http://contexts.org/articles Understanding people in their social worlds Fri, 16 May 2008 18:10:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The non-profit Center for a New American Dream encourages Americans to consume more responsibly. Its mission is grounded in a sociological perspective that Juliet Schor brought to the table 10 years ago when a broad, dynamic group of individuals started this nation-wide initiative with a unique approach to achieving ... http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/juliet-schor/ we (women) make america work Mothers and unions are rarely associated, but Cynthia J. Cranford (Qualitative Sociology, December 2007) found that women leaders successfully constructed a “union motherhood” in the Janitors for Justice movement. By drafting children and partners into protests, women leaders made the union a “family affair.” Both men and ... http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/discoveries-72/ The Contexts vision is—as it has been since the beginning in 2001—to translate great sociology into an accessible format for both academic and public audiences. The cornerstone of this effort is, of course, the print product you hold in your hands. But as editors and true believers, we're constantly ... http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/about-72/ One thing I know is that feelings are social. Joy, sadness, anger, elation, jealousy, envy, despair, anguish, grief—all these feelings are partly social. Erving Goffman once wrote, “When they issue uniforms, they issue skins.” And, we can add, two inches of flesh. When we enact a new role, we show ... http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/feeling-around-the-world/ Crowd is a scientifically useless concept because "the crowd" implies a single entity whose members have the same motives and/or continuously engage in the same actions. This is a long-standing stereotype that sociologists created and, until recently, have perpetuated. But considerable evidence is accumulating that debunks the stereotype. Sociologists are ... http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/crowd/ To help make sense of some big-picture social changes in a rapidly globalizing world, Contexts invited three knowledgeable sociological critics to discuss democracy and development in what used to be called the Third World. Purchase this article from UC Press http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/democracy-and-development-in-the-global-south/ writing to be read by monte bute Sociology has long been notorious for its use of jargon and impenetrable prose. Sociologists writing badly inspired the editor of Fowler's Modern English Usage to coin a new word-sociologese. These bad habits have rendered scholarly articles and books mostly unreadable. In short, the ... http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/bookreviews-72/ peeing in public by harvey molotch The inequities of class, gender, and physical capacity gain their expression in moments of anxiety over how to eliminate one's waste. This is one truth made evident in Q2P (an abbreviation for "Queue to Pee"), a movie by the award-winning, India-based filmmaker Paromita Vohra. Purchase this article ... http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/culturereviews-72/ Jarring statistics point out what little impact recyclers and low-carbon pledgers among us are having on saving the environment. Mass media accounts of corporate "greening" teach Americans to ignore ecological limits and misinterpret how we collectively live, work, and play impacts the environment. "Greenwashing" is based on individually centered approaches ... http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/the-greenwashing-of-america/ Psychostimulant use in conjunction with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder raises important questions among today's college students about health, fairness, and the development of a person's identity, as well as safety, artificiality, and dependency. Analysis of students' experiences with prescription stimulants like Ritalin at a university in the northeastern United States, presented ... http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/the-prescription-of-a-new-generation/