Category: Sociology of Culture
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G_7CzddUR4] By linanne10 Along with the presidential election, a proposition promoting the decriminalization of sex-workers, Proposition K, was also put on the voting ballot in San Francisco, California. Proposition K is mainly concerned with sex-workers rights and citizenship. There are three main points proposed in the proposition. First, it stated that law enforcement agencies should not allocate any resources for the investigation and prosecution of sex-workers for prostitution. Second, the proposition noted that any agencies of the City and County...
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U67Eg-3jP5k] by PThrelfall Joe the Plumber, the Johnny-come-late hero of the failing McCain-Palin presidential campaign, was a call to Americans to identify themselves, and hence the candidates, using a perspective that assumes that we are what we do. Moreover, the subliminal message was that we are who we associate with. In this sense, the campaign was attempting to build their social capital with a particular segment of middle American voters. Theories of social capital include arduous debates on issues of...
by socanonymous An article in the New York Times demonstrated from anecdotal evidence how many teens are indeed engaging in ‘normal’ teen behaviour – only through the internet. Keeping in touch with friends, maintaining romantic relationships, and looking for information (such as how to install a video card) are a few common examples of what teens typically do during long hours on the internet. Personal computers and home internet use are quite prevalent today, especially among young people. There have...
nmccoy1 The media, the government, and the stock market are reporting and reflecting on the economic crisis that seems to worsening by the minute. People are out of work, jobs are not paying enough, savings are disappearing and Congress must act now (see article below) to protect the millions affected. But none of this is new or any less urgent today than it was five, ten and twenty years ago to a large population of marginalized peoples. The question is,...
By nathan jurgenson Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder and CEO) said recently at the 2008 Web 2.0 Summit: “I would expect that next year, people will share twice as much information as they share this year, and [the] next year, they will be sharing twice as much as they did the year before.” The Web 2.0 summit discusses the user-generated web, and of sociological interest here is that when people are given tools to share information about themselves online, they do,...
by theoryforthemasses A recent article in The New York Times explored the burgeoning popularity of homebirth among New Yorkers. Citing the success of the documentary film, The Business of Being Born, the article suggests that New York City women are increasingly opting for birthing at home rather than in hospitals. Researchers such as Robbie Davis-Floyd and Melissa Cheyney have offered interesting insights into the unique experiences of homebirthers, particularly into their acquisition and use of knowledge, power, and control during...
by delawaregrad Recently, in a television interview, President-Elect Obama noted that the United States needed to “regain America’s moral stature in the world” through closing the Guantanamo Bay complex. An additional step that President-Elect Obama could take would be to encourage the United States to ratify major United Nations human rights treaties. Most Americans may be surprised to learn that the United States, despite being a founding member of the United Nations, has not ratified any of the five major...
by kiddingthecity Like millions of people across the world I waited to know, wanted to hear and see the materialization of Hope, the wakening of a Dream, and the unfolding of Trust. Almost by chance, the day before I finally grabbed from the Goldsmiths Library a very fine and popular book. And less for a chance I have managed to read it all during the night, while keeping an eye at the small red and blue squares on the lower...
by ishein1 Two years ago, Google paid a copious, $1.65 billion to acquire the incipiently profitless Web site, YouTube. This video sharing website’s meteoric rise was in part due to its software’s facileness and accessibility. In this light, anyone with access to a computer and some gumption could post their own video. In an effort to transform their costly addition into a revenue-producing agent, Google announced that it would begin selling space to advertisers on YouTube’s search results pages. As...
by bmckernan Since Barack Obama first announced his candidacy, social commentators have repeatedly wondered if Americans are ready to elect an African-American president. Numerous comedians responded by jokingly pointing out that America has already had a black president, in hit television shows such as 24 and Hollywood blockbusters like Deep Impact (see LA Times article). The success of Barack Obama’s campaign has sent media outlets scrambling to determine what has changed in America, when just days earlier they were interpreting...
by socanonymous Popular media and pundits alike are praising President-Elect, Barack Obama and his campaigners for taking his message to the internet. Much of Obama’s skills and experience in community organizing have been taken online. This election has definitely been history in the making, in more than one way. The successful linkage of technology, namely the internet, and politics has been proven effective in this election. There are countless benefits to the use of the internet for political gains including...
The recent ban on same sex unions in California, known as Proposition 8 (see article below), dealt a major blow to LGBTQ movements across the country. This latest legal obstacle highlights some of the difficulties faced by identity politics movements. The goal of social movements like those embracing identity politics is often referred to as the call for recognition, be it legal, cultural, political, and/or social. Nancy Fraser’s work in critical social theory reconceptualizes calls for recognition as simultaneously calls...
by dsantore More and more, it seems, French popular culture reflects a national battle being waged about sex, gender and social norms. Even for the supposedly sexually liberated French, we are told, recent events are notable. New York Times Fashion and Style reporter Elaine Sciolino writes of a set of French films, novels and political intrigues, all of which shine light on possible changes in the country’s views on sexual propriety and gender roles. Whether it is France’s Justice...
By rbobbitt Children in Tijuana, Mexico went about their normal morning routine on a school day only to be confronted with twelve dead bodies dumped in the field directly across from their school. At other times, students have had to flee school in a panic as gunfights have broken out between police and drug traffickers. In Tijuana alone, 99 bodies have been discovered since September 26th in a rash of violence that has a death toll higher than that of...
A recent psychology study (see below) at Northwestern University reveals that one reason that we look for female political candidates to be “attractive” is due to human instincts for “mate selection.” The authors of the study assert that these judgements about the attractiveness of a female candidate occur unconsciously, therefore insinuating that a) mate selection is transhistorical and is based on modern standards of attraction, b) mate selection is heteronormatively essentialized and c) male preferences and instincts are human instincts,...
by bmckernan For decades, social scientists interested in studying ideology have been grappling with how to appropriately examine cultural texts. On the one hand, scholars such as Adorno assert that popular texts should be primarily treated as superficial products designed to not only distract audiences but also to deny them critical agency. On the other hand, Gramsci’s conceptualization of ideology views popular culture as one possible method employed by the dominant classes to route potentially destabilizing sentiments into more ideologically...
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