Social problems—issues that negatively affect social groups, like poverty and racial discrimination—drive sociological inquiry. Sociologists trade in stories of the downtrodden, inequities between rich and poor, and institutional failures. We classify groups beleaguered by these problems with labels like “the disadvantaged,” “the poor,” and “the at-risk.” Yet, this primary focus on problems distorts and misrepresents ..read more

Millennials are widely assumed to be economically worse off than Baby Boomers. Explanations range from the younger generation’s experience of precarious employment, rises in cohabiting and single parenthood, and even their alleged overconsumption of avocado toast. At the same time, Millennial billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Bankman-Fried have accrued early fortunes in fields such as tech and finance. So, are Millennials really the first generation to fare worse than their parents?So, are Millennials really the first generation to fare worse than their parents? A new study published i ..read more

Barbie, the 2023 film directed by Greta Gerwig, broke records as the first billion-dollar blockbuster solely directed by a woman. Why are females in cinematic leadership roles so scarce? Film to date has largely been built through the eyes and minds of men, with only 2-6% (according to prior research) of all films at any time being led by female cinematographers and teams. Pete Jones and colleagues took a network analysis approach to investigating the make-up of cinematic teams in a recently published paper in Social Networks. The network data for this study comes from a database of nine years ..read more

As the rich get richer, as the old saying goes, we might expect their political influence to expand. This logic, however, assumes that elites believe in political solutions—an assumption that a recent study by Finnish sociologists Hanna Kuusela and Anu Kantola calls into question. Indeed, even in one of the most progressive liberal democracies in the world, we see the rich get richer and more cynical of democracy. Published in the British Journal of Sociology, the article draws on 90 interviews with Finland’s wealth elite to examine how this small, extremely powerful segment of society views t ..read more

COVID-19 campus closures in March 2020 led many—but not all—college students to move back in with their parents. Why did some students return home while others did not? I’ve spent much of the past four years researching an answer to this question. The COVID-19 campus closures have held my interest because they offer a unique window into students’ and parents’ taken-for-granted understandings of their roles, the nature of adulthood, and who to turn to in times of crisis. In a new study published in Socius, my collaborators Arielle Kuperberg, Joan Maya Mazelis, and I set out to understand the pa ..read more

On February 22, 2024, Darryl George received the verdict that his barrel-rolled locs were not protected by the CROWN Act. A high school student in Texas, George faced multiple academic suspensions for violating his school district’s grooming policy. The CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), which prohibits race-based hair discrimination in employment, education, federally assisted programs, housing, and public accommodations, was signed into Texas law last September. However, it makes no specific reference to hair length. Thus, the judge ruled that the dress code i ..read more

How has California managed to enact America’s “strongest” climate laws when confronted with a “fragmented system of government with multiple veto points,” a dynamic landscape of interest groups, and a weighty presence of fossil fuel industry? In a paper published in Social Forces, Andrew Jaeger explores the collaboration between Silicon Valley and the state of California, aiming to find answers to questions that transcend state boundaries and environmental constraint. By examining a multi-faceted dataset that includes archived newsletters, reports, position papers, and field research, Jaeger r ..read more

“Families feel like they need to prepare for the worst,” says Dr. Katherine Johnson, author of the Contexts feature “Navigating the Invisibility and Hypervisibility of Mixed-Race Families.” In this interview with Contexts graduate student editor Colter Uscola, Johnson discusses her research with Black-White mixed-race families and how mothers and fathers approach the racial erasure and surveillance their families attract when going about their daily lives. She also speaks to the relevance of Contexts as a hybrid publication, written by academics but for the general public, noting how it fits ..read more

Do you remember the headlines from the 1980s featuring courageous Chinese students fighting for democracy in Tiananmen Square? Fast forward a couple of decades and these images have all but disappeared from American news media. What changed? I set out to answer this question through computational text analysis. Analyzing more than 1,500 American news articles spanning four decades, I uncovered a significant shift in the portrayal of Chinese student migrants by U.S. news media. Once depicted as pro-democracy heroes who sought political asylum in the United States, Chinese student migrants now t ..read more

Reaching broader publics? Yeah, we do that. Amin is in Amsterdam and London on a European book tour for Long Live Queer Nightlife. He is racking up reviews on both sides of the pond, including in The New York Times. Meanwhile, Malcolm Gladwell endorsed Seth’s new book (co-authored with Anna Mueller) about youth suicide clusters, Life Under Pressure. The trio are hosting an event at the 92nd Street Y in New York, a world-class community center where people can connect through the arts, culture, and conversation. We preach and practice the mission of public engagement that motivates our magazine ..read more