Spring 2013
Volume: 12 | Number: 2
Immigration Reform
The phrase immigration reform has been around since the early history of the country, and its meaning varies according to different social perspectives of whether to admit more immigrants or limit their numbers. Sociologist Nestor Rodríguez argues that while immigration reform may open the door for some new immigrants, invariably it keeps other immigrants out, sometimes because of restrictive regulations adopted by the administering government agencies. Read More
Aging Trends in Homeless Populations
Longitudinal data suggests that the single adult homeless population is going through a demographic transition, where the overall population is aging but there are indications that a younger cohort may be emerging. Scholars Dennis P. Culhane, Stephen Metraux, Thomas Byrne, Magdi Stino, and Jay Bainbridge argue that interventions at both ends of this transition: housing the aging and increasingly infirm elements of this population while diverting at-risk younger populations from homelessness, have the potential to make a lasting reduction in this population. Read More
Transnational Gender Vertigo
Sociologist Kimberly Kay Hoang explores sex work and international migration, how sex workers-turned-wives become breadwinners. Read More
On the Wings of a Fantasy
Sociologist Timothy McGettigan argues that science is the most effective means ever invented to transform fantasies into reality. He discusses how DARPA stimulates scientific progress by challenging scientists to pursue fantasies, and nowhere is this better illustrated than in the 100 Year Starship project. Read More
Arab Winter
Without meaningful checks on their power, rulers have stepped up harassment of activists. Read More
Reproducing the Nation
Sociologist Özlem Altıok discusses the recent efforts to further restrict abortion in Turkey. She argues that these efforts are part of an effort to manage the population by disciplining women's fertility under a new “reproductive governmentality.” Read More
Breaking Barriers to Climate Justice
Sociologists John Foran and Richard Widick explore the nature of the current global impasse on climate change negotiations, and argue that an emerging alliance among progressive nations and climate justice movements, and especially youth, offers grounds for cautious optimism. Read More
Walking Like A Man
SlutWalk marches have emerged to protest the blaming of women for their own sexual assault. Sociologists Kristen Barber and Kelsy Kretschmer consider the different ways men participate in SlutWalk, and how their participation at times both supports and undermines the feminist goals of the event. Read More
Marx on Finance
Fredric Jameson’s new reading of Marx’s Capital, vol. 1 uses Marx’s account of the accumulation of capital in the form of producer goods to argue that a rising rate of structural unemployment is a fundamental tendency of capitalism as Marx understood, thereby challenging a “workerist” view of how Marx though capitalism could eventually end. Scholar Robert Meister argues that Jameson fails to grasp the role financial thinking in Marx’s account of the dual role of producer goods as both means of production and financial assets, and uses this account to sketch a view of the role of financial asset markets in production that builds on a Marxian foundation. Read More
Clear Thinking in a Topsy-Turvy World
Weather patterns change, national borders blur, and violence makes its way into normally placid classrooms. Spring has turned rapidly to winter in the Arab world, … Read More
