Happy Friday! This week, we feature a guest post on the UFC; a reflection on TSP, community, and belonging; and new research on hip hop. We also share sociological accounts of Covid caretaking and the illusion-destroying power of the pandemic.

Features:

In “Refusing to Throw in the Towel,” Kyle Green and Nancy Kidder examine the story of the UFC’s decision to resume fighting and what it reveals about the social pressures sporting organizations face in returning to action.

The Editors’ Desk:

In “Ode to TSP,” graduate editor Allison Nobles shares a heartfelt reflection on her time at the helm of The Society Pages.

Discoveries:

“Emcees and Communities, Black Placemaking as Artist-Shaping” by Neeraj Rajasekar. We bring you new research exploring how hip hop artists build community resilience and solidarity as they bring their artistic visions to life.

From Our Partners:

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Connecting Crises of Carework in the Era of Coronavirus” by Amber Crowell and Jennifer Randles.

From Our Community Pages:

Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies discusses connections between Wilhelm II’s Germany and Trump’s USA.

A Backstage Sociologist explores how the pandemic serves to remind us of the human condition.

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Welcome Back! This week, we feature guest posts on death and COVID-19 and on the challenges of communicating via Zoom. We also bring you research on carework and historical changes in the mortality rate, and an analysis of the reopening of Taiwanese baseball.

Features:

“It’s true. Isolated COVID-19 deaths are terrible. But where does inequality fit in?” Karen Lutfey Spencer and Aubrey Limburg show us that while coronavirus heightens existing inequalities, death may be the “great equalizer.”

“Group Interaction in the Age of Zoom.” Ron Anderson examines how symbolic interactionism can help us to better understand the differences between online and in-person communication.

There’s Research on That:

“Caring is Work” by Allison Nobles. We round up research on different forms of carework performed historically and around the world.

“Changes in How and When We Die” by Jean Marie Maier. We round up epidemiological research explaining how the relationship between human beings and disease has changed over time.

From Our Partners:

Contexts:

“Sociologist on the Hill with Dr. Scott Winship” by Josh McCabe.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“An Interview with Judith Warner about her new book on Middle Schoolers” by Arielle Kuperberg.

From Our Community Pages:

Engaging Sports examines nationalism in Taiwan as the nation’s professional baseball teams return to play in stadiums without fans.

Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies interviews author and illustrator Nora Krug about her new visual memoir of her German family history and WWII.

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Welcome Back! This week, we spotlight medical sociologists’ analyses of how COVID-19 will affect the equity, delivery, and organization of the US healthcare system. We also feature new research on fertility decision-making.

Features:

COVID-19: Dispatches from Medical Sociology.” Tania M. Jenkins and Elaine M. Hernandez team up in this four-part series to provide insight on how the current COVID-19 pandemic is changing the landscape of American healthcare.

• Social Inequities in Healthcare
• The Doctor Will “See” You Now
• Changing Dynamics within Healthcare Professions
• The Challenges Facing Medical Education 

Discoveries:

“Siblings and Coworkers as Fertility Influencers” by Jean Marie Maier. New research shows that the decision to have kids is contagious. Find out which members of women’s personal networks are the most influential.

From Our Partners:

Contexts:

“COVID-19 and the Future of Society” by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Your Gift to Health Care Providers, Yourself, and Your Family” by Stefan Timmermans and Chloe Bird.

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Welcome Back! This week, we feature a sociological review of the new Netflix drama Orthodox and research showing how social distancing might shape demand for sexbots. We also share new research on multiracial churches and women in leadership.

Features:

In “Love, Sex (Dolls) and Robots in the Age of Coronavirus?” Katherine Bright examines what sex-toys-for-hire can teach us about the intersections of eroticism, technology, and consumerism.

“Unorthodox Captures Many Truths of Leaving Hasidic Communities” by Schneur Zalman Newfield. This review highlights three themes of the exit process from religion that are backed by research and dramatized in Unorthodox.

Discoveries:

“Gendered Risk and Leadership Ambitions” by Jean Marie Maier. New research helps explain why many women turn down leadership opportunities.

“White Pastors Hoard Social Capital” by Erika Sanborne. We bring you new research revealing differences in Black and white pastors’ access to the resources that come from social relationships.

From Our Partners:

Contexts:

“Education under COVID-19” by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Sex and Consent on Campus: Definitions, Dilemmas, and New Directions” by Deborah L. Rhode.

Sociological Images:

“Partisanship and the Pandemic” by Morgan C. Matthews.

From Our Community Pages:

• The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and The Center for Jewish Studies honor Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, with a selection of survivor testimonies.
• Cyborgology reviews The Longing for Less and probes the complex absences of minimalism in the process.
• Girl w/Pen examines gender bias in medicine and the overlapping symptoms of anxiety and COVID-19.

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Welcome Back! This week, we share ASA’s COVID-19 resources for instructors along with research to help explain why teaching and meeting online can be so exhausting. We also feature new health research on the impacts of discrimination and anti-vaxxers’ complicated attitudes about medical interventions.

The Editors’ Desk:

“Sociological Resources from ASA During COVID-19.” We bring the invaluable sociological resources made available on ASA’s website to TSP’s broader audience.

Discoveries:

“How Children’s Discrimination Harms Mothers’ Health” by Allison Nobles. New research explores the “spillover effects” of stressors like unfair treatment on the health of family members.

““Calling the Shots:” Anti-Vaxxers and Medicinal Intervention” by Jillian LaBranche. New research shows that, despite anti-vaxxers’ strong feelings about pharmaceutical interventions, many do not reject them all.

Teaching TSP:

“Three Reasons You Might Be Exhausted Right Now” by Erika Sanborne. Social psych research weighs in on why videoconferencing can feel so draining.

In “Teaching synchronously? Asynchronously? Which is really better?,” Erika Sanborne weighs the pros and cons of each method, and reminds instructors: hang in there and be kind to yourself–you’re probably doing great!

From Our Partners:

Contexts:

“Welfare Policy, Prisons, and Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic” by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas.

“Inequality during the Coronavirus Pandemic” by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Fixing Parental Leave: The Six Month Solution” by Gayle Kaufman.

From Our Community Pages:

• The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies explores insights from Camus’ The Plague reminding us of what is at stake in times of global emergency.
• Cyborgology examines how Reddit has become a place to find accurate and up-to-date information about COVID-19.

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Welcome Back! This week, we round up sociological research on astrology, and feature guest posts critiquing the use of the phrase “social distancing” and explaining how to make sense of the COVID-19 models that are now omnipresent.

Special Features:

In “What are COVID-19 Models Modeling?,” jimi adams explains three commonly used models, how they work, and what kinds of clarity they can provide despite their uncertainty.

The Editors’ Desk:

In “Why Social Distancing is the Wrong Phrase,” Ron Anderson explains the origin of the term “social distancing” as a way to measure the amount of separation between social groups.

There’s Research on That:

“Reach For the Stars” by Christine Delp and Jillian LaBranche. We round up research examining how alternative belief systems like astrology can help us find community and grapple with uncertainty.

Teaching TSP:

“Using TSP’s Partner and Community Pages to Teach Online” by Allison Nobles. This post provides an overview of the high-interest and accessible sociological content that’s available on TSP and great for teaching.

From Our Partners:

Contexts

“COVID-19 Policies from Around the World” by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas.

“Structural Shocks and Extreme Exposures” by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas.

Council on Contemporary Families

“What Covid-19 Reveals About the Social Safety Net in the United States” by Sinikka Elliott.

From Our Community Pages:

• The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies reminds us that it’s genocide awareness and prevention month, and provides educators with online resources.

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We share this writing in memoriam of Ron Anderson (June 14, 1941 – December 21, 2020) Professor Emeritus of sociology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. In the coming weeks, to honor Ron’s memory, we will share more of his writing.

Over the past month with lightning speed the phrase ‘social distancing’ became part of the American vocabulary. Epidemiologists invented the phrase in earlier epidemics to refer to avoiding close contact with other people during the outbreak of a contagious disease. The word now evokes such actions as staying six feet away from others, avoiding crowded places, stop handshakes and hugs and even washing your hands a lot.

But the phrase is not perfect. In fact, the World Health Organization and quite a few bloggers have called for use of an alternative phrase, ‘physical distancing’ to bring clarity. Their argument is that the word ‘social’ in social distancing suggests we should cut off relations with people. But in a pandemic, we desperately need social connecting via technology to avoid the social isolation that distancing demands.

From a sociological perspective another consideration is worth noting. Most of us have been advocating the reduction of social distance in the sense of reducing distance among race, class and sex-based groupings. Furthermore, almost 100 years ago a sociologist Emory S. Bogardus designed the research tool called the Bogardus Social Distance Scale. The tool measures the degree of separateness rather than closeness among any kind of social groups including race, class and gender. 

The long tradition of sociological measurement of social distance implies another argument against using ‘social distance’ to talk about being safe in an epidemic. We don’t want to inadvertently suggest people increase their distance with minority ethnic groups. We are living in a time when white nationalism has been rising and there are many reports of prejudice and discrimination toward Asians. We need to build less, not more social distance.

It is probably too late to get most people to switch phrases from ‘social distancing’ to ‘physical distancing’ or just ‘distancing.’ But you can add your thoughts about this issue to the dialog on Wikipedia or elsewhere on this important topic. And you can be more precise in your own use of distancing terminology.

Happy Friday! This week, we feature new research on stereotypes and reporting, algorithms used to drive policy, and the importance of Census data for understanding race, diversity, and inequality.

Discoveries:

“Traffic Accident Reporting Drives Gender Stereotypes” by Jean Marie Maier. We bring you new research investigating how gender stereotypes about bad drivers are perpetuated by the media.

“Algorithmic Blues: Accuracy Versus Morality in Policy Debates” by Mahala Miller. New research explores how policymakers feel about insurance companies’ use of credit scores to predict prices–one consequential example of a predictive algorithm used to set policy.

There’s Research on That:

“A #TSPClassics Collection: The Sociology of the Census” by Neeraj Rajasekar. We round up research on the history and methods of conducting the Census, and how social scientists have used Census data in research and theory-building.

From Our Partners:

Contexts

“Con Corazón San Antonio” by Fabio Rojas.

“Healthcare and Critical Infrastructure” by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas.

“COVID-19 Impact on Asia and Beyond” by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas.

Council on Contemporary Families

“Online learning will be hard for kids whose schools close – and the digital divide will make it even harder for some of them” by Jessica Calarco.

From Our Community Pages:

• Give Methods A Chance brings us a conversation with Barbara Gurr and Maura Kelly on Feminist Research Methods.
• The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies explores the use of the term “concentration camps,” and features the work of student researcher and graduate board member Jillian LaBranche.

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Welcome back! This week, we provide resources to help instructors move the courses they designed to teach in person fully online. We also bring you new research examining colorism in NCAA basketball commentary, and a roundup of research on the impact of economic recessions on family life.

Discoveries:

“Throwin’ Shade On the Court” by Christine Delp. New research helps us to understand how NCAA broadcast announcers talk differently about the physical performance, physicality, and mental ability of lighter and darker-skinned players.

There’s Research on That:

“Portent of Things to Come? How the Great Recession of 2008 Changed Family Life” by Mahala Miller. We round up research on how the Great Recession of 2008 impacted families’ decision-making to help us imagine what might lie ahead.

Teaching TSP:

“Using TSP to Teach Online” by Allison Nobles. We offer a guide to the clear, concise, and public-facing sociological content on our site, and suggestions for how to incorporate it in lessons for undergraduates! 

“Teaching Something Suddenly-Online that you Designed for an In-Person Course due to #COVID19” by Erika Sanborne. This post offers helpful and reassuring advice for making online courses accessible, delivering course content, and assessing student learning.

From Our Partners:

Contexts

“The Global Coronavirus Epidemic: Commentary on East Asia’s Response” by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas.

Council on Contemporary Families

“Love in the time of Corona: How to stay connected with family when we “gotta keep ’em separated”” by Patricia N. E. Roberson.

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Welcome back! This week, we bring you new research on rural college-goers and a TSP Classic on the sociology of public outings. We also bring back a popular piece from Soc Images that helps us understand the relationship between social inequality, fears about health, and pandemics.

Discoveries:

“Parents’ Lack of Education Fuels Push for Children’s Education” by Nick Matthews. New research helps us to understand how rural parents, often lacking financial resources or higher education, can be an asset to their children’s college-going.

“Best of 2018: More Than Just a Walk in the Park” by Brooke Chambers. We bring back this TSP Classic exploring how our public outings are influenced by social factors, like identity and bias.

From Our Partners:

Contexts

“Call for Papers: The Global Impact of the Coronavirus” by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas.

“Working to Live: Winter 2020” by Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas.

“Gender in the One Percent” by Jill Yavorsky, Lisa Keister, and Yue Qian.

“American Academics’ Apathy and Complicity in Palestinian Oppression” by Johnny E. Williams and David G. Embrick.

Sociological Images

Back by popular demand! We reposted “Social Inequality, Medical Fears, and Pandemics” by Joseph O. Baker, Ann Gordon, L. Edward Day, and Christopher D. Bader.

From Our Community Pages:

• Cyborgology analyzes a movie with an older-adult protagonist who faces the choice between being placed in a care facility or accepting being taken care of by a home-care robot.

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