New & Noteworthy

This week I posted a new Discovery, ‘Right to Work’ Laws, based on work by Tom VanHeuvelen. In his research, VanHeuvelen finds that workers living in states with ‘Right to Work’ laws, which limit union organizing and strength, are paid 5-12% less than states without ‘Right to Work’ laws.

Over the next several weeks I will also be posting our Best of 2023 pieces. Mallory Harrington’s piece, Defending Against Social Media in Criminal Trials, won our ‘Hook, Line, & Sinker’ Award with the opening line, “Your Tweets, pictures, and messages may be used against you.”

From the Archives

The Holiday season is right around the corner, and so is consumerism. Check out this piece from Sociological Images, 1/3 of People Say Commercialism is the Worst Part of Christmas, to learn more. Ugly sweater season is also here, read The Ugly Christmas Sweater: From Ironic Nostalgia to festive simulation to inform yourself before donning your ugliest sweater.

More from our Partners & Community Pages

Contexts has two new pieces to read:

• race, “that ugly word”, by Ann Morning on differences of views on race of college students in the United States and Western Europe from their new book An Ugly Word: Rethinking Race in Italy and the United States.
• better together, or what sociology’s history of moral debate can teach you by Shai M. Dromi and Sam Stabler about the trajectory of sociology as a field from their new book, Moral Minefields: How Sociologists Debate Good Science.

Council on Contemporary Families a new read:

• What does it mean to be a “daddy”? by Tony Silva from his new book, Daddies of a Different Kind: Sex and Romance Between Older and Younger Adult Gay Men from his research on interviews with relationships with large age-gaps.

First Publics has a new Dialogue on Intro Soc Textbooks:

• Kathleen Korgen discussed her textbook Sociology in  Action: Introduction to Sociology, which utilizes active learning to get students invested in learning sociology.

Sociological Images latest includes:

• The Border is a Budget by Ghazah Abbasi, on some of the complexities of borders as means of political, but also economic maintenance.