By Karen Sternheimer As I recently wrote, cars can teach us about symbolic interactionism, a micro sociological way of thinking about how we construct meaning through interactions with others. Cars also reflect macro sociological issues, particularly in the way buying and owning a car both reflects and helps produce someone’s economic reality. Yes, many of us often try and project a particular economic status with our car. Driving a luxury automobile, whether we can afford to or not, is a way to create an image of affluence and make a statement about who we are to others. This is a micro…
Sociology
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Most Topular Stories
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Cars and Class
Everyday Sociology Blog23 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am -
What Pop Songs Can Teach You About Life
SOCIOLOGY - Yahoo! News Search Results27 Jan 2012 | 8:04 amUCSB professor writes book on the sociology of Top 40 hits. -
The Visual Du Jour – The Whole World is Socialist
The Global Sociology Blog18 Jan 2012 | 7:34 pmLook at all this sharing… for free! (H/T Jim King on Google +) -
PhD bursaries and studentships in Sociology, Criminology and other Social Sciences
Keele University: Sociology Staff6 Jan 2012 | 1:24 pmKeele 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… -
Believing the impossible and conspiracy theories
eScienceNews: Sociology26 Jan 2012 | 4:35 pmDistrust and paranoia about government has a long history, and the feeling that there is a conspiracy of elites can lead to suspicion for authorities and the claims they make. For some, the attraction of conspiracy theories is so strong that it leads them to endorse entirely contradictory beliefs, according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE). read more
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SOCIOLOGY NEWS - Google News
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Professor-rating website tells the good and the bad - The Tennessean
28 Jan 2012 | 4:36 amProfessor-rating website tells the good and the badThe TennesseanBelmont University sociology professor Andi Stepnick's teaching has drawn more student commentary than that of any other Belmont instructor on RateMyProfessors.com. / GEORGE WALKER IV / THE TENNESSEAN RateMyProfessors.com, launched in 1999, -
Guest columnist: Misunderstandings linger about our grieving process - DesMoinesRegister.com
28 Jan 2012 | 4:07 amGuest columnist: Misunderstandings linger about our grieving processDesMoinesRegister.comNANCY BERNS is an associate professor of sociology at Drake University. Contact: nancy.berns@drake.edu We sit at the kitchen table, brushing off the chill of a winter evening. Gloria puts down her coffee mug and reaches for a picture of her children. -
Beyond macho: defining a man's world - Montreal Gazette
28 Jan 2012 | 1:56 amBeyond macho: defining a man's worldMontreal Gazette"Clearly it's at a very nascent stage in its development, in the humanities and social sciences," says Concordia University sociologist Marc Lafrance, who teaches about men and masculinity as part of several courses on gender and sexuality.and more » -
How porn fuels 'collective anxiety' - Montreal Gazette
28 Jan 2012 | 1:56 amHow porn fuels 'collective anxiety'Montreal GazetteThere's more to pornography than how it sexualizes or demeans women, says Casey Scheibling, an honours sociology student at Concordia University. "Most of the literature on pornography tends to focus on women, and that leaves out half of the people and more » -
Stimulate Your Curriculum With Rutger's New "Beyonce" Course - Ology
27 Jan 2012 | 3:27 pmOlogyStimulate Your Curriculum With Rutger's New "Beyonce" CourseOlogyYou might recall that Georgetown professor Michael Dyson put together his "Sociology of Hip-Hop--Urban Theodicy of Jay-Z" a little while back (hit the jump to read more), which, honestly, I thought was a pretty solid idea considering all of the
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SOCIOLOGY - Yahoo! News Search Results
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Suspect In San Jose State Dorm Gropings Arrested
28 Jan 2012 | 1:55 amA 21-year-old sociology student at San Jose State University is accused of groping four women while they slept in a dormitory early Friday morning. -
Tulane professor April Brayfield dies of cancer
27 Jan 2012 | 2:56 pmAssociate Professor of Sociology April Brayfield died Dec. 13 of cancer. -
What Pop Songs Can Teach You About Life
27 Jan 2012 | 8:04 amUCSB professor writes book on the sociology of Top 40 hits. -
UCSB Receives Grant to Study Gangs
25 Jan 2012 | 7:25 pmVictor Rios, associate professor of sociology at UC Santa Barbara, has received a $300,000 grant from the William T. Grant Foundation for a study examining how the interactions between gang-associated youth and their parents, school professionals, police, and probation officers affect their identity and criminal behavior. -
Study: Adolescents from unstable families lose ground in rigorous high schools
25 Jan 2012 | 10:13 am( American Sociological Association ) Research continues to support a connection between instability in the home and school performance in adolescents, but a new study in the January issue of Sociology of Education takes the research a step further by exploring how the relationship between family structure change and adolescent academic careers is also affected by the kinds of schools they attend.
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Everyday Sociology Blog
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Technology and Cultural Lag
26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amBy Janis Prince Inniss A few months ago I heard the following on a talk radio program. A boy and his family from a rural area travelled a great distance for the boy to have surgery. (I have long forgotten the nature of the surgery.) This meant that the family had to stay in a hotel to be with their son, and so apart from the emotional toll there was a significant financial cost for them beyond the direct medical expenses. The surgery went well and the family returned home. What struck me about the story was the post surgery follow-up. The boy’s father was able to take pictures with a cell… -
Cars and Class
23 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amBy Karen Sternheimer As I recently wrote, cars can teach us about symbolic interactionism, a micro sociological way of thinking about how we construct meaning through interactions with others. Cars also reflect macro sociological issues, particularly in the way buying and owning a car both reflects and helps produce someone’s economic reality. Yes, many of us often try and project a particular economic status with our car. Driving a luxury automobile, whether we can afford to or not, is a way to create an image of affluence and make a statement about who we are to others. This is a micro… -
Gender, Power, The Real Housewives and The Help
19 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amBy Sally Raskoff The time has come to admit that I watch some of the “Real Housewives” shows, most recently, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. These shows are fascinating from a sociological perspective. Ostensibly, these are real people living their lives in front of the cameras, although footage is edited and crafted to be “good TV.” Recent episodes depict the trials and tribulations of wealthy women in Beverly Hills as Adrienne and Lisa balance their work lives with their personal lives, Kim and Kyle deal with sisterly issues, Camille and Brandi work through being newly… -
Everyday Sociology Talk: Brian Powell on Defining Families
17 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amKaren Sternheimer interviews Brian Powell, author of Counted Out: Same-Sex Relations and Americans' Definitions of Family For more videos, visit http://www.youtube.com/nortonsoc -
Market Citizenship and Occupying Personhood
16 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amBy Stephanie J. Nawyn Assistant Professor Department of Sociology, Michigan State University As I watch the events of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement unfold and learn about the various responses to it, I am struck by the larger picture that many commentators have overlooked. Many critics of the movement, when they aren’t deriding the protestors for having no clear objectives or direction, claim that the protestors are driven by a sense of entitlement, or are “looking for handouts,” and should get a job and work hard like the rest of us. In essence, these critics seem to think that…
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The Global Sociology Blog
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Illegal Abortion Leads to More Abortions
21 Jan 2012 | 11:37 amSee? (Not that anyone who is interested in reality and data would be surprised by this): The policy implications should be obvious to anyone, including people who do not like abortions. But we all know this is not about abortion per se, it is about patriarchal control and denial of women autonomy. Therefore, women in poorer countries will continues to have more numerous and unsafe abortions while the antichoice crowds will continue to make access to safe abortion less and less likely in the US. None of this will reduce the number of abortions but that is never the goal. -
The Visual Du Jour – The Whole World is Socialist
18 Jan 2012 | 7:34 pmLook at all this sharing… for free! (H/T Jim King on Google +) -
Music Break – Indochine
18 Jan 2012 | 5:55 pmWhile I am busy with academic writing (under deadline!), enjoy this great song – Little Dolls – and video from the latest Indochine album, La République des Météors: -
Peripheral Subsidies and Core Fairy Tales
12 Jan 2012 | 1:21 pmThis has already made the rounds: “Dozens of workers assembling Xbox video game consoles climbed to a factory dormitory roof, and some threatened to jump to their deaths, in a dispute over jobs that was defused but highlights growing labour unrest as China‘s economy slows. The dispute boiled over last week after contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group said it would close the production line for MicrosoftCorp’s Xbox 360 consoles at its plant in the central city of Wuhan and transfer some workers to other jobs, workers and Foxconn said Thursday. Workers reached by… -
Who Could Possibly Have a Problem with “Booth Babes”?
12 Jan 2012 | 1:00 pmOh, let me see… WOMEN! Women who work in this field and visit CES: “Some women at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas have expressed their frustration at the scantily-clad “booth babes” hired by some companies to promote their stalls.” Video at the link for the full misogyny of it. The assumption is that only men will go to such events, and therefore, no one will notice the objectification and will assume that this is what they will want to see. That !@#$ is othering and dehumanizing to the women being “booth babes” and the women…
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Metafilter: Sociology
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How has the Information Age changed advertising?
2 Jan 2012 | 2:48 pmHow has the Information Age changed advertising? I'm teaching an introductory sociology of advertising course and I'm trying to provide a brief historical overview of how it has changed. I plan on hitting the library over the next few days to do some more research, but I thought I'd see what everyone here might have to say in the meantime. I'm trying to pick out defining characteristics of each era. For instance, how town criers were a popular form of advertising during preliterate days or how the printing press brought with it the poster and newspaper. My expertise is not historical but… -
Sorry, suburban white straw people, for encouraging this
16 Dec 2011 | 2:53 pmWhat are some good articles and resources about human fascination with offensive/violent art and occurrences? This is purely based on my own curiosity. I'm coming off a solid month where I've read 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' by Lionel Shriver and 'Columbine' by Dave Cullen and watched the films Elephant and Zero Day. This, in addition to my inexplicable interest in Odd Future, has led my friends to question the sorts of things I'm interested in. I really can't give a solid explanation, but I'm obviously not alone since there's a whole culture behind it. Next time someone asks, I'd like to… -
Looking for data showing differing beliefs, despite the same label, across countries
5 Dec 2011 | 1:13 pmI'm looking for data on public opinion varying across countries, particularly from folks who claim the same affiliation-- say, "progressive", or "socialist"-- but turn out to believe different things depending on the country they're living in. I'm pretty sure I've seen folks talk about a survey finding that self-described "Catholics" and "conservative Catholics" believe moderately different things in France than in they do in Spain, or the UK, or the US. (Maybe at Matthew Yglesias's blog a while back?) But my Googling has failed me. Is anyone out there more knowledgeable or better at using… -
What publication is the sociology equivalent of the Economist?
24 Nov 2011 | 2:21 amWhat publication is the sociology equivalent of the Economist? Short, incisive articles that highlight international cultural trends and changes in the ways people relate to each other. Looking perhaps at touchstone pieces of art, new anthropological research, language used in important court decisions, etc. -
By answering this question, you will have proved yourself a genius.
9 Nov 2011 | 11:12 pmThe presence of A is a good sign B exists, but as people learn about the A trick they take pains to display it so it isn't as reliable a sign of B anymore. What's the term for this, is its rate of adoption reliably based on other variables, and who writes about it? The popularity of strong action verbs in resumes is the best example I can think of at the moment. At one point it might have indicated a good candidate but now everybody knows to do it. What is that? The behavior of spammers trying to pass a Bayesian filter is another example and I'd imagine a spam filter has an enormous body from…
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Keele University: Sociology Staff
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Response to an earlier post on the Stephen Lawrence trial by Guy Woolnough.
19 Jan 2012 | 7:25 amI 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 amMost 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 pmBy 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 pmKeele 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… -
New book by Keele Criminologist
5 Dec 2011 | 6:25 amHelen Wells, graduate of Keele and now lecturer on the Keele Criminology programme has just had her first book published by Ashgate. The book The Fast and The Furious: Drivers, Speed Cameras and Control in a Risk Society is based on her PhD research carried out at Keele between 2002 and 2006 and is published as part of the Human Factors in Road and Rail Transport series. The book offers an explanation for the continued debate about one particular and emotive road safety intervention - the speed camera - by situating that debate within contemporary literature about the ‘risk society’…
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Sociological Stew
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Zombie America - installment 2
24 Jan 2012 | 2:10 pm(Second in a series)America is in decline. The signs are all around us. These are the words with which I began this series, but I was wrong - it isn't just America, its the entire advanced industrialized world. Advanced capitalist industrial societies are all zombies - we all died some time ago, we just didn't notice we'd become the walking dead. The first indicator of this decline that I talked about in the first installment is the desertion of communities, first small towns, and now urban neighborhoods and cities. All my examples were from the United States, because until… -
Wealth Creators
4 Jan 2012 | 12:04 pmI’ve heard a lot of politicians talk about tax cuts for the “job creators” in recent months, but what are we doing for the “wealth creators”? The only way to create wealth is through work, digging things, cutting things, building things, assembling things, cooking things, selling things, and providing services that people want. Wealth isn’t created by the wealthy, they only gather it up and move it around; wealth is created by the workers – the coal miners, the plumbers, the assembly line workers, the burger flippers, the house cleaners, the nurses, the road pavers, the truck… -
Zombie America - installment 1
1 Jan 2012 | 8:34 pm(First in a series)I was awake most of the night last night (New Years Eve/New Years Morning) thinking about things over which I have no control. The downward spiral of obsessive thought began with something very personal - my mother's mental decline into dementia - but I was quickly distracted into much more far reaching national, international, even species (human species) issues over which I have no control.America is in decline. The signs are all around us. I started thinking about those signs in the wee hours last night (and will discuss some of them in a few moments). For… -
Cleaning Up Air Pollution?
22 Dec 2011 | 9:30 am"Unveiling a historic rule, the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced the first national requirement for the nation's coal-fired power plants to reduce emissions of mercury, arsenic, cyanide and other toxic pollutants." EPA announces historic rule to clean or shut coal-burning power plants McClatchy#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpyI applaud this action by the EPA. It's necessary and long overdue. But I wonder about the net effect of these regulations on air quality, at least in the Kentucky coalfields where I live. Electricity rates in Kentucky have gone up dramatically in the… -
Where are people from?
1 Jul 2011 | 4:16 pmThere are many ways in which survey research can be inaccurate, but one would not think that "where do you live?" would be all that open to interpretation. This interesting piece by Daily Kos writer David Nir, shows the dilemmas that can confront survey researchers.Daily Kos/SEIU Station of the Nation Poll: Where are our respondents from?The graphic in the article (above), places the dots based on the Area Code and Zip Code of the respondent, the color of the dot is based on where the respondent SAYS they are from (Northeast, Midwest, South and West).
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scatterplot
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athletics and academics
26 Jan 2012 | 11:36 amAs I have made clear in the past, I am a Tar Heel fan. I am also ambivalent about the relationship between big-time athletics and academics. Recent scandals here at UNC, Penn State, Syracuse, and more have raised the profile of concerns and criticism about college athletics. Meanwhile–and in large part on a different track–various high-profile commentators including Taylor Branch and Joe Nocera have been arguing that revenue college athletes (men’s basketball and football) should be considered employees and paid for their athletic service, and even the NCAA has taken a… -
minor geek triumph
25 Jan 2012 | 9:54 amMaybe I’m the only one who gets into this kind of thing. A few semesters ago I figured out how to set up a spreadsheet to help me manage section switches and adds to my big lecture course where the discussion sections have to all be the same size. This semester, I successfully used mail merge in Word to read the data from the spreadsheet and generate “form emails” sent out via Outlook telling each student what section they have been admitted to. (I don’t normally use Outlook as my mailer, but have it set up as an option.) Overhead in learning it this time was probably… -
new year and religion
24 Jan 2012 | 11:12 amHappy New Year! I’m not Chinese so I was not actually paying attention to the New Year. First I got reminded by the dumpling shop I “liked” on Facebook. Then I got some notes from Asian students about missing class for the holiday. Which reminds me of the sociologically important point I make in lecture every year. My university has a religious accommodation policy which I wholeheartedly endorse. All students must be accommodated for religious observances, and all claims of a need for religious accommodation must be taken at face value. (As the policy states, there is no… -
stuff i don’t get about the european debt crisis
23 Jan 2012 | 12:22 pmAll right – in general I don’t think I’m particularly dense, even in matters economic (though perhaps more so in that than other areas). But I’m confused about several pieces of the European debt crisis and comparisons that get drawn to American issues. 1.) I gather that one of the things that precipitated the crisis was Greece’s disclosure last year that its sovereign debt was about double what had previously been reported, is that correct? How did that happen? 2.) Krugman and others have pointed out that one of the differences between Greek/Italian/Spanish debt… -
canada reconfirms commitment to same-sex marriage
19 Jan 2012 | 9:10 amI am a little behind in updating you on the story I mentioned a few days ago, on the lesbian couple who were married in Canada and live in the United States. They applied for a divorce in a Canadian court to be told that they could not get a divorce, since their marriage was not valid. This set off a kerfuffle, with many accusing the Conservative government of attempting to undermine same-sex marriage rights. The government moved quickly to reconfirm its commitment to same-sex marriage rights, and made a statement that it intended to change those aspects of the law that did not recognize…
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potlatch
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new issue of The Point
18 Jan 2012 | 3:28 amA quick plug for a newish journal, The Point, established by three graduate students at Chicago. Their latest print edition has a symposium of essays on the topic 'What is the Left for?', with contributions from me (plug plug) and Erik Olin Wright. Mine challenges the assumption that the Left is anti-market, and the associated assumption that neoliberalism is pro-market (an argument that is also well made in Colin Crouch's new book), and demands instead that we focus upon hierachies within capitalism. I learnt from the ippr's roundtable commemoration of Marxism Today that the… -
Independent article on happiness
17 Jan 2012 | 3:09 amI had this article in The Independent magazine on Saturday, offering some explanations for the turn towards happiness, as an object of statistics and government. It mainly summarises things I've written elsewhere in openDemocracy and The New Left Review. The piece concludes: So much technocratic interest in our minds, brains and selves may sound frightful. In 1816, Samuel Coleridge accused utilitarian philosophers of recognising "no duties which it could not reduce into debtor and creditor accounts on the ledgers of self-love". But the science of happiness may have a more… -
new report on employee ownership: All Of Our Business
16 Jan 2012 | 3:58 amMy new report, All Of Our Business: Why Britain needs more private sector employee ownership, is published today by the Employee Ownership Association. To accompany it, I had an article in The Sunday Telegraph yesterday laying out its main arguments. And today, Nick Clegg seems to be taking this agenda seriously, as part of the (overdue) political movement towards questioning ownership and control in the private sector, and not just the public sector. The central argument of the report is this: [The report identifies] two rival philosophies of economic value, that businesses can embody. The… -
institutions and privilege
30 Dec 2011 | 8:40 amMaurice Glasman has raised the question of why the Labour Party is currently so dominated by middle class Oxbridge elites. This piece outlines some worrying evidence of the narrowing of Britain's political classes. I argued in Renewal a few year's back [pdf], that New Labour appeared to have become dominated by not only 'professional politicians' (as Weber feared) but by a new cadre of experts. Amongst the plethora of explanations for these trends, we should keep sight of one 'constructivist' element: the way in which institutions have been represented and justified by… -
'political correctness' revisited
28 Dec 2011 | 1:12 pmWe live in the age of 'transparency' or what I once heard Michael Power describe as 'the age of permanent audit'. This is thanks to the presence, sometimes ubiquity, of technologies which make audit the default option, and inaudit (or privacy) a form of specified opt-out. For celebrities, these include legal and quasi-legal forms of media surveillance; for the powerful, it means the constant threat of leaks, the publication of money-grabbing memoirs and Freedom of Information Requests; for the rest of us, it means facebook and digital cameras. Under these conditions, words,…
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orgtheory.net
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matt yglesias kind of gets it right on science profs and science majors
27 Jan 2012 | 6:04 pmMatt Yglesias has a short article at Slate about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). The article is called “Do STEM Faculties Want Undergraduates to Study STEM fields?” Yglesias focuses on different funding structures and TA’s. I’d focus on faculty funding formulas. Faculty and graduate student funding in the sciences relies heavily on external income sources. In the social science and humanities, funding is mainly internal. Deans allocate FTEs (faculty lines) and graduate program class sizes (# of PhD students) based on a combination of merit and,… -
romney should take a chill pill
26 Jan 2012 | 6:01 pmA lot of people will tell you that South Carolina creates a whole new ball game in the GOP primary. Voters have finally seen through the phoney Romney and are swarming to Newt Gingrich. Of course, this might be happening. Nothing is written in stone, but I have my doubts because people who get elite endorsements tend to be the winners. So who is ahead in endorsements? Check out the web site 2012 National Endorsements at p2012.org. The endorsement winner, by a wide, wide margin is Mitt Romney. No Senator has endorsed Gingrich – not a single one. Only the Texas and Georgia governors… -
self-publishing – winning!
25 Jan 2012 | 6:06 pmReaders know that I decided to self-publish The Grad Skool Rulz ($2 – cheap!). It’s an advice manual for people in PhD programs. It also contains advice for assistant professors as well. I want to share what I have learned about self-publishing. First, you need a decent plan if you want to succeed at self-publishing. Any decent editor will tell you that your book depends on getting the message out to the right people. So, when I decided to make the jump and self-publish, I only did so after realizing that the blog provided a great advertising for the book. The Grad Skool Rulz had… -
blog spotlight: souciant
24 Jan 2012 | 6:08 pmMy good friend, Charlie Bertsch, has an excellent web site called Souciant. It’s high quality essay writing – personal observations, politics, and modern culture. The site has a great crew of writers. A few recent examples: Death of a Promise Keeper by Charlie Bertsch- a tasteful reflection on having a neighbor who is very different than you. Withering Away of the State(s) by Mitchell Plitnick – what happened to the two state solution? The Supreme Leader’s Muzak by Cameron McDonald – what tyrants listen to. Check it out – I know you’ll find something… -
why blacks spend more time in jail
23 Jan 2012 | 6:01 pmIf you look at the range of penalties, most of the black-white gaps in criminal sentences disappear when you include initial charges. Source: Racial Disparity in Federal Criminal Charging and Its Sentencing Consequences by Rehavi and Starr. It’s long been known by researchers that American blacks are more likely to spend time in jail than whites and they serve longer prison sentences. However, it’s not known exactly why that is. Do blacks commit more serious crimes? Are courts handing out tougher sentences to black defendants? Are different laws applied to them? Since a lot of…
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Montclair SocioBlog
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Paris - New York (bis)
26 Jan 2012 | 6:40 amJanuary 26, 2012Posted by Jay Livingston“How do you say hipster in French?” I asked yesterday. Now I know. Much thanks le formidable Baptiste Coulmont (my main man / my name man), who steered me to the source, graphics designer Vahram Muratayn. Here is the counterpart to yesterday’s map – French quartiers mapped onto New York geography. Both are from Muratayn’s book Paris Versus New York – a Tally of Two Cities (more info and posters here). You can also get several of these graphics as posters. Like thisAn exhibit will be opening soon… -
Urban Ecology, Paris-New York edition
25 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amJanuary 25, 2012Posted by Jay LivingstonIt was the sociologists in Chicago, not Paris or New York, who gave us the notion of “natural areas” in cities. Park and Burgess had a general model of ecological zones – the concentric circles radiating from the city center. Within these circles there might be more specialized niches – cultural enclaves whose distribution isn’t quite so predictable or consistent. Here are the niches of New York mapped onto the map of Paris. The idea of the map is to point out the cultural similarities – Greenwich Village… -
Shareholders vs. Stakeholders
24 Jan 2012 | 10:48 amJanuary 24, 2012Posted by Jay Livingston(Cross-posted at Sociological ImagesMitt Romney’s capitalism has come under attack – from fellow Republicans, of all people. They’re pummeling him for his work at Bain Capital, his private equity firm. “Private equity” became the term of choice when “leveraged buyout” acquired a connotation of nastiness, probably because many LBOs were in fact nasty affairs (“hostile” takeovers).Romney is tall and good-looking with a full head of hair. He speaks with no noticeable regional accent. Danny DeVito is a photo… -
The Declining Significance of “Class”
23 Jan 2012 | 5:02 amJanuary 23, 2012Posted by Jay Livingston(Cross-posted at Sociological Images) What we don’t talk about when we don’t talk about class. That was the title I wanted to use, but it was too long, and besides, there are already too many of these Raymond Carver variants. Class seems to have disappeared from public discourse, except for the Republicans’ insistence that to mention inequality at all is to engage in “class warfare.”* The only class we hear about, whether from politicians or the media, is the middle class. Here, for example, are the results of a… -
Put a Ring on It?
19 Jan 2012 | 6:28 pmJanuary 19, 2012Posted by Jay LivingstonGet married? Or just live together?Lisa Wade’s “Why I Am Not Married” post was one of the most popular Sociological Images entries of 2011. It elicited over 100 comments – high even for SocImages. Lisa included a defense of her partner’s and her decision not to seek the state’s approval of their relationship. The statement was personal (and courageous). But the only systematic research cited was, I think, the Pew report on the decline in marriage in the US. Clearly, fewer couples are putting a ring on it. Since…
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Larvatus Prodeo
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Saturday Salon
27 Jan 2012 | 8:01 amAn open thread where, at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like. (Prefer to join a more focussed discussion? Try our recent roundtables for recent lively discussions or browse our archives for topics of interest) -
Climate clippings 64
26 Jan 2012 | 6:47 pmI’m currently working on another project, which is taking up much of my time. This week we had about 200mm of rain in one day. That could have been why my cable connection to the internet disappeared for 36 hours. I’m grateful to John D who sent me the links for each item in the following except the last. Zero-emissions engine that runs on liquid air A new zero-emissions engine capable of competing commercially with hydrogen fuel cells and battery electric systems appeared on the radar when respected British engineering consultancy Ricardo validated Dearman engine technology and… -
I won’t add my condemn to your condemn LIII
26 Jan 2012 | 6:00 pmIt’s the last week of the month, so it’s time to condemn yet again! What’s worthy? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious, and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?) You may condemn anything you like except for the Goths Up Trees photoblog, where I found this video about Goth-watching from a 90s Swedish comedy show. -
Invasion Day/Australia Day: Unity/Disunity
25 Jan 2012 | 4:44 amI think everyone of a certain age can remember a certain mantra from John Howard. Symbols, he intoned, are not important. “Symbolic Reconciliation” is not important, he couldn’t say Sorry. The Republic was just a symbol, of interest to “elites”. Not broken, don’t fix it. Yet, symbols he liked were somehow exempt. Howard usurped the role of the Head of State, wanting to preside over things like the Olympics, attending military funerals, laying wreaths, and always, always, wrapping himself in the Flag. Which is just a symbol. I think everyone of a certain age… -
Quick link – 60th anniversary of the Slansky Trial: Stalinism, anti-semitism and “anti-Zionism”.
24 Jan 2012 | 10:22 pmHere is a very interesting article about the emergence of anti-semitism (parading as anti-Zionism) as a key element of Soviet and Eastern European Stalinism after WWII.
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Kieran Healy
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Apple for the Teacher
19 Jan 2012 | 3:33 pmYesterday Apple launched some new applications and services aimed at the education market. They extended the iBooks app to include a textbook store; they announced some deals with major textbook publishers; and they released a free application you can use to write textbooks, and which allows you to publish them on the store. They made their iTunes U service a separate application. The app replicates what’s already available on iTunes, but also seeks to replace some or all of what’s offered by course management systems. Something’s Always Wrong with Education The education… -
Books I Did Not Read This Year: An Ebook
8 Dec 2011 | 12:29 pmI’ve been using the Readmill ebook reader on-and-off. I like it quite a bit. Using it prompted me to make an ebook of my own. Because I moved this entire blog over to Octopress a little while ago, everything I’ve ever written on it going back to 2002 is now in Markdown format. So over lunch today I took advantage of John MacFarlane’s amazingly useful Pandoc, which can make EUPB format ebooks out of markdown files, selected thirteen posts from the Archives and made a little anthology called Books I Did Not Read This Year. It’s free to download, because I’m such a… -
Sweave.sty and the MinionPro package
4 Dec 2011 | 2:05 pmIn the spirit of DenverCoder9, here’s a gotcha for those of you using Sweave in conjunction with a the MinionPro package for LaTeX. If you’re writing an .Rnw file, you may find it breaks your nicely-formatted PDF pipeline—e.g. of the sort that you can find here. Instead of rendering in Minion Pro or what have you, everything degrades to Computer Modern instead. Although you will tear your hair out for a while wondering what bit of LaTeX’s notoriously fragile and unfriendly font setup has accidentlly broken, the reason for your trouble is in fact that the Sweave.sty… -
Is Carrier IQ a keylogger installed on 145 million phones?
30 Nov 2011 | 6:07 pmWhile you have to ask carefully if you want family-planning advice from Siri, owners of Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones may be facing other problems. According to this report in Wired, Trevor Eckhart, a security researcher in Connecticut, has found that third-party performance- and usage-monitoring software installed by default on millions of Android-based handsets sees every user action and—possibly, because I’m not sure based on the video whether this part has been demonstrated—logs and transmits it to the software maker, Carrier IQ. A video made by Eckhart (see below) shows… -
US Road Accident Fatalities
22 Nov 2011 | 2:04 pmFrom ITO comes this very nice—and very sobering—map of road accident fatalities in the United States between 2001 and 2009. As someone who wrote a book about blood and organ donation in Europe and the United States, I’ve spent time analyzing NHTSA data on traffic accidents. I remember that, during Q&As at talks, people were often surprised to learn just how many road deaths there are in the U.S.: about forty thousand per annum (though 2009 saw a very sharp drop, interestingly). Of course, people drive a great deal, too. Standardized by miles traveled, the rate is about 1.5 per…
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chris uggen's weblog
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impossible research
17 Jan 2012 | 5:01 pmJesse Wozniak jets off to a job interview this week, where he'll talk about his research on state reconstruction and the new Iraqi police force. Jesse is an advisee, Contexts student board member, and frequent contributor to the Office Hours podcasts. All dissertations demand sacrifice, but this one posed particular challenges.In fact, Jesse's project calls to mind what Pierre Bourdieu called "the craft par exellence of the researcher: investing a theoretical problem of far-reaching implications in an empirical object that is well constructed and controllable with the means at hand, that is,… -
Stale Records
13 Jan 2012 | 5:31 pmCriminologists Al Blumstein and Kiminori Nakamura offer a powerful New York Times op-ed this week, arguing that "stale criminal records" should expire when they can no longer distinguish criminals from non-criminals.But this isn't just a couple of bleeding heart academics advocating on behalf of a stigmatized group -- there's a solid research foundation supporting the argument. Several smart and creative studies have now followed people arrested or convicted of crimes to watch how long it takes before a criminal's risk of a new offense drops to the point that it is indistinguishable from… -
teaching the 1 in 100
14 Dec 2011 | 7:14 pmI'm always impressed with teachers who blend established knowledge with shifting social currents, bringing it together in ways that students can understand and appreciate. My pubcrim colleague Michelle Inderbitzin seems to do this every year in her classes at both Oregon State University and Oregon State Penitentiary.This fall, her Inside-Out Prison Exchange students combined a social fact (that 1 of every 100 American adults is incarcerated) with a new social movement (the We are the 99 Percent cry of the Occupy movement) , photographing prisoners and the people around them holding signs… -
the pastiness of the long-distance runner / maroon and gold shoes
12 Dec 2011 | 6:53 pmEven in the most diverse cities, marathoners see mostly white legs and faces at the starting line. At Citings and Sightings, Suzy and Hollie point to a new Runner's World piece, which asks "Why is Running so White?" This issue also arose at a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation meeting this year, when James Jackson noted that African American neighborhoods often provide few safe places to run, but ample outlets for fast food and alcohol. While both running and junk food can relieve stress in the short-term, their long-run health effects will… -
i hope she brought enough for the whole class
10 Dec 2011 | 1:04 pmFood is important in every social setting, but it is especially salient for prisoners deprived of so many other comforts. For prisoners in disciplinary units, a meatloaf-like concoction known as Nutraloaf is often the only meal. Nutraloaf (sometimes called a "special management meal") is intended to meet the basic nutritional requirements in a "meal" that requires no utensils and minimal time to prepare or distribute. Nutriloaf -- and the whole concept of "disciplinary food" -- is so unpopular that prisoners have challenged its constitutionality in a number of jurisdictions.I mention all this…
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Amitai Etzioni Notes
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In China's Shoes
24 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amPresident Obama recently announced the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq and plans to pull them out of Afghanistan. But the administration is sending Marines to a new U.S. military base—in Australia. Although the number of the Marines is small, perhaps a symbolic move, many interpret it as part of an American “pivot” from the Middle East to the Far East. And the Far East is a code word for China, increasingly viewed as a major threat to American interests. All but the most hawkish hawks agree that the Chinese military will not pose a threat to the United States for decades. Still,… -
"The Construction of Europe." Amitai Etzioni's interview with The European.
19 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amThe European: Community identity is often based on a shared history, shared customs, shared symbols. Is there a comparable narrative in Europe? Etzioni: I agree that a joint narrative is important. But right now, there is too much time pressure. When I talk about a referendum, I don’t see it primarily as a voting mechanism. I see it as a mechanism to force us into discussion and bring about shared values. Don’t relegate important decisions to experts and politicians in Brussels. Let us all take part. The more we are forced to become political decision-makers, the more we have to raise our… -
Unintended Consequences: War Crimes in Libya.
10 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amHowever good the reasons for our intervention in Libya, we and our allies failed to stop some terrible deeds committed by the rebels we supported. U.S. officials have talked a lot about making sure the rebels commit themselves to a democratic regime and do not impose sharia law. But for the most part officials were mum when the rebels—under the cover of our military support—committed one atrocity after another. If we ever ally ourselves with another armed rebellion, say in Syria, we should make it clear that our support will be granted only as long as rebels refrain from committing the… -
Is China America's new enemy?
10 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amPresident Barack Obama unveiled Thursday a new military strategy. It calls for "pivoting" from the Middle East to the Far East, focusing partly on the military buildup of China. Without a major public debate of the kind we have about raising taxes, or a congressional vote, the U.S. government is moving slowly but surely toward characterizing China as an aggressive superpower and is preparing for war, should it become necessary. James Clapper, retired lieutenant general and current director of national intelligence, characterized China, "growing in its military… -
Stop Enabling Pedophilia
5 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amWhile leaders of the West repeatedly declare that they are out to make Afghanistan into a society free of corruption, with a stable democratic government and one that respects human rights, they turn a blind eye to such moral basics as protecting children from systemic sexual abuse.At the time the West helped liberate Afghanistan in 2001, pedophilia had been largely curbed by the Taliban. However, since then, numerous Pashtuns have abused the new freedoms to revert to a long tradition of molesting young boys.This vile practice was documented in 2010 by an Afghan journalist who returned to his…
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European Sociological Review
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Notes on Contributors
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Subscriptions
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Notes to Contributors
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Contents
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The Representation of Women in National Parliaments: A Cross-national Comparison
25 Jan 2012 | 4:12 amWomen’s representation in national parliaments is examined using a large cross-national sample. Initially, the article seems to confirm previous findings that the electoral formula and quotas are good predictors for the proportion of women in parliament. In line with some recent contributions, this article finds that the proportion of women in parliament is explicable in terms of culture—particularly attitudes towards women as political leaders. It appears that regional differences reflect differences in attitudes relevant to women’s political representation. Drawing on…
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IU News: Social Sciences
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IU Health and Wellness
26 Jan 2012 | 9:56 amIndiana University experts discuss the A's and B's of sunglasses and UV, challenges parents of teens can face regarding their kids' potential substance use, and insights into pets and their caretakers. -
Printing, cursive, keyboarding: What's the difference when it comes to learning?
24 Jan 2012 | 1:03 amIndiana University neuroscientist Karin Harman James is involved at both a state and national level this week in raising awareness about the role of handwriting in the learning process. Interest in her research in this area has gained attention as states and schools nationwide debate whether handwriting instruction, particularly cursive, still fits within the curriculum. -
International Digging Into Data Challenge lands IU scholars on two winning teams
9 Jan 2012 | 9:01 amIndiana University shined the brightest in an international competition to promote innovative humanities and social science research using large-scale data analysis, landing a leading number of five scholars on two of 14 winning projects. In all, 67 international teams competed in the Digging Into Data Challenge, with IU as the only university in the U.S. with researchers on two winning teams. -
New strain of lab mice mimics human alcohol consumption patterns
14 Dec 2011 | 8:08 amA line of laboratory mice developed by a researcher from the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis drinks more alcohol than other animal models and consumes it in a fashion similar to humans: choosing alcohol over other options and binge drinking. -
Public access to Indiana's historic Sanborn maps provides treasure trove of information
7 Nov 2011 | 12:00 amConsidered a treasure trove of American history sought after by genealogists, urban planners, sociologists and a gamut of other researchers, Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, first created beginning in 1867 for assessing fire insurance liability for buildings in U.S. cities, are now available to the public for more than 300 locations in Indiana.
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WordPress Tag: Sociology
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Maymester Course: Death and Dying in Los Angeles- Sign up by Friday, 1/27
25 Jan 2012 | 12:22 pmDr. Diana Blaine is teaching a new class for Maymester 2012. It’s an interdisciplinary look at Los Angeles through the lens of death. We will be off campus throughout the month of May, visiting sites of interest. Students will develop projects based on their own majors and inclinations. If you wish to enroll, this is the week to do so. Maymester is included in the Spring course load and is paid for by Spring tuition. For those looking for a 4 unit course, this works perfectly. The link to the website is … -
What Would You Do If You Were Me?
25 Jan 2012 | 10:49 amConstance Ames My name is Stephen Ames, I am the father of Constance Ames, and the ex of Dawn Englebright. Jamie Englebright raped my daughter and Cliff Englebright raped Dawn Englebright (my ex). The following documents are but a small sample of what I will be uploading over the next few days. A rape investigation was already performed by Children and Youth Services pertaining to Jamie Englebright and has been turned over to the Pennsylvania State Police. As usual, the police have not done much, just as at Penn State University and the Milton S. Hershey school, etc. My daughter has… -
See Los Angeles Through the Lens of Death!
25 Jan 2012 | 10:42 amAdd this course to your Spring schedule by this Friday! 4 units for a four-week class, all off-campus. Meets the Monday after graduation. Tuition included in your Spring fees and all expenses paid for by Dornsife college. http://dornsife.usc.edu/the-sociology-of-death-and-dying-in-los-angeles/ Join thanatologist Diana Blaine on an excursion into the city seeking answers to this provocative question. Students will examine mortality through the lens of theology, ritual, anthropology, criminology, forensics, narrative, and tourism, applying the theories of scholars regarding the cultural meaning… -
Qi Sun Phoenix
25 Jan 2012 | 10:34 am“Talent is not enough, talent does not solve all problems. Effort on the other hand, does.” -
Learn About Chinese New Year: Rituals, Food, Family
25 Jan 2012 | 10:01 amThis is the most important traditional Chinese holiday, and it is typified by dragon and lion dances, fireworks, food and family. http://www.WatchMojo.com takes a look at the cultural and historical significance of Chinese New year.
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eScienceNews: Sociology
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The amygdala and fear are not the same thing
28 Jan 2012 | 12:31 amIn a 2007 episode of the television show Boston Legal, a character claimed to have figured out that a cop was racist because his amygdala activated -- displaying fear, when they showed him pictures of black people. This link between the amygdala and fear -- especially a fear of others unlike us, has gone too far, not only in pop culture, but also in psychological science, say the authors of a new paper which will be published in the February issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. read more -
Survey suggests family history of psychiatric disorders shapes intellectual interests
26 Jan 2012 | 11:34 pmA hallmark of the individual is the cultivation of personal interests, but for some people, their intellectual pursuits might actually be genetically predetermined. Survey results published by Princeton University researchers in the journal PLoS ONE suggest that a family history of psychiatric conditions such as autism and depression could influence the subjects a person finds engaging. read more -
Visual nudge improves accuracy of mammogram readings
26 Jan 2012 | 11:34 pmIn 2011 -- to the consternation of women everywhere -- a systematic review of randomized clinical trials showed that routine mammography was of little value to younger women at average or low risk of breast cancer. read more -
Believing the impossible and conspiracy theories
26 Jan 2012 | 4:35 pmDistrust and paranoia about government has a long history, and the feeling that there is a conspiracy of elites can lead to suspicion for authorities and the claims they make. For some, the attraction of conspiracy theories is so strong that it leads them to endorse entirely contradictory beliefs, according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE). read more -
Are you a happy shopper? Research website helps you find out
26 Jan 2012 | 2:35 pmPsychologists have found that buying life experiences makes people happier than buying possessions, but who spends more of their spare cash on experiences? New findings published this week in the Journal of Positive Psychology reveal extraverts and people who are open to new experiences tend to spend more of their disposable income on experiences, such as concert tickets or a weekend away, rather than hitting the mall for material items. read more
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Karl Bakeman
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#ShitSociologistsSay
25 Jan 2012 | 8:15 pm#ShitSociologistsSay: nortonsoc: It seems appropriate that sociologists would hop on this meme a couple of weeks after it jumped the shark. Nevertheless it’s very funny. -
The best polenta I've ever had.
20 Jan 2012 | 7:37 amThe best polenta I've ever had. : The Society Pages crew took me to Craftsman last night. The polenta with winter vegetables was amazing. I regret not taking a photo. -
Beautiful sunset outside 500 Fifth.
17 Jan 2012 | 4:02 pmBeautiful sunset outside 500 Fifth. -
On tonight's menu
14 Jan 2012 | 12:27 pmBrussel Sprouts with Smoked Onion on Cheddar Toast Beet, Endive, and Goat Cheese SaladRicotta Gnocchi with Shitake Mushrooms and Marjoram And! Linh’s delicious chocolate cake. -
clipartcovers: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk...
11 Jan 2012 | 9:38 amclipartcovers: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel. Original. Requested by several, including mayor-tusks, stridingdirty, the0r4ng3 and laserdinosaurs.
