Sociology

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  • Helping pet owners make tough choices

    eScienceNews: Sociology
    14 Jun 2013 | 1:37 pm
    Perhaps the hardest part of owning a pet is making difficult decisions when a beloved companion becomes seriously ill. read more

  • Where do Poor People Live?

    Everyday Sociology Blog
    W. W. Norton
    10 Jun 2013 | 12:00 am
    By Karen Sternheimer If someone asked you this question, how might you answer? For many of us living in cities, we might name specific neighborhoods that we associate with high levels of poverty. But that would only give us part of the answer. The U.S. Census collects data each year as part of their Current Population Survey (CPS), and it provides useful information on a number of issues, including poverty rates and where people in poverty are most likely to live. (As I blogged about last year, some in Congress want to end funding for CPS and related surveys). The largest number of people…

  • Zombie America - Installment 4

    Sociological Stew
    17 Jun 2013 | 6:39 pm
    A year and a half ago, as I was thinking about the state of things economic, political and environmental in this country, the phrase "zombie America" popped into my head. What is a zombie? The original use of the word is for a dead body, devoid of real life and soul, that is reanimated and caused to walk around by witchcraft or dark magic. In the ever popular science fiction of recent years, the concept of zombie has evolved to mean a person who has as the result of infection or exposure to unspecified substances been robbed of their humanity - of their personality, intelligence, soul and…

  • When Numbers Mislead

    NYT > Sociology
    25 May 2013 | 10:00 pm
    Data can lead to mistaken notions — that divorce, for instance, must hurt children.

  • Sociology Professor Wins Prize Linked to Her Shepherd Program Internship - Washington and Lee University News Office (blog)

    SOCIOLOGY NEWS - Google News
    18 Jun 2013 | 7:56 am
    Washington and Lee University News Office (blog)Sociology Professor Wins Prize Linked to Her Shepherd Program InternshipWashington and Lee University News Office (blog)Shannon Elizabeth Bell, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Kentucky, recently won the 2013 Robert Boguslaw Award for Technology and Humanism from the Environment and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association.
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    NYT > Sociology

  • When Numbers Mislead

    25 May 2013 | 10:00 pm
    Data can lead to mistaken notions — that divorce, for instance, must hurt children.

  • What Our Words Tell Us

    20 May 2013 | 10:00 pm
    Gradual shifts in language use over the centuries reflect tectonic shifts in culture.

  • When Helping Hurts

    11 May 2013 | 10:00 pm
    Certain forms of help can dilute the recipients’ sense of accountability for their own success. Support, don’t substitute.

  • The Confidence Responses

    2 May 2013 | 10:00 pm
    Readers’ responses to the confidence questions inspire awe at the diversity of the human experience.

  • The Confidence Questions

    22 Apr 2013 | 10:00 pm
    Is there a relationship between gender and self-confidence? Dear Readers, please ponder the matter in your own lives and send in written reflections. We seek responses from men and women.
 
 
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    Everyday Sociology Blog

  • Learning to be Human (From My Dog)

    W. W. Norton
    17 Jun 2013 | 12:00 am
    By Peter Kaufman The other day I was out walking my dog, Emma, and we ran into Archie. Archie is a gentle old soul who lives around the corner. He is always eager to see Emma and usually goes out of his way to come over and say hello. I’ve known Archie for a few years and have come to learn quite a bit about him: his favorite places to walk around town, what he likes to eat, his low tolerance for hot and humid weather, his dislike of cats and squirrels, and even where he likes to take a poop. In case you haven’t realized, Archie is dog, a black lab to be exact. Despite all…

  • Educational Inequality: From Grade School to Graduation

    W. W. Norton
    13 Jun 2013 | 12:00 am
    By Jonathan Wynn Inequality in education seems to be one of the more counter-intuitive things I can imagine: how can our education system exacerbate existing inequalities? And yet, we should not be surprised. Last summer I visited Arkansas, stopping by Little Rock Central High School, the location of one of the most powerful moments in American history. In 1957 and in accordance with a 1954 Supreme Court ruling to integrate schools (Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483), nine African-American teenagers marched through an angry mob to school, eventually having to be escorted by the 101st…

  • Where do Poor People Live?

    W. W. Norton
    10 Jun 2013 | 12:00 am
    By Karen Sternheimer If someone asked you this question, how might you answer? For many of us living in cities, we might name specific neighborhoods that we associate with high levels of poverty. But that would only give us part of the answer. The U.S. Census collects data each year as part of their Current Population Survey (CPS), and it provides useful information on a number of issues, including poverty rates and where people in poverty are most likely to live. (As I blogged about last year, some in Congress want to end funding for CPS and related surveys). The largest number of people…

  • On My Honor: The Boy Scouts and Sexual Orientation

    W. W. Norton
    6 Jun 2013 | 12:00 am
    By Sally Raskoff The Boy Scouts of America voted recently to change their membership policy. They passed the resolution to “remove the restriction denying membership to youth on the basis of sexual orientation alone.” The resolution actually reads: “No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.” This is a large change for the organization as they have long denied membership – and leadership positions – based on sexual orientation. They also require members to have particular religious beliefs that are…

  • Six Benches: Public Space and College Town Life

    W. W. Norton
    3 Jun 2013 | 12:00 am
    By Jonathan Wynn  Urbanist William H. Whyte once wrote, “It is difficult to design a space that will not attract people. What is remarkable is how often this has been accomplished.” But, what happens when a place attracts the “wrong kind” of person? This weekend, in my hometown of Northampton, Massachusetts, a group of 40 people stood in the cold rain to protest the removal of six benches from our downtown sidewalk. The mayor and the Business Improvement District made the decision based upon complaints from business owners over panhandlers using the benches “too much I live in…
 
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    Keele University: Sociology Staff

  • What does ‘rehabilitation’ actually mean to today’s politicians?

    12 Jun 2013 | 3:19 am
    By Andrew Henley, PhD student and Graduate Teaching Assistant in CriminologyIn the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption an exchange between ‘Red’ played by Morgan Freeman and a member the panel at his umpteenth parole hearing perhaps sums up the political construction of ‘rehabilitation’ in criminal justice:1967 Parole Hearings ManEllis Boyd Redding, your files say you've served 40 years of a life sentence. Do you feel you've been rehabilitated?RedRehabilitated? Well, now let me see. You know, I don't have any idea what that means.1967 Parole Hearings Man Well, it means that you're…

  • The whole-life sentence and ‘playing to the gallery’

    15 May 2013 | 2:46 pm
    By Andrew Henley, PhD student and Graduate Teaching Assistant in Criminology Home Secretary Theresa May has announced today that people who kill police officers should face a mandatory whole-life sentence without the possibility of parole. May’s rationale for imposing this sentence is that: "To attack and kill a police officer is to attack the fundamental basis of our society. We ask police officers to keep us safe by confronting and stopping violent criminals for us. We ask them to take risks so that we don't have to. That is why I am clear that life should mean life for anyone…

  • Chinese Dystopias

    14 May 2013 | 6:07 am
    By Mark Featherstone, Senior Lecturer in SociologyOver the course of the last couple of years I have extended my work of utopian and dystopian thought into the study of Chinese utopias and dystopias. Apart from work on the utopian, and dystopian, dimensions of the contemporary Chinese city, I have also explored the idealistic aspects of Chinese philosophy. At today’s Sociology seminar, I presented my latest paper on the recent Chinese dystopia, The Fat Years, entitled 'Chinese Bulimia: Utopian and Dystopian Bodies in Chinese Thought'. In this paper I seek to explore Chan Koonchung’s…

  • Motoring offences clampdown: are we all fine now?

    11 May 2013 | 2:13 pm
    By Helen Wells, Lecturer in Criminology     Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has announced that fines for a variety of motoring offences will rise from £60 to £90. Offences covered by the increase included speeding, driving through a red light and using a hand held mobile device. Interestingly, the offence of careless driving (for which a new fixed penalty is proposed) was couched in terms of behaviours that we can probably all recognise: cutting up other drivers, eating a sandwich or lighting a cigarette at the wheel, driving at an inappropriate speed and needlessly…

  • Who’s driving roads policing?

    30 Apr 2013 | 4:16 am
    By Helen Wells, Lecturer in Criminology Towards the end of last week, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk, Stephen Bett drew critical attentionfor suggesting that, in some circumstances, speed limits in his county should be abolished and (skilled) drivers be allowed to “go flat out”. The Chief Constable of Norfolk constabulary, Phil Gormley, does not appear to have commented on the statement but it is reasonable to assume that, as former ACPO lead on roads policing, he would not approve. The week before, both PCC and CC had been more in tune when commenting on the case of the…
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    Sociological Stew

  • Zombie America - Installment 4

    17 Jun 2013 | 6:39 pm
    A year and a half ago, as I was thinking about the state of things economic, political and environmental in this country, the phrase "zombie America" popped into my head. What is a zombie? The original use of the word is for a dead body, devoid of real life and soul, that is reanimated and caused to walk around by witchcraft or dark magic. In the ever popular science fiction of recent years, the concept of zombie has evolved to mean a person who has as the result of infection or exposure to unspecified substances been robbed of their humanity - of their personality, intelligence, soul and…

  • Summer Weight Gain for Children

    21 Jul 2012 | 10:25 am
    Ran across this article in our regional paper this morning: "Students get dumber and fatter during the summer." http://www.kentucky.com/2012/07/19/2263552/students-get-dumber-fatter-during.html#wgt=rcntnewsWhile we probably can blame the decline in academic performance to being out of school, the increase in weight would probably occur in the summer regardless of whether school was in session or not.  Unlike the summers of my childhood in the 1950's, current summers are hotter (yes, climate change), and unlike the homes of my 50's childhood, most people's homes are cooler via the…

  • Are We Heading for a New Minimum?

    18 Jun 2012 | 3:32 pm
    The Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis provide nearly real time (about a 24 hour delay) data on the extent of ice at the poles. After a winter of nearly "normal" (close to the 20 year mean of 1979-2000) ice extent, the spring melt began to pick up speed in May and early June, and the ice extent has already dropped well below the previous record minimum extent of 2007. http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

  • A Modest Proposal for Arizona

    14 Mar 2012 | 6:27 pm
    Arizona House Bill 2625 will allow employers to reject insurance coverage for contraceptives for their employees if it conflicts with their religious beliefs. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 6-2 Monday to endorse SB 2625 which would allow Arizona employers the right to deny health insurance coverage for contraceptives based on religious objections. Arizona House Bill 2625, authored by Majority Whip Debbie Lesko, R-Glendale, would permit employers to ask their employees for proof of medical prescription if they seek contraceptives for non-reproductive purposes, such as hormone control or…

  • Zombie America - Installment 3

    13 Mar 2012 | 8:03 pm
    "Where's the work that'llset my hands, my soul free,Where's the spirit that'llreign over me.Where's the promise fromsea to shining sea,Where's the promise fromsea to shining sea."by Bruce Springsteen"We Take Care of Our Own"Wrecking Ball 2012.What is "Zombie America"? It's an America that has lost its spirit, its promise. It's a nation that is a hollow shell of itself, walking around going through the motions, but the spirit has flown. Zombie America is a place that no longer dreams, that has drawn in upon itself, and is retreating into the past as fast as it can. In the first…
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    scatterplot

  • take me out to the asa ballgame

    tina
    19 Jun 2013 | 7:02 am
    Princeton U Press editor Eric Schwartz has a great idea for this year’s ASA baseball trip. Why not go to a minor league game? Cheaper tickets, better seats, and a chance to see some great baseball. So this year, we have cooked up the following plan: Staten Island Yankees: Friday, August 9 at 7pm Featuring: tickets that cost no more than $25 plus fees two free rides on the Staten Island Ferry, which has the best view of the Statue of Liberty (especially now that you can no longer climb into her head) throwback jerseys given away to the first 2,500 fans amazing views of the Manhattan…

  • annals of self-refuting tweets

    jeremy
    18 Jun 2013 | 3:40 pm
        From the official professional organization representing American academic sociology:   Perhaps first draft of tweet was “Sociologist proves that conservatives are completely deluded morons for suspecting that sociology could have some bias against them.”

  • but what do they do?

    neal caren
    10 Jun 2013 | 8:30 am
    Social workers (9%), elementary and middle school teachers (6%), counselors (4%), managers, all other (4%), lawyers (3%), secretaries and administrative assistants (2%), postsecondary teachers (2%), police and sheriff’s patrol officers (2%), human resources workers (2%), first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers (2%), social and community service managers (2%), sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing (2%), and education administrators (2%). According to the American Community Survey, those are the most common occupations for  full-time employed…

  • but who do they marry?

    neal caren
    7 Jun 2013 | 11:07 am
    A recent report out of Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce recently highlighted variation in income and unemployment by college major. I’m not a fan of this sort of thing, but it did alert me to the fact that the Census’s American Community Survey includes data on college majors. Over at IPUMS, not only can you get the data in an easy to use form, but you can also link respondents to other people in the household with the click of a button. Obviously, I was interested in figuring out how often undergraduate sociology majors marry each other. I grabbed the…

  • domestic violence & employment bleg

    olderwoman
    21 May 2013 | 7:13 am
    I got an email from a former student who is now working in an employment program and asked me about research on the problem that victims of domestic violence sometimes lose their jobs due to victimhood. She’s asking me for relevant research. We know about Matt Desmond’s work on victims of domestic violence getting evicted, but I’m not the right person to know the research on the employment link. So, Scatterplotters, can you help?
 
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    potlatch

  • data's double life

    Will
    12 Jun 2013 | 3:20 am
    Flicking through twitter over the weekend, I was struck by a peculiar contradiction between two articles that were being widely linked to. The first (which was really a cluster of articles) related to the revelations about the US government's surveillance activities, which, we now know, exploit the affordances of ubiquitous digital media, to record and analyse billions of informal communications between members of the public. As various wags have quipped, it turns out that Big Data really is very hot in Washington right now. The UK government has also been implicated, with the Foreign…

  • Bernard Crick prize

    Will
    27 May 2013 | 3:26 am
    I'm aware that I've already expended too much energy promoting said piece, but... My prohibitively-titled article, The Emerging Neocommunitarianism, was awarded the Bernard Crick prize at the Orwell Awards ceremony a couple of weeks ago, which goes to the best Political Quarterly article of the previous year. As a result, it's now been made free to download.

  • come and study with us

    Will
    10 May 2013 | 6:59 am
    All details here (and details of my module on value and valuation here). We're also receiving applications from prospective PhD students.

  • new report on public service mutuals

    Will
    9 May 2013 | 11:01 am
    While I was changing jobs last autumn, I was also working on some research looking at the experiences of public sector organisations that transfer to the status of mutuals. Given that this is quite a major policy theme for the Coalition government, this is a relevant issue at the moment. The resulting report, Becoming a Public Service Mutual, co-authored with my successor Ruth Yeoman, is now published, and you can download it here [pdf]. The report is based on a number of case studies of individual organisations that had been spun out of state ownership, into some form of employee and user…

  • where do neoliberals go after the market?

    Will
    12 Apr 2013 | 7:51 am
    My colleague, Nate Tkacz and I, have put together a conference at CIM, which tries to think about neoliberalism in terms of rival technologies of information-processing.  In particular, could the market be usurped within the neoliberal imagination by other 'smarter' machinic visions of liberty, such as those promised by 'open data'? Philip Mirowski will give a keynote, drawing on his forthcoming book on the financial crisis. The full ad for the conference is copied below (the original link is here) with registration details at the bottom. Come along!   Where Do…
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    orgtheory.net

  • should academia change to prevent brain drain?

    fabiorojas
    19 Jun 2013 | 5:05 pm
    Two online discussions motivate this post. First, there is the discussion of women in academia, prompted by a Slate article that reports a baby penalty for female scholars. Second, there was a recent twitter discussion about some sociologists who are leaving academia to work for Silicon Valley. The underlying issue is that academic careers are poorly structured. They essentially require that people take low pay and job insecurity for at least ten years – assuming that you don’t do the post-doc route, that the PhD is only 5 years and you get voted for tenure at the beginning of…

  • feminist star wars

    fabiorojas
    18 Jun 2013 | 5:47 pm
    There is a strand of feminist discourse that highlights the under-appreciated contributions of women. Consider this post my contribution to the genre. If you talk to a really, really hard core Star Wars nut, like I used to be, you’ll hear the standard story of George Lucas’ decline. He was a nerdy avant-gard wannabe film maker. He finally decided to go mainstream, to great success, making three outstanding films in a row, American Graffiti, Star Wars, and Empire Strikes back. However, released from the pressure of Hollywood, he didn’t have the discipline to rein in his…

  • how fabio mentors graduate students

    fabiorojas
    17 Jun 2013 | 5:57 pm
    I am now at the age where I actually have PhD students working with me. In other words, I need to apply the grad skool rulz to my own life. In the spirit of discussion, I outline my philosophy as a teacher of PhD students: Be firm but nice. No need to make people cry. My discipline has norms and standards for research that can be taught. I will teach this “normal science” to my students. I will be flexible. Though most students have to master the “meat and potatoes” of research, some can work on more idiosyncratic projects. I will be in my office a lot. Students can…

  • 2013 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards – due date Oct. 1, 2013

    katherinechen
    17 Jun 2013 | 8:47 am
    For our budding orgheads, a new doctoral research award of possible interest: “Emerald and the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) announce the launch of the 2013 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards. These Awards reward the best doctoral research projects in 12 different categories, each sponsored by an Emerald journal. For a list of all categories and details of how to apply please visit the webpage below: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/research/awards/odra.htm The Awards are open to those who have completed and satisfied examination requirements for a…

  • the united states of east germany

    fabiorojas
    16 Jun 2013 | 5:13 pm
    When we think about repressive states like East Germany, we often think about its explicit ideology, Marxist-Leninism. We think about the rejection of the market economy and private property. However, we often overlook its implicit theory. The theory embodied by East Germany was that socialists states are in perpetual war with its capitalist and fascist rivals. This view, that society is always at war, justified a surveillance state. The East Germans created a massive system of spying on its citizens, resulting in an infamous collection of files that recorded the lives of millions of people.
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    Not Your Typical Sociologist

  • Regulating freedom so we can be free?

    1 Jun 2013 | 9:10 pm
    So, the question might be, then...how do we regulate "freedom" so that we can be free? Has to have something to do with teaching ourselves and others (kids) how to access what we need from the physical and social environment without impinging on others and without exhausting the carrying capacity of the world. What rules would support this kind of social organization?Live and let liveCreate what you need and if you want, share whatever you have in excessDevelop sustainable products and production methodsNo initiating harm to others; avoid harm from others if at all possibleBe honest in your…

  • How free can we be?

    1 Jun 2013 | 11:59 am
    I've been reading a lot about liberterianism and anarchy lately. I find it really interesting stuff. I like the idea of being free from formal regulation of the governmental kind. I do think that humans are capable of regulating ourselves without the need for a formalized governmental system. In fact, most of us do most of the time. In other words, most of us regulate ourselves (in terms of doing the "right thing" without the need of government intervention) fairly well. To be sure, there are some who would do the "wrong thing" without any sort of fear of punishment (although most anarchists…

  • Email to my older brother

    31 May 2013 | 4:06 pm
    Thought you'd like to know that I have been reading much about Austrian economics lately. I am not completely convinced that a truly free market, absent govt regulation, would be all that much better. I am leaning that way, though. I have always been critical of the govt and corporations because of their fascism and subsequent criminal use of power and am definitely in favor of ridding the world of both. I like Rothbard's work the best, so far. I think Mises is misguided with his notion of human action (not supported by empirical evidence; not surprising, tho since he eschews science in…

  • 30 Sep 2011 | 8:11 am

    30 Sep 2011 | 8:11 am
    Mind...what a wasteI want to make clear a couple of points I raised in Wednesday class; they have to do with my intellectual orientation to the study of human behavior.First and foremost, I am a behaviorist. This means that I observe everything that humans do in terms of behavior. This includes thinking, feeling, etc. As such, the purpose of a human science is to explain or account for behavior. I do this by using the evidence generated by research conducted by behavior analysts. Why? Because after years of consideration, I have concluded that they have the best empirical evidence to support…

  • Not me

    27 May 2011 | 7:39 pm
    I realized today that I am not the source of my own life. I don't animate myself. I did not create my life. I am something that's been created. Consequently, I am a fiction.
 
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    Montclair SocioBlog

  • Murky Research, Monkey Research

    19 Jun 2013 | 3:30 am
    June 19, 2013Posted by Jay LivingstonMarc Hauser left his professorship at Harvard after an investigation found that he had committed scientific misconduct. Basically, he made up the data for some of his published articles.  It wasn’t the irony that got me – Hauser’s research focused on morality.  It was this brief passage in a Nation article* (here) about the scandal:Marc Hauser has worked at the exciting interface of cognition, evolution and development . . . Hauser has worked primarily with rhesus monkeys,That took me back to my first disillusioning dip into the murky…

  • Useful Habits

    14 Jun 2013 | 6:17 pm
    June 14, 2013Posted by Jay LivingstonHabits of the Heart by Robert Bellah and colleagues, published a quarter-century ago, remains a required reference in courses and discourses about American society and culture. I was reminded of its continuing usefulness today when a WaPo link took me to a review by Chrystia Freeland of The Fracturing of the American Corporate Elite by Mark Mizruchi About halfway through the 2600-word review, she writes:When America’s postwar corporate elites were sexist, racist company men who prized conformity above originality and were intolerant of outsiders, they…

  • Anecdotal Evidence – One More Time

    14 Jun 2013 | 8:33 am
    June 14, 2013Posted by Jay LivingstonAnecdotal evidence seems more convincing, I tell my students in Week One, but if you want to find out general truths, you need systematic evidence.  The New York Times today provides my example for next semester.The Times had run an op-ed  last week about only children.  The author, Lauren Sandler, referred to results from “hundreds of studies” showing that only children are generally no different from those with siblings on variables like “leadership, maturity, extroversion, social participation, popularity, generosity,…

  • Pittsburgh - My Hometahn

    10 Jun 2013 | 8:24 am
    June 10, 2013Posted by Jay Livingston from Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian eastbound, somewhere near Horseshoe Curve.The cab driver, a Black man in his forties, had a perfect Pittsburgh accent.  On the short drive from the train station to our hotel near Pitt, he talked about the transformation of the “Sahth Side” – the once industrial area just south of the Monongehela. I cannot describe in writing the other linguistic tipoffs – I’m not a linguist, and even if I were most readers could not decipher those phonetic cryptograms – but I knew I was home.The man who hooked up the…

  • Graphing Grade Inflation

    5 Jun 2013 | 7:32 am
    June 5, 2013Posted by Jay LivingstonI have little talent in the visual arts.  But since I started doing this blog, and especially when Sociological Images started using some of my posts, I’ve become more sensitive to graphs. and the visual presentation of quantitative data.  In the old days, when I had trouble deciphering a graph, I blamed my own visual limitations.  Now, I think about how the graph might be improved.  A couple of days on a campus listserv, someone posted this graph to illustrate grade inflation.The first comment on this began, “If I understand the…
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    Larvatus Prodeo

  • Climate clippings 78

    Brian
    17 Jun 2013 | 5:07 pm
    These posts are intended to share information and ideas about climate change and hence act as an open thread. This post has emphasised adaptation and mitigation, essentially what we need to do to achieve a safe climate. Comments, about science, observations impacts, and future predictions are welcome. I do not, however, want a rehash of whether human activity causes climate change. 1. Mining company donations to political parties Bernard Keane Looked at the astonishing trend in mining company donations to political parties: Sandi Keane adds some value in her two part series on the…

  • Gonski under Abbott

    Brian
    16 Jun 2013 | 5:17 pm
    It may have escaped attention last week that the Coalition waved the Gonski bill through the House of Representatives on the voices and without amendment. The common view in the press has been that Gonski is dead in the water because Abbott and Pyne have said that they will repeal it unless all states agree. Laura Tingle in the AFR points out that the new funding system will be the law of the land when we wake up on September 15. Since that article went to press South Australia has signed up, joining New South Wales and the ACT. Tasmania will almost certainly follow. Of the remaining states,…

  • Lazy Sunday

    Cat Herding Cabal
    15 Jun 2013 | 5:00 pm
    Since we don’t live by politics alone (I sincerely hope), what else did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!

  • Saturday Salon

    Cat Herding Cabal
    14 Jun 2013 | 7:01 am
    An open thread where, at your weekend leisure, you can discuss almost anything* you like. * Weekly Reminder: some comments are likely to be far more welcome as part of existing discussions e.g. there’s already plenty of election threads! Comments Policy | Netiquette FAQ | rinse-and-repeat news-cycle churn/spin should be taken to the Overflow thread or the Weekly Election2013 roundtable

  • Weekly Election2013 Roundtable

    Cat Herding Cabal
    14 Jun 2013 | 12:00 am
    In order to keep Saturday Salon as a 2013 Federal election-free zone, here’s a separate news-cycle week-ending thread where you can talk about anything related to current politics and the election.
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    Kieran Healy

  • Lewis and the Women

    Kieran Healy
    19 Jun 2013 | 8:33 am
    Update: Thanks in part to a prompt from Juan Comesana, I found an odd error in the dataset—a phantom item credited to “Anonymous” and notionally appearing on a single page of Philosophical Perspectives had a relatively high citation count (it was the 119th-ranked item). Errors of this sort are not uncommon in bibliographical databases. I removed it and re-ran the analysis. The rank orders have changed very slightly—mostly due to items being able to move up one place as a result of the deleted item—and one extra paper authored by a woman entered at the very bottom…

  • A Co-Citation Network for Philosophy

    Kieran Healy
    18 Jun 2013 | 6:19 pm
    What have philosophers been talking about for the last two decades? I’m asking—and presenting an answer to—this question partly out of an ongoing research interest in philosophy, partly out of some recent “Does anyone know …?” questions I’ve been asked, and partly to play with some new text-processing and visualization methods. There are of course many ways to make the general question specific. Here’s the beginnings of an answer based on some work I did yesterday evening. I took twenty years worth of articles from four major philosophy journals…

  • Following up on Paul Revere

    Kieran Healy
    11 Jun 2013 | 6:56 am
    Yesterday’s post on Using Metadata to Find Paul Revere really caught fire. It’s still going, in fact, and it will probably break a hundred thousand unique pageviews some time this afternoon. It’s always exciting and a little anxiety-making when something like that happens. Overall, I’m delighted that the response has been so positive. By way of follow-up, I’d just say that it’s a single post that was meant to make a point in an accessible and hopefully entertaining way. It’s not a serious piece of history, or a serious piece of social network…

  • Using Metadata to find Paul Revere

    Kieran Healy
    9 Jun 2013 | 5:54 pm
    London, 1772. I have been asked by my superiors to give a brief demonstration of the surprising effectiveness of even the simplest techniques of the new-fangled Social Networke Analysis in the pursuit of those who would seek to undermine the liberty enjoyed by His Majesty’s subjects. This is in connection with the discussion of the role of “metadata” in certain recent events and the assurances of various respectable parties that the government was merely “sifting through this so-called metadata” and that the “information acquired does not include the…

  • Updates to the Social Science Starter Kit

    Kieran Healy
    28 May 2013 | 5:59 pm
    The Emacs Social Science Starter Kit is a drop-in collection of packages and settings for Emacs 24 aimed at people like me: that is, people doing social science data analysis and writing, using some combination of tools like R, git, LaTeX, Pandoc, perhaps some other programming languages (e.g., Python, or Perl), and plain-text formats like Markdown, and Org-Mode. More information on the kit is available here. Some of its highlights are listed here. It was originally written to accompany a more general article on Choosing Your Workflow Applications. The SSSK is available on github. I’ve…
 
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    chris uggen's weblog

  • Sesame Street on Incarcerated Parents

    18 Jun 2013 | 6:40 pm
    I don't recall any "So, your dad's in prison" discussions on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood or Captain Kangaroo, but United States criminal punishment has increased greatly since my preschool days. Arturo Baiocchi sends along this powerful Sesame Street clip addressing parental incarceration in their "Little Children, Big Challenges" series. The short video is heartbreaking in concept and in execution, but I'm glad to see more people and institutions reaching out to support the children of incarcerated parents. For those interested in the numbers and the effects of parental incarceration, I'd…

  • Kieran Healy on Paul Revere and Social Networke Analysis

    11 Jun 2013 | 9:48 am
    An elegant design, compelling evidence, and a timely story rendered exceptionally well. Sociologist Kieran Healy's wonderful post on using metadata to find Paul Revere (and/or Jack Black) is now attracting megareaders at Slate. The opening lines:London, 1772. I have been asked by my superiors to give a brief demonstration of the surprising effectiveness of even the simplest techniques of the newfangled Social Networke Analysis in the pursuit of those who would seek to undermine the liberty enjoyed by His Majesty’s subjects. This is in connection with the discussion of the…

  • Ban the Box Now Law in Minnesota

    14 May 2013 | 5:47 pm
    You might have heard that Minnesota Governor Dayton just signed Freedom to Marry legislation, but he also made Ban the Box the law-of-the-land-of-10,000-lakes.  Megan Boldt describes it succinctly at twincities.com:Gov. Mark Dayton this week signed a bill that would ban employers from considering a job applicant’s criminal history until the applicant has an interview or is offered a job. Supporters of the bill, dubbed “ban the box,” have argued the change allows people who have made mistakes to be considered for a job on their merits and skills, instead of…

  • Sociological Science

    13 May 2013 | 2:32 pm
    Well, our TSP offices are buzzing about the announcement of Sociological Science, an exciting new open-access research publication. There's a very accomplished editorial team in place, with a clear commitment to "speed, access, debate - and a light touch" -- fine attributes for journal editors, as well as guitar players. To keep everything free and open-access, the project will be supported by submission and publication fees charged to authors, rather than subscription fees or association dues.Sociological Science is distinctive in positioning itself as a rigorous peer-reviewed outlet…

  • Weaver & Uggen Event TUESDAY 4/30

    25 Apr 2013 | 6:14 pm
    UPDATE: Doh! This event is on Tuesday, rather than Thursday.Join me and the incomparable Vesla Weaver this TUESDAY Thursday, for a spirited conversation on crime, punishment, and democracy at the Hubert H. Humphrey Forum.  As moderator, I'll either be channeling Charlie Rose or Axl Rose, depending on the crowd. All are welcome and admission is free, but advance registration is appreciated.How America's Public Safety System Hurts Our Democracy Is justice blind? Vesla Weaver reveals racial disparities in the American criminal justice system and their…
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    Amitai Etzioni Notes

  • The Moral Minimum in Arming Rebels

    Amitai Etzioni
    12 Jun 2013 | 6:51 am
    Originally published in National Interest on 6/11/13 The debate about whether to arm the Syrian rebels is centered around the question which groups are “good” rebels (those who favor democratic regimes and the United States) or “bad” rebels (various kinds...

  • What John Kerry Can Learn From John F. Kennedy

    Amitai Etzioni
    6 Jun 2013 | 10:51 am
    Originally published in The Atlantic on 6/6/2013 "Some say that it is useless to speak of peace... until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do...

  • The Realism of Richard Haass

    Amitai Etzioni
    31 May 2013 | 8:29 am
    Originally published in National Interest on 5/31/13 Richard Haass’s new book, Foreign Policy Begins at Home, should delight realists. His strong case that we should put our own house in order is neither isolationist nor declinist. On the contrary, he...

  • The Danger of Overcorrecting on Terror

    Amitai Etzioni
    29 May 2013 | 8:19 am
    Originally published in National Interest on 5/29/13 In a speech last week at the National Defense University, President Obama made clear that he is moving to the left. This will mean more transparency and Congressional oversight of his high flying...

  • Charge American Terrorists With Treason

    Amitai Etzioni
    24 May 2013 | 12:27 pm
    Originally published in The Atlantic on 5/24/2013. When Boston bombing conspirator Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured, the event brought up--again--questions about the proper legal procedures for perpetrators of terrorism, particularly when those terrorists who are American citizens. Several conservative senators rushed...
 
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    WordPress Tag: Sociology

  • l,kl

    akashpandey1
    18 Jun 2013 | 1:49 am
    GS  gs    

  • I didn't choose to be a Pedophile, I was just born that way.

    MJ
    18 Jun 2013 | 1:39 am
    Recently, a conversation between two friends popped up on my Facebook news feed which went a little along the lines of this: A: Homosexual people choose to be gay. B: No they’re not they are born homosexual. They can’t help it. They are who they are. Just as you would love a woman. If you believe its a choice, then starting from now, choose to be gay. A: I can’t choose to be gay! I like girls! B: Exactly my point! As society moves forward with time, gay and lesbian relationships and orientations are becoming more recognized as a normal way of life and thus becoming more…

  • mbnmbnm,

    akashpandey1
    18 Jun 2013 | 1:09 am
    <!– table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: ; font-size: 12px; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; } –>  xvv  bbbbbbn  nbnn  nbnbn  nbnn  nnnnn  nbnbnn <!– table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: ; font-size: 12px; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; } –>

  • cbbc

    akashpandey1
    18 Jun 2013 | 1:06 am
    <!– table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: ; font-size: 12px; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; } –> akash pandey class kendriya vidyalya new delhi india  ram chandra  vvvvvvvvvvvvvzxcxx  nnnnnnnnnnncn

  • The Black Sheep

    seekingmyhappy
    17 Jun 2013 | 11:30 pm
    There are too many times in life that we are presented with the opportunity to enjoy another family gathering. Mine consist of my family trying to figure out what’s wrong with me and why they’re perfect. I’m the liberal in the room and they’re the self righteous republicans (no need for political satire), but it seems like it’s these menial comparisons of relationships that explain my place at home. Most of the time I take my seat in the corner and let my over talkative grandmother do all the work, but I do chime in sometimes with useless banter in their ears…
 
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