A Cornucopia of Sociological Goodness

Dateline: Seattle. Sitting together at the American Sociological Association’s annual conference, we’re reminded (not that we really needed reminding) that sociologists do a really good job of documenting and analyzing so many different facets of our social world. While the last issue was themed “Good News,” this issue is a cornucopia of sociological goodness.

At these ASA meetings, we held a workshop on writing for Contexts—and the world. It kinda forced us to think about what we think sociological writing is or what it could be. We bring new information to light, we’re analytical. We bring in theory where it’s useful, but we avoid articles that are needlessly complicated—that is, there’s complexity, but not for complexity’s sake. Contexts wants to see writers swing for the fences with their ideas and write in bold, clear, concise, and unqualified prose.

In this multifaceted issue, we bring you a conversation between The Nation’s sports editor Dave Zirin and sociologist Ben Carrington and six Viewpoints on diversity in sport. Felicia Song tells us about the burgeoning and bourgeois-ifying business of mommy bloggers, and Jooyoung Lee dances his way into ethnographic understanding in Compton, CA. And we have three pieces on the entertainment world: Philip Kasinitz and Cory Albertson give us sociological reviews of the stage play “Hamilton” and the new Wonder Woman, while Rachel King tells us about why more diversity in the Oscars won’t solve Hollywood’s Whiteness problem.

As always, read and enjoy. Studying society’s many performances is nothing less than entertaining.