Contexts

sociology for the public

In Pictures

Nuanced, visual explorations of sociological themes.

Hope in the Sweatshops of Buenos Aires

We went into La Salada, Latin America’s largest marketplace for low-cost garments, with a clear idea of what the word “sweatshop” meant: deplorable working conditions, … Read More

Photographs of the Mind

Blind folks taking photographs? It may seem unbelievable, but members of the Seeing With Photography Collective have been making pictures for close to 20 years. Read More

The Sadness of the Border Wall

It took two days on the bus for Catalina Cespedes and her husband Teodolo Torres to get from their hometown in Puebla—Santa Monica Cohetzala—to Tijuana. Read More

Babes in Bikeland

In Minneapolis, an annual “alleycat” bike race has become a powerful tool to educate and celebrate gender diversity in the cycling community. Read More

Bonfires of Belfast

Six years ago, I started a project about two annual events in Belfast, Northern Ireland: the Loyalist bonfires of Eleventh Night and the Orange Order … Read More

Mumbai Sleeping

Draped over motorbikes and curled up on curbs, finding rest in urban india. Read More

A Resistance Dance

All photos and text © David Bacon, 2015. The Spaniards conquered the Zapotecs of the central valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico, almost 500 years ago, in … Read More

Oyler School Against the Odds

Drive west from downtown Cincinnati, over the railroad tracks that snake beneath the 8th Street Viaduct, and you’ll find a little slice of Appalachia, nestled … Read More

Same Trailer, Different Park

I’m in my Florida room inside the Silver Sands Mobile Home Court. It is a linoleum-floored, screened in porch that runs the length of my … Read More

12,906 Days

Wrongfully convicted at 18, Michael Ustaszewski was paroled from prison six weeks shy of his 54th birthday. Sociologist Melissa Sheridan Embser-Herbert documents his experience reentering society after over 35 years behind bars. Read More