Everyday Sociology Blog

Spam, Scams, and Social Norms

By Karen Sternheimer There’s really no such thing as good spam. I’m talking about the email variety of spam, not the canned pork from which unsolicited emails got their name (see this Monty Python sketch for its origin). Emails claiming to

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

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

An Inauguration and a Funeral: Rituals and Rites of Passage

By Karen Sternheimer On January 20, 2021, along with nearly 39 million people across the country, I watched the presidential inauguration. An inauguration is more than just a swearing-in ceremony; it includes a presidential address, follow

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

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

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

Together, Alone in the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Jonathan Wynn Yesterday I sat on my porch with my family, listening to the across-the-street neighbors sing Yiddish folk songs on their porch. With an accordion and fiddle, they nodded and smiled to people passing by, but no one stopped

Housing Insecurity: It’s Not Just for Low Earners

By Karen Sternheimer Housing insecurity, or the difficulty in obtaining and maintaining housing due to its high cost, is something that we hear a lot about in the news. Housing insecurity is the consequence of incomes not keeping pace with