The Global Sociology Blog

It has been interesting these past days to hear about wealthy grumblings from the wealthy corners about potential repeal of Bush tax cuts and Wall Streeters complaining about feeling like “piñatas”. What are they complaining about? They won the class warfare, hands down when it comes to income and wealth distribution. So now, we are [...]

There has been a lot of blogging already about these very stunning illustrations of residential segregations in major US cities. These are certainly dramatic visuals for anyone teaching race and ethnicity. The legend is as follows: Red = White Blue = Black Green = Asian Orange = Latin This is Chicago: This points to the [...]

Admire how, after her outburst, she does not miss a beat and goes back to what she was doing: Needless to say, in the US, the student would sue the teacher and the school and some new age idiot would blather on as to how students, these days, can multitask and need to be entertained [...]

What happens in a situation where the state is hollow and/or corrupt and local rules prevail? One possibility is this (via): The discussion in the NYT article is interesting as Pakistani columnists debate the question of whether this act is actually nothing out of the ordinary in this culture, whether Westerners should not judge another [...]

Via the EPI: Note, this is not the share of the population below the poverty line, but those at 50% of the poverty line, that is, those in deep poverty. The current 6.3% is the highest point since that measure has been used for the first time in 1975. As the article notes, “This sizable [...]

Via Lukas Neville, Americans are notoriously ignorant of the actual extent of inequalities. They tend to underestimate it. This goes along with the well-known, well-established lack of class awareness. So here is a neat illustration of this phenomenon: This graph show the gap between the actual level of wealth inequality (the highest bar) and the [...]

Here are just a couple of things from Monday’s lectures (mine) on social statuses and stigmas. Case 1: stigmatization based on ascribed status And the discussion I had with the students, summarized as this (which is where I wanted to go!) And case number 2, stigmatization based on achieved status: Watch Saving Africa’s Witch Children [...]

What do you think when you read this? “(1) super-rich financiers on Wall Street and top corporate executives have grown even richer than they were before the Great Recession, even though most Americans are getting poorer or losing their jobs and homes and savings, and more Americans are in poverty. (2) Yet the lobbyists for the financiers [...]

[Light blogging until I get over this dang student-induced cold.] Contrary to hat the President says, it is not a matter of constantly seeing the glass half-empty. It is the reality for too many people to dismiss or make jokes. Or maybe too many children: Children are now one third of people living in poverty [...]

Hey kids, the new Weezer, “Hurley”, is here. First single, Memories:

It’s all over the news, of course, and it’s not reassuring. Different publications have graphs, so, let’s review: Note that the lines have been steadily going up since 2000. Hmm, I wonder what could explain that. The Economic Policy Institute calls it The US Lost Decade. It has some telling graphs and data as well: [...]

Two items that allow companies to evade oversight, regulations and well, the law through mechanisms linked to globalization. First off: “The security company Blackwater Worldwide formed a network of 30 shell companies and subsidiaries to try to get millions of dollars in government business after the company faced strong criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, [...]

Me: [explaining how ascribed statuses can determine and narrow the range of achievable statuses] How many women US presidents have we had? Class: none Me: how many non-white president? Or even non-whites on the ticket? Class: One, Obama Me: How many non-Christian? Class: None Some dude: one Me: who? Dude: Obama Class: a few chuckles [...]

Todd Krohn, over at The Power Elite, continues his exposing of the criminalization of adolescence through a variety of measures often under the banner of “zero tolerance”, the educational version of the oh-so-effective broken windows theory of crime. What is the broken windows theory of crime? “The concept of broken windows was developed by James [...]

Via Ezra Klein (I know, I know): Which means that even if there were to be a recovery (big if), first, a lot of the lost jobs will be come back, but also those who are able to find jobs will find themselves with considerably lower income than they had. None of this will help [...]