Category: Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change

Until His Dying Day: Elders’ Fear of Crime

On By econnellIn Crime and Deviance, Immigration, Population, Aging, and Demography, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Stacy Torres1 Comment

By Stacy Torres

Until his dying day, my father ordered, “Don’t open the door to no one,” as though I was still 11 years old, not in my early 40s. In retirement, Dad had more time to warn me about scary news items. Most daily calls involved consulting me about his heavy load of anxieties related to money, health, and physical safety that he dragged around like an overstuffed suitcase. As he aged, his radius shrunk as he transitioned from late nights at the Copacabana Club to making his neighborhood rounds within a few blocks of home, only on good weather days and during daylight hours.

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Managing Fear Itself

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Cities and Urbanization, Crime and Deviance, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Stacy Torres1 Comment

By Stacy Torres

I like to see myself as a tough and seasoned lifelong New Yorker. I pride myself on quickly distinguishing real urban dangers from visibly troubled city dwellers who may talk to themselves or act erratically but are much more likely to suffer harm than to hurt me. But despite declining crime, recent random attacks on strangers have rattled me and many residents in cities across the country.

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Castles and Housing Crises

On By econnellIn Class and Stratification, Karen Sternheimer, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change2 Comments

By Karen Sternheimer

When I have visited Europe, I always found the castles there a bit shocking in their sheer size and number. One can stumble upon a castle on a walk or on the side of the highway, as they are seemingly everywhere. Their magnitude can be visually stunning, yes, but the American in me feels a bit smug that we don’t have a royal family or old castles to tour. 

Except that we do—maybe we don’t have royalty, but in the U.S. the unofficial royals still build and live in modern-day castles, especially in Los Angeles where I live, a city that is often ranked as the most unaffordable and is in the midst of a housing crisis.

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

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Stacy Torres1 Comment

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.

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More than a Rally Location: Care, Community, and Social Infrastructure in Butler, Pennsylvania

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Class and Stratification, Colby King, Social Problems, Politics, and Social ChangeLeave a comment

CKing headshot 1 4.3By Colby King

This presidential campaign cycle has brought national attention to several towns and small cities across the US. From Butte, Nebraska (2020 Census population of 286) where Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz graduated from high school in a class of 25 students, to Springfield, Ohio (2020 Census population of 58,662), which has recently entered national conversation after Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance spread lies about the community’s immigrant population.

Another small city that has become part of the national conversation during this campaign cycle is Butler, Pennsylvania (2020 Census population of 13,502). The Trump campaign held a rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds on July 13, at which a gunman attempted to assassinate Trump, killing Corey Comperatore, a local firefighter, and injuring others. Trump returned to the Butler Farm Show grounds in early October for another rally twelve weeks after the shooting, bringing more attention to Butler.

I want to share more about Butler because every place has more than a single story–and because I’m from Butler.

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Janet Jackson, Kamala Harris, and Questions of Race

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Janis Prince Inniss, Race and Ethnicity, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change1 Comment

Janis prince innissBy Janis Prince Inniss 

Sociologically speaking,  there are lots of interesting aspects of the Janet Jackson PR fiasco. In case you missed it, the international superstar caused quite a stir recently. In a long and wide-ranging interview published by The Guardian on Saturday, when asked for her opinion on the upcoming U.S. presidential election and the possibility of the country’s first Black female president, Kamala Harris, Jackson said: “Well, you know what they supposedly said?…She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian.”

Charitably, this may be the best example of how the ultra-rich live dramatically different lives than the rest of us. Jackson seemed to suggest that she was told by those around her that this was the case, stating, “That’s what I heard…That’s what I was told.”

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How Do You Know What You Think You Know?

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Karen Sternheimer, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change3 Comments

Karen sternheimer 72523By Karen Sternheimer

One of the core principles of sociology is the idea that what we know about the world around us is socially constructed; in other words, the meanings we ascribe to our social worlds are mediated through collective cultural narratives. These narratives might come from our involvement with social institutions, such as education, religion, families, government, and the economy.

The task of sociology is two-fold: to learn about the world around us through collecting empirical evidence via systematic observation, and also to think critically about how we view and understand what we observe, based on our cultural narratives.

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Kids These Days, Revisited

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change2 Comments

Karen sternheimer 72523By Karen Sternheimer

Nearly 20 years ago, in 2006, my book Kids These Days: Facts and Fictions about Today’s Youth was published. The book focused on common concerns and complaints about kids in the late 1990s and early 2000s, mostly focusing on fears that young people were becoming overweight, rude self-centered bullies who weren’t interested in school. At the time, there were also concerns about kids being at increasing risk for being victims of violence, particularly by other kids. My conclusion then–and now–fear sells, especially fears about kids.

As the subtitle indicates, many of these concerns were based on fictions, and each chapter contained data to illustrate that despite dramatic headlines, the young people of the early 2000s were not uniquely problematic compared to previous generations.   In fact they were at less risk for many of the things that we were told to fear for them, or at least no more at risk than adults are as well.

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What is Decolonization?

On By econnellIn Alyssa Lyons, Class and Stratification, Race and Ethnicity, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Social Problems, Politics, and Social ChangeLeave a comment

Alyssa Lyons author photoBy 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.

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Rural Living and the Decluttering Movement

On By econnellIn Cities and Urbanization, Popular Culture and Consumption, Social Problems, Politics, and Social ChangeLeave a comment

Michelle janning author photo Michelle janning author photoBy Michelle Janning, Professor of Sociology and co-designer of Human-Centered Design at Whitman College, and Elena Harris, professional declutterer based in Walla Walla, Washington

Does living in a rural area impact someone’s likelihood to declutter a home? Or even their desire to do so? The short answer is yes, and people have already written thoughtfully about this.

The longer—and more sociologically interesting—answer requires diving into ways that rural living may not fit into the typical categories of experiences related to how people deal with household stuff. And it also requires thinking about how a universal approach to decluttering can be limiting. In other words, it is useful to think about how decluttering is not just a project for an individual household; it calls to mind patterns that show differences between large groups of people. Decluttering is thus sociologically interesting.

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