The Global Sociology Blog

On the heels of my previous post on gated communities, it is interesting to see the dynamic at work here: Argentina calls halt to a wall separating rich from poor | World news | The Observer via kwout The basis of the project is therefore social exclusion + social segregation + gating and the physical [...]

Elena Vesselinov, “Members Only: Gated Communities and Residential Segregation in the Metropolitan United States”, Sociological forum, Vol. 23, No. 3, September 2008, 536 – 555. This is another article that would be a good read for undergraduate students because it follows step by step the different stages of the research process, all condensed in a [...]

So, on the one hand, the British government passed a new anti-terror law (we should always be weary when some "anti-terror" law is passed) that prohibits taking photos of the police: BBC NEWS | UK | Photographers angry at terror law via kwout And it is not unwise to think that it has something to [...]

Sheldon Ungar, Ignorance as an Un-Identified Social Problem, British Journal of Sociology , 2008, Vol. 59, Issue 2, pp. 301 – 326. This article uses as its starting point the idea of the persistence of ignorance in the knowledge society and deplores the fact that ignorance is an understudied topic in sociology. Therefore, there is [...]

Wow… Les Alliés ont voulu une libération de Paris par les Blancs, Vu sur le web – NouvelObs.com via kwout For the non-French-speaking readers, the BBC has discovered documents dating back from WWII in which American and British allies ensure that the liberation of Paris, on August 25, 1944, would be done by white men [...]

Daniel Little has an interesting post in which he argues for the persistence of significant differences between American and French sociology despite pretty strong interconnections and influences. In the 21st century, differences in ways of approaching social phenomena: UnderstandingSociety: French sociology as a distinctive tradition via kwout As usual, I would nitpick on some of [...]

There is no doubt that criminal organizations thrive in an environment where the state is unable to maintain security and provide basic services as is the case in Iraq. Iraqi babies for sale: people trafficking crisis grows as gangs exploit poor families and corrupt system | World news | The Guardian via kwout This seems [...]

Excellent, the Global Sociology Blogroll does not have enough blogs in Spanish: Sociología Contemporánea, a blog written by Christian Hdez Perez in Mexico City, specifically on the impact of information technology on society Día Sin Amanecer, a blog by Julio Villa, a student in sociology here (I hope I’m correct) and a musician as well. [...]

This story is another data  point in the series I have started on the patriarchy continuum: that is, that frustrated men, because of perceived loss in economic or familial status, find killing their family members and themselves a possible option in the patriarchal repertoire (to borrow and adapt from Tilly). BBC NEWS | Americas | [...]

Beating the multiple mechanisms of the surveillance society (both from the public and private sectors) will require new skills. Privacy is a luxury for the privileged.

La crise, une aubaine pour la mafia en Italie – Libération via kwout So, when the global economic system is credit-starved, guess who is flushed with available capital? The Italian Mafia is now buying out companies that are in trouble and recruited among the unemployed. As the article notes, the Mafia has enormous "dirty" capital [...]

[HA! Two references in one title!] BBC NEWS | Europe | Roman police find sewer children via kwout This is, of course, not surprising. The Global South poor already flock to the cities of their own countries. It makes sense that they would immigrate to the cities of the Global North and live there in [...]

In The Nation issues on Reimagining Socialism: Print: Follow Brazil’s Example via kwout (The first occasion in the current crisis) As always, Wallerstein uses the perspective of the longue durée to analyze the current plight of the left. Fortunately, there is also, according to Wallerstein, a social movement that could be used as a model: [...]

Via Carlos Serra, Crise financeira é resultado de sistema suicida – Radio Nederland, a emissora internacional e independente da Holanda – Português via kwout Roughly translated, Bauman does not see any serious attempt to develop a global solution to the crisis. Instead, he see a tendency to revive protectionism, which globalization was supposed to have [...]

So, first, the first husbands were noticeably absent from the group photo of the first spouses at the G20, take a look (via Echidne): See? there should be two husbands here but only the women posed for the group photo. Would the husbands have looked out of place here? Would this have been embarrassing to [...]