~the-society-pages | Bookmarks (111)

Netta Kahana, “Paved with Good Intentions: Moral Evaluation of Volunteer Tourism as Social Action,” Social Problems, 2023 A group of people building a sidewalk with wet concrete. Image by Rodolfo Quirós under Pexels license. A new study by Netta Kahana highlighted the shifting public opinions about combining travel with volunteering activities–practices, known widely as volunteer […]

Reaching broader publics? Yeah, we do that. Amin is in Amsterdam and London on a European book tour for Long Live Queer Nightlife. He is racking up reviews on both sides of the pond, including in The New York Times. Meanwhile, Malcolm Gladwell endorsed Seth’s new book (co-authored with Anna Mueller) about youth suicide clusters, […]

from the editors in brief: “Okay, Boomer,” Elena G. van Stee “AI and the Scientific Imagination,” Colter J. Uscola “Who’s on Top?” Elena G. van Stee “Law and the Looky-Loo,” Sophie X. Liu “Canada’s Immigration Politics,” Sophie X. Liu “Movies Reboot Gender Divides,” Colter J. Uscola “Trust and Stratify,” Parker Muzzerall “Wealthy Disillusioned with Politics, […]

For 17 years, Twitter/X provided free academic access—not by law, but by social contract—to its data for researchers examining elections, hate speech, and other crucial public issues. As Elizabeth Blakey writes in her Spring 2024 feature article for Contexts, it took just six months under Elon Musk to rescind this unfettered access and upend global […]

As the cost of living, and housing in particular, skyrockets, more and more people face eviction. Unsurprisingly, U.S. eviction courts—a specific form of civil legal process for adjudicating disputes over tenancy—are experiencing record case numbers. While the legal system seeks fair and just representation, court records show that landlords win eviction cases at an overwhelming—and […]

Twitter’s post-January 6th suspension of Donald Trump’s account silenced his digital megaphone in an instant. While the immediate consequences for the former president were evident, the broader impact of account suspension on the everyday user is less understood. To untangle this unknown process, Shangwei Wu and Hui Fang delve into the intricacies of “account bombings,” […]

New & Noteworthy Our new Discovery by Mallory Harrington, Disease Stigma Through the Media covers research by Rachel Best and Alina Arseniev-Koehler. In this piece, the different levels of stigmatization of diseases are investigated via the media coverage and stereotyping that accompanies them. They find that the level of overall disease stigma has decreased over […]

It was a bracingly cold morning in 2019 in a far suburb of Toronto, Canada. I stepped across the threshold of Amina’s bungalow, taking her hand and leaning in to kiss the air beside each of her cheeks. In my other hand, I clutched a box of sweets I’d brought for her elderly mother, a […]

Elissa Strauss has been writing about the politics and culture of parenting and caregiving for more than fifteen years. Her work appears in publications like the Atlantic, the New York Times, Glamour, ELLE, TheWeek.com and elsewhere, and she was a former contributing writer at CNN.com and Slate, where her cultural criticism about motherhood appeared on […]

Rachel Kahn Best and Alina Arseniev-Koehler, “The Stigma of Diseases: Unequal Burden, Uneven Decline,” American Sociological Review, 2023 A hospital room with three empty beds. Image by Pixabay under Pexels license. People who cough or sneeze in public may receive disgusted glares. Addiction recovery programs are often anonymous. And many types of patients face isolation, […]

As the distinction between life on the internet and life in the real world blurs, one consequence is that our online behavior can have a tremendous impact on our offline lives—think of someone who gets fired over an insensitive Facebook comment or derogatory Tweet. But as Yuan Hsiao and colleagues show in their new study, […]

Employees increasingly encounter workplace conditions that contribute to poor mental health outcomes and, over time, burnout. But what comes after burnout? A recent article by Philippe Sterkens and colleagues helps uncover the ongoing career effects of burnout stigma. The study, published in European Sociological Review, draws from an online vignette experiment administered to 405 American […]

I love sociology majors. They have a unique perspective as they try to apply recently learned concepts and methods while grappling to understand the sometimes-broken systems in our society so they can change them from within and address the disparities they’ve noticed in their daily lives. Some of the sociology majors taking my courses are […]

New & Noteworthy Colleges, administration, and professors across the United States are responding to student organizing around the conflict in Gaza. In light of this organizing, we compiled 6 pieces from us and our partners to read on student organizing. First Hand Faculty Experiences on Campus Issues Young Adults and Social Structure of Protests Challenges […]

A college campus with people protesting and holding signs on the entrance steps. Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels under Pexels license. This week, pro-Palestinian protests are occurring in many U.S. colleges and universities in response to the conflict in the Gaza Strip and surrounding areas. Students supporting Palestinians are building encampments, occupying buildings, and marching on […]

Erin Cech (Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan) and Elana Goldenkoff (Doctoral Candidate in Movement Science at the University of Michigan) wrote an article for The Conversation assessing how prepared engineers are to face ethical dilemmas regarding AI. They discuss how engineers often are...

When we think about the spread of American culture, we might picture someone eating a Big Mac in Bangladesh, listening to Bruce Springsteen in Singapore, or watching a Disney movie in Denmark. This process, often referred to as Americanization, involves the top-down export of distinctly American products to other countries. But, as Tamara Kay shows […]

In his Winter 2024 Contexts feature, “An Australian Uproar Over CRT,” Dr. Ryan Al-Natour investigates the similar narratives animating anti-CRT contingents determined to keep Whiteness at the curricular core in American and Australian education. He explains, “I just want to echo the words of a social work professor by the name of Ozy Alozeim, who […]

A running track with two lanes in the foreground, and fog covering the view in the distance. Photo by Pixabay under Pexels license. This article is republished from the Conversation, read the original article here. Though the college career of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark ended with a disappointing loss, the point guard’s record-breaking season helped fuel widespread interest […]

New & Noteworthy Our latest ‘There’s Research on That’, War on Women on the Web by S Ericson and Caroline Garland, covers some of the research on the manosphere. These groups vary in their approaches, with some outright attacking women and others using pseudoscience to back their arguments against women. This week Clippings covers Josh […]

Since our founding as a discipline over 180 years ago, sociologists have become masters at studying social problems. Sociologists can explain the overt and covert mechanisms of racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism with great precision. Our disciplinary ability to explain social well-being and flourishing, however, is dull. We need to sharpen our tools. Many disciplines […]

Marriage is often regarded as one of the most vital aspects of Hispanic culture. This is largely attributed to the traditional Hispanic cultural values— Familismo. Marriage is not just a union between two individuals, but an extension of the most significant social network – family – over other forms of social relationships, such as friendship […]

Josh Greenberg (Professor of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University) wrote an article for The Conversation on the resurgence of the vinyl LP, describing “how seeking, acquiring, collecting and displaying one’s music collection…are sociocultural activities that enable the creation and expression of ident...

How do lower-income mothers respond when societal expectations for feeding children demand resources they do not have? Amidst the pressure of intensive parenting norms, lower-income mothers experience the emotional dilemma of how to feel like good mothers when they perceive themselves falling short of their own and society’s expectations, such as preparing home-cooked meals and […]