As so much of the sociological knowledge bank begins packing their bags for San Francisco, we here at TSP are keeping it lively with timely works on deportation, urban planning, the social structure of time, pandemics, and statistically significant others. Enjoy!

Features:

“What’s Missing from the Debate Over Deportation Numbers,” by Tanya Golash-Boza. The laws surrounding immigration and removal have not changed, but enforcement sure has.

Citings & Sightings:

“Urban Planners in Zaragoza Test the Waters,” by Andrew Wiebe. An “embedded sociologist” at a Spanish NGO works to reduce water demands in drought-plagued city.

Reading List:

“You Don’t Need a Job to Have a Case of the Monday’s,” by Anne Kaduk. In a classic case of W.I. Thomas’s dictum that what we treat as real is real, the structure of the work week means even the unemployed feel a little glum when Monday rolls around.

There’s Research on That!

“Ebola and the Epidemic Mindset,” by Evan Stewart. Research helps explain how media and governments shape the way citizens respond to outbreaks.

Scholars’ Strategy Network:

“Why Politically Active Billionaires Threaten the Health of Democracy,” by Darrell M. West.

“How Policy Analysis Can Help Inform Efforts to Improve Social Programs,” by Judith E. Barnstone.

“Lessons from Rwanda’s Quest for a Just Response to Genocide,” by Hollie Nyseth Brehm and Chris Uggen.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Back on Track? Stall and Rebound for Gender Equality, 1977-2012,” by David A. Cotter, Joan M. Hermsen, and Reeve Vanneman.

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Families As They Really Are points out that child-free is also family-friendly.
• Sociological Images on the deviance of topless sunbathing and the determination of the “Statistically Significant Other” with xkcd.com.
• Pink, blue, brown, and green—gendering the garden and what Deborah Siegel wishes she’d said in her interview on working motherhood on Girl w/ Pen!

Features:

“Comic-Conned: Gender Norms in a Carnivalesque Atmosphere,” by Natalie Wilson. In cultural events meant to be utopian for their subculture, you can be anything or anyone—but gender norms are hard to shake.

Roundtables:

“Looking into the Racial Wealth Gap with Dalton Conley, Rachel Dwyer, and Karyn Lacy,” by Erin Hoekstra. In another piece from our series on debt, Hoekstra invites experts to examine the factors—from housing and homeownership, access to credit, predatory lending practices, and historically entrenched inequalities—that make the racial wealth gap so persistent.

Office Hours:

“Belinda Wheaton on the Cultural Practices of Lifestyle Sports,” with Kyle Green. Can surfing be an act of political resistance? It’s certainly an act of gender resistance for Jen Lee!

Reading List:

“Guerrilla Gardening, Gentrification, and the Implications of DIY Urban Design,” Jacqui Frost. Research from Gordon C.C. Douglas in City & Community highlights DIY interventions meant to functionally improve cities.

Teaching TSP:

“How to Use #Selfies as Sociological Exercises,” by Linda Catalano. In this guest post, Catalano shares one way she’s using selfies to teach George Herbert Mead and the bifurcation of the self.

Citings & Sightings:

“Stephen Colbert Welcomes Trans-Caucasians,” by Kat Albrecht. Demography reveals more Hispanics identifying as mixed race white—a change that might be welcome news for the GOP.

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Cyborgology on the bureaucratization of love through online dating.
• Feminist Reflections on hipster masculinity.
• Families as They Really Are on the ability of older people to retain autonomy.
• This month in Sociological Images!

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Umm, you guys? Did you know July’s almost over? That’s… that’s too much to think about, really. So let’s talk about soc, baby.

Features:

“Of Carbon and Cash,” by Erin Hoekstra. Could reparations for environmental damage flow as easily as pollution from the Global North to the Global South?

Office Hours:

“Chad Lavin on Eating Anxiety,” with Matt Gunther. On the politics of our food choices.

There’s Research on That!

“When Child Migrants Weren’t an Unwelcome Problem,” by Lisa Gulya and Stephen Suh. While politicians are busy blaming each other (slash coming up with conspiracy theories) for a recent influx of minor immigrants, research shows times when the U.S. has happily welcomed such kids.

The Editors’ Desk:

“Feminist Reflections,” by Chris Uggen. Welcoming our latest Community Page!

Citings & Sightings:

“The Overblown Myth of the Boomerang Generation,” by Amy August. Did the Baby Boomers birth a Boomerang Generation? Not really, says Rick Settersten.

“Marriage or the Baby Carriage,” by Andrew Wiebe. Andrew Cherlin takes a look at the connections between education levels and parenthood choices.

Scholars Strategy Network:

“In Dealing with Iran, the Best Option for Israel Is to Strike First—Diplomatically,” by Steven Weber. Make love not war! Or maybe just extend an olive branch? You don’t have to make out or anything. Unless you want to.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Red States, Blue States, and Divorce: Understanding the Impact of Conservative Protestantism on Regional Variation in Divorce Rates,” by Stephanie Coontz. Adding to findings from the American Journal of Sociology, Coontz looks at why divorce rates are higher in religiously conservative “red states.”

A Few From the Community Pages:

• HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGES!! Don’t squish those capybaras or smother them with conspicuous pollution, okay?
• Consuming the moral self with “The Other Little Blue Pill,” Truvada, on Cyborgology.
• Dr. Mary K. Assad drops in on Girl W/ Pen’s “Bedside Manners” column to critique pseudoscience and generalized health claims about heart disease risk factors.

This week, TSP was pleased to welcome our latest Community Page, Feminist Reflections; to host Tristan Bridges (one of Feminist Reflections’ contributors) on Office Hours, and to talk baby contagions and blocking contraception at the Supreme Court. What else did we get up to?

Office Hours:

“Tristan Bridges on Hybrid Masculinities and Sexual Aesthetics,” with Kyle Green. Being straight but not narrow and changing masculine norms along the way.

There’s Research on That!

“Religion, Reproduction, and the Supreme Court,” by Jacqui Frost. Hobby Lobby and Wheaton College’s cases before the SCOTUS reveal just one facet of the constraints on women’s access to reproductive health services.

Reading List:

“Testing in the Trenches,” by Evan Stewart. In Sociology of Education, Jennifer Jennings and Heeju Sohn consider whether both high and low achieving kids are left behind when teachers have to do perform “educational triage” before high-stakes testing.

Citings & Sightings:

“Baby-onic Plague,” by Kat Albrecht. The Chicago Tribune considers international research identifying three reasons women seem to catch a “case of the kids” from their circle of friends.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Gender Equality: Family Egalitarianism Follows Workplace Opportunity,” by Philip N. Cohen. Traditional male and female arrangements in housework became more balanced as the labor market opened up in the 1970s and ’80s. Why has it stalled since then?

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Feminist Reflections introduces their blog with a feminist reflection on the discipline of sociology by Gayle Sulik.
• Stacy Torres asks why older people don’t particularly want to move in with relatives on Families as They Really Are.
• Cyborgology contributor Jenny Davis is prepping a spring 2015 course on New Media and Society, and she wants your help!
• Sociological Images adds data to the Health At Every Size movement, pointing out JAMA findings that overweight individuals have a lower risk of premature death when compared to those with a “normal” BMI.

A lot can happen in just a couple of weeks. While we entertained illustrious guests (the incoming editors of Contexts magazine) and worked on developing new Community Pages, we saw the arrival of the paperbacks of our third W.W. Norton volume (this time on race and ethnicity in the U.S.), a plaudit as a great Twin Cities blog from the fine folks at The Tangential and Vita.MN, and, of course, the winning of the World Cup. We didn’t do that last one. But here’s the stuff we did do.

Features:

“Economic Decline and the American Dream,” by Kevin Leicht. The second in a three-part series reveals that the U.S. has the lowest rate of social mobility in the industrialized world.

“Old Narratives and New Realities,” by Kevin Leicht. Why old-school parents really just don’t understand the financial precarity of modern early adulthood in the conclusion to Leicht’s series.

“Andrew Ross on the Anti-Debt Movement,” by Erin Hoekstra. A conversation with a scholar-activist about the whys and hows of dumping debt.

The Editors’ Desk:

“Virginia Rutter, Love, and Scholarly Generosity,” by Chris Uggen. On appreciation and respect in the academic world.

“The Morning After,” by Doug Hartmann. The World Cup is over. Now what?

There’s Research on That!

“Modern Mormonism: Kicking Out and Keeping In,” by Allegra Smith and Evan Stewart.

Citings & Sightings:

“Pantene Urges Women to Stop Being Sorry—But Were They in the First Place?” by Hope Uggen. #NotSorry? What about #WasntSorryButThatsTheEasiestWaytoMoveItAlong?

“Starbucks Brews Plan to Fund College Tuition,” by Molly Goin. Now offering more than a caffeine boost, Starbucks takes a step that may let their workers take many.

Scholars Strategy Network:

“New Measures Reveal the True Impact of America’s Anti-Poverty Programs,” by Jane Waldfogel. Because science usually means measurement, social science needs metrics to evaluate social programs.

“Using Alternatives to School Suspension Can Improve Student Success and Community Safety,” by Jenni W. Owen. Suspension is, by design, isolating. What might work better?

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Greater Acceptance, Persisting Antipathy: 50 Years of Religious Change,” by Jerry Park, Joshua Tom, and Brita Andercheck. “Even today, nativist hate groups perpetuate hostilities between Catholic and Jewish Americans.”

“The State of Latino Children,” by Rogelio Saenz. “It is essential that Latino children be seen as an asset rather than a liability, as our children and our future.”

Last Week’s Roundup

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A difficult, reflective (if not reflexive) weekend that saw the TSP crew scattered about the country was rewarded, at least to some small degree, this morning, when we arrived at TSP’s HQ to find a squat little box containing our latest volume with W.W. Norton & Co., Color Lines and Racial Angles. The third in our series of readers, this book brings in big names like Douglas Massey, Jennifer Lee, David Pellow, Charles A. Gallagher, and Michelle Alexander with core contributions, cultural contexts, and critical takes on the construction, understanding, and functioning of race in American society. Perfect for an intro class, the slim volume literally fits in a roomy pocket and serves as an accessible entry-point for developing the sociological imagination. For everything else, hop right on in to this week’s roundup!

The Editors’ Desk:

“The TSP Debt Series,” by Chris Uggen. Introducing a summer’s worth of readings on debt, inequality, and the life course in the United States today. From student debt to credit cards, legal debt, the return of the debtor’s prison, climate change, and reparations, these pieces comprise an incredible introduction and will be released in a volume, Owned, this fall. For now, they’re free online, of course!

Features:

“Has Borrowing Replaced Earning?” by Kevin Leicht. The first in a three-part series, this article explores the growth of and change in credit in the U.S. over the past three generations, as measured against wage growth.

Office Hours:

“John Skrentny on Racial Realism and Civil Rights,” with Sarah Lageson. The author of After Civil Rights: Racial Realism in the New American Workplace joins us to discuss how racial diversity works at work.

Citings & Sightings:

“A New Kind of Kryptonite,” by Kat Albrecht. As Dustin Kidd muses, “What are you supposed to wear to a convention if your comic book idol’s costume is a corset and a thong?”

“Religion and Your Resume: Even More Hiring Discrimination,” by Evan Stewart. To the extent it’s legal to withhold, don’t mention your race, criminal record, finances, height, age, or religion—even in the most glancing reference—on your job app. Trust us.

Scholars Strategy Network:

“New Measures Reveal the True Impact of America’s Anti-Poverty Programs,” by Jane Waldfogel. How well is welfare?

Council on Contemporary Families:

“From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: What Unions Do for Women,” by Ruth Milkman. Why women today still need unions.

 A Few from the Community Pages:

• Sociological Images comes through, as always, with June’s month in review!
• Families as They Really Are point out that poverty doesn’t discriminate and the Equal Pay Act just crossed its first half-century mark.
• Girl w/ Pen! explores unions as a way for feminism to overcome its “class problem.”
• New Books in Sociology interviews Benjamin Lieberman on Remaking Identities: God, Nation, and Race in World History and William Arnal and Russel T. McCutcheon on The Sacred is the Profane: The Political Nature of “Religion.”
• Cyborgology on wanting to be invited to and welcome at the party (in this case, it’s a gamer party) and how Facebook didn’t just start manipulating your emotions.

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Features:

“Deep Play and Flying Rats, with Colin Jerolmack,” by Kyle Green. The contingent relationships between people and pigeons. Oh, and the Million Dollar Pigeon Race.

Citings & Sightings:

“Colbert: If Hispanics Identify as White, GOP’s Alright,” by Kat Albrecht. In a recent wørd segment, the Colbert Report highlighted sociological research on changing racial identifications.

There’s Research on That!

“Why Students Don’t Sweat Sweatshops,” by Jacqui Frost. Remember the uproar over sweatshop labor that led to the rise of brands like American Apparel? Why hasn’t it taken hold with similar reports about today’s iPhones, Nikes, and other items?

Scholars Strategy Network:

“The Deportation Crisis for Latino Men and Their Families,” by Tanya Golash-Boza.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: What Unions Do for Women,” by Ruth Milkman.

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Sociological Images wonders whether Americans are becoming less conformist, shows how “average” voters are left out of polarized politics, and remembers anti-Chinese propaganda.
• Families As They Really Are on progress and 51 years of the Equal Pay Act.
• Sociology Lens on why space is a feminist issue.
• Cyborgology on the prevalence and purpose of Trigger Warnings, as well as wearable tech and unwearable tech warnings.

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What’s that? You needed two weeks’ worth of sociology after you noticed soc is so hot even Stephen Colbert’s getting on the bandwagon? Oh, we’ve got you.

Features:

“Violence and the Transformation of Ethno-Racial Categories in Rwanda,” by Marie Berry. Perpetrators of genocide rely on division, hardening ethno-racial classifications like “Hutu” and “Tutsi” as resentments and violence build.

“The Homoegenization of Asian Beauty,”  by C.N. Le. Watching one culture converge on an ideal of beauty, Le shows a process at work around the world.

Editors’ Desk:

“The Sociological Foundations of Coates’s “Case for Reparations,” by Rahsaan Mahadeo and Doug Hartmann.

“Word Choice and the World Cup,” by Doug Hartmann. Sharing his smarts with a local paper makes our editor in chief realize how easy it is to slip into academic jargon.

“Welcoming the Council on Contemporary Families,” by Chris Uggen. A fabulous new addition to TSP’s partners, the CCF joins up with a new platform page and a new blog, “Families As They Really Are.”

Citings & Sightings:

“Abortion and Cinematic Calamity,” by Lisa Gulya. By some estimates, about 42 million abortions are provided worldwide each year. In the movies, that usually means the patient will lose love, self-respect, sanity, and even her life.

“Capital Punishment, Public Opinion, And Who Should Suffer,” by Kat Albrecht. Do we change execution methods to prevent the condemned or the witnesses from suffering?

Reading List:

“Taking the Pulse of the Primary Care System,” by Amy August. New JAMA research shows discrimination in the scheduling and treatment of Medicaid patients.

“‘Inclusionary Discrimination’: Family Policing of Interracial Couples,” by Stephen Suh. Brazil’s reputation as a “racial democracy” is dinged as researchers find family reactions to interracial couples as strong, but differently expressed, as those found in the U.S.

Teaching TSP:

“The Danger of a Single Story,” by Kristin Haltinner. An exercise tailored for service and non-service learning courses to help foster critical thinking skills and an eye for the socially constructed… everything.

There’s Research on That!

“Italy and the GDP: When Markets Meet Morality,” by Evan Stewart. Why the black market counts for Italians.

“Waitlists and Worse: Rebuilding VA Health Care,” by Amy August. Scheduling is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to structural problems with the delivery of health care at the Veteran’s Association.

Scholars Strategy Network:

“How Passers-by and Policymakers View Beggars in American Communities,” by Shai Dromi. For more, listen to our interview with photographer Tom Stone about his “American Outsiders” project.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Really? Work Lowers People’s Stress Levels,” by Sarah Damaske. For more, see Virginia Rutter’s “Stress Is Not About You.”

A Few From the Community Pages:

• Sociological Images on “voluntourism” and the #overseas #selfie, as well as a reimagining of Barbie—what if it’s not her “perfection” that irks us, but her unapologetic confidence? Even more interesting, what if Barbie feels pressured to keep up with beauty standards, too? Anthropomorphism and a perfect illustration of the sociological imagination. (See also: “Is sociology ruining your fun?“)
• Public Criminology on schools and safety.
• ThickCulture inside the GOP’s “Latino Problem” (Stephen Colbert brings out some sociology to take a gander at this question, too!).
• Cyborgology on Autism and the Internet (for more, see our Reading List, “Learning to See the Spectrum“).

The idea of paying reparations to African-Americans for slavery is not new, but it is usually relegated to the fringes of lefty radicalism or scholarly academic critique. Not anymore. With a piece from Ta-Nehisi Coates called “The Case for Reparations,” a recent issue of The Atlantic magazine has suddenly, if unexpectedly, mainstreamed the topic.

Coates’s article is comprised of ten chapters illustrating the enduring impact of slavery on contemporary African-American families. Coates identifies countless examples of the way whites have benefited from state-sponsored programs including Social Security and the GI Bill, reminding readers that there was a time “when affirmative action was white.” As much manifesto or treatise as conventional reporting, Coates’s piece argues forcefully for the need for America to grow up and repay its outstanding debt to its most vulnerable citizens. Failing to fulfill this promissory note, Coates insists, will leave all Americans morally impoverished.

Among its many exemplary characteristics is the way in which Coates draws directly and extensively on the works of numerous sociologists and political scientists. For example, Coates uses the work of sociologists Doug Massey and Nancy Denton to describe the role of residential segregation in the construction of inner-city ghettos, as well as their wealthier spatial counterparts-the suburbs (in 1993’s American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Urban Underclass, from Harvard University Press). Crim-Soc scholar Rob Sampson’s research on “neighborhood effects” is at the core of Coates’ discussion of the enormous power the ghetto wields in conditioning the lived experiences of its residents (see his 2012 Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect from the University of Chicago Press). And Coates engages political scientists Michael Dawson and Rovana Popoff’s studies of pre- and post-election survey data from 2000 (including views on reparations and racial apologies for Japanese American internment during World War II) to show how racialized views of politics shape public opinion as well as remind us that reparations are not unprecedented (for more on this, see Dawson and Popoff’s 2004 DuBois Review article “Reparations: Justice and Greed in Black and White”).

There’s a lot more where this came from—including Rodney. D. Coates’ 2004 scholarly treatment (“If a Tree Falls in the Wilderness: Reparations, Academic Silences, and Social Justice,” Social Forces 83(2): 841-864). And as you read it, remember that while you may or may not agree with Ta-Nahesi Coates’s opinion on reparations, the social scientific data and research about the social foundations of persistent African-American inequality are not up for debate.

Features:

“Coded Chaos and Anonymous, with Gabriella Coleman,” by Kyle Green. Anonymous and the contested space of the Internet.

Citings & Sightings:

“Under God or Over It? New Data on Religion and Politics,” by Evan Stewart. Americans are now slightly more trusting of atheists, but they’re still not rushing to elect one.

“Can a Rise in Rape Reports Be Good?” by Molly Goin. Unlike other crime numbers, when rape stats go up, it might mean a city’s doing something right.

There’s Research on That!

“Mass Shootings and the ‘Man’ifesto,” by Evan Stewart. “Mass shootings are rare, but the culture that creates them is not.”

The Editors’ Desk:

“Beyond White Male Guilt,” by Doug Hartmann. If they’re looking for an emotion, those with privilege should feel anger, rather than guilt.

“Five Points on Public Writing,” by Chris Uggen. After a talk at the Law and Society Association, Chris shares a few tips for the aspiring public scholar.

Scholars Strategy Network:

“Make the First Two Years of College Free,” by Sara Goldrick-Rab and Nancy Kendall.

“The Changing Relationship Between Congress and the American Judiciary,” by Bruce Peabody.

A Few from the Community Pages:

• Public Criminology: violence against women is down overall, even when it seems misogyny is at its deadliest.
• TSP’s social facts editor Debbie Carr talks about the unexpected stress of the academic summer on Girl W/ Pen!
• Cyborgology wonders if privileging “in person” interaction over online behaviors—partially an outcome of “digital dualism“—means we let some people slide when they make even direct threats on the Internet.
• Sociological Images celebrates May and a well-deserved award.

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