is facing threats. The grant, which Benard shares with principal investigator Patrick Barclay of the University of Guelph, is part of a joint NSF/Department of Defense program supporting research that explores the social and behavioral dimensions of national security, conflict and cooperation. -
IU Health & Wellness: The holiday issue
28 Oct 2009 | 8:01 amIndiana University experts offer holiday-themed tips involving fear and drastic change, H1N1 and familiar greetings, staying active and thrifty gift-giving in the October issue of IU Health and Wellness. -
Gossip in the workplace: A weapon or gift, new research from IU
27 Oct 2009 | 10:15 amGossip in the workplace can be a weapon in reputational warfare or a gift and can offer clues to power and influence not found on organizational charts. New research from Indiana University details how the weapon is wielded -- and its influence muted -- in a rare study that catches this national pastime on video.
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WordPress Tag: Sociology
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Breaking News Story: CRU has apparently been hacked – hundreds of files released Watts Up With That?
20 Nov 2009 | 12:26 pmBreaking News Story: CRU has apparently been hacked – hundreds of files released « Watts Up W -
Poll: Public shifting blame for recession - CNN.com
20 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pmPoll: Public shifting blame for recession – CNN.com Well, it -
Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet
20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pmAdland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet by James P. Othmer HF 5823 .O83 2009 “Liar’s Poker meets The Tipping Point meets Mad Men-a hilarious, personal, and sneakily profound chronicle of the past, present, and future of the advertising business. Adland is a book about advertising. Which is to say, it’s a book about every issue and aspect of life on our morally conflicted, culturally challenged, ubiquitously branded planet. On one level it’s the wickedly funny, compelling personal chronicle of the rise and fall of a modern-day ad man; a riveting… -
Religious Right, Catholic Bishops Seek To Impose Relgion On All Americans Through Law, AU Charges | Americans United
20 Nov 2009 | 11:48 amReligious Right, Catholic Bishops Seek To Impose Relgion On All Americans Through Law, AU Cha -
New Right-Wing Craze Prays That Obama's 'Days Be Few' | PEEK | AlterNet
20 Nov 2009 | 11:34 amNew Right-Wing Craze Prays That Obama’s ‘Days Be Few’ | PEEK | AlterNet
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eScienceNews: Sociology
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Possible link studied between childhood abuse and early cellular aging
20 Nov 2009 | 12:16 pmChildren who suffer physical or emotional abuse may be faced with accelerated cellular aging as adults, according to new research from Butler Hospital and Brown University. read more -
Older problem drinkers use more alcohol than do their younger counterparts
20 Nov 2009 | 10:46 amOlder adults who have alcohol dependence problems drink significantly more than do younger adults who have similar problems, a new study has found. read more -
Therapy 32 times more cost effective at increasing happiness than money
20 Nov 2009 | 6:23 amResearch by the University of Warwick and the University of Manchester finds that psychological therapy could be 32 times more cost effective at making you happy than simply obtaining more money. The research has obvious implications for large compensation awards in law courts but also has wider implications for general public health. read more -
Shifting blame is socially contagious
19 Nov 2009 | 2:45 pmMerely observing someone publicly blame an individual in an organization for a problem – even when the target is innocent – greatly increases the odds that the practice of blaming others will spread with the tenacity of the H1N1 flu, according to new research from the USC Marshall School of Business and Stanford University. read more -
The developing child: Rating aggressive and delinquent behavior in pre-adolescence
19 Nov 2009 | 12:08 pmIn a study published in an upcoming issue of The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry researchers show that over reactive parenting, such as heavy criticism or yelling as a response to a child's negative behavior, can produce higher levels of aggression or rule-breaking in a child who is normally introverted, non-benevolent, non-conscientious, or imaginative. Children who are extraverted, benevolent, conscientious, or not that imaginative by nature are least adversely affected by this parental response. read more
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The Project
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World Toilet Day
18 Nov 2009 | 11:57 pmToday is World Toilet Day. Yep, you heard correctly. Why? Reason #1: Because 2.5 billion people worldwide are without access to proper sanitation, which risks their health, strips their dignity, and kills 1.8 million people, mostly children, a year. Reason #2: Because even the world’s wealthiest people still have toilet problems – from unhygienic public toilets to sewage disposal that destroys our waterways. To learn more, check out this article that my friend Richard Fleming wrote: http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/do-you-give-a-crap-about-world-toilet-day/ Give a crap! -
Quote #10
18 Nov 2009 | 12:52 am“Everyone thinks of changing the world, no-one thinks of changing himself” – Tolstoy -
“Change the World” Mondays (14)
15 Nov 2009 | 10:58 pmGive a Green Christmas Card Australia Post and Our Community have teamed up to develop the Green Christmas Giving Card – The Christmas Cards that Support Communities and the Environment, at a cost of only $3 per card. For every card purchased, $1 goes to a community group or school of your choice! It has been designed as part of the annual Australian Giving Week celebrations, which aim to focus attention on the many ways that individuals, families, businesses, and groups can make a difference to the community in the lead-up to Christmas. To find out more info, click here:… -
Some interesting stuff
12 Nov 2009 | 6:37 pmFree Store in Manhattan A shop front in Nassau Street, a couple of blocks away from Wall Street, would be utterly forgettable were it not for the two words stamped across its glass: Free Store. In the age of postmodern advertising, slogans like “free store” usually mean the opposite – they are probably being used to market hyper-exclusive shops selling nothing under $1,000. But in this case free store is precisely what it says. Every item on offer inside the small shop is free. Anyone off the street can browse through its goods, select an item, and if they think they need… -
The Myth of Redemptive Violence
10 Nov 2009 | 6:31 pmLast week I posted some stuff on the Machine Gun Preacher, Sam Childers. Ever since I posted that, I’ve been trying desperately to reconcile his actions with my theology of non-violence. If you’ve been reading this blog for some time, you’ll know that I’ve had an involvement with Invisible Children, an organisation aimed at raising awareness about the plight of child soldiers in East Africa. The violence and chaos in that region caused by Joseph Kony and the LRA is devastating. This madman continues to abduct children, massacre entire villages, hold sex slaves, and…
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Karl Bakeman
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Darden & the 2009 Corruption Perception Index
19 Nov 2009 | 5:48 amSource: Transparency International Transparency International posted their latest report on the most corrupt countries. On their scale of 10 (zero being the most corrupt), the majority of the 180 participating countries rank a five or higher. Unsurprisingly, the most corrupt countries are: Somalia, with a score of 1.1, Afghanistan at 1.3, Myanmar at 1.4 and Sudan tied with Iraq at 1.5. The highest scorers in the 2009 CPI are: New Zealand at 9.4, Denmark at 9.3, Singapore and Sweden tied at 9.2 and Switzerland at 9.0. Using this report as a springboard, the Global Sociology blog offers a good… -
On Consuming Diversity
18 Nov 2009 | 10:21 amThe Thinking Difference Blog posted an interesting review of an article by Talja Blokland and Gwen van Eijk. Blokland and van Eijk conducted a survey of “diversity-seekers” and found that their efforts to seek diversity simply translated to consuming diversity (in other words, shopping and eating at restaurants). In their survey, Blokland, and van Eijk found that these diversity consumers actually had very little diversity in their social networks. They also didn’t have anymore social or political involvement in the “diverse” neighborhoods that they frequented. -
Video clips to start conversations about Race
13 Nov 2009 | 6:31 amI didn’t set out this week to post so many links related to race and ethnicity, but that’s how it turned out. Oh well. Olderwoman at Scatterplot posted an impressive collection of video clips for anyone teaching about race in America. -
Talking with Children about Race
12 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amIn a post on Education Optimist, Goldrick-Rab worries about the absence of non-white role models in her Wisconsin town. She grew up in a more diverse neighborhood on the East Coast, and she likes living in Wisconsin with its affordable living and high quality of life, but she also knows that even the best-intentioned people develop “stereotypes formed by an absence of figures, as well as the presence of others.” This concern has become very real now that her son is getting older: This is awkward. My 2 1/2 year old son is paying attention to politics and presidents, and as his… -
Race Bias in Virtual Worlds?
11 Nov 2009 | 6:23 amSOURCE: Racism Review (h/t Racism Review) In a new study, two social psychologists at Northwestern found that “people exhibited the same type of behavior — and the same type of racial bias — that they show in the real world all the time.” Wendi Gardner and Paul Eastwick performed the experiment on the site There.com and published their results in the journal Social Influence.
