Everyday Sociology Blog

Why Many Americans Don't Feel Worse About a UnitedHealthcare CEO's Murder

By Stacy Torres

Confession time. I’m having difficulty mustering much sympathy for the brazen and targeted murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, shot outside a Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan as he walked to a shareholders meeting.

And apparently, I’m not alone. The intrigue-filled assassination has drawn the ire of Americans fuming at a health insurance industry that prioritizes profits over people’s lives. Social media reactions have ranged from dark, sarcastic humor to outright cheers, compelling UnitedHealthcare to turn off comments on a Facebook post about the murder when 41,000 of 46,000 reactions were laughing emojis. One user wrote, "My thoughts & prayers were out of network." I couldn’t help but chuckle grimly.

Abbott Elementary and the Rise of School-aganda

By Alyssa Lyons

I was sitting on the couch with my partner trying to decompress after an unusually long day. To unwind, we decided to watch Abbott Elementary. As a sociologist of education, I knew it was on brand, but I couldn’t help being drawn into the world of Abbott. I’ve spent a lot of time researching educational inequalities within schooling, and the show’s premise was both intriguing and novel.

Abbott Elementary is a feel-good mockumentary created by actress Quinta Brunson who also plays second grade teacher Janine Teagues in the show. Inspired by her mother’s career as a public-school teacher in Philadelphia, Brunson wanted to reflect the experiences of teachers in the city public school system. The mockumentary style show focuses on the experiences of predominantly BIPOC teachers, staff, administrators, and students in a fictional public elementary school in Philadelphia.

The Case for Heartbreak Workplace Support

By Stacy Torres

Recovering from my own recent romantic breakups, I drew comfort from seeing one of the hardest working women in Hollywood take a break.

This spring as I walked to my office across the street from San Francisco’s Chase Center, Jennifer Lopez’s sparkling visage peered confidently from a giant advertisement for an upcoming show. Hours later, she canceled her summer tour amid poor ticket sales and rumors of marital problems with husband Ben Affleck, "taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends," according to Live Nation’s announcement. By summer’s end, J.Lo had filed for divorce on their two-year anniversary.

Most of us nurse our mangled hearts in private—for me, preferably while swaddled in a warm blanket—not under a celebrity microscope. But we should also have access to leave and other workplace support during relationship crisis or dissolution.

Revisiting the Sacred and Profane: An Architectural Tour of European Cathedrals

By Karen Sternheimer

Popular travel host Rick Steves loves to visit cathedrals on his show to admire their art and architecture. And he’s not alone; on a recent trip to Europe, I found myself informally touring several cathedrals and houses of worship in France and Germany. Beyond appreciating the dramatic columns, striking stained glass, and sculptures that were often part of these edifices, I found myself thinking about the sociological implications of such spaces, namely Durkheim’s dichotomy between the “sacred” and “profane.”

Gender Under Construction

By Lisa Smith, Douglas College, Department of Sociology and Menstrual Cycle Research Group 

In May 2023, Phyllis arrived at Broadway-City Hall Station--a transit hub not too far from downtown Vancouver, Canada. Phyllis is one of two tunnel-boring machines (Elsie is the other one) hard at work as ­­­part of a major public transit upgrade that will expand the existing network considerably. Tunneling under the city streets was a must; enter Phyllis and Elsie.

Smartwatches at Work

By Karen Sternheimer

I’ve had a smartwatch for nearly four years now. Most of the time I don’t notice it, except for when it "taps” me on the wrist to let me know I have a call, text, reminder, or some other notification. But it has become an important factor understanding my biometrics, aspects of myself that I was previously seldom aware of. The watch provides information about my heart rate, breathing, activity levels, how well I sleep, as well as metrics like my heart rate variability, heart rate recovery rate, and way more measures than I care to list here.

My university, like many employers, incentivizes workers with wellness programs that might include fitness programs and smartwatches. We can be reimbursed about $200 a year for participating in fitness activities or use it towards purchasing a smartwatch. The data recorded by the watch is not available to my employer, but there are some concerns that employers that give employees watches might track their health information, and even more troubling, their whereabouts using GPS tracking on the device.

Role Conflict: Social Contact with your Doctor

By Karen Sternheimer

Sociologists are very interested in the social roles that we take on as part of our daily lives. Our roles provide us with social scripts—ways of behaving in particular situations that are consistent with these roles.

Take going to the doctor’s office. As a patient, you will likely be asked to wait when you arrive, provide personal information about your bodily functions and your insurance. When you are called into an examination room, you might be asked to remove parts of your clothing, answer more personal questions, and undergo medical measurements.

What is Decolonization?

By Alyssa Lyons

The word “decolonization” is a word frequently mentioned on college campuses. As administrators and professors attempt to decolonize their institutions, their teaching, their curriculum, and their very classrooms—at least in the metaphorical sense. Courses at City College of CUNY promise to teach students to “decolonize mental health” while the University of Portland looks for ways to “decolonize the curriculum.” In addition to course offerings, foundations have incentivized decolonization efforts at the university level by offering competitive grants to decolonize course content or teaching practices.

Telling Untold Stories Beyond Hollywood: Regional Labor Markets and the Possibility of a Diverse Film Industry Talent Hub

By Colby King and Uma Gupta, Associate Professor and Director of Business Analytics at USC Upstate

Where a person lives, and where they’re able to work, shapes their sociological imagination, and their opportunities. Today’s local labor markets are defined, though, by historical patterns of segregation, continuous ebbs and flows of capital investment, ongoing shifts in occupational mixes. This context contributes to unequal power between groups of workers, and ongoing racial inequalities.

Becoming a College Student: Understanding Life Chances and Social Inequality

By Karen Sternheimer

If you are or were once a student attending college, have you ever thought about how that happened?

The short answer might be you studied and worked hard in high school, and maybe built up your resume to include application-worthy items for admission (Leadership! Philanthropy! Involvement in sports/arts/extracurriculars!). These are, of course, important individual achievements.But there is another aspect to thinking about how you got to college: understanding how social structure shapes your life chances.