Sociology Lens

See http://www.onlinecourses.org/2009/11/09/100-best-blogs-for-the-literati/

Now that we’ve come to the end, the Compass team would like to say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to everyone who has participated and made our first virtual conference an overwhelming success. The authors and presenters have been, without exception, engaging and professional to the last. We’d also like to extend a special note of thanks to our virtual attendees, who have kept the discussions alive with insightful commentary, and their openness to explore issues across disciplines.

There will be no new content uploaded to the site after Friday 30th October, but there is still much to discuss. All of the presentations and comments will remain on the website indefinitely, and we’d encourage you all to keep engaging with the content so long as there are issues to be explored, and interdisciplinary barriers to be broken down! If you sign up to receive email alerts of new comments, you can keep up with any ongoing conversations.

We sincerely hope you have enjoyed the conference – here are some things that you can do to stay in touch:

• Check out the Compass journals and recommend to your librarian. Researchers, teaching faculty, and advanced students will all benefit from the accessible, informative articles that provide overviews of current research. Personal subscriptions are now also available.
• Complete the post-conference opinion survey, coming to you next week. Your thoughts will help us make decisions about future conferences.
• If you have suggestions, or even just a short comment, you can pop it in our Suggestion Box or Email us
• Access the Publishing Workshops and Keynotes via iTunes (as from the conference website). The raw feed for the podcasts can be found here.
• Share our keynote video lectures via our Vimeo channel
• Tell others about your experience of the conference!

Final reminder: your 20% book discount token is valid until 15th November, so visit the book exhibit before then.

Until next time…?

Thanks again,

The Compass Team
www.blackwell-compass.com

For anyone who has not registered, you can do so for free at https://compassconference.wordpress.com/ and enjoy.

- Virtual Delegates Pack

- 20% conference discount on EVERY Wiley book!

- 60 days free access to over 200 Wiley-Blackwell journals

- Win a year’s subscription to a Compass Journal of your choice with post-conference feedback!

As many of our readers may have noticed, we have recently enjoyed a series of guest posts from scholars in the field of Economics.  Unfortunately for us, their own site is now ready and they will be posting on Economics Focus from now on.

Our interdisciplinary visitors have given us some great content and stimulated some fascinating debate.  I would like to thank them personally for all of the wonderful posts they have given us and hope that, even though they will be posting elsewhere, we can continue the debate on one-another’s comment boxes.

Thanks,

Phil

Many thanks to all those of you who have already registered for the upcoming Compass Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference. We’ve very excited to see so many delegates from around the world and look forward to a truly global conversation during the conference.

Why register?

The conference website will of course be free and open to all, but registrants will receive a Virtual Delegates Pack, which will include the full conference schedule, details of the discounts available on Wiley-Blackwell publications as part of our book exhibit, our new Online Author’s Survival Guide and much more.

To register, simply click here:
http://www.blackwellpublishingsurvey.com/survey/149278/29a8

To see the global spread of registrants on our Virtual Conference Google Map, just click here. Judging from the feedback we’re receiving, many of you are looking forward to participating in this online conference, as travel to a face-to-face event would be much more difficult (and less green!).

We’d encourage you to spread the word about the conference amongst your friends and colleagues. You can of course direct people to
http://compassconference.wordpress.com or also to our Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/CompassConf.

by Joel Best

            Barbie, the teenage fashion doll, turns 50 this month.  The years have been kind to Barbie; she hasn’t gained weight or lost her figure.  Of course, her critics would say that’s the problem.

            We’ve all heard the complaints by sociologists of gender and other intellectuals. Barbie, they say, is harmful–even dangerous–because she promotes traditional gender roles.  Her beauty teaches little girls that society will judge them primarily according to their looks, and not their accomplishments.  Her extensive wardrobe, her sports car, and her beach house promote a superficial lifestyle based the acquisition of consumer goods.  And her tiny waist and big breasts can be blamed for causing girls to grow up dissatisfied with their bodies; according to her critics. Barbie is the root cause of eating disorders and the rise in cosmetic surgery.

            These criticisms seem so familiar that it is surprising to realize that they only emerged in the late 1970s, with the flowering of the women’s movement.  When she was younger, Barbie was subjected to very different attacks.

            Prior to Barbie’s appearance, dolls depicted infants or very young children; doll play allowed girls to imagine themselves as nurturing mothers.  What shocked Barbie’s earliest sociological critics was not so much that she was stacked, as that she was a teenager–much older than other dolls.  Donald W. Ball, writing in The Sociological Quarterly in 1967, worried that Barbie “may serve to integrate children prematurely into the adolescent subculture and minimize preparation for later adult performances such as those associated with conjugal, parental, and occupational status or position.”  A year later, Charles Winick’s book, The New People, warned that Barbie would make girls “less able to achieve the emotional preparation for being a wife and mother that they received from baby dolls.” 

            Poor Barbie has never been able to win.  First they complained she threatened traditional gender roles–those same roles they now blame her for promoting.  Perhaps what Barbie’s critics really reveal is the Old Double Standard–whatever a doll does, she can be attacked for it.

Joel Best received his M.A. and Ph.D. (1971) degrees in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a M.A. degree in history from the University of Minnesota. He is a Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware.  His most recent books are:  Stat-Spotting:  A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data (2008) and Social Problems (2008).   He is the Editor-in-Chief of Sociology Compass.

by Bookblogger

Globalization by Frank J. Lechner

Written in a lively and accessible style, this book shows how globalization affects everyday experience, creates new institutions, and presents new challenges.

With many examples, Lechner describes how the process unfolds in a wide range of fields, from sports and media to law and religion. While sketching the outlines of a world society in the making, the book also demonstrates that globalization is inherently diverse and contentious. In this concise analysis of a complex subject, Lechner presents some of the best work in the social sciences in clear and readable fashion.

more information

Introduction to Social Statistics

The Logic of Statistical Reasoning

by Thomas Dietz & Linda Kalof

Why are some countries more likely than others to participate in environmental treaties? Why do some people feel animals have rights while others feel animals can be treated as objects? Why do some US states have high homicide rates while in others the occurrence of a homicide is very rare?

With a relaxed and conversational writing style, ongoing examples, and complete exercises, this book shows how quantitative methods can help us to understand social questions and contemporary issues. The book focuses on three strategies to help students master statistics: use of models throughout; repetition with variation to underpin pedagogy; and emphasis on the tools most commonly used in contemporary research.

more information

by bmckernan

 A while back, the NY Times published an extended article on the reception of American cultural products in the Gaza. In some significant ways, the article mirrors many of the arguments recently put forward by social scientists who have become increasingly unsatisfied with the cultural imperialism thesis. Among this academic group includes recent work by the sociologist Ronald Jacobs as well as the anthropologist Daniel Miller. Both assert that while there is insight to gain from the cultural imperialism’s focus on how “local” cultures are eliminated or suppressed by America’s hegemonic cultural outputs, a more well-rounded scholarly approach would consider other possibilities. For instance, from this perspective, one could examine how “local” cultures actually receive American media outputs, examining how meaning is instilled in these foreign products and thus how they may possible help “local” communities make sense of the world.

Similar in sentiment, the NY Times article illustrates an interesting contrast, describing both the official and unofficial cultural policies of Hamas and Fatah as well as what is actually occurring “on the ground”. Here the article provides such engaging accounts as a local rapper inspired by such American performers as Tupac and 50cent, women discussing the latest episodes of “Prison Break” and “24″, and restaurants crowded with patrons watching the US sitcom “Friends”. In one interesting passage, a Gazan man criticizes a Turkish soap opera for not portraying “real men” and notes that instead he prefers the US soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful”.  While stringent academic works would have to push further than this, examining how these cultural experiences create meaning; these curious examples would most likely be ignored by a strict cultural imperialism perspective.

 Read More

Globalization of Culture and the Arts

By Feistyle,

Regular visitors might notice that the site has had a makeover for 2009.  Please be assured that, whilst the name is (slightly) different and the eye in the banner has vanished, the daily examples of up to the minute Sociology in action from our news editors unabated.   We are also now hosting the odd guest post from names you might recognise.