New and Noteworthy

Just in time for Valentine’s Day we shared some good news for young love. New research from Sara I. Villalta and colleagues found that supportive, low-conflict romantic relationships help teenagers feel happier.

Worth a Read (Sociologically Speaking)

Jenny Enos wrote for Everyday Sociology about how the sociological imagination and the term “emotional labor” can help us explore and understand the experiences and challenges of women choosing to have children later in life.

Citings and Sightings

National Public Radio’s Marketplace spoke with sociologist Carolyn Chen on how her ethnographic research in Silicon Valley, which explores the almost religious devotion of tech workers, can help us understand the identity crises laid-off employees might face.

Backstage with TSP

We’re working on a *secret new project* that has us thinking about how to balance big picture thinking with zooming in on the complexities of life uncovered in social scientific analysis. Whether we’re imagining our audience as the interested public, students, or a skeptical parent who isn’t quite sure why we picked sociology, we need to balance key takeaways with the data and stories that help explain these findings and showcase the relationships or processes we think our readers should care about. Striking this balance is one of the main challenges of how we think about doing public sociology. It helps to view this as a vision rather than a destination, one we work towards everyday as a student board, especially when the excitement for a new undertaking starts fading in light of the reality of the hard work ahead.

More from Our Partner & Community Pages

Deadric T. Williams and Virginia Rutter were re-posted on Council on Contemporary Families’ blog writing about new publications that explore the stubborn problem of viewing family structure as an explanation for black-white racial inequality.

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