Category: Theory

Unwritten Rules: What to Say (and What Not to Say) to Someone Dealing with Loss

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Social Psychology, Theory1 Comment

By Karen Sternheimer

Many of our social interactions are guided by unwritten rules. But sometimes we don’t know what to say when someone experiences a profound loss, or the words others use in attempt to provide comfort can miss the mark.

Writing in the nineteenth century, sociologist Émile Durkheim described anomie as a breakdown of social rules during times of rapid change. While he was focused on macro-level changes, and how we communicate about loss is more micro-level, we can borrow his insights. After all, in the U.S. we tend to avoid talking about death and thus might not know how to do so even if we want to.

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Surreal or Hyperreal? Applying Theory to Disaster

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Theory1 Comment

By Karen Sternheimer

How often do you use the word “surreal” to describe an unusual or otherwise mind-boggling experience? That’s the word that kept coming to mind when visiting the remains of my home for the first time two months after it burned down. The AI overview of the word “surreal” describes it as “strange, dreamlike, or unbelievable, often seeming detached from ordinary reality and evoking a sense of the uncanny or fantastic.” Yep, that’s the word.

It got me thinking about the differences—and similarities—between surreal and hyperreal—a concept central to postmodern theory which sociologists have sometimes used to critique traditional theoretical approaches. Can sociological theory help teach us about the meanings we make of disaster?

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Travel and Hyperreality

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, Theory15 Comments

Karen sternheimer 72523By Karen Sternheimer

Do you follow any “travel influencers” on social media or even aspire to be one? Even if you’re not sure what a travel influencer actually is, they are shaping peoples’ experiences of travel.

A travel influencer is someone who posts travel-related content (typically videos and/or images) to social media accounts, hoping to gain a large number of followers, often in exchange for sponsorship money and ad revenue. They might be given free perks or get paid to share videos of resorts or other travel destinations as part of a new form of tourism marketing.

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

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, TheoryLeave a comment

Karen sternheimer 72523By 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.”

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Challenging Stereotypes in Unscripted Love Tales: A Reality Check through Symbolic Interactionism

On By econnellIn Popular Culture and Consumption, Relationships, Marriage and Family, Social Psychology, Theory2 Comments

Monica-Radu Professional Headshot-2024By Dr. Monica Radu, Associate Professor of Sociology Department of Criminal Justice, Social Work, & Sociology, Southeast Missouri State University, mradu@semo.edu

The rise of reality TV has been nothing short of a cultural phenomenon, captivating audiences worldwide, including sociologists (like myself) who find themselves drawn to the intriguing social dynamics portrayed on these shows. So, what's the fuss all about? Why do sociologists, in particular, enjoy the reality TV craze?

Many reality shows serve as unintentional social experiments, placing individuals in unfamiliar and often challenging situations. Sociologists are keen to study how participants navigate these scenarios, unraveling insights into human decision-making, adaptation to change, and the impact of external pressures on behavior.

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Ethnomethodological Conversation Analysis

On By econnellIn Social Psychology, Theory5 Comments

Wayne mellinger author photoBy Wayne Martin Mellinger

Everyday talk-in-interaction is the medium through which our identities are enacted and our relationships are negotiated. It is often through situated activities such as talk that the practical problems of our lives get resolved, the tasks of our workplaces get completed, and the business of society gets managed. Talk-in-interaction is a fundamental mechanism through which culture is enacted, providing the very infrastructure of social institutions. Everyday talk-in-interaction is indeed the fundamental site of human sociality.

Conversation Analysis (CA) is an approach to studying everyday social interactions which focuses on how participants in a conversation collaboratively build meaning and organize their interactions through verbal and non-verbal behaviors. It closely analyses the moment-by-moment unfolding of social life through close examination of ordinary social interactions. These fine-grained studies, now done in a wide variety of social situations and institutional settings, are revealing the basic structures of interaction as experienced in concrete instances of social life.

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Selling Old Towns: Consumption and Hyperreality

On By econnellIn Cities and Urbanization, Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, TheoryLeave a comment

Karen sternheimer 72523By Karen Sternheimer

I’m a sucker for an old town when I’m traveling, and based on the crowds I regularly find on these visits, I am not alone.

Old towns hold out the promise of a walk into history and a chance to see something that we seldom get to see in our daily lives. They feel like they represent the most “authentic” aspect of a place, one that might distill the essence of what it means to visit this locale. In contrast to the mundane, everyday nature of most places, old towns seem like they offer something special.

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Keeping Order at Home

On By econnellIn Cornelia Mayr, Popular Culture and Consumption, Theory13 Comments

Corneilia mayrBy Cornelia Mayr

There is no place like home. But what makes a home? Some of you might say a home is a place that gives you a feeling of comfort, safety, and familiarity; it is a place where your heart belongs, and the self can thrive. It is a welcoming sanctuary where you find a treasure chest of living. But above all, home is where everything should be in order.

When we enter different homes with a sociological perspective, we can immediately experience a unique statement about the inhabitants’ tastes, lifestyle, and identity. At the same time, we can see how everything is put and kept in its place. Have you ever noticed how ordering things in the home might bring you a sense of wellbeing and comfort, but looking around a messy home can be overwhelming? The domestic space is, thus, a good place where we can study our relationship to objects and its connection with social order.

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Alienation, Consumption, and Waste

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, Theory2 Comments

Author photoBy Karen Sternheimer

Students of social theory are familiar with Marx’s theory of alienation, which posits that workers feel disconnected from the products of their labor within industrial capitalism. As consumers, one might argue we are also disconnected from the process of production: both the creation of items we consume and discarding of these items.

Many of us are aware that products we consume regularly, like food and clothing, are produced by child labor and sometimes even forced labor, and sometimes are created in “sweatshops” with unsafe working conditions. These practices are not limited to low-income countries, but take place here in the United States as well. It’s hard to avoid products created under these conditions—especially because chocolate is one of the most problematically produced and most beloved food produces.

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Public Transportation: Space and Social Control

On By econnellIn Cities and Urbanization, Cornelia Mayr, Theory6 Comments

Corneilia mayrBy Cornelia Mayr

Every city has a heart, a rhythm, and a beat. The pace of a modern city’s life is characterized by industrial civilization, new information technologies, a settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals, and faster methods of transport.

Buses, trams, metros, ferries, and passenger trains, are, for example, all fascinating urban spaces to study what is, can be, or should be public in the city. Every day, those large vehicles steer their way through a network of streets, trying to carry its passengers safely from one part of the city to another. Rushing all day in places filled with people who often seem to avoid interacting with one another, public transport may function as a rational example of modern city design; a form of social control that connects us to our sense of time and place as well as to others.

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