Category: Sally Raskoff

Police Misconduct as a Social Problem

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Crime and Deviance, Race and Ethnicity, Sally Raskoff, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change2 Comments

RaskoffBy Sally Raskoff

Are you angry about the legal system’s decisions about the cases in which have police killed unarmed black boys or men? Or are you angry that people are angry about that?

It is not clear whether the rates of unarmed black man being killed by police are increasing, but we are seeing more media coverage when it happens. It’s about time.

Is this a problem of individuals? Yes, on the one hand. It’s a problem for them personally if it happens to them or someone in their life. But it’s also a problem for society. One of the key tenets in sociology is that the personal isn’t just personal, it’s societal, and it’s political. The things that we experience are linked to larger social structures.

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Social and Cultural Capital at School

On By econnellIn Relationships, Marriage and Family, Sally Raskoff, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Theory6 Comments

RaskoffBy Sally Raskoff

Have you ever thought about how your social relationships at school (and elsewhere) might help you in the future?

Social capital, conceptualized by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, includes economic resources that one gains from being part of a network of social relationships, including group membership.

Cultural capital, also from Bourdieu, includes non-economic resources that enable social mobility. Examples of cultural capital would include knowledge, skills, and education. Both concepts remind us that social networks and culture have value. Bourdieu discussed other forms of capital, including economic and symbolic.  Economic capital refers to monetary resources or those with exchange value, i.e., money.

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Sociology, Murals, and Communities

On By econnellIn Popular Culture and Consumption, Race and Ethnicity, Sally Raskoff, Sex and Gender, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine2 Comments

RaskoffBy Sally Raskoff

Have you seen any murals in your community? If so, do you know what they depict? Do you know the history behind them? Finding such murals can be a good exercise for your sociological imagination.

There is one mural right next door to my college: The Great Wall of Los Angeles. It is a half-mile long, located along the interior wall of the Los Angeles River – yes, our river runs within a concrete channel, built to control the unruly flow of water. With our current state of drought, however, we don’t have much water flowing so we can see the entire mural!

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Gender and Sexual Assaults on Campus

On By econnellIn Crime and Deviance, Race and Ethnicity, Sally Raskoff, Sex and Gender, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change5 Comments

RaskoffBy Sally Raskoff

As we go back to school, there has been a lot of talk about preventing sexual assault on campus. This is not a new problem. In fact, I wrote a blog about rape and sexual assault two years ago.

Much of the discussion is about assessing the rate of sexual assault on college campuses, but even after the Clery Act, it’s often difficult to know what the actual numbers are or how to prevent it. However, the prevention tips and policies are one-sided, typically focusing on how potential rape and sexual assault victims can avoid being victimized.

It’s like saying to a murder victim, don’t get in the way of your potential murderer. Blaming the victim is not an effective way to deal with any issue.

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The Sociology of Time

On By econnellIn Sally Raskoff, TheoryLeave a comment

RaskoffBy Sally Raskoff

I just finished reading a book called Einstein’s Dreams. Author Alan Lightman, a theoretical physicist, muses over what Einstein’s dreams might have been when pondering different conceptions of time. The stories are informed by theoretical physics and creativity, art and science.

Each chapter is a different "dream" in which time is experienced differently than how we experience time. The setting is the same— the historical period and place where Einstein worked as a patent clerk—but the time differences affect what happens in each dream.

Reading this book made me think about our relationship to time in personal subjective terms, in cultural terms, and in structural terms.

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Advertising Co-opts Social Science

On By econnellIn Popular Culture and Consumption, Sally Raskoff, Sex and GenderLeave a comment

RaskoffBy Sally Raskoff

Have you seen the videos circulating that purport to be stories informed by social science? They are passed on to “enlighten” us about social issues and solutions.

I have a few examples to share with you.

The first is the Dove Evolution video about manipulating images for advertising. That one has been around awhile and does a good job of showing us how images change from the original photographs to what is actually published. (Jean Kilbourne does this well in her video, Still Killing Us Softly.)

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#YesAllWomen

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Crime and Deviance, Sally Raskoff, Sex and Gender, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change2 Comments

RaskoffBy Sally Raskoff

When I was in high school, I met an old friend at our local park for a picnic. She had moved after elementary school so we were attending different schools and hadn’t seen each other for some time. We spread out our blanket, sat down, and proceeded to share food and stories.

Before long, a man came along, probably in his mid-late twenties, sat on our blanket and attempted to join in with our conversation. We both just looked at him for the first few minutes, shocked that he would be so bold. He continued talking to us, flirting, and asking us what we were “into.” We asked him to leave—we were not looking for a party or anyone else to talk to—but he refused to leave. Long story short, we had to leave the park to get rid of him. He tried to follow us but we made a lot of noise once we were nearer to other people and he wandered away. I never went back to that park.

I was reminded of this incident after the Isla Vista (Santa Barbara) murders occurred and the hashtag #YesAllWomen emerged and burned up the internet.

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A Sterling Reputation and the Importance of Impression Management

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Popular Culture and Consumption, Race and Ethnicity, Sally Raskoff, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Social Psychology1 Comment

RaskoffBy Sally Raskoff

Have you heard the many news reports accounting the many issues revolving around Donald Sterling? I’m speaking about the 2014 installment that began in April. (He’s had previous flurries of bad press…)

Mr. Sterling and his wife, Shelly, have co-owned the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team and have many residential investments. He started as an attorney, then invested in residential properties, and was very successful financially. He has published regular full-page ads in the Los Angeles Times (and others) showing his philanthropic efforts to many different organizations and causes.

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Putting Your Sociological Imagination to Work

On By econnellIn Sally Raskoff, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change7 Comments

RaskoffBy Sally Raskoff

Once you develop your sociological imagination, what can you do with it?

If you do not take more classes in sociology or get an actual sociology degree, you can still make use of your sociological education. What is this sociological imagination we keep mentioning on this blog? Based on C. Wright Mills’ book by the same name, it is the ability to see the world both as an individual living a unique life but also to see the larger social dynamics that shape our experiences, opportunities, and social realities.

When you take even one sociology class, you start to develop this amazing ability to see the connection between personal troubles and public issues, between individuals’ lived experiences and society’s structural constraints. This skill is useful for any major, any occupational goal, and even in everyday life.

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Interpreting Research Results: Probabilities, Not Certainties

On By econnellIn Sally Raskoff, Sex and Gender, Statistics and MethodsLeave a comment

RaskoffBy Sally Raskoff

Have you heard some research results reported lately? Did they mention that some people “are” something more than others rather than some people are “more likely” than others to do or be that something?

When academic research results are reported in the press, we must take care to ensure that the findings are interpreted accurately.

Rarely (if ever) in research will all in one group exhibit the same behavior or opinion. There really are no findings  that are true 100 percent of the time; there are always variations when it comes to actual human beings.

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