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 »
Filed under Science and Medicine …
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 »
Augmented Reality: Going the Way of the Dildo
by pj.rey While the term “augmented reality” uttered in a sexual context might immediately conjure the perennial problematic of the boozed, buzzed, and befuddled (commonly referred to as “beer goggles”), more nuanced analysis may prove fruitful. Fellow Sociology Lens news editor, nathan jurgenson, recently argued in “towards theorizing an augmented reality” that we need to … 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 »
Response to Increasing Influenza Cases
by smteixeirapoit President Barack Obama announced a national emergency supposedly in response to increasing H1N1 cases in the United States. According to a statement by President Obama: “The 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve. The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic … Continue reading »
Editor’s Highlights: Reconsidering “Medical” and “Natural” through a Gender and Power Lens
Social science research has been lax in the use of terms medical and natural, using the words without problematizing them. Yet a cursory glance at the way research regards men’s health and women’s health reveals a striking pattern. While men are empowered by the medicalization of their bodies, women are disempowered by the same process. … Continue reading »
What does calling something a disorder do? the case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
By Dena T. Smith This week’s Science Times reported that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, (which causes the symptoms one might imagine, given the name of the condition) a set of symptoms with unidentified etiology, has been linked to a virus. This possible cause may potentially shed some light on the mysterious derivations of the syndrome, which many sufferers would … Continue reading »
When Prosumption is Law, the Prosumer is King (for Now)
by pj.rey Smokers, if I told you that I could get you high-quality cigarettes for half the usual price, you’d probably smartly ask, “What’s the catch?” “The catch,” I might respond, “is that I need five minutes of your labor-time per pack.” This is precisely the bargain customers are making with a Brookline, New Hampshire … Continue reading »
The Salience of Political and Financial Climate in Policy Frames
by NickieWild Politics often guides the course of technological development. One of the most obvious places that this has occurred, and continues to occur, is the United States’ NASA program. With the US essentially still fighting two wars, the looming health care, Medicare, and Social Security crises, and the general poor state of the economy, … Continue reading »
“Free” Heroin on the NHS
by paulabowles The links between illegal drug use and crime, particularly acquisitive, have long been recognised as problematic. Recent statistics published in The Independent suggest that as few as ten percent of addicts commit 75 percent of all acquisitive crime. In spite of these consistently dispiriting figures, the familiar approach is one of punishment, with … Continue reading »
