Office Hours

This week we talk with Shamus Khan [1] about his new book Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School [2]. One the one hand, elite social institutions—such as St. Paul’s—have opened up to women and minorities in recent decades, but on the other hand, inequality has increased and wealth is more concentrated now than since the 1920s. What explains this apparent contradiction between increasing openness yet rising inequality? Khan draws on his experiences as a student and then researcher at St. Paul’s to help answer this question. Download Office Hours #16 [3] [1] http://shamuskhan.com/ [2] http://www.amazon.com/Privilege-Adolescent-Princeton-Cultural-Sociology/dp/0691145288 [3] http://files.thesocietypages.org/downloads/OH16_Khan.mp3

Orit Avishai [1] talks about her Fall 2010 Contexts article, Women of God [2]. People often assume that conservative religions are bad for women, but Avishai shows us the ways in which women within fundamentalist religions can have empowering experiences as well. (The audio quality's pretty rough on the interview this time -- sorry about that!) Download Office Hours #15 [3] [1] http://www.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/sociology__anthropol/faculty/avishai_30825.asp [2] http://contexts.org/articles/fall-2010/women-of-god/ [3] http://files.thesocietypages.org/downloads/OH15_Avishai.mp3

This week, Tom O'Connell stops by Office Hours to talk about the history of Hull-House and how to bring community service to the social sciences. O'Connell is the author of Jane Addams's Democratic Journey [1] from the Fall 2010 issue of Contexts. Download Office Hours #14 [2] [1] http://contexts.org/articles/fall-2010/jane-addams-democratic-journey/ [2] http://files.thesocietypages.org/downloads/OH14_OConnell.mp3

This episode we talk with Janet Hankin [1], co-editor of the special issue [2] of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, "What Do We Know? Key Findings from 50 Years of Medical Sociology". We discuss the contributions and insights sociologists have made in the areas of health, illness, and the medical establishment. Topics include the transformation of the health care system in the United States over the past 50 years, and the distinction between the sociology in medicine and the sociology of medicine. Download Office Hours #13 [3] [1] http://www.clas.wayne.edu/faculty/hankin [2] http://hsb.sagepub.com/content/51/1_suppl [3] http://files.thesocietypages.org/downloads/OH13_Hankin.mp3

This episode we talk with Eszter Hargittai [1], from the Communication Studies department at Northwestern University. Popular myth has it that the youth of today are calm, competent masters of the internet, but Hargittai’s research [2] points to significant gaps and inequalities in the level of internet skills possesed by so-called digital natives. What skills are lacking, why does this matter, and what should we do about it? Download Office Hours #12 [3] [1] http://www.eszter.com/ [2] http://www.eszter.com/research/ [3] http://files.thesocietypages.org/downloads/OH12_Hargittai.mp3

This episode, we talk with Keith Hampton [1] about his research on wireless internet and public spaces. Does public wifi encourage a stronger public sphere or diminish public life by encouraging everyone to live inside their own private digital bubble? Hampton argues it’s more complicated than that, and public WiFi can, in fact, encourage many different kinds of social interaction, both online and offline. To learn more about Hampton’s research, check out his Fall 2010 Photo Essay [2] in Contexts, as well as his new article published in the Journal of Communication [3]. Download Office Hours #11! [4] [1] http://www.mysocialnetwork.net/ [2] http://contexts.org/articles/fall-2010/the-social-life-of-wireless-urban-spaces/ [3] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01510.x/abstract [4] http://files.thesocietypages.org/downloads/OH11_Hampton.mp3

This week, Frances Fox Piven [1] stops by Office Hours for a discussion of the impact of labor on the American Left. Topics include labor history, globalization and labor, and the future of labor strikes. Download Office Hours #10! [2] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Fox_Piven [2] http://files.thesocietypages.org/downloads/OH10_Piven.mp3

This episode is kind of an experiment. The Office Hours podcasters are working with Contexts [1] magazine to try something new: an audio reading of the free feature article in the new issue of Contexts, Heroes, Presidents, and Politics [2] by Jeffrey Alexander. If you like what you hear, let us know! This may just be a one time experiment…or not. Download Office Hours #9! [3] [1] http://contexts.org [2] http://contexts.org/articles/fall-2010/heroes-presidents-and-politics/ [3] http://contexts.org/downloads/OH9_Alexander_Audiobook.mp3

This episode, Jesse visits with Robert M. Groves [1], Director of the United States Census Bureau [2]. Topics include why our census takes a full sample and how we pull it off, how we count tough populations like undocumented migrants and the homeless, and controversies over racial identification and the role of the state in the census. Download Office Hours #8! [3] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Groves [2] http://www.census.gov [3] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=66764.mp3

Last week, Juliet Schor [1] visited the U of M campus to give two talks about her new book, Plenitude [2], and her research on values-based consumption. While in town, she sat down with Jesse Wozniak for a great discussion about consumption and sustainability. Download Office Hours #7! [3] [1] http://www.julietschor.org/ [2] http://www.julietschor.org/the-book/ [3] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=65937.mp3

This week, we talk with Jeremy Freese [1] about sociology and genetics. Topics include: why sociology and behavioral genetics need one another, why sociologists have been too hesitant to participate in interdisciplinary research, and how the complexities of gene-environment interdependence are stretching our imaginations as scientists and changing the way we think about causation. If you like what you hear in this episode, this interview is part of an ongoing series on genetics, health, and sociology here at Office Hours. Past guests include Allan Horwitz [2], Peter Conrad [3], and Thomas Bouchard [4], with more on the way! And the Society Page of the Week: ThickCulture's Jose Marchial [5] takes on [6] Malcolm Gladwell's take on [7] Social Networking and Social Movements. Download Office Hours #6 now! [8] [1] http://www.jeremyfreese.com/ [2] http://thesocietypages.org/officehours/2010/01/19/depression-culture-and-genetics/ [3] http://thesocietypages.org/officehours/2010/08/02/peter-conrad-on-the-medicalization-of-everything/ [4] http://thesocietypages.org/officehours/2009/11/17/genes-behavior-and-science/ [5] http://www.callutheran.edu/schools/cas/faculty_profile.php?major_id=97&profile_id=163 [6] http://thesocietypages.org/thickculture/2010/10/11/facebook-does-not-promote-activism-so-what/ [7] http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all [8] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=65129.mp3

This episode we talk with Bryant Simon, author of the Summer 2010 Contexts culture review, Depression Chic — Shopping Our Way To Recovery [1]. Topics include "inconspicuous conspicuous consumption", the politics of depression in the 1930s and today, Simon's book Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks [2], and what historians and sociologists can learn from one another. [gallery link="file" columns="3"] Also, Sarah awards The Society Page of the Week to A Public Display of Emotion [3] from Citings & Sightings. Download Office Hours #5! [4] [1] http://contexts.org/articles/summer-2010/depression-chic-shopping-our-way-to-recovery/ [2] http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520261068 [3] http://thesocietypages.org/citings/2010/09/12/a-public-display-of-emotion/ [4] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=62527.mp3

This episode: Pepper Schwartz [1] on baby boomers and sex, her contribution to the dating site PerfectMatch.com [2], and her views on doing relevant research. (Thanks to Tim Ortyl [3] and Kia Heise [4] for conducting the interview. An edited version [5] appears in the Summer 2010 issue of Contexts [6].) And the Society Page of the Week: Don't Worry, Be Happy (When You Are Older) [7] on Citings & Sightings [8]. Download Office Hours #4 now! [9] [1] http://faculty.washington.edu/couples/ [2] http://perfectmatch.com [3] http://www.soc.umn.edu/people/gradprofile.php?UID=ortyl001 [4] http://www.soc.umn.edu/people/gradprofile.php?UID=heis0081 [5] http://contexts.org/articles/summer-2010/pepper-schwartz-and-the-sociology-of-sex/ [6] http://contexts.org [7] http://thesocietypages.org/citings/2010/08/24/don%e2%80%99t-worry-be-happy-when-you-are-older/ [8] http://thesocietypages.org/citings/ [9] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=61562.mp3

Elizabeth Wissinger [1], author of the Spring 2010 Contexts Culture Review, The Top Model Life [2], tells us how the modeling world fits into the sociological world through marxism, beauty, technology and the commodification of culture. Also, the Society Page of the Week: Text Messaging Trends [3] on Graphic Sociology [4]. Download Office Hours #3 now! [5] [1] http://www1.bmcc.cuny.edu/faculty/fp.jsp?f=ewissinger [2] http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2010/the-top-model-life/ [3] http://thesocietypages.org/graphicsociology/2010/08/18/text-messaging-infographic-pewinternet-data/ [4] http://thesocietypages.org/graphicsociology/ [5] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=60904.mp3

Linda J. Waite [1], author of Sexuality Has No Expiration Date [2] from the Summer 2010 issue of Contexts, separates the facts from the myths and stereotypes about sexuality and aging. Also: Jesse picks the first Society Page of the Week: A Tale of Two Simulacra: Market Meets Jersey Shore [3] by Brooke Harrington [4] on Economic Sociology [5]. Download Office Hours #2 now! [6] [1] http://sociology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/waite.shtml [2] http://contexts.org/articles/summer-2010/sexuality-has-no-expiration-date/ [3] http://thesocietypages.org/economicsociology/2010/07/29/a-tale-of-two-simulacra-market-meets-jersey-shore/ [4] http://thesocietypages.org/officehourswww.brookeharrington.com [5] http://thesocietypages.org/economicsociology/ [6] http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/download.php.mp3?orig=60034.mp3