by paulabowles In order to read (and of course create) this post requires access to the internet, an option that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. However, for many of us, the internet – as well as mobile phones – has already become essential to modern living. Hamish McRae of The Independent raises the interesting topic of social etiquette, suggesting that although; we may be familiar with the technology we have yet to agree on the rules...
by NickieWild It’s been over seven years since Naomi Klein published No Logo, which explored the backlash against large multinational corporations. Brand identities such as Nike became increasingly associated with sweatshops instead of what the company wanted everyone to feel when they saw the ever-present “swoosh” logo. Wal-Mart became associated with union busting instead of low prices. Can this phenomenon explain why Starbucks recently “re-branded” one of their Seattle coffee shops with no brand at all? This move is most...
by ChristinaBlunt On Saturday July 18, the Washington Post reported that respected human rights group Memorial will suspend its activities in Chechnya following the murder of one of its activists, Natalya Estemirova. Reports state that Estemirova was kidnapped outside her home last Wednesday and found with a bullet in her head hours later outside the Chechen capital. Estemirova’s work involved documenting crimes committed by representatives of the authorities. The Post reports that Estemirova was killed the same day a report...
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpFSyLHBdKg] by NickieWild Recently, various cable and national news outlets reported that U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend had “ordered” soldiers under his command at the base at Ft. Campbell, KY to not commit suicide. While this makes an attention-grabbing headline, it was more of an exhortation than a command. Nevertheless, the U.S. military has been criticized for years about the way it has been handling the skyrocketing military suicide rate, which, by some measures, has now surpassed the...
by smteixeirapoit In the past, many immigrants traveled to the United States because they hoped to achieve upward mobility. In the current economic climate, many immigrants are not upwardly mobile. Some immigrants are unable to secure employment and other foreign workers are facing a backlash. For the first time, the United States is experiencing a decline in immigration. Many immigrants are avoiding immigrating to the United States in the first place or are deciding to leave the United States for...
by paulabowles Ten years after the publication of Sir William Macpherson’s report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, and the allegation of ‘institutional racism’ still hangs heavily over British policing. Although, there remains doubt over whether or not this allegation is still relevant – and indeed some confusion, for many, as to what the term ‘institutional racism’ actually means – it would seem that some positive steps have been taken. Most recently, the British Sikh Police Association has been set...
by smteixeirapoit A recent news article discusses the findings of three surveys used by the Office for National Statistics in the United Kingdom. The results suggest that the gender wage gap does not necessarily exist when examining comparable occupations. The findings state that, if the gender wage gap does exist, it is because of motherhood rather than womanhood. The news article concludes that females would like to be employed because of their merits instead of being patronized by “quota feminists”....
By: George Ritzer Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland A decade ago I wrote a book dealing with what I called the “cathedrals of consumption”. These are consumption settings that had, in the main, come into existence in the United States in the post-WWII era. Of particular interest were the most grandiose of these consumption settings including major indoor shopping malls, mega-malls (e.g. Mall of America), theme parks (especially Disneyland and Disney World), cruise ships, and above all the themed...
by nathan jurgenson The very idea of Wikipedia -the open-source encyclopedia that anyone with an internet connection can edit- has sparked many discussions about knowledge construction, such as the politics behind truth, the social construction of knowledge, the tyranny of epistemic expertism or populism, and so on. In these discussions, the Encyclopedia Britannica is often posed as the antithesis to Wikipedia. So it came as big news earlier this year that the Encyclopedia Britannica, the model of old-school expertism, is...
By rbobbitt Considered to be one of the driest regions in the world, Quillagua, Chile sees very little rainfall and depends heavily on the local river to provide the sustenance needed in order to survive. However, this has drastically changed due to the privatization of water by local mining companies, private businesses, and large agribusinesses. This has left but a trickle of water for residents to use, with what is left over being heavily polluted. Entire towns are being left without water,...
by ishein1 “It takes tremendous courage to think for yourself and examine yourself, this Socratic imperative requires courage.” This quote is taken from the trailer of the second documentary from Astra Taylor and is spoken by Cornel West in the back of Taylor’s car. Taylor’s first film, Zizek, was a documentary in which the ‘intellectual rock star’, Slavoj Zizek, is shadowed on his lecture circuit. Taylor’s new film “Examined Life”, set to open in New York City, once again attempts...
by nathan jurgenson All over the news the past few days has been the outing of Facebook for changing its terms of service so that it could keep its user’s data for whatever it pleased for as long as it pleased. Even if the user deleted their account. Next came the vast uproar to this move followed by Facebook’s backtracking, arguing that the wording was harsher than what they would actually do in practice. Under continued pressure, however, Facebook backed...
by ishein1 As the first week of Obama’s presidency passes, a top priority, set forth prior to his election, is to transform “the internet based machinery”, that helped him get elected, into an agenda setting tool. The millennial generation tools within a new frontier of political interaction, i.e. social networking sites, like facebook, twitter, and YouTube are still in their embryonic form, particularly with regard to their impact on the political process. It is clear, however, that if one wants...
by kiddingthecity Transsexual people are willing to become invisible, international acclaimed photographer and researcher Sara Davidmann maintains, in order to be accepted in the social norm, which wants a strict binary distinction between genders. The issue of safety in public space here, I guess, is crucial – hence, the urge to comply to the visual stereotype of the male or of the female. As it is the issue of ‘medicalization’, that is, the tendency of western culture to push ‘deviance’...
by paulabowles Binge drinking has long been identified as a social problem. Vast amounts of column inches, as well as government and independent agency policy documents have been produced, in an effort to tackle the problem. Until recently the spotlight has been firmly focused on civilian life, but recent research findings may change that view. Research carried out by King’s Centre for Military Health Research has concluded that binge drinking is “significantly more prevalent” in the Royal Navy, than within...
by nathan jurgenson Lately, we have been doing lots of work, for others. For free. Millions of users of sites like Facebook and MySpace are clicking away at their profiles, adding detailed information about themselves and others. “We” are uploading content to sites like Flickr, YouTube, the microblogging service Twitter and many others, and our labor creates vast databases about ourselves –what I previously described as a sort of mass exhibitionism. Facebook’s profit model is built upon an ownership of...
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