Contexts

sociology for the public

Winter 2012

Volume: 11 | Number: 1

This inaugural issue of Arlene Stein and Jodi O’Brien’s Contexts features viewpoints on Las Vegas and a Q&A on sexual violence in Congo. Winter 2012 also features articles on microfinance, women’s sports after Title IX, and what happens when making trouble means gaining respect.
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Meet the New Department Editors

Contexts Magazine | From the Editors

In Pictures Katie Hyde likes taking pictures but is more inspired by what kids can do with cameras. For over … Read More

Nature’s Looking Glass

Hillary Angelo and Colin Jerolmack | Feature

How we see nature is to a large extent a reflection of ourselves. Sociologists Hillary Angelo and Colin Jerolmack use the example of New Yorkers’ fascination with two red-tailed hawks to reveal deep insights about how we represent and understand nature. Read More

Home Cooking: Marketing Meth

Henry H. Brownstein, Timothy M. Mulcahy, Bruce G. Taylor, Johannes Fernandes-Huessy, and Carol Hafford | Feature

Making and selling methamphetamine is a business of personal ties. Henry H. Brownstein, Timothy M. Mulcahy, Bruce G. Taylor, Johannes Fernandes-Huessy, and Carol Hafford provide a nuanced understanding of meth markets, from mom-and-pop to import markets. Read More

Banking on the Poor

Dwight Haase | Feature

Sociologist Dwight Haase explores how one man’s efforts to help his village neighbors evolved into a global corporate market--with unintended consequences. Haase provides insight into how the microfinance movement turned into an industry. Read More

Playing but Losing: Women’s Sports After Title IX

Cheryl Cooky and Nicole M. LaVoi | Feature

Girls and women have more opportunities since Title IX, but the playing field is still far from level. Cheryl Cooky and Nicole M. Lavoi explore how major inequities remain, especially in terms of media attention, distribution of institutional resources and opportunities to coach and lead in the world of sport. Read More

Stealing a Bag of Potato Chips and Other Crimes of Resistance

Victor M. Rios | Feature

Sociologist Victor M. Rios shows in his study how some young men make trouble as means of gaining respect. This is an adaptation from his book Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. Read More

We’ve Gone Bi-Coastal

Arlene Stein and Jodi O'Brien | From the Editors

We’ve gone bi-coastal. In September Contexts’ editorial offices moved to Seattle and New Jersey. We now hold weekly meetings via Skype and rely on rapid-fire … Read More

Vaccine in the Crossfire

Jeffrey Dowd | In Brief

At a Republican presidential candidates debate in September, then-candidate Michelle Bachmann derided Texas Governor Rick Perry’s decision to “force innocent little 12-year-old girls” to have … Read More

The Graying of Facebook

Jennifer Hemler | In Brief

According to Mary Madden and Kathryn Zickhur of the Pew Research Center, older Americans’ social networking use is on the upswing: it’s doubled among Internet … Read More

Transgender Prisoners

Editors | In Brief

Prisons pose problems for all inmates, but there are especially tricky issues at work for transgender people. Recognizing this, Italy proposed last year to open … Read More

About Contexts

Contexts is a quarterly magazine that makes cutting-edge social research accessible to general readers. We're the public face of sociology.

It is a publication of the American Sociological Association, edited by Amin Ghaziani and Seth Abrutyn (University of British Columbia), with Letta Page.