Summer 2024 Table of Contents

from the editors

in brief:

• “Making Merit,” by Elena G. Van Stee.
• “A Broader Look at the Housing Crisis,” by Parker Muzzerall.
• “Saving Money, Saving Relationships,” by Elena G. Van Stee.
• “Are You Holding?” by Sophie X. Liu.
• “Travel and The Times,” by Parker Muzzerall.
• “Paying Attention. Period.” by Sophie X. Liu.
• “Our Forests, Ourselves,” by Colter J. Uscola.
• “Same Behavior, Different Meaning,” by Parker Muzzerall.

q&a:

• “Making Hard Things Look Easy.” Amin Ghaziani interviews urbanist Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, about the skills needed to communicate big ideas beyond academia.

features:

• “Recognizing Queer Citizens of Carnival City,” by Amy L. Stone. At annual, citywide festivals like Fiestas in the U.S. Southwest and Mardi Gras or Carnival in the South, LGBTQ events are often the hottest tickets in town. This recognition and celebration, in turn, is a key part of securing full citizenship—the sense of being an important, unattenuated member of society—for LGBTQ community members.
• “Talking about Race in a Race-Taboo Land,” by Beiyi Hu. Race is considered a taboo subject in Sweden, both at the governmental and individual levels, yet racism persists. This bind creates serious difficulties for ethnic and racial minorities, hindering efforts to make their experiences known, challenge the ethno-racial status quo, and build anti-racist alliances.
• “Examining Prospective Jurors,” by Matthew P. Fox and Steven E. Clayman. Trial by jury remains the symbolic center of the U.S. justice system. Here, readers bear witness to the process of voir dire, or jury questioning, and efforts to identify racial bias. The problem? Racial prejudice itself is taboo: jurors are reluctant to admit it, and judges and attorneys are reluctant to ask about it.
• “Making Yourself Ugly,” by Andrea D. Kelley. Body-focused repetitive behaviors are DSM-classified as obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders, but sufferers are frequently treated as being to blame for making themselves “ugly.” The case of trichotillomania reveals the stigma involved in “violating” beauty norms and the work people do to conceal both the effects and the cause of their deviance.

in pictures:

• “Seeing Migration and Border PAR.” Nancy Rios-Contreras on Afghan and Pakistani refugees’ transit experiences.

culture:

• “The Class Politics of Fine Dining.” Victor Ray on serving up sociology.
• “What Shapes Our Dreams for the Future?” Karen A. Cerulo on social identity and realizing imagined futures.
• “Hotpot as a Reflection of Societal Changes.” Ellen T. Meiser on a communal concoction’s individualization.

trends:

• “It’s Still Complicated.” Gabrielle Juteau, Jaden Loo, and Susan L. Brown on the terms of modern dating.
• “Temporally Differentiated Patterns of Gun Violence Across Urban Space.” Reginald A. Byron on the daily rhythms of urban shootings.

books:

• “Sentinels of the Color Line?” A.K.M. Skarpelis on Refashioning Race.
• “Medical Prestige Through Collaborative Competition.” Colter J. Uscola on Medical Authority.

policy brief:

• “Beyond ‘YIMBY.’” John N. Robinson III on reimagining affordable housing production.

one thing i know:

• “We Will Survive.” Verta Taylor on persisting in the face of LGBTQ rights retrenchment.