Friday Roundup

Can. You. Dig it?

No, there aren’t a lot of reasons to reference “The Warriors” on the Editors’ Desk. I could spin some, sure: it’s a cool cultural relic; the various gangs all try on personality and self through costume and affiliation; it involves crime, deviance, and social movements, etc. But really, I just wanted to ask Cyrus’s great rhetorical question, “Can you dig it?” Just as the Moon Runners and the Van Courtland Rangers can come together, so, too, do educators, researchers, policy makers, students, and wonderfully interested and curious people from the public here on TSP. And we definitely dig it. After the clip, check out some of this week’s latest and greatest from around the site. Hope you have as much fun reading it as we do making it. more...

Good Advice

So, this week, I heard an interesting piece of advice for writers, and it’s been knocking around in my head. Here’s the thing: it’s great, pithy advice. And it’s obviously sexist. So here’s the adaptation at which I’ve grudgingly arrived: “When writing an essay, think of it like shorts. You want ’em long enough to cover the business, and short enough to keep things interesting.” more...

Living in the past!

A vegetarian, I can’t blame tryptophan. Thus, it must be some sort of “tater-drunk hangover”—or a strong desire not to step on Chris’s excellent post from yesterday—that brings this Friday Roundup on a Saturday. Let’s all just pretend it’s yesterday and enjoy what The Society Pages offered up in a cornucopia (Smörgåsbord?) of social science goodness this week. more...

On the road again…

Greetings from Chicago, temporary TSP HQ! As dear Doug is off electrifying the Fargo-Moorhead area with his insights into Midnight Basketball and its neoliberal underpinnings, Chris and I are in the City of Broad Shoulders attempting to, I suppose, look broad (posture helps) at the American Society of Criminology meetings. We’re all dumbstruck at the presence of Stephen Pinker and have seen standing room only attendance at many sessions, even when wonderful restaurants and great sights tempt from just outside the conference hotel. At meetings like these, we get a certain jolt of rededication to TSP, meeting with authors as excited about open-access, de-jargon-ified (I’m an editor, let’s call that a word now) social science as we are. Here’s hoping for many very busy Friday Roundups to come, building on the conversations we’re all having on the road. more...

Election? Where?

After last week’s flurry of activity, perhaps a rush to get information to our eager readership (indulge me here) before the American general election that’s now just a few days past (unless you happen to live in Florida), things at The Society Pages have returned to a more reasonable, measured pace. That isn’t, however, to say we’ve gone slack; indeed, this week has brought a broad look at the underpinnings of and possible challenges to power, alongside thoughtful teaching activities and solid advice on just what color tracksuit your dog or cat might require. There’s a lot going on—have a look! more...

Say, Can I Offer You Some Social Science?

As The Society Pages’ associate editor, I’m in a position to see nearly all of the fantastic content that comes across our transom every day, but it’s recently been pointed out that we don’t offer a super simple way for readers to do the same. To that end, I present the first of our (hopefully) weekly Friday Roundups.

This week, we’ve seen a lot of new work, much of it dealing with next week’s U.S. general election, but with some “palate cleansers,” too. Here are all of this week’s articles from across TSP’s departments, as well as a few highlights from our Community Pages. more...