Feature

Enduring Dilemmas of Female Celebrity

Today’s tabloids, and their messages, are remarkably similar to the first glossies that appeared in Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” Even the first female film stars were caught between celebration and condemnation as they navigated traditional notions of femininity. Read More

Inside the Wisconsin Occupation

Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker’s “Budget Repair Bill” prompted shock—and a large, coordinated response. The authors offer an insider’s perspective of a social movement for democratic rights, “Wisconsin-style.” Read More

What Gender Is Science?

Looking at science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields across countries challenges the assumption that women in more economically and culturally modern societies enjoy greater equality. Rather, freedom to choose a career may paradoxically cause women in affluent Western democracies to construct and replicate stereotypically gendered self-identities. Read More

Embedded Sociologists

Armed with methodological skills and a healthy sociological imagination, a quarter of advanced-degree holding sociologists find work outside of the ivory tower. Sociology, as a whole, can benefit from increasing support and dialog across the academic/applied divide. Read More

Rethinking American Poverty

Attributing poverty to individual failures cannot explain the mountainous gap between the rich and poor in this country. Instead, the author argues, Americans must realize that structural constraints cause there to be “winners” and “losers.” In the end, we all pay the price for poverty in the U.S. Read More

Sacco and Vanzetti and The Immigrant Threat

The anti-immigrant sentiment in America in the 1920s, exemplified by the case against Sacco and Vanzetti, provides a pertinent reminder of the power of nativism as an establishment faces threatening social changes. Read More

Real Utopias

A “real utopia” isn’t an oxymoron or a figment of the imagination. Erik Olin Wright writes, instead, that real world examples of functioning social alternatives can help us find ways to improve the human condition. When history provides an opportunity to effect such changes, a familiarity with real utopias will provide a roadmap. Read More

Weighty Concerns

Fat stigma and size discrimination are big issues in a culture that’s more and more overweight, but less and less tolerant of obesity. The authors consider how the legal system has regarded these discrimination claims and how they might evolve in the future. Read More

The Roots of American Decline

Using historical comparisons, the author analyzes America’s faltering international power and argues that it will take more than good will and high hopes to save the empire. Read More

Families Facing Untenable Choices

Inflexible employment undermines mothers’ ability to provide family care. Playing by the rules of middle class institutions poses particular challenges for low-income moms. Read More