Sociology

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  • What makes modern-day countercultures tick?

    Metafilter: Sociology
    scrm
    25 Mar 2012 | 10:09 am
    I'm looking for a crash-course in modern-day counter-cultures around the world that have come about as a response to a crisis of capitalism or materialism. For example the recent Occupy movement but also more nascent and lesser known ones. Typical traits of these movements might include: internet-enabled, anti-censorship, an emphasis on spirituality, artistic creativity, social and environmental awareness and peaceful protest. Specifically I'd like to understand what worked in building and spreading these movements, what didn't, and why. Can you think of any resources - authors, sociologists,…

  • What is Sociology?

    Keele University: Sociology Staff
    2 May 2012 | 11:59 am
    By Mark FeatherstoneSociology is the study of society and social relationships. It allows us to understand individual problems in their proper social context and reflect upon the ways in which everyday life concerns, such as family relationships, education, and work, are conditioned by forms of social organisation and social systems. For example, we may believe that the forms our relationships with other people take are absolutely about who we are, but for sociologists the way we relate to other people is characterised and conditioned by social norms and values about how we should behave in…

  • Understanding Generalizations and Stereotypes

    Everyday Sociology Blog
    W. W. Norton
    14 May 2012 | 2:00 am
    By Sally Raskoff Max Weber wrote about the importance of verstehen, or understanding, for those investigating social reality. This means that we must understand what life is like for the individual or self before we can truly understand life at more macro levels of society such as groups, organizations, communities, and/or nation-states. While we tend to teach this concept in relation to research methods, it can also be connected to many different aspects of social research. How does the idea of a deep understanding of life in society connect to generalizations and stereotypes? We make…

  • What it means to be a man?

    Metafilter: Sociology
    nurgle
    24 Apr 2012 | 1:08 am
    What are some changing trends in how masculinity is defined? I am researching masculinity in popular culture. I specifically want to know what the general consensus is on how masculinity is defined in pop culture, and how it has changed over recent years (the last two decades or so). I'm having trouble finding reliable sources/articles... most stuff seems to be bias-laden drivel. Can anyone help point me in the right direction?

  • Morality as social norms?

    Metafilter: Sociology
    Pants!
    12 May 2012 | 11:56 am
    Are there any books that discuss morals as a kind of social norm?
 
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    SOCIOLOGY NEWS - Google News

  • Ex-W.Va. prep star builds clothing line - Marietta Times

    15 May 2012 | 11:21 pm
    Ex-W.Va. prep star builds clothing lineMarietta TimesThe Morgantown High School football standout played fullback at the University of Notre Dame, graduated with a degree in sociology, modeled in New York City for five years and returned to Morgantown to start SustainU, a rapidly growing line of clothing and more »

  • 'Visions of Empire' at the Huntington Library looks at US railroad - Los Angeles Times

    15 May 2012 | 8:03 pm
    'Visions of Empire' at the Huntington Library looks at US railroadLos Angeles Times(Huntington Library, Art Collections, and / May 16, 2012) By Kelly Scott, Los Angeles Times Culture Monster will occasionally visit museum exhibits dealing with history, anthropology, science or sociology. The show: "Visions of Empire: The Quest for a

  • ASA Executive Officer Lauds Selection of Sociologist, Former Brazilian ... - Newswise (press release)

    15 May 2012 | 3:41 pm
    MercoPressASA Executive Officer Lauds Selection of Sociologist, Former Brazilian Newswise (press release)Newswise — WASHINGTON, DC, May 15, 2012 — American Sociological Association (ASA) Executive Officer Sally T. Hillsman lauded the Library of Congress' decision to award sociologist and former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso the 2012 John Former Brazilian president wins Human Sciences Prize for lifetime achievementMercoPressall 8 news articles »

  • Is the acclaimed sociologist of peace a neo-Nazi? - Jerusalem Post

    15 May 2012 | 3:25 pm
    Is the acclaimed sociologist of peace a neo-Nazi?Jerusalem PostBy GAD YAIR While we were still in shadow of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Memorial Day, Norwegian Academy raged against sociologist Johan Galtung. While we were still in the shadow cast by Holocaust Remembrance Day and Memorial Day, the Norwegian Academy and more »

  • Voisin: Kings exec Abdur-Rahim follows Shaq, earns degree - The Republic

    15 May 2012 | 2:17 pm
    Cal AthleticsVoisin: Kings exec Abdur-Rahim follows Shaq, earns degreeThe RepublicHe walked with fellow sociology students inside Zellerbach Auditorium, heard his name called, heard his family cheer, returned his gown, secured his scroll, then commuted home. "If I was still 21, maybe we would celebrate," Abdur-Rahim said with a Shareef Abdur-Rahim Gets His Degree From BerkeleyNBA.com (blog)Shareef Abdur-Rahim graduated with a degree in Sociology from Cal on Monday.Cal Athleticsall 6 news articles »
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    SOCIOLOGY - Yahoo! News Search Results

  • Poverty simulation at Collin College teaches students to be advocates

    16 May 2012 | 1:42 am
    Penny Rathbun/Staff photo Collin College sociology professor John Glass plays a thief during the poverty simulation at the Preston Ridge campus last week. Here he tries to sell transportation passes back to the people he stole them from during the exercise.

  • Educated for unemployment

    15 May 2012 | 1:19 am
    Liberal arts students have been sold a bill of goods by universities that put their needs above those of the people they teach

  • M. Basketball. Shareef Abdur-Rahim Earns Sociology Degree

    14 May 2012 | 8:43 pm
    Former Cal and NBA star Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who was a standout for the Golden Bears during the 1995-96 season, returned to campus Monday to receive his sociology degree at the University's commencement.

  • Nuovo Personalizes Psychology and Sociology for Organizations

    14 May 2012 | 6:50 am
    CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- J. C. DeMartine started humbly in a trailer park in Del Camino, CO. He had big dreams. However, he knew that he would be running his own company.J. C. left ...

  • How Things Get Popular

    11 May 2012 | 1:22 pm
    Guest post by Gabriel Rossman  -- Sociologist at UCLA.  His work applies economic sociology to media industries. He blogs at  Code and Culture  and is the author of  Climbing the Charts .[Since our hostess ...
 
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    Everyday Sociology Blog

  • Understanding Generalizations and Stereotypes

    W. W. Norton
    14 May 2012 | 2:00 am
    By Sally Raskoff Max Weber wrote about the importance of verstehen, or understanding, for those investigating social reality. This means that we must understand what life is like for the individual or self before we can truly understand life at more macro levels of society such as groups, organizations, communities, and/or nation-states. While we tend to teach this concept in relation to research methods, it can also be connected to many different aspects of social research. How does the idea of a deep understanding of life in society connect to generalizations and stereotypes? We make…

  • Cleaning and Class

    W. W. Norton
    10 May 2012 | 2:00 am
    By Karen Sternheimer This year I am doing a massive spring cleaning. I have donated several bags of books, recycled and shredded what seems like an endless amount of paper and have thrown away what can now only be described as junk. I’ve also been scrubbing: floors, shelves, and even the grout between tiles in the kitchen and bathroom. I take an old toothbrush, pour on some cleanser and clean spots I usually overlook in my normal cleaning routine.  After a day or two of super-cleaning, I noticed my wrists and shoulders getting sore. Not what I’d call pain, but they clearly needed a…

  • Past Meets Present: Education, Housing, and Segregation

    W. W. Norton
    7 May 2012 | 2:00 am
    By Janis Prince Inniss Want to make some quick cash? $250 to be exact. Easy money. What would you do for that kind of money? This proposition is completely legal. All you have to do is make one telephone call. (Operators are probably standing by!) In order to qualify, all you have to do is have the city and state, name of a school, name of a person, age or grade level of a child, a second address, know how long the person has lived there—and with whom. Add some information about how you know whether the person in question does not live in a particular home and $250 is yours. Confused? Let…

  • Civil Unrest, Riots, and Rebellions: What's the Difference?

    W. W. Norton
    3 May 2012 | 2:00 am
    By Karen Sternheimer This year marks the twentieth anniversary of what is commonly known as the 1992 Los Angeles riot, events triggered by the acquittal of four LAPD officers charged with beating suspected drunk driver Rodney King. Here in Los Angeles, there have been many reflections on the events that took place over a six day period, which ended with the deaths of 54 people, thousands of injuries, and estimates of $1 billion in property damage due to thousands of buildings set on fire. Typically, the events are called riots, but some refer to what happened as a rebellion, uprising, or…

  • Notes and Images from Las Vegas

    W. W. Norton
    30 Apr 2012 | 2:00 am
    By Janis Prince Inniss Las Vegas—or at least “The Strip”—reminds me of a movie studio. A massive one. There is so much fakery there. This is not a criticism necessarily, simply an observation. Who thought of creating monumental replicas of some of the world’s most recognizable landmarks in Las Vegas? And why? There is New York in Las Vegas. There is Paris in Las Vegas. Egypt in Las Vegas. Is that Chicago too? I saw a building with the Coca Cola bottle with the glass elevator, right next door to a Coca Cola store and that looks like the World of Coca-Cola I saw in Atlanta years ago.
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    The Global Sociology Blog

  • And Thank FSM for That…

    SocProf
    14 May 2012 | 11:45 pm
    From Manuel Castells’s Communication Power, discussing the regulatory framework of the digital communication system: “The impromptu evolution of Internet regulation and management parallels the serendipitous maturation of the Internet as the communication commons of the network society (Abbate, 1999; Castells, 2001; Movius, forthcoming). When first deployed in 1969, ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet, was an experimental computer networking program originated in DARPA, the US Defense Department research agency, and largely run by the scientists and engineers who created it.

  • The Visual Du Jour – Visualizing Decline

    SocProf
    14 May 2012 | 4:49 pm
    Through higher education: As the article notes: “In the 1970s and 1980s, the US led the world on college enrollment. In fact, since the passing of the GI bill in 1944, America had been forging a path. That bill led to 2.2 million American infantrymen attending university in the 12 years in was in effect. But a generation later, the US hasn’t changed at all, while the rest of the developed world has more or less caught up with it – and some of its key competitors have overtaken it. The country could once boast the best educated workforce in the world. No longer.”

  • The Murdochization of the Media

    SocProf
    7 May 2012 | 11:41 pm
    This is my first attempt at diagrammatically capturing a concept using iDesk for iPad. I started simple but this is an important concept, seems to me. It is mentioned in Castells’s Communication Power (89), borrowed from Thussu (1998):

  • Where Are The Sociologists?

    SocProf
    21 Apr 2012 | 11:45 pm
    That is the question asked by Aditya Chakrabortty in this Guardian piece: “At the start of the banking crisis, the air was thick with the sound of lachrymose economists. How did they miss the biggest crash since 1929? Professors at the LSE were asked that very question by the Queen – and were too tongue-tied to reply. A better answer came from Alan Greenspan, until recently the most powerful economist on the planet, who went to Capitol Hill and confessed to a “flaw” in his model of the world. Clearly, the economic crisis was also a crisis of economics. With the…

  • Labor Process and Labor Costs

    SocProf
    15 Apr 2012 | 11:03 pm
    I know I am totally behind on this but this is a very interesting video on how iPads are made at the infamous Foxconn factory: Of course, the fact that workers are lining up to take these jobs is often used as an argument that the low wages and lousy working conditions (which have improved after much negative publicity) are not an issue, because otherwise, people would simply not apply to work there. Or that as bad as these jobs may be, they are better than what is available in rural China. But these are all after-the-facts rationalizations to make ourselves feel better about the exploitation…
 
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    Metafilter: Sociology

  • Morality as social norms?

    Pants!
    12 May 2012 | 11:56 am
    Are there any books that discuss morals as a kind of social norm?

  • Is is this thing on?

    Infinity_8
    1 May 2012 | 8:20 am
    Why do people say "is is" when they mean "is?" I'm an amateur sociologist and linguist (ok, an actor) who enjoys thinking about why people talk the way they do. About the time that the use of "uptalk" was becoming prevalent? So that people would keep paying attention to you? Because they might think you were asking them a question? I noticed that there was a smaller group of talkers who were also saying "is is" when "is" would have been sufficient. I've asked people about it over the years and many have professed not to have noticed it at all. Others have defended it as proper English. (What…

  • What it means to be a man?

    nurgle
    24 Apr 2012 | 1:08 am
    What are some changing trends in how masculinity is defined? I am researching masculinity in popular culture. I specifically want to know what the general consensus is on how masculinity is defined in pop culture, and how it has changed over recent years (the last two decades or so). I'm having trouble finding reliable sources/articles... most stuff seems to be bias-laden drivel. Can anyone help point me in the right direction?

  • Culture and groupthink.

    espada0
    25 Mar 2012 | 11:00 am
    Is there a cultural dynamic to groupthink? Take any two cultures that have markedly different values and norms when it comes to social interaction, in a groupthink situation, given that both groups are dealing with the exact same problem/crisis, would both groups come to a decision that reflects their cultural background (in other words, having a "cultural signature")? Of course I realise that regardless of differing cultural backgrounds any two groups would arrive at different decisions, I just want to know whether if those differing decisions are affected by the cultural upbringing of the…

  • What makes modern-day countercultures tick?

    scrm
    25 Mar 2012 | 10:09 am
    I'm looking for a crash-course in modern-day counter-cultures around the world that have come about as a response to a crisis of capitalism or materialism. For example the recent Occupy movement but also more nascent and lesser known ones. Typical traits of these movements might include: internet-enabled, anti-censorship, an emphasis on spirituality, artistic creativity, social and environmental awareness and peaceful protest. Specifically I'd like to understand what worked in building and spreading these movements, what didn't, and why. Can you think of any resources - authors, sociologists,…
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    Keele University: Sociology Staff

  • What is Sociology?

    2 May 2012 | 11:59 am
    By Mark FeatherstoneSociology is the study of society and social relationships. It allows us to understand individual problems in their proper social context and reflect upon the ways in which everyday life concerns, such as family relationships, education, and work, are conditioned by forms of social organisation and social systems. For example, we may believe that the forms our relationships with other people take are absolutely about who we are, but for sociologists the way we relate to other people is characterised and conditioned by social norms and values about how we should behave in…

  • Response to an earlier post on the Stephen Lawrence trial by Guy Woolnough.

    19 Jan 2012 | 7:25 am
    I would like to engage with a few points from this post with which I disagree.  The first claim is that the law on double jeapoardy or “artefois acquit” to give it its legal terminology, was expressly changed to put these two (Norris and Dobson) on trial.  The sections of the Criminal Justice act dealing with double jeopardy came about as a result a recommendation for a review in the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and a report by the Law Commission in 2002 responding to that recommendation.The law wasn’t expressly brought in to put these two on trial, it was hoped that they would be…

  • The Stephen Lawrence trial

    16 Jan 2012 | 9:38 am
    Most of our blog entries are written by academic staff, however we welcome entries by our postgraduate students.  Here is an interesting personal view linked to criminological history from one of our PhD students, Guy Woolnough.  Responses welcome subject to our editorial control.The verdict in the Lawrence case is welcome, in that it addresses the terrible wrong committed by the killers, and also the terrible wrong of the failure of the police to investigate properly in the days after the murder. But I do feel a sense of unease about the longer term implications of this case. The…

  • Stephen Lawrence – Britain, A Liberal Utopia?

    14 Jan 2012 | 4:54 pm
    By Dr Mark Featherstone and Dr Siobhan HolohanOn 3rd January 2012 Gary Dobson and David Norris were finally found guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence over 18 years after he died of stab wounds in April 1993. The immediate media reaction to the guilty verdict was that two of Stephen’s killers had finally been held to account for his murder and that some kind of justice had been done. However, there was a sub-text to this reaction - Britain has changed in the wake of the Macpherson Report that essentially exposed institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police and argued in favour of…

  • PhD bursaries and studentships in Sociology, Criminology and other Social Sciences

    6 Jan 2012 | 1:24 pm
    Keele University is offering a wide range of funded postgraduate scholarships for PhD research in Criminology, Sociology and other fields.  Closing date for applications is February 17th 2012.  A number of graduate teaching assistant posts are available, along with fully funded studentships, bursaries and fee-waivers.Please note that the Sociology research group is under the heading of 'Social Policy', however supervisors are available in a wide range of sociological fields (including cultural sociology and social theory) and students areadvised to…
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    scatterplot

  • ask a scatterbrain: self-citation in works in progress

    tina
    15 May 2012 | 10:03 am
    Is there a standard way to indicate that an author has cut and paste a chunk of text from an earlier work into a work-in-progress? As I move from one part of a larger project to another, I like to plunk down chunks of text as placeholders to frame the argument, provide theoretical or historical context, etc. I italicize this text as a shorthand to myself. As I share my work-in-progress with others attending a small conference, would it be bad to leave it in italics with a note that it is copied from my other published and unpublished work? Is there a norm for (or against) doing this?

  • herb gans interview

    shakha
    8 May 2012 | 11:24 am
    I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Herb Gans and interviewing him on a forthcoming article, as well as his career in sociology. The interview is now online, alongside his article (which is provokative, and gave me a lot to talk about). I hesitated to post this because I worried that it would seem like shameless self-promotion. But the reason to read it is Gans, who has strong opinions. He also provides a nice overview of his career (a fuller version of this is provided in his Annual Review piece). Herb is someone I admire enormously. At 85 he’s still going strong.

  • the riley flap and anti-intellectualism

    andrewperrin
    8 May 2012 | 9:02 am
    For those who haven’t been following it thus far, Horowitz wannabe Naomi Schaefer Riley wrote a screed about black studies as a paid blogger for the Chronicle of Higher Education, following up on the Chronicle’s generally positive news story about the discipline. There’s nothing particularly special about the screed; it’s garden-variety right-wing anti-intellectualism, peppered with a well-honed tone of marginalized sanctimony. Given its subject matter, it’s clearly racist too, but as far as I can tell the racism is not the primary cause of the argument but a…

  • who’s guest blogging at the atlantic?

    tina
    8 May 2012 | 5:49 am
    Gabriel Rossman, that’s who. You already read his blog, Code and Culture, and you are going to read his book, Climbing the Charts, as soon as it comes out. Now, for a short time only, you can read his posts on the lamestream, smarty-pants magazine of the lefty elite while sipping Pinot Grigio and eating arugula bruschetta, too. (h/t: Jay Livingston)

  • nc’s awful amendment one

    andrewperrin
    7 May 2012 | 1:23 pm
    It appears that, despite lots of work and fundraising by the forces of good and reason, my (adopted) state will allow its redneck-goober id to prevail over its progressive-sophisticated superego tomorrow. This despite the fact that the amendment’s sponsor said: he wanted a more narrowly worded amendment but was “overruled” by “national experts” he identified as the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal advocacy group. …and the state’s most respected polling firm demonstrated that people who actually understand the amendment oppose it by a greater…
 
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    potlatch

  • Leveson and the cultural contradictions of conservatism

    Will
    11 May 2012 | 5:47 am
    With the usual half-hearted apologies for recycling my own chat, watching the delightful spectacle of the Murdoch clan and the Tories knocking chunks out of each other reminds me of this piece on the cultural contradictions of conservatism I wrote last summer, when Hackgate first exploded: The greater significance of ‘hack-gate’ will lie in how it affects the character of British conservatism more generally. Conservatism, as a cultural and political movement, is intrinsically unwieldy and self-destructive, as hack-gate may now be demonstrating once more. From Edmund Burke’s critique of…

  • CRESC conference on 'promises' and crises

    Will
    10 May 2012 | 2:38 am
    The CRESC Annual Conference looks excellent this year: Weds September 5 - Friday September 7, 2012, Manchester University Keynote Speakers Barbara Adam (Social Sciences, Cardiff University) Robert Boyer (ENS, Paris) Aditya Chakrabortty (The Guardian)  Will Hutton (Hertford College, Oxford University) Paul Mason (BBC Newsnight) Elizabeth A. Povinelli (Anthropology, Columbia University) Promises: Crises and Socio-Cultural Change In the midst of global financial crisis and radical transformations in states, institutions and social relations, it has become urgent to explore the…

  • Nylumni journal issue

    Will
    8 May 2012 | 4:46 am
    Over the course of my PhD, I had the great pleasure of taking part in the NYLON network, organised by Craig Calhoun and Richard Sennett at NYU and LSE. And thanks to Melissa Aronczyk and Ailsa Craig, there was an excellent alumni meeting in Ottawa last year, with papers presented within the general theme of 'cultures of circulation'. We even got to use one of Carleton University's log cabins: A selection of these papers has now appeared as a special issue of Poetics, introduced with a piece by Melissa and Ailsa, and featuring a number of really great papers. My contribution is…

  • why we need Foucault

    Will
    1 May 2012 | 5:39 am
    After all, what would be the value of the passion for knowledge if it resulted only in a certain amount of knowledgeableness and not, in one way or another and to the extent possible, in the knower's straying afield of himself? There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all. People will say, perhaps, that these games with oneself would better be left backstage; or, at best, that they might properly form part of those…

  • what do banks and prisons have in common?

    Will
    30 Apr 2012 | 1:55 am
    I've published an article at openDemocracy, as part of the Uneconomics debate, in which I attempt to stand back and take a wide-ranging look at the policy dilemmas posed by the banking system. There is, I suggest, a serious problem in that the state has become an under-writer for a wasteful and ineffective risk management system, on which it cannot now easily turn its back. In that respect, the financial system has become like the prison system: a poorly calculated strategy for reducing risk, which may have the exact opposite effect, but which the taxpayer has become entangled with. As I…
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    orgtheory.net

  • books and business cycles

    fabiorojas
    15 May 2012 | 7:01 pm
    Guest blogging for Megan McArdle at the Atlantic, Garrett Jones summarizes a new paper in the American Economic Review showing that books sales predict business cycles: She [Michelle Alexopoulous] found that books really do predict booms. In her paper looking at new books from 1955-1997, she found that new technical books predicted between 1/6 and 1/5 of all medium-term changes in business capital investment.  Total GDP and (to a more modest extent) hours of work moved together with new tech books, usually with a lag of a couple of years. Further, she found that a good economy didn’t…

  • Gayja Vu

    Kieran
    14 May 2012 | 9:26 pm
    Michael Dorf and Sid Tarrow have an Op-Ed piece today on CNN titled “How the right helped launch same-sex marriage movement.” It’s a clever argument about the role that the conservative movement played in galvanizing and even decisively re-orienting the direction taken by one of its antagonists, to its likely long-run cost: How, in less than a decade, did America go from being a country in which some states punished gay sex with criminal penalties to one in which the highest elected official in the land now champions the right of same-sex couples to marry? The answer can be…

  • my god, it’s full of stars!

    fabiorojas
    14 May 2012 | 7:11 pm
    I just love Astronomy magazine and its website. They have a cool photo feature called “Picture of the Day.” This one was contributed by reader by Kfir Simon from Gan Yavne, Israel. Adverts: From Black Power/Grad Skool Rulz

  • gay rights, politicians, and public opinion

    fabiorojas
    13 May 2012 | 7:01 pm
    Roughly speaking, political science research shows that politicians follow voter preferences, but there are some big exceptions. Turns out that gay rights is one of those big exceptions. A paper by Katherine Krimmel, Jeffrey Lax, and Justin Phillips of Columbia political science uses recent data and compares with roll call votes on voter views on gay rights. The conclusion from the comparison? While there is sometimes a counter-majoritarian pro-gay bias, there is more often a much larger counter-majoritarian anti-gay bias. This anti-gay bias appears to have grown over time. The ideological…

  • new book – the organization of higher education

    fabiorojas
    12 May 2012 | 7:01 pm
    My friend Michael Bastedo at Michigan recently published a new collection of essays called The Organization of Higher Education: Managing Colleges for a New Era. The book introduces the reader to cutting edge research in universities, strategy, and organizational behavior. Chapters include Brian Pusser and Simon Marginson on global rankings, J. Douglas Toma on strategy and Anna Neuman on organizational cognition in higher education. Social movement fans should check out my chapter on movements and higher education. Recommended! Adverts: From Black Power/Grad Skool Rulz
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    Montclair SocioBlog

  • France Politics: Pomp, Ceremony, Family – Not So Much

    15 May 2012 | 9:50 am
    May 15, 2012Posted by Jay LivingstonFile this under “differences in political culture” (or “The French just don’t know how to do these things.”)  François Hollande was sworn into office yesterday as President of France.  Hollande invited just three dozen or so private guests to join the 350 officials at the event. His partner, political journalist Valérie Trierweiler, was present, but their children were not. (From The Guardian)The halftime shows at French university soccer matches probably aren’t anything to write home about either.   Don’t they get the…

  • Old Men and “My Old Man”

    13 May 2012 | 1:20 pm
    May 13, 2012Posted by Jay Livingston“I could never get away with that with my old man.”I’ve blogged before (here) about the myth of the authoritarian past – the idea that in some ideal past, back before Hip Hop, or before Rock ‘n’ Roll, or before the automobile, or . . . kids were more respectful of their elders.  The nostalgia goes back farther than that .  Kieran Healy  digs out his Latin copy of Livy’s history of Rome, and finds the historian bemoaning the lack of respect for elders.This is due to the cheapened and diminished authority even of parents over…

  • Gay Rights Graphic

    11 May 2012 | 7:01 am
    May 11, 2012Posted by Jay LivingstonAs the graph in yesterday’s post showed, support for gay marriage  is not uniform across age groups.  There is also wide variation by region and state in the laws on marriage and other matters.The Guardian had a great graphic on gay rights in the 50 states.  Here’s a screen grab.(Click on the image for a larger version.  Better, follow the link below to the original.)For the full interactive version, go to The Guardian (here).  As you mouse across each state, it shows the details in the seven categories.  In the version…

  • Which Side of History Are You On?

    10 May 2012 | 9:53 am
    May 10, 2012Posted by Jay LivingstonIn yesterday’s post (here) on the anti-gay-marriage vote in North Carolina , I said that the tide of history – short-run history at least – was flowing quickly the other way.  Here’s the evidence from the Pew survey.(Click on the chart for a larger, clearer view.)The young, who will make up more and more of the electorate, are twice as likely as the old to favor gay marriage.  On top of that, acceptance of gay marriage has increased among all age groups. In twenty years, when the youngest of the silent generation, those who still walk this…

  • The Lilies of the Street

    10 May 2012 | 6:48 am
    May 10, 2012Posted by Jay LivingstonFelix Salmon (here) writes about using “neutrinos to transmit information, at the speed of light, right through the center of the earth.”  He continues:If this was successfully implemented, price information from Sydney could reach New York in just 40.2 milliseconds, compared to the 84.4 milliseconds it takes to send that information on fibers around the surface of the earth. The difference is more than enough time for traders in New York to make real money arbitraging securities listed in both cities.I don’t know enough about neutrinos,…
 
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    Kieran Healy

  • Gayja Vu

    Kieran Healy
    14 May 2012 | 9:27 pm
    Michael Dorf and Sid Tarrow have an Op-Ed piece today on CNN titled “How the right helped launch same-sex marriage movement.” It’s a clever argument about the role that the conservative movement played in galvanizing and even decisively re-orienting the direction taken by one of its antagonists, to its likely long-run cost: How, in less than a decade, did America go from being a country in which some states punished gay sex with criminal penalties to one in which the highest elected official in the land now champions the right of same-sex couples to marry? The answer can be…

  • No Respect these Days

    Kieran Healy
    11 May 2012 | 11:43 am
    This week on Hypercritical John Siracusa noted that a quote he had referred to about how kids have no respect for their elders these days—apparently often attributed to Socrates and allegedly found somewhere in Plato—in fact originates in a student essay from the early 1900s, summarizing such views in the ancient world. The context was John’s observation that a lot of cultural criticism purporting to be about real (and negative) social changes reduces to intergenerational grumbling about how the world used to be full of old people but increasingly seems to be full of young…

  • Practical and Theoretical Knowledge

    Kieran Healy
    6 May 2012 | 7:59 pm
    My friend Jason Stanley has a blog post up at the New York Times’s Opinionator section that might be of interest to you social theorists out there. Jason’s a philosopher of language who teaches at Rutgers. He attacks a distinction which is by now extremely well-entrenched in social theory generally and in specific theories of action in the sociology of culture, the sociology of organizations, and elsewhere—namely, the distinction between theoretical and practical knowledge: Humans are thinkers, and humans are doers. There is a natural temptation to view these activities as…

  • The Mornings of Kieran Healy, by Robert A‌. Caro

    Kieran Healy
    3 May 2012 | 8:56 am
    We are pleased to present a short excerpt from the long-anticipated new work by the leading historical biographer of our time. The Path to the Kitchen When he was young—back on his family’s small homestead in Cork, Ireland—Kieran Healy came down the stairs for breakfast with his mother, who would light the tiny gas heater (this was the 1970s; Ireland had yet to convert fully to nuclear power) in the damp, early morning chill. She would open the supply, push the ungainly ignition switch on the lower-left corner of the dull-brown device, and after a couple of clicks the array…

  • Updates to the Emacs Starter Kit for the Social Sciences

    Kieran Healy
    23 Apr 2012 | 8:09 am
    I’ve made some updates to the Emacs Starter Kit for the Social Sciences. The kit builds on Phil Hagelberg’s original and Eric Schulte’s org-mode version, and incorporates some packages and settings that are particularly useful for the social sciences. See the Starter Kit’s Homepage for more details. The new version requires Emacs 24, which is not quite officially released but is in very good shape. See the project page for more information about what’s included in the starter kit and how to install it. The latest version is a little more streamlined than before,…
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    Amitai Etzioni Notes

  • The Dilemma of American Terrorists

    Amitai Etzioni
    15 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    Should terrorists with American citizenship, preparing to strike in places such as Yemen or Somalia, be treated differently than other terrorists? Should security considerations allow the government to violate their constitutional right to be tried in an American civilian court? If they cannot be captured and brought before an American judge and jury, should our courts at least be involved in reviewing their case before they are taken out by a drone or a special-forces team? Or, at the very least, should the courts review the criteria according to which American terrorists are targeted? Read…

  • The Chinese Are Coming!

    Amitai Etzioni
    8 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    In one of those breathless reports about the dangers posed by the rising China, the New York Times informs us that the Chinese have reached the Caribbean beaches. Behold what they dared to do: they built “a brand new $35 million stadium” in the Bahamas. You’re not alarmed yet? “The tiny island nation of Dominica has received a grammar school, a renovated hospital and a sports stadium. . . . Antigua and Barbuda got a power plant and a cricket stadium, and a new school is on its way.” The Times adds that “the Chinese have flexed their economic prowess in nearly every corner of the…

  • Why Occupy May Day fizzled

    Amitai Etzioni
    3 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    Occupy Wall Street called on the masses to skip work and school on May 1, and to close their wallets. All this was supposed to amount to a general strike, if not an American Spring. Some even talked about bringing down capitalism. But the small demonstrations in many American cities and in other cities across the world had little effect. Rush hour on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, supposed to be a major center of protest, flowed. In Los Angeles, two blocks were closed by the authorities in anticipation of possible disruptions. Reports were that protesters in New York did not shut…

  • The Fantasy of Zero Nukes

    Amitai Etzioni
    27 Apr 2012 | 1:30 pm
    Nowhere is President Obama’s tendency to confuse speech making with policy making more evident than in his treatment of nuclear weapons, the greatest threat to both U.S. security and world peace. The main hot spots are well known: North Korea, Iran and Pakistan. Instead, the president has focused for the last three years on Russia. President Obama believes that the best way to deal with WMD is to lead by example. He holds that, as the United States and Russia recommit themselves to nuclear disarmament, other nations will be inspired to either give up their nuclear arms or refrain from…

  • GOP: Fewer Bikes, More Cars

    Amitai Etzioni
    16 Apr 2012 | 12:17 pm
    Transferring funds reserved for bikeways and walkways to highways is not an April Fools' Day leftover, but a move under consideration by the Congress of the United States of America. The 20-year-old Transportation Enhancements program currently mandates that a small fraction, about 2 percent, of federal transportation funding be reserved for building bike lanes and pedestrian walkways, but critics of the program argue that scarce resources should go toward funding highways and bridges for vehicles. They argue that fixing crumbling bridges, improving road conditions, and reducing…
 
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    Work, Employment & Society current issue

  • Book review: J Kirk and C Wall, Work and Identity: Historical and Cultural Contexts

    Addison, M.
    27 Apr 2012 | 4:06 am

  • Using equality to challenge austerity: new actors, old problems

    Conley, H.
    27 Apr 2012 | 4:06 am
    This article critically examines the potential for ‘new actors’ in industrial relations to use developments in equality law to challenge government economic policy. The author draws on documentary analysis of the Fawcett Society’s attempt to gain a judicial review of the 2010 emergency budget alongside legal theory in relation to reflexive regulation and literature that examines ‘new actors’ in industrial relations. The aim is to stimulate debate on the role of the state and social movements in pursuing gender equality and how the latter might compete with or…

  • Professional call centres, professional workers and the paradox of the algorithm: the case of telenursing

    Russell, B.
    27 Apr 2012 | 4:06 am
    Although the professional call centre has been theorized, little empirical work has been carried out on this form of service delivery. The existing literature fails to distinguish adequately between professional call centres and professionals who work in call centres. In this study of telehealth it is shown that a centre which exhibits the features of a professional call centre does not overcome problems associated with this type of labour process. Ambiguities over the use of skill in a system that requires the deployment of computer algorithms gives rise to conflicts over monitoring,…

  • A service union's innovation dilemma: limitations on creative action in German industrial relations

    Holtgrewe, U., Doellgast, V.
    27 Apr 2012 | 4:06 am
    This article examines union responses to the reorganization of call centre work in Germany, drawing on case studies from the telecommunications, financial services and subcontractor industries. Service unions initially adopted innovative strategies to organize these workplaces, in response to threats and opportunities presented by the rapid growth of a new ‘sector’. However, the new conglomerate service union, ver.di, has been unable to sustain these alternative strategies due to both institutional and organizational factors. The increasingly fragmented character of the German…

  • Professionalism 'from below': mobilization potential in Indian call centres

    Vaidyanathan, B.
    27 Apr 2012 | 4:06 am
    While the ideology of professionalism is criticized by scholars as a tool of managerial control, the contestable and situated nature of its meaning can weaken this mechanism. Drawing on interviews with Indian call centre employees, the present study reveals how professionalism is understood by employees as an ideal that is binding on managers as much as on workers. Respondents draw on it to articulate grievances against managerial abuse, corruption, sycophancy and negligence, and to express their preference for so-called ‘western’ management practices to protect their rights and…
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    WordPress Tag: Sociology

  • Two Minutes with Dr. Yahya: The Slain the Imam- دقيقتان مع الدكتور يحيى : قصيدة قتلوا الإمام

    Arab American Encyclopedia-USA - Hasan Yahya
    12 May 2012 | 1:44 pm
     Two Minutes with Dr. Yahya: The Slain the Imam The Arab Manifesto Project Dr. Hasan Yahya Professor of Comparative Sociology فارس لبنان والعرب – رفيق الحريري  They Slain the Imam: Hariri Lebanon:Arabic Poetry (حسن يحيىGhareeb al-Diyar ———- ولكن ….هكذا الحال إقرأ أكثر خلال دواوين الشاعر بالعربية: ديوان القدر وديوان بحر الأماني وديوان لولاك  وبالإنجليزية Poetry Diwan www.arabamericanencyclopedia.com Hasanyahya.com @Hasan Yahya,…

  • Two Minutes with Dr. Yahya: Amal Dunqil: Poet from Egypt - دقيقتان مع الدكتور يحيى: أمل دنقل شاعر من مصر

    Arab American Encyclopedia-USA - Hasan Yahya
    12 May 2012 | 1:32 pm
    الشاعر المبدع : أمل دنقل 1940-1983  Two Minutes with Dr. Yahya: Amal Dunqil:  Poet from Egypt The Arab Manifesto Project Dr. Hasan Yahya Professor of Comparative Sociology ولد أمـل دنـقـل الأديب الشاعر من مصر في عام 1940 من مدينة “قنا” في صعيد مصر. كان والده عالماً من علماء الأزهر ، حصل على “إجازة العالمية” عام 1940، فأطلق اسم “أمل” على مولوده الأول تيمناً بالنجاح الذي أدركه في ذلك…

  • Social Networking, Face to Face.

    elishevasokolic
    12 May 2012 | 1:29 pm
    Some people thrive in social situations. These people look forward to events where they will see both their nearest and dearest and also meet new faces, potential friends and contacts of all kinds. They enjoy getting dressed up, making small talk, mingling and shmoozing with all kinds of people, finding out about others as well as opening up about themselves. A lot of people say that they dont enjoy social affairs. Oh-I’m no good at small talk they will sigh, or I never know where to put myself at these things. This type, despite their protestations, normally find the people they…

  • 2 Minutes with Dr. Yahya-Book I Like- دقيقتان مع الدكتور يحيى : كتاب أعجبني

    Arab American Encyclopedia-USA - Hasan Yahya
    12 May 2012 | 1:19 pm
    الدكاترة حسن يحيى – غريب الديار 2 Minutes with Dr. Yahya: Book I Like- The Arab Manifesto Project Dr. Hasan Yahya Professor of Comparative Sociology القراءة هواية تنمي العقول وتفتح أفاق الخيال وتفتق العقل فيونع وردا لغويا ويورق شعرا جماليا ويورف ظلالا أدبية وتخلق كتابا وشعراء وأدباء. وفي هذه السلسلة سأقوم بتقديم كتاب أعجبني في مجالات التربية وتنمية النفس وبناء المجتمعات…

  • Six Generations of Daughters – From Baby to 111-Year-Old Great, Great, Great Grandmother

    ljc
    12 May 2012 | 1:18 pm
    A Virginia family will have a lot of moms to fuss over this Mother’s Day. The family has an astonishing six generations of daughters still living. The matriarch of the family, Mollie Wood, was born in 1901 and just marked her 111th birthday. The youngest addition to the family, Braylin Marie Higgins, was born in March to Wood’s great, great, great granddaughter.
 
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    eScienceNews: Sociology

  • People see sexy pictures of women as objects, not people

    15 May 2012 | 1:31 pm
    Perfume ads, beer billboards, movie posters: everywhere you look, women's sexualized bodies are on display. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that both men and women see images of sexy women's bodies as objects, while they see sexy-looking men as people. read more

  • Female terrorists' bios belie stereotypes, study finds

    15 May 2012 | 10:22 am
    Much like their male counterparts, female terrorists are likely to be educated, employed and native residents of the country where they commit a terrorist act, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. read more

  • Research: Too much, too little noise turns off consumers, creativity

    14 May 2012 | 2:32 pm
    The sound of silence isn't so golden for consumers, and both marketers and advertisers should take note, says new research from a University of Illinois expert in new product development and marketing. read more

  • Pay-to-play sports keeping lower-income kids out of the game

    14 May 2012 | 11:35 am
    In an era of tight funding, school districts across the country are cutting their athletic budgets. Many schools are implementing athletic participation fees to cover the cost of school sports. But those fees have forced kids in lower-income families to the sidelines, according to a new poll that found nearly one in five lower-income parents report their children are participating less in school sports. read more

  • Urban landscape's power to hurt or heal

    14 May 2012 | 11:34 am
    Research shows that street furniture, barriers, parks, public spaces and neighbourhood architecture can stir up powerful emotions in local residents. This should be taken into account in programmes designed to reduce tensions and foster community cohesion. read more
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