Category: Opinion

Opinion

On Civil Litigation, Part 2 of 2: Tort Reform

Author’s Note: This post is the second of a two-part series (read part 1 here) that looks at various narratives about civil lawsuits. Originally intended to be a longer series, it became apparent to the author that bi-weekly posts are a less than ideal way to write a series and makes it difficult for readers to follow. Mea culpa. Coincidentally, two weeks since my previous post, the Missouri Supreme Court struck down a 2005 tort reform law. The law in...

Opinion

On Civil Litigation, Part 1: Narratives About Plaintiffs and Lawsuits

Author’s Note: This post is the first in a series that looks at the civil justice system and various narratives about lawsuits. Today’s post uses a well-known 1994 case, Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants, as a starting point to discuss a few of the more common ideas surrounding tort litigation.   Poor Stella Liebeck. All she wanted was a cup of McDonald’s coffee. The 79-year old woman certainly never intended to become famous, or infamous, depending on which versions of the narrative...

Opinion

On the Colorado Shooting

I feel compelled to write something about the shooting that occurred last night in Aurora, Colorado. I have nothing planned or scripted to offer, nor any profound sociological analysis designed to provide insight into why events like these happen. Likewise, I will neither use this moment to propagandize about supporting gun control, nor engage you in some hyperbolic ideological debate about the causes of mass homicide like you will probably find on all of today’s cable news outlets. Instead, I...

Opinion

Evolution of Crime Films

Crime films are arguably the most complex classification of movies that reflect our ideology of moral order and justice, lawful and illicit, desirable and unworthy. Crime films mirror society due to its interplay with the complexity of real live events that satisfy the audience’s desire for mayhem, underdog characters, and a fallible justice system. The critical alternative tradition, for the most part, focuses on this aspect of the film; while traditional movies tend to emphasize heroism and the restoration of...

Opinion

Exploring Public Transits and Quality of Service

As an avid user of the metropolitan bus system for the past five years, I have met a lot of interesting characters. These include folks of different background, age, size, and color. I have witnessed events on the bus that are either too crude to describe in detail or too ridiculous to seriously warrant my attention. Over the years, I can say that my experience in using public transit services has been two-fold. On one hand, public transits have been integral in transporting me to and from work. However,...

Opinion

Portrayals of Overweight Characters in Television Sitcoms: Implications for Obese Individuals in the General Society

During the periods of 1991 and 1998, obesity increased by 50 percent in the United States and at similar rates in other regions of the world. In 1993 alone, over 300,000 premature deaths were attributable to poor diet and inactivity. Obesity is a grander factor in chronic health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension among adults and children than smoking, poverty, or alcohol. The ramification of obesity directly affects one’s physical health and has profound implications for the social...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion

Investigating Female Delinquency: The Role of Gender Construction

The shared hypothesis that delinquency—by far and wide— is a male phenomenon is an erroneous conception. Even though males have historically been recognized as violent perpetrators and females as passive and non-threatening victims, the increase in female violence and gang membership has become a cause for concern in several cities across the country. There has been marginal emphasis placed on females’ involvement in crime and delinquency due to entrenched stereotypical notions of females as “biologically incapable” of committing certain heinous...

Opinion

Once and Future Anarchism

Anarchism has made fleeting appearances in several media outlets in the last couple of months, and the Occupy Wall Street protests seem largely responsible for those appearances. Before about two weeks ago, I understood anarchism to advocate a lack of any authority (and I incorrectly assumed this meant an absence of social order), and I had some vague association between anarchism, violence, and labor unions in the 1920s. But anarchism and its history is far more complicated, and far more...

Opinion

Words of the Year: Questions for "Assembled Experts" and Those Whose Expertise Those Assembled Experts Need…

“Oh, I hate that,” my colleague moaned, leaning on the hay- in “hate” with a weary sigh. The that in question was a grammatical construction I had not encountered in my previous TESOL experiences: from as a noun, linked to a country of origin on the other side of a being verb. My from is…Bolivia, El Salvador, Peru, Guatemala. “I don’t know where they get it from,” my colleague continued. “It’s not like they ever heard it from a native...

Opinion

Brain and Behavior

New scientific evidence, prompted by the invention and diffusion of new technologies, often stimulates a period of social reckoning: what does this new evidence mean for our existing beliefs and practices? Can they be reconciled or must something be profoundly rethought? The explosion of neuroscience research, much of which uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), is no exception. Findings in the early 1990s led to the development of fMRI, which measures change in blood flow in the brain based on...

Opinion

Sociology Spotlight – a new free app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch!

        Wiley-Blackwell is delighted to announce that Sociology Spotlight, a must-have free iPhone, iPad and iPod touch app, has now gone live in the iTunes App Store! Download it for FREE on your iPad or iPhone – http://bit.ly/r47Owr Watch the Video Trailer – http://bit.ly/pWvZt8 This exciting new app gives you the following community features at your fingertips, anywhere, anytime – • Latest information on key Sociology conferences and latest conference tweets, CURRENT UPDATES FOR ASA2011 • A...

Opinion

New issue of Sociology Compass out now! (Vol 5, Issue 4)

      Sociology Compass © Blackwell Publishing Ltd Volume 5, Issue 4 Page 244 – 310 The latest issue of Sociology Compass is available on Wiley Online Library   Crime & Deviance Isn’t Every Crime a Hate Crime?: The Case for Hate Crime Laws (pages 244–255) Randy Blazak Article first published online: 3 APR 2011 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00364.x Culture Delete, Restart, or Rewind? Post-1989 Public Memory Work in East-Central Europe (pages 256–272) Susan C. Pearce Article first published online:...

Opinion

Whose Rights: Human Rights and Human Agency in the context of Humanitarian Intervention

In what seems to be a dramatic shift in foreign policy, the France has found itself involved militarily in three wars. French forces are currently engaged in Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, and Afghanistan. All three interventions are purported to be in the name of peace and security. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Sarkozy and his government have emphasized that they are using military force in the name of the United Nations, not out of any colonial impulse, with the...

Opinion

Excellent Teaching…

Bill Gates’ address to the National Governor’s Association last month was an ode to excellent teaching. Except that it wasn’t. What we have to do, Gates chirped (to the tune of former DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee), is “measure, develop, and reward excellent teaching…We have to identify great teachers, find out what makes them so effective, and transfer those skills to others.” But excellent teaching –as sociologists Lori Dance (2002) and Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot (1984) have shown through their research,...

Opinion

Authors in Focus: Sophia Nathenson discusses her article, "Critical Theory and Medical Care in America: Changing Doctor–Patient Dynamics"

  In this edition of Authors in Focus, Sociology Compass author Sophia Nathenson discusses the utility of critical theory for understanding the  doctor-patient relationship, as well as some of the broader issues in health care today. Listen to the informative interview by clicking  HERE… And then read the article by clicking here  

Opinion

IBM's Watson on Jeopardy! Blurring the Line between Humans and Technology

To the left is a 1917 portrait of Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM. A few weeks ago, IBM debuted its latest supercomputer, named after this giant of innovation (Watson), on the TV game-show Jeopardy! Though it seemed as though Watson was standing in between the two other competitors on the show, as Jeopardy! provided the computer with the same electronically-equipped podium as the other contestants, and even wrote “his” name on said podium, the brains behind this powerful supercomputer...