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It’s all fun and games until….someone brings up politics at the Olympics. Sorry! But if you’ve had enough of politics, we’ve also got social science on why learning a new language is beneficial, different conceptions of race in the Americas, and gentrification.

There’s Research on That!:

“Political Games at the Olympics,” by Brooke Chambers and Doug Hartmann. Here’s some sociological work on political effects of the Olympic Games.

“Learn a Language, Change the World,” by Isabel Arriagada. Turns out there are some great sociological reasons to learn a new language.

“Conceptions of Race in the Americas,” by Lucas Lynch. In this piece, we compile social science research on how race shapes social life in the Americas.

Discoveries:

“School Choice Policies Drive Gentrification,” by Jean Marie DeOrnellas. New research in Sociology of Education finds that school choice policies contribute to gentrification.

Clippings:

“Redlining Then, Gentrification Now,” by Jasmine Syed. NPR talks to John Schlichtman about the negative consequences of gentrification and how to counteract them.

“Is Probation the Solution to High Conviction Rates?” by Nahrissa Rush. PBS asks Michelle Phelps to weigh in on probation as a solution to high rates of felony convictions.

From Our Partners:

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Talk with Xavier Guadalupe-Diaz on IPV in Transgender Communities,” by Tasia Clemons.

Social Studies MN:

“A New Look at Nuclear Negotiations,” by Evan Stewart.

And a Few from the Community Pages:

• Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies reflects on troubling pasts in Ukraine and Minnesota.
• Cyborgology considers the ethics of engineers.
• Dispatches from a Dean reviews Carvell Wallace’s review of Black Panther.

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Looking to bring in the new year with some sociological perspective? We’ve got you covered. This week we’ve got some great new pieces and some of our best from over the year.

Office Hours:

*~* Best of 2017 *~*
“Lisa Wade on American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus,” with Amber Joy Powell and Allison Nobles. Voted best podcast of 2017 by the TSP board, in this episode we talked with Wade about the complexities involved in navigating the ‘hookup culture’ found on college campuses.

Discoveries:

“Shining a Light on Lower Crime in Brazil,” by Caity Curry. New research in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology finds that electricity policies in areas that previously had little to no access to electricity can be an essential tool for crime control.

*~* Best of 2017 *~*
“Minority Men doing ‘Women’s Work’,” by Allison Nobles. Research in The Sociological Quarterly finds that all groups of racial minority men are more likely than white men to work in female-dominated jobs.

Clippings:

“Promoting Women Reduces Sexual Harassment,” by Natalie Alteri. Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev tell the Harvard Business Review that more women in leadership roles is vital to remedying sexual harassment culture in the workplace.

From Our Partners:

Sociological Images:

“Listen Up! Great Social Science Podcasts,” by Evan Stewart.

And a Few from the Community Pages:

• Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies reviews Jeffrey Olick’s The Sins of the Fathers: Germany, Memory, Method.
• Cyborgology explains glitch feminism and constructive anxiety.

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Looking for some reading material for your winter break? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve got some great new pieces this week, as well as a new issue from Contexts and a brand new TSP volume, Give Methods a Chance. We’ll also be rolling out our *Best of 2017* over the next few weeks, so you can catch up on all the great posts from the year. Enjoy!

There’s Research on That!:

“Navigating Multiracial Identities,” by Allison Nobles and Amber Joy Powell. The latest royal wedding announcement got us thinking about the complexities of being multiracial in an increasingly diverse global world.

*~* Best of 2017 *~*
“Revisiting Rape Culture as Survivors Say ‘Me Too’,” by Amber Joy Powell. In the midst of over 500,000 women and men saying #MeToo, we highlighted research on the causes and consequences of rape culture in the United States.

Discoveries:

“Showing Off Your Sacred Side,” by Evan Stewart. New research in Sociological Science finds that Muslim women who have children aren’t necessarily more religious, but they are more likely to signal their religiosity to others in public.

Clippings:

“Why Athletic Scandals Seem Standard in Higher Education,” by Jean Marie DeOrnellas. In a guest post for Salon, Rick Eckstein argues that problems with the NCAA are a symptom of larger problems with corporatizing higher education in the U.S.

From Our Partners:

Contexts:

Check out the Fall 2017 Table of Contents and see below for the first pieces to go online.

“Race, Class, and the Framing of Drug Epidemics,” by Rebecca Tiger.

“Segregation in Social Networks on Facebook,” by Bas Hofstra, Rense Corten, Frank van Tubergen, and Nicole Ellison.

“Closeted Womanhood,” by Ellie Malmrose.

“Crime is Even Lower in Diverse Immigrant Neighborhoods,” by Hannah Kleman.

Social Studies MN:

“Who Puts Politics on TV?” by Allison J. Steinke.

And a Few from the Community Pages:

• Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies talks making genocide “family-friendly” in El Salvador.
• Cyborgology explains how Facebook designs emotions and why we we aren’t accepting visitors from other planets right now.

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Welcome to another week at TSP! We’ve got some great work on LGBT parents, how parole officers define work for formerly incarcerated Black women, and how the Census categorizes multiracial individuals in the United States.

There’s Research on That!:

“LGBT Parents Widen Definitions but Face Challenges,” by Caity Curry and Allison Nobles. We compiled social science research on how LGBT parents expand definitions of families, as well as legal challenges they face, and children’s outcomes.

Discoveries:

“How Parole Officers Define Work for Black Women,” by Amber Joy Powell. New research in Gender & Society demonstrates how parole and probation officers limit what counts as “work” for formerly incarcerated Black women.

Clippings:

“Cleaning Racial Identity in the U.S. Census,” by Lucas Lynch. The Atlantic talked with Robyn Autry about the difficulty of categorizing racial identity for multiracial individuals in the United States.

“Latinx Immigrants Perceive Discrimination Differently,” by Nahrissa Rush. NPR spoke to Emilio Parrado about why Latinx immigrants perceive less discrimination than those born in the United States.

From Our Partners:

Sociological Images:

“SocImages Classic—The Ugly Christmas Sweater: From Ironic Nostalgia to Festive Simulation,” by Kerri Scheer.

Contexts:

“Helicopter Parents in the Hospital,” by Danielle Koonce.

“Swedish Parents get the Interview,” by Lucia Lykke.

“Fewer Kids, More Equality,” by Carrie Clarady.

“Health, Now and Later,” by Justin Maietta.

And a Few from the Community Pages:

• Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies interviews human rights expert Juan Méndez on Colombia’s peace process.
• Cyborgology reflects on the intersection of identity and the data self.

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Thanksgiving break once again provided me with some time for reflection mingled in with all the feasting and football. This year I found myself dwelling upon two rather random bits of reading I had come upon in earlier in the month. One was the reviews of a new biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, she of “Little House on the Prairie” fame. The other was a small series of confessions on my social media feed from sociologists who “admitted” to being fascinated with or even inspired by Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead in adolescence. Both Wilder and Rand, their stories and the worldviews embedded in them, have long held sway over me and (I think) many Midwestern, middle class folks like me.

When many of my ilk and generation think of “Little House,” they recall the 1970s NBC television series featuring Melissa Gilbert as the young Laura and Michael Landon as “Pa.” But for me it is the books. I remember my second grade teacher, Miss Froemsdorf, reading through the series to us in afternoon break times and study halls. In my faded, fuzzy, and probably totally erroneous memory, it seems like my classmates and I spent the entirety of our primary years at Trinity Lutheran listening to the stories from Little House in the Big Woods onward.

Was that even possible? Could we possibly have devoted that much classroom time to listening to these books rather than studying multiplication tables or learning to read and write? Probably not, but my recollection reflects as much on the power of the stories as the accuracy of memory. And indeed what captured my imagination and thus represents such an essential aspect of my elementary school education was Pa’s restlessness, his relentless (if often ill-fated) desire for land of his own, his drive for independence–and the almost complete and utter devotion of his wife and girls to the cause. This was the freedom and self-reliance I was learning to revere. The pioneering, frontier spirit made manifest. American individualism at its finest.  This was the freedom and self-reliance I was learning to revere. The pioneering, frontier spirit made manifest. American individualism at its finest. 

I didn’t really read and engage the works of Ayn Rand until the summers of my early college years. This was when “objectivism” was experiencing one of its periodic renaissances among conservative students on campus during the Reagan era. Remember the Oliver Stone movie “Wall Street?” “Greed is good,” Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko told us. By then, I was a bit more inclined to be critical. Still, it wasn’t hard for me to see the appeal, to see how that self-reliant worldview –buttressed by Rand with an unrelenting celebration of the magic of markets and overt attacks on the state–would speak to my grade school self, my inherited midwestern German Lutheran sensibilities.

How to make sense of these works and ideas now? First and most important is to point out all that is missing from these romanticized visions of America and social life more generally: the institutional and technological complexities of modern society; the power of industry (especially railroads and banks and other titans of industry in “using” settlers to create towns and tame land that they knew was not fit for farming); the government role in regulating–and indeed making–markets; cities, technology, supply chains. And this is not to mention poverty and inequality, the dispossession and near extermination of Natives Americans, the great violence of the military, and the realities of hard lives full of death, disease, debt, devastations of all kinds for the masses. I’m talking, in short, of the invisibility of all things sociological.

That said, those of us who care about “the social” need to remember the deep, enduring appeal of these books and stories. Limited and problematic as they may be, stories about families like the Ingalls or of Howard Roarch or Horatio Alger embody in narrative form the core values and beliefs of vast swaths of our citizens and the nation itself. They are the vehicles by which the values of self-reliance and competition and individual responsibility have been inculcated in so many of us, and become such a deep, enduring part of our selves. In fact, I realize now that a great deal of my intellectual development in college and then graduate school was unlearning (or at least complicating) the intuitive logic of these ideas, remaking my own intuitive, organic sensibilities and beliefs. Those of us who care about “the social” need to remember the deep, enduring appeal of these books and stories. 

I pondered these themes over a weekend where I heard and saw friends all over the country posting thoughts about “being thankful” and “feeling blessed.” Yes, yes–such sentiments are appropriate. But thankful for what and blessed by whom? Is it ourselves, our individual selves? Perhaps. For many Americans, such sentiments also go to some larger, less easy to explain force or powers. Again, fine as far as it goes. But gratitude is also, I’m convinced (and I think we too often neglect to realize or acknowledge this), about us as communities. All of us have tons of support and assistance from others along the pathways of our lives. We don’t do it on our own. Ever. There are many others around us, upon whom each of us depends and relies.  We should be thankful for and feel blessed by all of these folks, and of the communities in which we are all embedded.

And thinking about others brings me to one other point. It also gets me thinking about those of us in America and all over the world who haven’t been so blessed or so lucky. What do we think of them? Do we turn a blind eye? Do we blame them for their own misfortune, or even for other problems in our communities? Too often, I’m afraid that’s exactly what we do. I wish we could do better. And I wonder whether an understanding of thankfulness more attentive to others might not also help make us feel thankful but act in more generous and compassionate ways to others, towards those whom our religious icons have often called “the least of these.”  Gratitude is also, I’m convinced and think we too often neglect to realize or acknowledge, about us as communities. 

There is an episode in one of the recent reviews of the Ingalls biography where either Laura or her daughter Rose (who did so much to bring the Little House books to fruition) bring an interviewer down to the fruit cellar of their farm house to show them all of the produce that has been bottled and canned and put away for the winter. “This,” they tell the interviewer, “is all the welfare we need.” I am convinced the Ingalls women totally believed this–and believed that canned food for the winter is all anyone else needed or could ask for as well. Heck, this is a family who suffered through and saw many family and friends die difficult deaths of famine and disease; this was a family who even believed that a plague of grasshoppers who destroyed their crops in the 1930s was divine retribution for the New Deal. They lived their self-reliance. However, I also believe it doesn’t have to be that way. I believe that we, together, can do better.

In other words, I ended my weekend thinking not about being thankful as an individual, but rather by looking for hope for our collective lives together.

Welcome back! We’ve got a great roundup for you this week, with new research on the ways national conflicts shape beliefs about immigration, social science on the relationship between wealth and well-being, and some answers to the age-old question — pen or iPad?

There’s Research on That!:

“Wealth and Well-Being,” by Allison Nobles. Social science shows that the GOP’s new tax plan risks widening already significant wealth and income gaps in the U.S.

“Pen or iPad? Taking Notes in a Digital Age,” by Jean Marie DeOrnellas. Ever wondered whether taking notes by hand really makes a difference?

Discoveries:

“Historical Conflict, Modern Xenophobia,” by Brooke Chambers. New research in Social Forces finds that nations with high levels of past territorial loss or conflict are more likely to base their national identity around a shared ethnicity, rather than shared citizenship.

Clippings:

“Safe Spaces and Political Identities on Campus,” by Nahrissa Rush. Jeffrey Kidder discusses conservative criticisms of liberal “safe spaces” with the Washington Post and what these critiques illustrate about conservative identity.

“‘Masculinity Threats’ and Mass Shootings,” by Nahrissa Rush. In a recent article for Quartz, Tristan Bridges and Tara Leigh Tober reflect on the ways American masculinity help explain the prevalence of mass shootings in the U.S.

From Our Partners:

Sociological Images:

“What’s Trending? A Rise in STDs,” by Evan Stewart.

Contexts:

“Durkheim Lives!” by the Contexts’ Editors.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Millennials Changing Binaries (in more ways than one, of course),” by Braxton Jones.

And a Few from the Community Pages:

• Families As They Really Are revisits the relationship between college enrollment and sexual assault.
• Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies celebrates 20 years!

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Hello and happy Friday! This week we’ve got new pieces on poverty penalties in the penal system, the benefits of DACA, and CrossFit bodies in a bodyless world. See below for that and other great new stuff from around the site this week.

There’s Research on That!:

“Poverty Penalties in the U.S. Penal System,” by Isabel Arriagada. Research demonstrates the far-reaching consequences of the penal system’s money leveraging strategies.

“Understanding Debates about DACA,” by Neeraj Rajasekar. Research shows that repealing DACA will have adverse impacts on recipients’ health and well-being.

Discoveries:

“Disability, Support, and Strain in Intimate Relationships,” by Jean Marie DeOrnellas. New research in Journal of Health and Social Behavior finds that men and women navigate disability in intimate relationships differently.

Clippings:

“Just How Violent is the United States?” by Caity Curry. The Washington Post talks to Kieran Healy about how rates of violence vary across social contexts.

“Shifting Standards in Campus Sexual Assault Cases,” by Jean Marie DeOrnellas. Miriam Gleckman-Krut and Nicole Bedera explain controversies over who gets to define campus rape in the New York Times.

From Our Partners:

Sociological Images:

“Thank You, Angela Robinson: A Review Of Professor Marston and The Wonder Women,” by Mimi Schippers.

“When Home is Where the Hazards Are,” by Evan Stewart.

Contexts:

“Google Searches Show More Worry Over Gay Men and Boys than Over Gay Women and Girls,” by Emma Mishel and Mónica L. Caudillo.

“Where Punishment and Pregnancy Meet,” by Megan Comfort.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Segregation by Sexuality in the United States,” by Braxton Jones.

And a Few from the Community Pages:

• Sociology Toolbox shares tools for teaching in a climate justice framework.
• Families As They Really Are revisits millennials and home ownership.
• Engaging Sports talks CrossFit and the body in a bodyless world and scandal in the NCAA.
• Cyborgology explains the link between fake news and advertising.

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Welcome back to another sociology-packed TSP roundup! This week we’ve got new pieces on the history of race and reproductive control, the addictive qualities of hate, and the dangers of rescinding DACA.

There’s Research on That!:

“Violence and Discrimination against Transgender People,” by Caity Curry and Amber Joy Powell. Social science shows that personal prejudice and institutional discrimination continue to affect the lives of those in the trans community.

“Race and Reproductive Control,” by Allison Nobles and Amber Joy Powell. Sociological research traces the historical links between reproductive control, race, and gender.

Discoveries:

“How Hate Hangs On,” by Evan Stewart. New research in American Sociological Review finds that people can get “addicted to hate,” making it more difficult to leave hate groups.

Clippings:

“Policing in an Era of Surveillance,” by Natalie Alteri. CNN Tech talks to Sarah Brayne about the social side of surveillance technologies.

“The Dangers of Rescinding DACA,” by Caity Curry. In a recent piece for The Globe Post, Stephanie Canizales outlines what the abolishment of DACA could mean for immigrant worker rights.

From Our Partners:

Contexts:

The Summer 2017 issue’s Table of Contents is ready to peruse! See below for one of the first features available online.

“The Closet,” by Amin Ghaziani.

Social Studies MN:

“Heading Home After Hurricanes,” by Sarah Catherine Billups.

And a Few from the Community Pages:

• Families As They Really Are revisits moving from legal to economic equality for LGBT people.
• Engaging Sports talks challenges and advances for female sportscasters.
• Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies interviews Professor Riv-Ellen Prell on the ‘A Campus Divided’ exhibit.
• Sociological Images unpacks how House of Cards represents sex workers and finds asymmetry between the left and right media spheres.

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Whale, hello there! We’ve got some great stuff for you this week, including research on using punk rock to resist Islamophobia, a history of marijuana’s moral entrepreneurs, and reflections on the status of Title IX. Interested? Keep reading!

There’s Research on That!:

“Backtracking on Title IX?” by Evan Stewart. Social science reveals the institutional and cultural forces shaping sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies on campus.

“How Teacher Perceptions Shape Student Experiences,” by Amber Joy Powell.  Sociological studies provide insight into how teacher and school administrator perceptions and disciplinary actions often stem from race, class, and gender stereotypes.

Discoveries:

“Talking Taqwacore: Punk Rock and Resisting Islamophobia,” by Neeraj Rajasekar. New research in Sociology of Race & Ethnicity describes how an emerging genre of punk is forming a panethnic “brown” identity that empowers marginalized youth.

Clippings:

“Gendering Gender-Neutral Occupations,” by Caity Curry. A recent article in The Globe and Mail covers research from Laura Doering and Sarah Thébaud examining how gender-ambiguous occupations become gendered over time.

From Our Partners:

Contexts:

“Viewpoints: Title IX at XLV”

1. Women Want to Coach, by Nicole LaVoi.
2. Title IX at 45, by Cheryl Cooky.
3. Where All Kids Can Compete, by Erin Buzuvis.
4. Union Busting and the Title IX Straw Man, by Ellen J. Staurowsky.

“Marijuana’s Moral Entrepreneurs, Then and Now,” by Mike Vuolo, Joy Kadowaki, and Brian C. Kelly.

“The Politics of Trans Identities,” by Iván Szelény and a response from Rogers Brubaker.

And a Few from the Community Pages:

• Sociological Images breaks down the cost of sexual harassment and charts the dangers Americans face at work.
• Engaging Sports problematizes the “savage” of Savage Race and explains why few cities want to host the Olympics.
• Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies reflects on a teaching a course about Holocaust art.
• Girl w/Pen! explores the world of male baton twirlers.

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Hello all! We’ve got a great line up to kick off the fall semester, with a few thoughts from co-editor Doug Hartmann on the importance of teaching sociology, a second symposium on Charlottesville over at Contexts with a pice from co-editor Chris Uggen, and some great new pieces on law-breaking in-laws, improving children’s books about disasters, and the importance of DACA.

Editors’ Desk:

“First Day Note, 2017-2018,” by Doug Hartmann. Doug offers a few inspiring words to kick of the fall semester.

“I see sociology as a noble profession, vocation, a calling in the Weberian sense. And in this time of tumult, conflict, and change, I believe our work—our research, our ideas, and the information and insights we produce—is more needed than ever by people, in communities, all over the world.”

Discoveries:

“When Your In-Law is an Outlaw,” by Ryan Larson. New research in Criminology finds that previously convicted brothers-in-law increase the likelihood of crime for new husbands — regardless of their own criminal histories.

Clippings:

“Understanding the Post-Festival Blues” by Neeraj Rajasekar. Vice’s Noisey talks to Rob Gardner about music festivals, crowd dynamics, and collective effervescence.

From Our Partners:

Contexts:

“Context Symposium: After Charlottesville, Part Two.”

1. “Setting the Record Straight on Confederate Statues,” Wanda Rushing
2. “Defining Disorder Down,” Chris Uggen
3. “The ‘Many Sides’ Implicated in Charlottesville,” Dawn M. Dow
4. “Charlottesville Yields Few Sociological Surprises,” David Brunsma
5. “Charlottesville and Our Racial Fault Lines,” Rodney D. Coates
6. “What Are Our Universities’ Obligations?” James M. (JT) Thomas

“Staking Post-racialism in Charlottesville,” by Milton Vickerman.

“D is for Disaster,” by Kathryn Wells and Timothy J. Haney.

“The Importance of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Policy,” by Hyein Lee and Margaret Chin.

Council on Contemporary Families:

“Women’s Equality Day Turns 44,” by Nika Fate-Dixon and Stephanie Coontz.

And a Few from the Community Pages:

• Families As They Really Are reflects on women’s equality in the Nixon and Trump eras.
• Cyborgology offers an STS reading of Australia’s marriage equality plebiscite.
• Sociological Images enters a new era with incoming editor Evan Stewart who writes his first post on movie times in modern times.

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