Feature

Turkey, Islam, and the EU

Contrary to the "clash of civilizations" thesis, social scientists have found that Islam and democracy are not inherently in conflict. Controversy over Turkey's application to the European Union highlights how concerns over cultural difference impact EU policy decisions. Despite claims to the contrary, Turkey is more similar to Europe than many assume. Read More

Breastfeed At Your Own Risk

The cultural ideal that "breast is best" has fueled an increase in the breastfeeding rate among mothers in the U.S. since the 1970s. Many mothers, especially those who are white and middle-class, experience pressure to be "good mothers," including the imperative to breastfeed their children. Despite this, breastfeeding rates vary by race and class, and the scientific evidence for breastfeeding's superiority is murky. This article questions whether recommendations and policies that encourage breastfeeding lead to undue guilt and stress for mothers in the U.S. Read More

Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids

Fathers have a greater impact on the health of their children than most of us realize. Research from sociology and other fields has shown that men's attitudes and behavior have both direct and indirect effects on their kids' health. Factors influencing their children's health included the men's reproductive health, risky employment, masculine ideals of body image, and care-giving roles. Given the potential for men to influence children's health for better or for worse, efforts are needed to educate and encourage fathers to engage in healthier behaviors. Read More

Facts and Fictions About An Aging America

Sociologists and others studying aging in the U.S. uncover myths that dominate public perceptions of the elderly. Educating our society about the facts on aging is a necessary step to ensure that future policies will promote a more equitable and productive America for all ages. Read More

Sociology and the Gene

A new generation of sociologists are using genetic data to advance sociological research, leaving behind age-old assumptions about the opposition of nature v. nurture. Geneticists have learned that the social environment often interacts with genetic factors and may even be able to alter genes Read More

Tax Myths

In recent years, social scientists have devoted greater attention to empirical study of taxes&emdash;how they operate, what effects they have, how the public perceives them. As it turns out, a number of things citizens and policymakers think they know about taxation are wrong. This article exposes and explains some of those myths. Read More

Safe At Home

We’re more likely to hear about crime than experience it firsthand. Social scientists are coming to appreciate how profoundly this fact is impacting beliefs about crime and shaping the way we live in the United States. The research suggests fear of crime is driving us out of the public square and into our homes, and may contribute to both public and scholarly concerns about declining social capital. Read More

Hoops and Wheels

Because disability sports are segregated from able-bodied sports, they’re typically relegated to second-class status, as if only “natural” bodies play natural sports and “unnatural” bodies play unnatural sports. A closer look at the sport of wheelchair basketball suggests new conceptions of sport and bodies may be in order. Read More

When Markets Become Contentious

Protests against corporations, industries, and markets themselves have been especially evident in recent years, especially those demanding product recalls, urging more equitable hiring policies, or challenging the morality of a company. This article explains what such protests can and can’t achieve. Read More

A Sociology of Bubbles

A re-examination of the recent economic meltdown reveals not only the institutional roots of the collapse but the social foundations of markets themselves. Three aspects of the collapse seem particularly amenable to sociological analysis: bond-rating agencies and how they “know” what they think they know; the social networks and personal connections that encourage “herding” among financial elites; and the political consequences of recent transformations in investment. Striking in all this is the contrast between the massive scale of the global finance system and the concentrated, tight-knit nature of the financial community that helped create it. Read More