by ChristinaBlunt Despite last week’s promising government figures showing a decline in the American unemployment rate, “Welfare and Citizenship: The Effects of Government Assistance on Young Adults’ Civic Participation,” serves as a reminder to social scientists that with every great social shift (such as the global economic downturn) we must re-examine our premises. The article, … Continue reading »
Filed under Political, Economic and Urban Sociology …
Protesters Challenge Skeptics: The Earth is Round and Climate Change is Real
by smteixeirapoit The United Nations Climate Change Conference is taking place in Copenhagen from December 7th to 18th. Prior to the start of the conference, members of an action group, Stop Climate Chaos, organized demonstrations encouraging world leaders to advance a world climate change agreement. Around the world, people participated in these demonstrations including 40,000 … Continue reading »
Don’t blame the Internet: Reevaluating the decline in American journalism
By Rachael Liberman In a recent article from The Nation, heavyweight media scholars John Nichols and Robert McChesney remind readers that the current crisis in American journalism does not necessarily mean that the industry is fated to fail. Rather, Nichols and McChesney optimistically open the article with the news that the Federal Trade Commission is … Continue reading »
Telling the Truth: Immigrants and their communities
by ChristinaBlunt Today, December 2, Maryland pastor Lennox Abrigo will be at the White House to discuss immigration reform. According to the New York Times, Abrigo and other pastors across the state have witnessed increases in the number of immigrants in their congregations as well as increases in the problems that these individuals face. Abrigo … Continue reading »
When Emotions Stall Political Change: The case of abortion and health care reform
By Dena T. Smith While abortion is certainly a hot-button issue on the American Political Scene, the fervent debate over the topic – mostly fueled by a clash between liberal and conservative, predominately religiously-oriented moral entrepreneurs – faded into the background after the presidential election season. In short, abortion is an issue that, while always central … Continue reading »
Cyborg Systems: Sociology’s Proper Unit of Analysis
by pj.rey The increasing centrality of the Internet in our daily lives has precipitated a spate of theorizing about how we – as humans and as a society – are changing (or not) due to the constant technological mediation of our most basic interactions and activities. Let’s face it: This sort of theorizing is populated … Continue reading »
Portable pornography in the public sphere: Convenient, offensive or hazardous?
By Rachael Liberman It’s one thing to experience the pornification of culture through public advertising (billboards, subway adverts), among other mediated formats. But what if someone sitting next to you on the subway is watching pornography on their iPod? In a recent Washington Post article, Staff Writer Monica Hesse questions the acceptability of portable porn, … Continue reading »
Conference Summary Part I: The Internet as Playground and Factory
by pj.rey The New School held a conference last week that may be of interest to many Sociology Lens readers, so I have decided to devote this week’s entry to sharing some notes from the conference. The implosion of work and play was the most recurrent theme in the panels that I attended. The term … Continue reading »
Smuggling Tunnels in Gaza Strip
by smteixeirapoit Palestinians have created hundreds of tunnels under the Gaza Strip-Egypt border to circumvent the Israeli blockade. In the border town of Rafah, Palestinians secure employment in these tunnels, smuggling goods such as food, livestock, appliances, and electronics. The work in the tunnels is not only dirty, but also dangerous. Sometimes, Israel bombs the … Continue reading »
election day and attributing blame
By Dena T. Smith In elections, we determine who to vote for via a number of factors: party affiliation, the economy, the character of the candidate, advertising, etc. It’s a complicated process. One key force in determining the outcome of elections is who is attributed responsibility for both the pitfalls and promise of a given … Continue reading »
