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How Society Works: August 2005
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Essays on human behavior, social institutions, and social problems written by a sociologist who lives in the real world. Sunday, August 21, 2005. Power and Politics in the Culture Wars. Is there some sociological common thread in the Isreali pullout from Gaza and our own culture wars? Our culture war, to give you the soundbite summary, works something like this: What ideas will define our public life and morality? Consider these illustrations of two sides in current debates:. Or, can we merely try to wor...
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How Society Works: April 2006
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Essays on human behavior, social institutions, and social problems written by a sociologist who lives in the real world. Thursday, April 06, 2006. This will probably be my last post on immigration, immigration, reform, or guest worker programs until the next time the topic gets to be popular. This post is about that proposed guest worker program you may have heard about or read about. How do we know what sort of guest worker program would be a good program? And switching to a slightly different subject.
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How Society Works: March 2006
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Essays on human behavior, social institutions, and social problems written by a sociologist who lives in the real world. Thursday, March 30, 2006. This post is more than a shameless attempt to get traffic out of the current debate over immigration reform. No, it really is. I want to draw attention to some of the bigger issues involved with immigration, particularly in the United States. You'll see that much of what I say can apply to any country. 2) Under what circumstances should they be able to stay?
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How Society Works: November 2005
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Essays on human behavior, social institutions, and social problems written by a sociologist who lives in the real world. Tuesday, November 29, 2005. Ideas and Economic Systems III. Where do we get our ideas about the economy, economic equality, capitalism, socialism, communism, big business, and related topics? Are our ideas actually. Ideas and how would we know? Those are the questions of the day. Our friends, family, and coworkers encourage us to go along with ideas that support our economic system....
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How Society Works: May 2006
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Essays on human behavior, social institutions, and social problems written by a sociologist who lives in the real world. Tuesday, May 30, 2006. Political debates, elections, scandals, the mass media, religion, an all sorts of activists spread bad ideas. Last time I wrote about community groups dedicating to fighting this social pollution. This post offers a few more details on the tools and techniques that the groups could use to prevent pollution and clean up polluted areas. Demonstrations - Peaceful pr...
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How Society Works: September 2005
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Essays on human behavior, social institutions, and social problems written by a sociologist who lives in the real world. Friday, September 30, 2005. Social Problems and Ideas. What are the social consequences of ideas? Ideas support both the problems that we perceive in society and the positive aspects of any society. (And you thought everything was the will of the gods I suppose! Anyway, consider some of the general consequences of bad ideas:. So, what are the ideas here? Decision making is rational.
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How Society Works: December 2005
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Essays on human behavior, social institutions, and social problems written by a sociologist who lives in the real world. Friday, December 30, 2005. More of "Business People are Crooks! Last time I mentioned the sources of our (negative) ideas about business people. The reasons why such an idea could develop and take hold are important to understand. We also need to understand the consequences of this perspective on the business world. Several negative consequences of the idea come to mind:. On the plus s...
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How Society Works: February 2006
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Essays on human behavior, social institutions, and social problems written by a sociologist who lives in the real world. Saturday, February 25, 2006. Progess - some Socratic questions. Here are my questions:. 1 Is is really true that scientific progress makes society better? One could argue that practical problem-solving without basic research continues to provide far more value to society than scientific research. 2 Is it really true that technological progress improves society? I'm making the big assum...
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How Society Works: July 2005
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Essays on human behavior, social institutions, and social problems written by a sociologist who lives in the real world. Saturday, July 30, 2005. Let me start with a riddle: Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side, perhaps. No! He crossed the road because the stimuli that permeated his brain compelled him to cross the road at that time. That's a rewording of something I once read in an Introduction to Sociology textbook. So, what really drives human decision making? Second, maybe we ...
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How Society Works: October 2005
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Essays on human behavior, social institutions, and social problems written by a sociologist who lives in the real world. Monday, October 31, 2005. I bet you never thought about the sociological aspects of Halloween. OK, neither had I until late last week. This post reflects my thoughts on the functions that the Halloween festivities serve. Most of the functions involve selling stuff. Did you guess that much on your own? 1 A marketing opportunity for candy makers. 5 Plenty of material for television news.