Sociological meanderings toward collective well-being. — I’ve been thinking a lot about relationships. In particular, my thoughts keep circling back to our narrow cultural framework for making sense of love and intimacy. I was driving home from work recently, and my brain detected sudden movement. I automatically looked into my rearview mirror and had just a…

Sociological meanderings towards collective well-being. — I was reading a book the other day and the author was talking about something she calls “speck syndrome,” which is basically how an individual human makes sense of their relationship to historical time. I also recently read Oliver Burkeman’s book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. Burkeman reminds…

Sociological Meanderings Towards Collective Well-Being — We all strive to “be ourselves” and “find ourselves” throughout our lives. We have all called someone else “fake,” knowing the insult, and hope that it never gets hurled at us. We — at least currently — learn this from the United States cultural context of individualism, which prizes individuality…

Sociological Theories of Gender — Sociologists who study gender have gone through an ongoing process of empirical research and theoretical discussions that explore the etiology of gender as a social phenomenon. These theories are important to learn because they inform not just sociological thinking but public discourse, public policy, and personal identity (and the intersection…

Sociological Meanderings Towards Collective Well-Being — Capitalism is an economic system that is organized around three main dynamics: Private property Competitive market Profit growth Though each of these dynamics is central — and in particular, in the ways in which they interact — the treadmill of production is rooted in the last feature: GROWTH. Capitalism is…

A letter to my local representative in the midst of a drought. — Note: A Sample Essay/Letter for an Assignment in Introduction to Sociology; also, a letter that will be emailed to a specific person/town, but whose name remains anonymous for the internet. Dear Council Woman Whose Name Shall Remain Anonymous, I am writing to you as a resident of this village who…

Sociological Meanderings Towards Collective Well-Being — “What about all the positive attributes of people, of society?” This is a common question that I entertain when teaching Sociology. Recently I had a guest speaker come to class: a Fulbright scholar from Pakistan who specializes in sociological gender studies. I asked her to speak about the impact of…

Sociological meanderings towards collective well-being. — For Thanksgiving, my wife and I drove to Colorado to spend the holiday with my parents. It had been over five years since the last time we did that drive; fifteen hours in the car, most of the time spent on I-80 through Iowa and Nebraska. …

What we can learn about Democracy from the “Power and Control Wheel” — Stories like these are becoming much more common: Students sue Wentzville, Missouri, over school book bans targeting 'racial or sexual minorities' Two students are suing the Wentzville School District after it removed multiple books from school libraries. Last…www.kcur.org With Rising Book Bans, Librarians Have Come Under Attack Caustic fights over which books belong on the shelves have put librarians at the center of a bitter and widening…www.nytimes.com