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 Race and Ethnicity …
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 »
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 »
Muslim Identity, Cultural Trauma, and the Racialized Backlash
by Nickie Wild Jeffrey Alexander writes that “cultural trauma occurs when members of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to a horrendous event that leaves indelible marks upon their group consciousness, marking their memories forever and changing their future identity in fundamental and irrevocable ways” (2004). With this basic definition in mind, can we … Continue reading »
Fat Taxes and Foucault
by bmckernan In recent months, proposals for “fat taxes” have gained growing popularity amongst certain academic and political circles. Proponents for such measures suggest that such policies would help lower America’s obesity rate and/or help fund a public healthcare plan. A series of articles from Slate.com invoke (in part) a seemingly Foucauldian lens in examining … Continue reading »
The BNP meets the BBC
by paulabowles For the past few weeks the British media and public have hotly been debating the rights and wrongs of allowing the controversial British National Party [BNP] leader to appear on the BBC’s ‘flagship’ politics programme Question Time. Despite attempts to halt Nick Griffin’s appearance, the programme finally aired on Thursday 22 October 2009, … Continue reading »
status networking sites
by nathan jurgenson There has been recent news coverage on the relationship between social status and social networking site usage. CNN asked “Does your social class determine your online social network?” “Is there a class divide online? Research suggests yes. A recent study by market research firm Nielsen Claritas found that people in more affluent … Continue reading »
When method becomes a matter of life or death
By Rachael Liberman While public school violence has been an ongoing epidemic in Chicago, the recent murder of 16-year-old Derrion Albert, showcased on YouTube and other various Internet sources, has repositioned its priority level to urgent. However, as weeks have passed, the public is still wondering: what and when is something going to be done? … Continue reading »
Census Worker’s Murder Part of A Larger Picture
by NickieWild What is the poverty rate? How should the government allocate local funds? How many people in an area need representation by Congress? These are just some of the crucial questions that can only be answered by an accurate census of the American people. But lately, anything associated with the Federal government has come … Continue reading »
“You Lie”: Racism as a Social Form
nmccoy1 Joe Wilson’s outburst “You Lie!” has been analyzed and instrumentalized for political purposes on all sides of the aisle. Yet very few of these analyses explore the ahistorical frames which are being used. The problem with ahistoricity is a decontextualized understanding of an event as a social form. When the comment is isolated and … Continue reading »
