Feature

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

Autism, Through a Social Lens

Though sometimes reluctant to study genetic disabilities, sociologists are beginning to make important contributions to both public and medical understandings of autism. New understandings of … Read More

Explaining and Eliminating Racial Profiling

The emancipation of slaves is a century-and-a-half in America’s past. Many would consider it ancient history. Even the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the … Read More

Sociologists as Outliers

When the American public wants to understand social behavior, they turn to economists instead of sociologists. In order to regain their place in the public … Read More

Sociology Finds Discrimination in the Law

Correction: the print edition of this article contains a typo on page 31. The diversity management industry is an estimated $8 billion industry, not $8 … Read More

A Matter of Degrees

Americans value few things more than a college degree. But what exactly do they do for people? Although college graduates have higher incomes, the reasons … Read More

Rating the Rankings

As an online special, we’re making this article available in its entirety. You may choose to read either the html version or a PDF … Read More