Category: Political & Economic Sociology

Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication / Sociology of Organizations & Work

“Cerebral Celebrities” – Coming Down to Earth

 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...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

To Sell or Not to Sell

by bmckernan A battle is looming within the video game industry between video game developers and video game retail outlets. Over the last decade, the trading in of used video games for store credit has become an increasingly popular activity for a significant portion of the gaming world. For many gamers, trading in their old games for store credit is the only way they can afford to continue to pursue their video game hobby, while on the retail side the...

Political & Economic Sociology

The Nation in the Global Economy

nmccoy1 In the era of globalization, the predominant discourse emphasizes the subordination of nation states’ interests to transnational corporations and bodies.  According to globalization scholars such as Philip McMichael, a virtual discursive space has been constructed in which responsibility for economic and political decisions and crises are not only shared but simultaneously avoided.  The global economy has become the catchall culprit, hero, and future of any number of international and domestic incidents.  In this context, the recent announcement by the...

Peace, War & Social Conflict / Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Colonizing the New Frontier: Bloggers Beware

 by ishein1 Newly elected president, Barack Obama, held his first official press conference on Monday evening.  This historically rich press conference on the surface was isomorphous with press conferences of the past.  This fact was accentuated by the presence of Helen Thomas, currently a columnist for Hearst Newspapers.  As she has done for the past four decades, and despite attempts by President Obama to lighten the moment, Thomas asked her usual critical and pertinent questions.  Obama responded as most past...

Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Is this person gay?

by kiddingthecity … Is s/he British? Is this person happy? Intelligent? These are some of the strong questions participants were asked to cast their vote about when faced with the anonymous picture of a stranger in latest Christian Nold‘s provocative installation. Over 14,000 people in one month cast their vote in the ‘Community Metrics’ in  Nottingham (UK) and decide ‘live’ who of the volunteers should be deported: a sort of ‘friendly fascism’, a dystopian version of Facebook, a tease out...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Media & Communication

Humans and the "Laws" of the Market

nmccoy1 In the midst of this economic “crisis” we might do well to (re)engage with the work of economic sociologist, Karl Polanyi.  At the heart of his critique of market economies is the notion that an economic system that functions autonomously of political, social, and cultural intervention is essentially a utopian project.  If the market could in fact operate fully disembedded from society, humans and nature would be destroyed.  The market is not governed by  its own internal laws but rather...

Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change

Transnational Migration and Conflict

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtzl5BZFRPI] by socanonymous Ongoing fighting in Sri Lanka has brought together about 45,000 Tamils from across Toronto, to protest what they call the genocide of Tamil people. They came together to form a human chain in Toronto’s downtown city core. The powerful emotions shown in the video give a glimpse of the struggles that many transnational migrants have gone through and escaped from. Globalization has facilitated diasporas to maintain political and social ties transnationally, in spite of geographical proximity. These...

Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Entering the New Frontier, There is no Turning Back

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...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Culture

A "New" Economics 101

  by theoryforthemasses In a recent New York Times op-ed, columnist David Brooks questions whether the old, “rational,” Keynesian model of economics is truly useful for trying to understand the current economic crisis. He suggests that while economists have traditionally built elegant economic models of efficient markets based on rational actors, the process of making economic decisions is actually much more complex. Brooks explains that these complexities, which are informed by actors’ various strategies, memories, and intuitions, are what influences...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance

Check The Box

Due to the current state of the economy of the United States many individuals across the country are concerned about job security.  With the current unemployment rate in the U.S. climbing to 7.2 % (U.S. Labor Department), those who are unemployed are finding it extremely difficult to obtain employment with so many competing in the job market.  For many, maintaining or obtaining employment is on their mind from the moment they awake until they fall asleep, with some even finding...

Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Tupac in Gaza

by bmckernan  A while back, the NY Times published an extended article on the reception of American cultural products in the Gaza. In some significant ways, the article mirrors many of the arguments recently put forward by social scientists who have become increasingly unsatisfied with the cultural imperialism thesis. Among this academic group includes recent work by the sociologist Ronald Jacobs as well as the anthropologist Daniel Miller. Both assert that while there is insight to gain from the cultural...

Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Media & Communication

Closed for Mourning

by kiddingthecity To what extent, I have been thinking recently, can we feel, understand, and represent the suffering of other people? Is it reasonable to argue that the continuous exposure to images of the atrocity of the war – most notably children – has rendered those atrocities a media spectacle and “Us” a privileged passive audience? Would this prevalent opinion make any difference to the crude ‘reality’ of the conflicts? Or, on the other hand, if we maintain that “We”...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Media & Communication / Sociology of Organizations & Work

The Rise of the Commuter Marriage

by theoryforthemasses The nuclear family is often understood in terms of propinquity, or the physical nearness of parents and their children to one another. While it is typical for extended families to live apart from one another, we generally assume that married couples and their children live together.  In coping with a challenging economy, however, many couples are being forced to reevaluate their responsibilities and priorities in unexpected ways. One manifestation of this is the rise of “commuter marriages” wherein...

Gender & Sexuality / Political & Economic Sociology / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Science & Technology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Video Resources

Capitalism's meltdown and the Body (II)

by kiddingthecity Jeff Wall is famous for grand tableaux, which he shoots in sections over several months before stitching together the final image using computer montage. He has been known to spend almost two years on a single picture, with actors and crew to shoot scenes of the everyday. He teases out the myth of reality outside perception to the point that he is able to re-create in studio the ‘decisive moment’ of Cartier-Besson, in which the elements of an...