Category: Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change

The High School: An Analysis of Yearbooks

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, Race and Ethnicity, Sex and Gender, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Social Problems, Politics, and Social ChangeLeave a comment

By Karen Sternheimer

Michael Messner’s new book, The High School: Sports, Spirit & Citizens, 1903-2024 is a great example of how artifacts of everyday life can become data for sociological analysis. As a scholar of gender and sports, Messner realized that yearbooks serve as a window to view past constructions of both sports and gender.

His own high school, Salinas High School, seemed like a natural fit, as he had about 30 years of books—not just his own, because his father served as a coach for nearly 30 years and other family members attended, he had decades of books. The book blends the author’s memories (and occasionally his niece’s reflections, who attended more recently) with content analysis of the number of pages spent on boys’ sports compared with girls’ sports.

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The Role of Military Chaplains in the Ukraine War

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

By Jan Grimell, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Umeå University and Research Fellow at Linnaeus University, Sweden

For decades, Europe has lived under the illusion of lasting peace, where full-scale war on the continent felt like a distant part of history. Since the end of World War II, armed conflicts—both in Europe and in more remote parts of the world—have required military interventions from European countries, NATO, and allied forces. But we have been spared the total war in which an entire nation’s existence is at stake. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed this.

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We Need More Empathy for the Emotions of Animals

On By econnellIn Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Social Psychology3 Comments

By Amanda Gernentz, Sociology Graduate Student, Texas Woman’s University

There is an episode of the kid’s show Rugrats that is burned into my brain. It’s called “A Dog’s Life,” and features scenes from the Pickles family dog’s point of view.

Spike (the dog) continually tries to protect baby Dil from a contraption that his father, Stu, built for him to play in, despite being repeatedly scolded. When the audience hears things from Spike’s point of view, the words the humans speak are gibberish (other than his name), but the tone is clear. You can feel Spike’s emotions, how he hates getting in trouble, but he is so loyal to his small companion that he continually risks the scolding. It really shaped my childhood understanding of the life of a pet and showed me what love and loyalty were from a companion animal.

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Teaching and Learning during Catastrophe

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Crime and Deviance, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Stacy Torres4 Comments

By Stacy Torres

The unease that greets me each morning, as I brace myself for the latest chaos erupting in higher education, listening to the radio and eating my oatmeal, feels both new and strangely familiar. I recognize this dread and the chronic fear of further attacks from living through September 11, 2001, in New York City.

But now that terror comes from my own government, with a torrent of executive orders and memos banning DEI, freezing communication, canceling research funding opportunities, terminating active grants, and capping NIH indirect research costs. The recent ICE detentions of Tufts doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk and Palestinian activist and legal permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University, my alma mater, sends another chill through me as I consider the repercussions of such intimidation for dissent and free speech.

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A Complete Unknown: Art and Activism in Uncertain Times

On By econnellIn Popular Culture and Consumption, Rob Eschmann, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change3 Comments

By Rob Eschmann

A Complete Unknown, a 2024 film nominated for 8 Oscars, explores the life and music of Bob Dylan (played by Timotheé Chalamet), as he makes the personal and professional choices that would go on to define him. With a star-studded cast, stories of Chalamet learning to play the guitar and sing for five years in preparation for his role, and a marketing plan that made even this hip hop head/purist start streaming Bob Dylan songs, the expectations for this film couldn’t have been higher. And it delivered, as expected.

What I did not expect, was this film, set in the early 1960s, to speak so poignantly to the issues facing the United States in 2025, as we confront what can feel like an unprecedented attack on democracy and American freedoms.

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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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