The Global Sociology Blog

Over at Corrente, Stirling Newberry has a mind-blowing post detailing how the torture porn genre (as represented by the Saw franchise) and its potential ending reflects what Newberry calls tortureconomy, the nasty version of the shock doctrine: “The basic text of the torture porn genre is meant to be read several ways. The broadest audience [...]

I love research that debunks commonly and unquestionably accepted stuff. Such is the case with French Econoblogger Olivier Bouba-Olga with a post on rigid regulations and innovation. According to common economic mantra, regulations are bad, rigidity is awful, hence we should have deregulation and flexibility, which will unleash the power of human innovation, unfettered. That [...]

Devastating, literally: “The monsoon rains are not due for a month or so, but the “dry” season for people in West Kalimantan province in Indonesian Borneo has been marked by three months of unrelenting floods. The sky is clear and blue and the stilted long houses and huts are reflected in mirror image on the [...]

Via Peter Levine, from the New York Times, it is not a big surprise for the social theorist who brought us the legitimation crisis to take note of the nasty times in his own country: “SINCE the end of August Germany has been roiled by waves of political turmoil over integration, multiculturalism and the role [...]

Via Carla Casilli, this: “To see whether swearing can help change attitudes, Scherer and Sagarin (2006) divided 88 participants into three groups to watch one of three slightly different speeches. The only difference between the speeches was that one contained a mild swear word at the start: “…lowering of tuition is not only a great idea, [...]

This is my work for tomorrow (this will probably kill my students but what the heck!):

Via the always great EPI, this interactive map (click on the link, then on individual states to see the job loss – or gain if you live in ND – since December 2007): Job loss by state: An interactive map via kwout

I have already blogged about the gathering storm that is the coming food crisis due to a series of factors not entirely related to low production: “Rising food prices and shortages could cause instability in many countries as the cost of staple foods and vegetables reached their highest levels in two years, with scientists predicting further [...]

First, this item regarding the movie “The Social Network” (which I have not seen but it seems to have passed  one of the three criteria on the Bechdel Test) and gender roles: “But perhaps more keenly, “The Social Network” exposes a strain of sexism that runs wide and deep among the young nerdy entrepreneurs and [...]

Transparency International has just published its 2010 Corruption Perception Index, as it does every year. Keep in mind that the CPI only measures public corruption, not private one: “Transparency International(TI) defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. This definition encompasses corrupt practices in both the public and private sectors. The Corruption [...]

The City and The City is the first book by China Mieville I have read. I got myself a Kindle copy when it got the Hugo Award. It is an awesome novel, and as usual, it is a great source for sociological analysis. At its most basic, The City and The City is a murder [...]

This political ad is profoundly repulsive, racist and inaccurate: OMG, the YELLOW PEOPLE are going to enslave us all! I won’t go over the lies about tax and spend, the stimulus (which was too small, for starters). As a side note, Amy Chua (OMG, American Chinese Filippina!) has long demonstrated that declining empires are marked [...]

With a seriously awesome video for the single, “Méfie-toi, L’Escargot”, from the album, La Grande Evasion:

As this article from Le Monde details, airlines offering cheap airfares are poised to make big money by squeezing passengers of as much money as possible to the creative use of fees on… well… everything and anything. This year, these companies will earn €18.4 billion worth of fees (as opposed to €11 billion last year). [...]

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