Contexts

sociology for the public

Summer 2013

Volume: 12 | Number: 3

This issue explores suburban fight clubs, veterans struggling with mental health, and ex-offenders struggling to re-enter society. Also: viewpoints on charter schools, Linsanity, the rise of the “illegal alien” and marriage equality support among black gays and lesbians.

Coming Home To Friendly Fire

In an age of ongoing military conflict, more and more veterans survive battle wounds only to find they return home to face psychological wounds. Why aren't they seeking the mental health services offered by the Veterans' Association and other groups? Read More

Dinner With Bruce

Journalist Sabine Heinlein explores the difficulties of post-incarceration reentry through discussions with a recently released convict. Read More

Challenges of Prisoner Re-entry

Criminologist Charis Kubrin explains the big--and problematic--picture for those who have served their time, but will now be put to new tests on the outside. Read More

Atlanta and Other Olympic Losers

Cities launch major campaigns to convince the International Olympic Committee to grace them with a staging of the Summer or Winter Games, and they spare no expense in readying their cities for the events. But will the promise of tourist riches and urban improvements pan out once the Olympic torch passes to the next host city? Read More

Django Unchained, Voyeurism Unleashed

In his latest shock-fest, director Quentin Tarantino cloaks a revenge fantasy in a redemptive slave story and leaves a bad taste in one sociologist's mouth. Read More

Burley

Hannah Scott's family legacy is its tobacco farm. In this communal work, they find history and hope for a future. She captures their work in a loving photo essay. Read More

Schooling Elites

Lisa M. Stulberg reviews two new books on education and the creation of each new generation of American elites: Shamus Rahman Khan's Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School, and Amy J. Binder and Kate Wood's Becoming Right: How Campuses Shape Young Conservatives. Read More

The New Class War

Jeff Manza reviews three recent books and their takes on the coming (or current) class war so many believe is tearing America apart: Charles Murray's Coming Apart: The State of White America, Timothy Noah's The Great Divergence: America’s Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It, and Christopher Hayes's Twilight of the Elites: After Meritocracy. Read More

Teaching Each Other To Teach

Academia talks a good game about valuing classroom charisma, but the real focus for professors remains on research production and publication. How, then, are graduate students to learn how to teach? Students share their experiences in wading into the deep end of the lecture hall. Read More

Neoliberalism

Johanna Bockman unpacks a hefty term, neoliberalism. She cites its roots and its uses, decoding it as a description of a ""bootstraps"" ideology that trumpets individualism and opportunity but enforces conformity and ignores structural constraints. Read More