Friday Roundup

Ooh, it’s almost Halloween! That means it’s time to for a few classics, including the annual holiday roundup from Sociological Images. Here’s what we’ve been up to this week:

Office Hours Podcasts:

“Michael Burawoy on Global Social Movements,” with Matt Gunther.

There’s Research on That!

“Gender Pay Gaps: The Silicon Ceiling?” by Anne Kaduk.

Citings & Sightings:

“NFL’s Domestic Abuse Prevention Team Drafts Sociologist Beth Richie,” by Amy August.

Scholars Strategy Network:

“How To Increase Voter Turnout in Communities Where People Have Not Usually Participated in Elections,” by Melissa R. Michelson.

Teaching TSP:

“Politics and Power, A Classroom Exercise.” Related, “Power, Sociologically Speaking,” by Vincent J. Roscigno.

A Few from The Community Pages:

• Sociological Images brings us the fun stuff with “The Tax Return and Other Sexy, Sexy Costumes for Halloween” and “Why Do Witches Ride Brooms?” as well as the serious question, “School Shootings: What’s Different about Europe?“
• Cyborgology celebrates four years of talking tech and the social world.
• Girl w/ Pen! on the foul-mouthed pink princesses.
• Feminist Reflections looks back to Anita Hill’s infamous testimony.
• A Backstage Sociologist sees the spotlight on Minnesota.

Last Week’s Roundup

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A week’s worth of sociology, at your fingertips! It must be the future.

Features:

“‘Technological Optimism’: Egg-Freezing a Better Deal for Companies than for Women,” by Rene Almeling, Joanna Radin, and Sarah S. Richardson.

Teaching TSP:

“Desistance and Reentry: An activity for the LCD classroom.”

Citings & Sightings:

“Ebola Scares: When Panic is a Pathogen,” by Evan Stewart.

“Pushing Secret Service Director Off the Glass Cliff?” by Matt Gunther.

There’s Research on That!

“Tax Haven Mavens,” Erik Kojola.

“Tactical Textbooks: The Politics of Teaching History,” by Jack Delahanty.

“Linking Up with New Social Networks,” by Evan Stewart. more...

Just a taste of what we’ve been cooking up at The Society Pages!

In Case You Missed It:

“Same-Sex, Different Attitudes,” by Kathy Hull. With the recent SCOTUS demurral, it’s worth a look at the lightning fast change in Americans’ approval of same-sex marriage; this article is just six months old, and the numbers have already shifted.

Roundtables:

“Re-evaluating the ‘Culture of Poverty’ with Mark Gould, Kaaryn Gustafson, and Mario Luis Small,” by Stephen Suh and Kia Heise. Sixties-era rhetoric still affects black Americans.

There’s Research on That!

“Fast Food Strikes Bring Everyone to the Table,” by Erik Kojola.

“Think Fast: Policing, Race, and Implicit Bias,” by Richie Lenne.

“Falling Poverty Rates Leave US Hungry for More,” by Jacqui Frost.

“Growing and Granting Genius,” by Evan Stewart.

“Rockefellers Less Loyal to Oil,” by Erik Kojola.

“Atheist Church: A Predictable Paradox,” by Jacqui Frost.

“Back in Living Color? Diversity on TV,” by Stephen Suh. more...

Here at The Society Pages, we work to bring a little something for everyone, whether your primary interests lay in race, politics, culture, crime, inequality, or gender. Take a gander, share and comment, and, as always, let us know (gently!) what you think we’re missing or what you’d like to contribute!

Features:

“Race, Spanking, and Shame: Dimensions of Corporal Punishment,” by Jennifer Lee. If nearly 80% of all Americans believe spanking is sometimes appropriate, why do we focus on racial groups and presumed practices?

The Editors’ Desk:

“Notes on Race, Football, and Spanking,” by Doug Hartmann. Facts and sociological commentary on decoupling stereotypes and social phenomena.

“More on Spanking: Race, Men, and the South,” by Doug Hartmann. A need-to-read link.

There’s Research on That!:

“Good Kids Gone Guerilla: Why Flee to Fight?” by Jack Delahanty. Western youths seem to be flocking to the Middle East to join jihads. What are their aims? And who’s to blame? more...

Oh hi. Between the start of the semester, sickness, and the mustering of a new grad board, the poor Roundup has gone un-rounded! Time to remedy that, with a Roundup of epic scale. There’s something for everyone, so let that sociological imagination run wild! And don’t forget, if you’re an educator or a student, to let us know how you’re using TSP in your classrooms. It always helps us find new directions!

Features:

“The Feel of Faith,” by Daniel Winchester. Examining the physical artifacts of Eastern Orthodox worship.

Office Hours:

“Ken Kolb on Moral Wages,” with Matt Gunther. A podcast on why public servants persevere, even when they don’t profit.

There’s Research on That!:

“Crime and Scandal in the NFL,” by Ryan Larson. There isn’t a higher incidence of crime among NFL players, but there is a higher incidence of domestic violence; public outrage rises when punishments don’t seem to align with crimes; and how organizations handle scandal.

“Homelessness at the VMAs,” by Jacqui Frost. Framing social problems and the “deserving” needy. more...

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. more...

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! more...

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. more...

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. more...

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. more...