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.
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.
Continue reading “Becoming a College Student: Understanding Life Chances and Social Inequality”
By Monica Radu
Sociologists are intrigued by the relationships individuals form with their pets. Beyond mere companionship, pets often serve as sources of emotional support, providing solace and a sense of connection in people's lives. Pet ownership can positively impact mental and physical health, indicating a significant intersection between pets and well-being. Investigating these relationships offers valuable insights into the complexities of human socialization and emotional fulfillment outside of conventional human interactions.
Pets are frequently considered integral members of the family, prompting sociologists to explore the dynamics of caregiving roles and the construction of familial identity within households. Findings from Pew Research suggest that 51% of pet owners reported that their pets were as much a part of their family as a human member.
By Karen Sternheimer
You are probably familiar with the concept of the “American Dream,” the idea that anyone who works hard in the United States has the chance to experience upward mobility. What factors make this more or less possible?
First, some history (which I write about in my book Celebrity Culture and the American Dream: Stardom and Social Mobility). The phrase “American Dream” was first used—ironically enough—during the Great Depression, when the dream was largely out of reach for most Americans (more on this in a moment).
Continue reading “Structural Mobility and the American Dream: Push and Pull Factors”
By Karen Sternheimer
When our cat was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago, our vet very gently let us know that one option would be not to offer further treatment besides palliative care to keep her comfortable. She acknowledged that if her cancer could be treated, that it would be costly, and that there would be no shame if it was not an option for us.
This came as a shock, considering a week before this conversation we thought we had a perfectly healthy 11-year-old cat. As it turns out, the type of cancer she has is aggressive but treatable, and we requested a referral to a veterinary oncologist. During this consultation, the oncologist carefully detailed that the cancer wasn’t curable but could be treated, and laid out the costs of providing such treatment. She also let us know that if the cost of treatment was out of reach, or if we decided we couldn’t or didn’t want to proceed, that was a perfectly reasonable option.
By Alyssa Lyons
While parental engagement has become a popular buzzword in political circles in recent years, the language of “parental involvement” didn’t appear in U.S. federal educational policy until 1965 with the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Not without coincidence, this was the same year that academic and social scientist Daniel Patrick Moynihan published the Moynihan Report: The Negro Family, the Case for National Action. An incendiary racist, classist, homophobic, and sexist document, the Moynihan Report claimed that racial inequalities in wealth and education between Blacks and whites were the result of a broken and fractured Black family structure where Black matriarchs managed the household. Moynihan further suggested that establishing a stable Black family structure was central in alleviating poverty and inequalities.
Continue reading “How the Moynihan Report Birthed Parental Engagement Policy in Schools”
By Alyssa Lyons
What does it mean to be an engaged parent in schools?
As both a sociologist and the mother of an eleven-year-old in the New York City public school system, I’ve often wrestled with this question. Whenever I attend school-based events, principals, teachers, and staff tell me, along with other parents, that being engaged in the school and in my child’s education is instrumental to their academic success.
And it isn’t just educators and social science researchers singing the praises of parental engagement. Politicians and policymakers suggest that parental engagement can function as either a buffer or mitigator in addressing educational inequality on both a state and federal level. In March 2022, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona implored schools to reconsider their relationship with parents and families, suggesting “parents are their children’s first and most influential teachers.”
By Karen Sternheimer
Many news stories about inflation have focused on tipping—sometimes called “tip-flation.” If you haven’t read any of these stories, you’ve probably paid for something when a tip screen came up, recommending a certain percentage for gratuity in addition to the amount due.
According to a recent Pew Research Center survey of nearly 12,000 Americans, respondents perceive that the pressure to tip has increased in recent years. Nearly half of respondents said that whether to tip depends on the situation, and 40 percent said that they didn’t like when tip amounts are suggested. The most common times when more than half said they left a tip included servers at sit-down restaurants, a hairdresser, and food delivery. Respondents were less likely to tip taxi or ride share drivers, or at fast casual restaurants or coffee shops.
By Lisa Smith, Douglas College, Department of Sociology and Menstrual Cycle Research Group
“Does anyone have a pad? A tampon!? 50 cents?”
I was sitting in the stall of a women’s restroom during the intermission for a concert, when I heard the familiar refrain. As a menstruator (because not all people who have periods are women and not all women have periods), I could relate to the urgency in my fellow menstruators’ voice.
By Colby King, Calvin Odhiambo, Associate Professor of Sociology, and Lizabeth Zack, Professor of Sociology and Department Chair, University of South Carolina Upstate
The recent decision by the Florida Board of Governors to exclude Introductory sociology from the list of courses that fulfill the social science general education requirements for Florida public college students has sparked discussions highlighting the vital role of sociology in academic curriculum. Stacy Torres wrote here about the life-changing role sociology course can play in students’ lives.
Continue reading “Community Development Studies in Sociology, and What Sociology Offers Students”