Everyday Sociology Blog

Putting the “Diplo” in Diplomacy: Music as Soft Power

By Jonathan Wynn This summer, I’ve been obsessing over Patrick Radden Keefe’s podcast Wind of Change, about the CIA’s possible involvement in the titular 1990s global megahit by the German rock band The Scorpions. The story unravels the so

Folk Games

By Jonathan Wynn I came across a Twitter thread of folk games, which are not board games but rather interactions that appear to be highly improvisational. Take a few minutes to click through and get a few well-deserved laughs. But it got

Canopies and Contact Zones

By Jonathan Wynn Last month, the Speaker of the House for Ohio, a Republican named Larry Householder, was upset by a local library story time hosted by a drag queen. He said, “Taxpayers aren’t interested in seeing their hard earned dollars

Merton’s Role Set: Chairing a Sociology Department

By Jonathan Wynn Have you met the chair of the sociology department? What do they do, anyway? When I was an undergraduate at a large public university, I didn’t know who the chair was, let alone what they did. Heck, I am the chair of a so

Managing Risk and Sociological Theory

By Jonathan Wynn Here’s a situation that you might be familiar with: After months of being careful with a very small "pod" of three families, they decided to take a risk and allow another person into their trusted group. That person ende

The Sociology of the Con

By Jonathan Wynn Now that I’m chair of my department, my colleagues and graduate students occasionally get emails from email addresses that look very close to mine (e.g., “jonwynn@umassbutnotreally.com”) that asks them to “help” me. If the

Careers and Side Hustles in Creative Work

By Jonathan Wynn In an article titled “Institutional Office and the Person” one of the great mid-century sociologists, Everett C. Hughes, wrote that a career is “the moving perspective in which the person sees his life as a whole and inter

Shopping and Crowds

By Jonathan Wynn 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

The Sociology of Pranks

By Jonathan Wynn For the last five years I’ve received many calls about pranks. I’m not a prank expert, but I did write an article about tricks tour guides use to tell historical stories. That perked up the ears of a New York Times journ