Category: Uncategorized
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Don’t Look Up (2021): Blame, Change, and Social Forces
When “We tried” is not good enough. In a way, the asteroid in Netflix’s dark comedy Don’t Look Up absolves everyone of blame — no one caused the asteroid to appear and no one put it on a path towards Earth. Minus blame, we can skip needless recriminations and jump directly to…
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Knowledge gap and examples
Researchers often talk about the “knowledge gap.” What is the “knowledge gap?” This post explains what the “knowledge gap” is and provides examples from the social sciences. See also At a glance… What is the knowledge gap? The knowledge gap is the space between what we know and what we…
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How to write the results section of a research article in the social sciences
When you analyze data, your readers will want to know the results. But, you have lots of data and lots of analyses. How can we best write the results section of an empirical research article in the social sciences? Articles on writing empirical research articles in the social sciences Some…
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Local Data and Upstream Reporting as Sources of Error in the Covid 19 Undercount
The growth, stability, and decline in cases and mortality due to Covid 19 are generally based on administrative data that various people and organizations collect, harmonize, and aggregate. Many data providers have made their data available in machine-readable form for public scrutiny with an intention to guide policy-makers and educate…
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Socioeconomic Status: Definition and Measurement
What is socioeconomic status? Socio-economic status (SES) refers to a specific configuration of material conditions — income, education, and occupational prestige — that impact how people think and behave. In this post, we discuss how social scientists, particularly sociologists and psychologists, define and measure socioeconomic status (SES). We focus on…
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Does Going Abroad Boost Your Income and Help Your Career?
As a small world gets smaller, employers across the US and Europe are looking for that “international experience” element in the resumes of job applicants. Does going abroad, even for a little while, give you an edge in the job market? Working or living abroad gives people skills and knowledge…
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Visual Sociology and Artificial Intelligence: AI Images of Society
Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to transform society in terms of work, economy, politics, and culture. As these changes seem inevitable, people become increasingly concerned over the ethics of AI, and more and more sociologists are studying the potential impacts of AI on society. In this post, we examine how…
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Marxist and Neo-Marxist Theories of Social Stratification
Why does social stratification exist? Karl Marx had a Theory Karl Marx, a social and economic thinker in the 19th century, had a theory of how societies are organized and why inequality exists. His powerful theories inspired the Communist revolutions in Russia and China, and eventually in Eastern Europe and…
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Basic Sociology Concepts: Social Stratification and Inequality
What are the basic sociology concepts in social stratification and inequality? To understand basic sociological theories in social stratification and inequality, we must first understand basic concepts in this field. This post presents definitions of basic sociology concepts and concepts related to inequality and social stratification. It is based on…
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What can we learn about society and sociology from very old textbooks? Not much.
In sociology, the concept of society is fundamental. It is a concept that every sociology student, and simply everyone, should think about. But what is society in sociology? And can we learn it from very old sociology textbooks? In this post, I attempt to answer these questions with the work…
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Sociology Blogs in 2022
What are sociology blogs? Sociology blogs are typically short-form online writing by professional sociologists. Many blogs are about particular topics, such as political inequality, or economic sociology, and so on. Some are general interest sites, such as Everyday Sociology and The Sociology Place. What sociology blogs are still around in…
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What is Power? What is a Power Structure?
To define a power structure, we must first define power. Power has many definitions: Power is a relationship We must understand that power is a relationship. Power as a social relationship has two main “agents:” the principal and the subaltern. In this relationship the principal wields power that affects the…
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The Rise of Big Data and Computational Social Science in Sociology
In this post, we examine the rise of big data and computational social science in sociology. Many sociologists complain about quantification Academics (on Twitter and elsewhere) often loudly complain about metrics — the quantification of their production, including impact factor, citations, and “points” that universities and other academic institutions, as…
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Racial Discrimination in US Housing: Evidence from the 2000 HUD Study
Racial discrimination is in the real estate market Clearly, there is such discrimination. But how do we know if the discrimination is due to race, or some other factor? The key is to isolate the racial factors from all other possibilities. This can best be done through studies and experiments. …
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The Interactionist View of Power and Inequality
What is Power? Sociologists typically cite Weber in defining power as the capacity a person or a group has to realize their will despite the resistance of others (Weber 1946). Whether power is a capacity of one actor to change the behavior of another (Dahl 1961) or is a relationship…
The Sociology Place 