This week we talk with Eric Klinenberg about his new book, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. Also be sure to check out Klinenberg’s New York Times article, One’s a Crowd.
Gary Alan Fine on Rumors
This week we talk with Gary Alan Fine. We discuss his recent article in Contexts, Uncertain Knowledge, on how rumors shape our world and explain why some people still think we have a Kenyan President.
Elijah Anderson on Cosmopolitan Canopies
This week we talk with Elijah Anderson, author of The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life. With urban ethnographies like Streetwise, A Place on the Corner, and Code of the Street, Anderson has captured the racial micropolitics that occurs in everyday urban life, highlighting the subtle rules and norms that guide interaction between whites, African Americans, and members of other ethnic groups. In his new book, Anderson returns to familiar territory, though this time he calls attention to parts of the city where more inclusive street behaviors are taking form. “Cosmopolitan canopies” are unique urban spaces that have a street culture that celebrates civility and mutual respect for difference, and Anderson argues they contribute to a broader cultural acceptance around race and diversity.
Sorry, we had to remove this episode. Watch this post for a replacement in the future.
Charis Kubrin on Criminology and Culture
For this episode, Sarah met up with Charis Kubrin at the 2010 American Society of Criminology meetings, where they talked about about public criminology, culture, and measurement strategies.
Dan Winchester on the Good, the Bad, and the Social
This week we talk with Dan Winchester co-author of a feature piece in the 2010 fall edition of Contexts, on the sociological study of morality– aptly called The good, the bad and the social.” In the interview we first talk to Dan about how a sociology of morality can contribute to recent neurological and biological studies on the topic. We also discuss how sociologists since Durkheim to Goffman have long considered morality as a crucial mechanism to how societies and communities form and stick together. In closing we discuss how sociologist go about studying such controversial issue and how, and if, sociologist can really suspend their own believes about what is right and wrong to objectively study how morals are constructed and followed.
So stick and around and listen to this podcast–it’s the right thing to do.
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