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In foreground, a sign posted on a lawn reads "Do not play in the dirt or around the mulch - EPA." In background is a child's pink three-wheeled riding toy.

Truly Toxic

November 1, 2017

Environmental regulation is undergoing radical changes, posing a direct threat to America’s health and potentially deepening inequality.  Since the spring of 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed sharp cuts in the testing of children for lead exposure, and the Interior Department directed the National Academy of Sciences to cease studying the health effects of a common mining technique that deposits toxic minerals in ground waters.  Meanwhile, recent investigative reports have documented that the appointment of top regulators with conflicting business interests at the EPA continues apace. ... Read more about Truly Toxic

Headshot of Bart Bonikowski, Assistant Professor of Sociology.

The Mobilization of Resentment: Making Sense of Populism, Nationalism, and Authoritarianism in the United States and Europe

September 7, 2017

Scholarly and journalistic accounts of the recent successes of radical-right candidates and parties in Europe and the United States tend to conflate three phenomena: populism, nationalism, and authoritarianism. While all three are relevant features of contemporary politics, they are neither coterminous nor limited to the political right. This lack of analytical clarity has hindered explanations of the causes and consequences of radicalism on both sides of the Atlantic. In a new project that builds on his past empirical research, Bart Bonikowski draws analytical distinctions between populism, nationalism, and authoritarianism, theorizes their elective affinities, and examines their shifting prevalence over the past three decades, both in political discourse and public attitudes.... Read more about The Mobilization of Resentment: Making Sense of Populism, Nationalism, and Authoritarianism in the United States and Europe

Viterna Team

Examining the Unintended Consequences of Social Mobilization

August 9, 2017

We tend to think of social movements as promoters of social change, but might they also be key agents in maintaining—and even reinforcing—the status quo? Harvard professor Jocelyn Viterna, with graduate student Bo Yun Park and undergraduate students Quinn Sluzenski, Enya Huang, and Bryant Park, are examining hundreds of press releases from 10 oppositional “pairs” of U.S. social movements (e.g., gun rights vs gun control, anti-abortion rights vs pro-abortion rights, etc) to examine this question. Building from existing social movement theory, our team hypothesizes that all social movements incorporate culturally resonant “tethers” into their calls for social change. ... Read more about Examining the Unintended Consequences of Social Mobilization

We are sicker when we live in stingier societies

March 2, 2017

People living in the United States today live lives that are sicker and end earlier than people living in other high-income countries.  The facts are described in two recent reports [https://www.nap.edu/catalog/13497/us-health-in-international-perspective-shorter-lives-poorer-health and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK62369/] sponsored by the National Academy of Science. Jason Beckfield has joined sociologists, demographers, and epidemiologists in ongoing efforts to explain the growing US health disadvantage, and he recently published a new study in Social Science & Medicine that shows US life expectancy would be approximately 3-5 years longer if the US were not a social policy laggard.

... Read more about We are sicker when we live in stingier societies

Ya-Wen Lei

The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China

January 5, 2017

Conventional wisdom imagines political life in authoritarian contexts to be bleak and suffocating, and popular understandings of China are no exception. Nonetheless, since the mid-2000s, a nationwide contentious public sphere has developed in China—providing an unprecedented forum for Chinese citizens to influence the public agenda and demand government accountability.

... Read more about The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China

Michele Lamont

Culture and Inequality through Various Prisms

September 1, 2016

This August, Michèle Lamont began a term as the 108th President of the American Sociological Association. This honor came with a number of responsibilities, including organizing the 2017 ASA Annual Meeting. She chose as a theme “Culture, Inequalities, and Social Inclusion across the Globe.” Participants can look forward to plenary sessions on topics such as “Dignity, Morality, and the Bridging of Group Boundaries,” “The Politics of Distribution and Recognition,” “The Pursuit of Inclusion through Law, Policies, and Narratives,” and much more.... Read more about Culture and Inequality through Various Prisms

Rethinking Age Period Cohort Models

Rethinking Age Period Cohort Models

May 31, 2016

No issue has been more contested in social science methodology than whether it is possible, with realistic assumptions, to estimate the separate effects of age, period, and cohort (APC) variables on social change. For example, over time the U.S. population has become increasingly alienated with the federal government. However, this could be due to a changing age distribution, period effects such as recessions, or cohort replacement with more recent birth cohorts being more alienated.... Read more about Rethinking Age Period Cohort Models