Everyday Sociology Blog

Race and Anger Online

By Karen Sternheimer

On January 11, armed assailants entered a Nordstrom Rack store in the Los Angeles area just after closing time. The police were called and surrounded the building, and the assailants held 14 people hostage for about two hours.

Despite the heavy police presence—a SWAT team was at the scene—the assailants escaped. Police later arrested five people, three suspects and two accused as accessories for allegedly aiding the suspects.

This was a shocking event for both the victims and members of the community. The store is located in an upscale shopping area with a state-of-the-art Cineplex and many shops and restaurants in an area with a relatively low crime rate.

Thinking Sociologically about Mass Shootings

By Sally Raskoff

Much has been said about the Sandy Hook murders and other mass shootings in the United States. Some blame media or the accessibility of weapons, others cite gender, and others our medical infrastructure or even the killer’s parents.

What makes people do such horrible things? If there were a simple answer or one source of such behavior, we would have figured that out by now and made a simple solution!

Seeking answers is a natural part of healing after a terrible event such as this. However, seeking such answers through speculation can add to our misery since it may lead us to institute solutions that are not really solving the problems.

Everyday Sociology Talk: Migration and Masculinity

 

Sociologist Josh LePree discuss how men who migrate negotiate and reconstruct their masculinity.

For more video, see www.youtube.com/nortonsoc

Sports Heroes

By Peter Kaufman

 The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. You’ve probably heard this saying if you ever played or watched sports. I’ve been thinking of this phrase a lot lately as I follow the rapid downfall of Lance Armstrong. As most people know the seven-time winner of the Tour de France and creator of the Livestrong Foundation was found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career. As a result, he was stripped of his Tour victories, dropped by a number of sponsors such as Nike, compelled to sever all ties with Liverstrong, and even had an honorary degree he received rescinded from Tufts University.

Overrated

By Peter Kaufman

Have you noticed that almost everything these days is reviewed and rated? No matter what goods or services you use it is likely that it will be judged by other consumers on some 4 or 5 star rating system or with a simple thumbs up and thumbs down.

For example, this morning at the sound of my watch alarm I took my head off my pillow, pushed my body off my mattress, stepped onto the bedroom carpet, and opened the blinds to let in the morning sunlight. I walked into the bathroom to shower using my daily facial wash, soap, and shampoo. I dried off with a towel while the ceiling fan in the bathroom pulled the moisture out of the air. I got dressed in my typical fashion: underwear (don’t worry, that’s not a picture of me wearing them), socks, pants, shirt, and shoes. For breakfast I used a small pot to cook my oatmeal, poured a glass of orange juice, and got some filtered water for tea.  After breakfast I cleaned my teeth using my toothbrush, toothpaste, and mouthwash, I put my books in my backpack, grabbed my water bottle and went off to work. You get the idea!

Twinkies & Big Macs: Thinking Sociologically About Black Friday

By Jonathan Wynn

There were Black Friday protests at my local WalMart in Western Massachusetts, organized by unions and worker’s rights advocates. If you watched the news you may have seen one in your town too. Protesters object to the fact that the company offers low-pay, limited-benefit jobs while the Walton family holds as much wealth as the bottom third of the U.S. population. This follows reports from Hostess (makers of Twinkies), claiming a worker’s strike gave them little choice but to shut down production, and liquidation seems eminent. Hostess feels the pinch from owing over a billion dollars to creditors, including their workers’ pensions but also to hedge funds (like Silver Point Capital) that own 30% of the company’s debt).

Of course, you can still buy Twinkies at WalMart. While some lament the potential loss of the yellowcake confection (according to a book on Twinkies, some of the ingredients are "more closely linked to rocks and petroleum than any of the four food groups," and the primary sweetener is high-fructose corn syrup), we don’t talk too much about the working conditions of the folks that make them. Liquidation of Hostess would not only eliminate jobs but worker’s pension plans as well, even though workers already made significant concessions and the CEO pocketed a 300% increase in his compensation package.

Giving Thanks?

By Peter Kaufman 

National holidays such as Thanksgiving provide a wonderful opportunity for us to apply many of the themes related to sociological mindfulness. It is useful to think about the role that holidays play in society, the values and beliefs these holidays instill, and the extent to which we can deconstruct the “facts” and assumptions of these holidays. Consider some of the myths and realities of Thanksgiving taken from sociologist James W. Loewen’s national bestseller, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.

Everyday Sociology Talk: Sociological Explanations of the Changing World Economy

 

Sociologist Richard Appelbaum (UCSB) discusses globalization and the Great Recession.

For more videos, see www.youtube.com/nortonsoc

Thinking Sociologically about Twilight

By Tanya Erzen

Tanya Erzen is an associate professor of comparative religious studies at Ohio State University and visiting scholar at University of Washington.

A teenage fan of the Twilight series explains that she thinks Edward Cullen, the brooding and gorgeous vampire hero, is controlling, creepy and even violent in his relationship with Bella, an ordinary human high school girl with whom he is passionately in love.  While the fan criticizes Bella and Edward’s tumultuous relationship, she is simultaneously wearing a button on her jacket with the text, “Edward can bust my headboard, bite my pillow and bruise my body any day.”   This refers to the part of the story when Bella awakes with her entire body black and blue after losing her virginity on her honeymoon.   In the aftermath, there are feathers from the pillow Edward has bitten drifting around the room, and the bed is shattered into pieces. 

Voting as a Social Act

By Karen Sternheimer

Are you planning to vote during this year’s election? If so, you will be participating in a form of civic engagement, a subject of sociological study examining anything from volunteering, participation in social movements, or any action we take that involves consideration of the greater good.

Sociologists study what factors motivate people to make commitments towards creating social change, and often use ethnography to study the how this process works from the inside, focusing on how people work together (and sometimes struggle to work together) in the course of commitment to a particular cause.