The Global Sociology Blog

Aborigines win control of sea fishing rights – Australasia, World – The Independent via kwout

This is a point I have been arguing in several posts: social justice is more incarnated in redistribution mechanisms (such as fishing rights) than in recognition of a particular identity or particular historical grievance. Having rights is not enough and can [...]

Via Wicked Anomie .

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven.
You aren’t concerned much with theories or dreams… only what’s true or untrue.

You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched.
You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren’t subject to whim or emotions.
Your friends [...]

Really, this is rich:

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | World Bank warning to East Timor via kwout

This is the same World Bank, which, along with the IMF, used to encourage countries to base their economic development on their comparative advantage (simply put, what do countries have to offer to the global market? Once such an [...]

Like many of my fellow socbloggers, I will be in Boston for the weekend for the American Sociological Association meeting, all equipped with my ASA Bingo card (courtesy of uber socblogger, Kieran Healy), which I should be able to fill with zero trouble at all if past experience is any indication!
Hopefully, I’ll have some [...]

Although… where are the women??

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Now that is something you don’t read every day:

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Bees join hunt for serial killers via kwout

What are the discoveries so far?

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Bees join hunt for serial killers via kwout

Criminology is not my specialty so I wonder how much of this is actually new (paging Chris [...]

I have already posted on this.
Any physical difference from the norm can be seized upon and used against the individuals who can do nothing about them. These individuals, deviant because of a physical characteristic (in this case, one they do not control) are then subjected to dehumanization and violence, used as scapegoats and otherwise see [...]

Another post as part of my social justice series.
Bruce Western – of Punishment and Inequality in America fame – hopes so (via Chris Uggen ) in this article in the Boston Review.

"The British sociologist T.H. Marshall described citizenship as the “basic human equality associated with full membership in a community.” By this measure, thirty [...]

Can you spot the sexism and ageism in this ad for MTV? The ageism is pretty obvious but let’s see if you can spot the sexism.

Answer and comment below the fold.

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Jeremy Seabrook has a very pessimistic but, I think, powerful column in the Guardian in light of Barack Obama’s world tour. It centers on Obama but has wider implications for the way we consider political leadership in the global context. For those of us who regularly read Seabrook, it is a well know fact that [...]

Via McClatchy,

"A Senate committee on Thursday heard appeals for the creation of a federal task force to combat polygamist sects that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid described as sophisticated organized crime rings.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose office has received nationwide attention for its investigation of a sect in Texas, was among those backing legislation [...]

In the book I reviewed yesterday on tax heavens, one of the reasons the authors gave for writing the book in the first place was that this is a topic that never quite absent from the news and never goes out of fashion. Der Spiegel illustrates how true this is.

International Crack Down: The New Global [...]

Christian Chavagneux and Ronen Palan’s Les Paradis Fiscaux is a great (and mercifully short) introduction to tax heavens, banking secrecy and the offshore financial world. And it’s in French. For my non-French readers, not to worry, hopefully, my review will give enough substantial information… or, y’all could learn French! However, I have preserved what [...]

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appointed a new UN High Commissioner on Human Rights to succeed outgoing Commissioner Louise Arbour: South African Judge Navanethem Pillay who currently serves at the International Criminal Court. She seems like the right person for the job, judging from her short bio on the ICC website:

"In 1967 Judge Pillay [...]

BBC NEWS | Americas | Life for Argentine ex-army chief via kwout

After the arrest of Karadzic , it seems it is getting harder and harder for mass murderers and torturers to get away with their crimes, even decades later.
The BBC link also has a lot of links on the way Argentina has been dealing [...]