The Global Sociology Blog

This post at Crooks and Liars, relating the use of Blackwater for security operations in the aftermath the exepcted disaster of hurricane Gustav touches upon what I think is an important topic: the militarization of urban centers and the suppression of dissent and disorder in the name of security (Blackwater had also been used in [...]

[Update: just go read Zuzu] First, it is ridiculous to see the former progressive blogosphere all up in arms over the fact that McCain chose a social conservative Republican as his running mate. Who the hell did they think he was going to pick? Russ Feingold?? The real problem is this, as best explained by [...]

The academic social ladder, via PHD Comics: I’m roughly at stage four… and I know a lot of folks at stage five!

Rachel has a great and thought-provoking post over at her place on the Olympics through the prism of sociological theories, based on a student’s report using multicultural functionalism to analyze the events (why do we even bother with that perspective, every time, we find it so wanting it’s amazing that we still use it so [...]

So says a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) titled Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health. Actually, their language is even stronger: inequities are killing people on a grand scale. As the press release states, "A child born in a Glasgow, Scotland suburb can [...]

BBC NEWS | UK | Government ‘criminalising young’ via kwout I have already written about the treatment of youths as a dangerous class. This is indeed a disturbing trend that seems to have spread on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. The idea is to find more extensive ways of monitoring youth behavior (as a [...]

Forbes just published its annual list of the most powerful women in the world, so, let’s take a quick look at the rankings: "The most powerful woman in the world, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, tops the list for the third year running as the ranking democratically elected female leader. Sheila Bair, head of the Federal [...]

Over at Scatterplot, Andrew Perrin has a post criticizing another post by Steve Vaiseys over at Orgtheory (a post ridden with gross overgeneralizations, I might add and the author acknowledges himself). Says Perrin: "Apparently because sociologists tend to be “liberal” (as useless a term as that is), we are less objective than we ought to [...]

It tells you everything you need to know when a post like this is even necessary, or this one: "But let’s state this flatly, right here, right now — where you don’t attack Palin is based on her looks. Based on her femininity. Based on her being a mother. Based on her XX genotype. Sarah [...]

“Being Here”, from their latest album, Oceans Will Rise.

Via McClatchy, McClatchy Washington Bureau | 08/26/2008 | Hungry herds of wild pigs invade (and we don’t mean Denver) via kwout

Via the BBC, “The World Bank has warned that world poverty is much greater than previously thought. It has revised its previous estimate and now says that 1.4 billion people live in poverty, based on a new poverty line of $1.25 per day. This is substantially more than its earlier estimate of 985 million people [...]

Hillary took everybody to school last night and showed them how it’s done: It’s about fighting for social justice It’s about fighting for the disadvantaged It’s about fighting for civil rights, women’s rights and gay rights It’s NOT about hopey-changey BS It’s NOT about religious pandering If anything, she highlighted the lack of liberal / [...]

As a follow-up to my post on Stephanie Coontz’s column in the Guardian, Kim, of Aussie SocBlog Larvatus Prodeo, has a post on the social benefits provided by feminism (the real kind, not feminism of convenience). Also, we should all take note of Susan Faludi‘s (her latest book, The Terror Dream, is a must-read) column [...]

In this post, he has it in for fake sociologists who drag the discipline in the mud by lending their analytical skills, such as they are, to opinion polls sites. These sites conduct asinine surveys and can proudly proclaim, as Maura relates on his blog, that 43% of the French think that love will be [...]