by bmckernan In Hollywood Highbrow, Shyou Baumann examines the sociological factors that led to Hollywood’s historical transformation from being considered merely a form of mass entertainment to an artistic medium. Adopting a sociology of culture framework, Baumann identifies what he considers to be the three essential factors needed for any cultural medium to be considered an art, including: an opportunity space, institutionalized resources/activities, and intellectualization. Given the massive popularity of video games in contemporary America, it may be useful to...
by kiddingthecity The financial system is ‘ill’, capitalism is on the verge of ‘collapsing’, a drastic ‘cure’ has to be found quickly, ‘toxic’ funds need to be ‘eradicated’, and so on. Terms from the vocabulary of medicine and biology have been largely used to describe the systemic crisis of the latest capital, often comparing it to the body in pain. Probably, in an attempt to localize and make more understandable the phantasmagoria of the trillions to Mr. and Mrs. Smiths,...
by theoryforthemasses A recent book written by philosopher Dennis Dutton draws from the burgeoning field of evolutionary psychology to explain the biological foundations of creativity. Dutton attempts to synthesize Darwin’s theory of evolution with culture, suggesting that creative capacities have been passed on from one generation to the next as a mode of survival. Storytellers, for example, would have been able to work out “what if” scenarios through making up stories, a practice that would keep them from risking their...
nmccoy1 Critical Theorist Eva Illouz offers a cultural historical revision to our understandings of the relationship between emotions, capitalism, and psychological discourse. Her conception of emotional capitalism links the fundamental convergence of notions of self in modernity as both subject of emotional exploration and objectified commodity. A recent article (see below) about how to sell yourself using Internet technology exemplifies the naturalized use of psychological and self-help discourse as a means to understand oneself and to sell oneself in...
by kiddingthecity Lovely sunny day in London for April 1, Financial Fools Day. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are leading, as I type, carnival parades from four cardinal points to the Bank of England, in the City of London. They are Red (War), Green (Climate Chaos), Silver (Money Crimes), and Black (Land-grabbers). On Facebook it has also appeared an invitation to flash-mobbing the City Exchange with tents and sleeping bags for an Eco-camp, but the “secret” was leaked by this...
by socanonymous The upcoming WWF Earth Hour campaign (Saturday 28th) expects millions of people around the world to participate by shutting off their lights for an hour. Given the variability of issues within the broad umbrella term “environmental movement”, does the simple act of turning off our lights for an hour make a significant contribution to the reduction of climate change? It is likely that this event is more symbolic of a global urgency to unite for a single cause. ...
by paulabowles A recent discussion between Erwin James and Jonathon Aitken draws attention once more to the apparent incompatibility between prison and rehabilitation. As both James and Aitken are former prisoners, it is perhaps understandable that they have strong feelings about imprisonment. During their discussion James and Aitken touch on issues of honesty, recidivism, education as well as the cost of imprisonment. At the heart of their discussion is the realisation that even in the twenty first century it would...
by ishein1 It was only a few weeks ago when I saw an Olive Garden Restaurant advertisement depicting its culinary school in Tuscany. It utilized this image to support its claim that the restaurant provides an authentic Italian dining experience. Wary of the veracity of this advertisement’s culinary school postulations, I researched the said school. As it turns out, the Olive Garden did indeed open a culinary school in Tuscany. This is an attempt by the Olive Garden to put...
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...
Just a quick notice: Look for a Guest Post from George Ritzer on April 15th right here on the Sociology Lens blog. The post, titled “Are Today’s Globalized Cathedrals of Consumption Tomorrow’s Global Dinosaurs?”, deals with the recent transition from hyper- to declining-consumption. ~nathan
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mr4kXW6mOU] by NickieWild The media in the United States, especially television, re-discovers the severity of violence against women when a highly visible image or story occurs. The latest incident, involving singers Chris Brown and Rihanna, has been extensively covered on local, national, and cable news, and talk shows like Oprah and Dr. Phil. However, as academic writers on the subject have noted, the media continually “rediscover” this problem in response to a specific incident that is either particularly horrific (such...
By bmckernan During the spring of 2008, a heated debate emerged within the video game community over what some considered to be the presence of racist imagery in a trailer for the latest installment of the popular video game franchise Resident Evil. As a franchise, Resident Evil has generally been well received by the gaming community, with many of its games garnering both critical acclaim and commercial success. As a series, Resident Evil is known for combining a rich narrative...
nmccoy1 Pope Benedict’s recent visit to Africa (see BBC article below) included comments on the AIDS epidemic that has disproportionately affected Africans worldwide. While staying true to Catholic doctrine and its teachings on abstinence, his insistence that condoms are both ineffective against the spread of HIV/AIDS and can in fact increase the rate of contamination further diminish the gendered aspects of this problem. The fact that condoms are a cheap and accessible form of birth control has been overshadowed by...
by theoryforthemasses Immigrants’ stories of sacrifice and (re)settlement are often overshadowed by statistics about demographics like educational attainment, income, and family size; the stories themselves remain untold. A recent New York Times article explores the impact of these stories on the children of immigrant families. Each year sociologist and Hunter College professor Nancy Foner teaches a class entitled “The Peopling of New York” wherein she asks students to interview a close relative about recent family history. Given that many of...
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,...
A recent article published by the BBC has found that online community platforms such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are quickly becoming the preferred method of online communication via and at the expense of more traditional platforms such as stand alone e-mail programs. Programs such as Facebook offer a more community based, integrated approach to digital communication. Recently, Alison Cavanagh has published an article detailing the rise and factioning of online communities, illuminating many of the positive and negative aspects...
