Edward Walker talks about his Spring 2010 feature Industry-driven activism. Topics include the role of industry in shaping the health care debate and the state of social movements in the age of the internet and astroturfing.
Children and Reality TV
Hilary Levey talks to Jesse and Arturo about her Spring 2010 Contexts feature, Balloon Boy Plus Ei8ht? Children and Reality Television.
Also: check out Levey’s editorial in USA Today on the topic of Reality TV kids.
And if you don’t watch as much television as you know you should (it’s ok—we don’t judge), here are a few clips referenced in the interview:
Jon & Kate Plus 8
Cute Kids. (TLC disabled embedding).
The Breakup:
Kid Nation
NYC Prep
BESTSELLERS: How a Rogue Gang of Sociology Grad Students Rewrote the Book on Bestselling Sociology Books and Survived to Tell the Tale
This episode, Jon talks with fellow U of M sociology grad students Arturo, Shannon and Wes about the Contexts Bestsellers Project. Topics include the challenges of measuring book sales, the public perception of sociology, and how books compare with other media.
Education and Equality
Do schools reproduce or challenge inequality? And how can we know one way or another? Douglas Downey calls into the Contexts Podcast to help us answer these questions. Be sure to check out Downey’s Spring 2010 Contexts feature How Schools Really Matter!
Also: Jon shares a discovery about gender and software development from last month’s JITP conference on The Politics of Open Source by Hanna Wallach and the FLOSSPOLS project.
How Dubai Works
Syed Ali talks with Jon about his Spring 2010 Contexts feature about Dubai, Permanent Impermanence. (Which you can read online for free, by the way.) What’s it like in a country where over 90% of the population are expatriates? What’s it like to do research in such a place? Listen in and find out!
Also Sarah shares a discovery: Morality and Health: News Media Constructions of Overweight and Eating Disorders
© 2010 Contexts Podcast
