By Wayne Mellinger
Instructor, Antioch University
Casual connections might be some of the most consequential relations in our lives, helping us to land jobs, deal with our personal issues, and providing us with a sense of identity and belonging. And in our world of social media, such as Facebook, modern humans probably have more casual acquaintances than most humans ever have had before.
By Todd Schoepflin
There I was, sitting on a bar stool, having a beer and shooting the breeze with my brother-in-law Jim, and watching people bowl together. I don’t get out much, so it was eventful just to hang out at a bowling alley for a few hours. But a surprising interaction occurred that night. A woman, who appeared to be drunk, touched my face as she walked by me and said something about my eyes that I think was intended as a compliment.
C. Wright Mills famously described how “personal troubles” and “public issues” are related; understanding this relationship is essential for developing a sociological imagination.
Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for a handful of students to encounter serious “personal troubles” during the course of a semester. These are not simply excuses to try and get an extension on an assignment, but serious crises that may prevent them from continuing in my class—or with their education entirely. Let’s consider how these “personal troubles” might be linked with “public issues.”
Continue reading "The Sociological Imagination and Personal Crises" »
Did you know that turning in a class assignment copied directly from your textbook without quotes is a form of plagiarism? A student who did this in one of my classes claimed not to.
Each year I encounter some form of academic dishonesty, the most common being copying from another source, directly or paraphrased, without quotes or attribution. The most egregious example: a student copied directly from a book I wrote. (In this case, imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery).
Why do people cheat? And how can sociology illuminate—and potentially reduce—this behavior, particularly in academia?
Matthew (not his real name) was once a student of mine. He regularly left class early, arrived late, and seemed bored when he was there. His coursework was mediocre at best, and when he got his grade at the end of the semester—which was consistent with his scores throughout the semester—he came to my office to complain. He didn’t do well in the participation part of the course, which he argued “wasn’t fair.”
Imagine my surprise when he then asked me for a letter of recommendation….
Continue reading "Impression Management and Letters of Recommendation" »
Six-year old Emily Parker was one of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. At her funeral her father, Robbie Parker, offered his love and support to the family of the shooter.
In 2012, nineteen-year old Conor McBride shot and killed Ann Grosmaire, his girlfriend of three years. When it came time for the District Attorney to recommend punishment, Ann’s parents advocated for a reduced sentence so that Conor would not have to spend his entire life in jail.
In 2006, Charles Roberts killed five Amish girls at the West Nickel Mines School in Lancaster, Pennsylviania. Soon after the shooting, the parents of the deceased girls raised money to assist the gunman’s wife and children and they consoled his father during the gunman’s funeral.
I am in the process of moving to a new home. The move has been planned for over a year, so I have been preparing to pack and get rid of things for a while. Coincidentally, our department recently moved to a new building and a family member is in the process of moving too, so I have had many chances to pack, unpack, and reflect.
Moving reminds me of the meanings we assign to our stuff. According to sociologists Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, we socially construct meaning of reality. We don’t just construct these meanings individually, but socially as well. These meanings become habitual and part of our social institutions, reinforcing the meanings that we collectively create about our social world and ultimately our realities.
Did you or anyone you know find this last holiday season stressful? Sociology can help us understand some of the reasons why holiday celebrations might be difficult—and why people keep doing things the same way each year nonetheless.
As you begin to get back in your non-holiday routine, now is a great time to use our sociological imaginations to think about the many sociological concepts that help us understand end-of-the year routines.
I like crowds. I remember feeling emotionally overcome as part of the group when I was in the front row at a Radiohead concert in Madison Square Garden or at the greatest comeback in NFL history. Being caught up in the moment, succumbing to the mass and losing a sense of one’s own individualism was something sociologist Emile Durkheim called collective effervescence: the emotional energy binding a group and a person. He was more interested in religious rituals, but I thought of this concept when watching this YouTube video of frenzied shoppers on Black Friday:
I recently received an email from a student, asking me to email him PDF files of book chapters (I’m not sure which book, but maybe he wasn’t either) on several sociological topics ASAP. What made this request especially unusual is that this wasn’t my student; in fact, I had no idea who he was. Presumably he found my email address online and thought perhaps I would take the time to violate copyright laws and scan book chapters out of the kindness of my heart.
How many messages do you get from strangers? And how might your interactions differ with people based on whether you have met them or not…or other important contexts?
Continue reading "Primary and Secondary Groups in the Internet Age" »
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