Boy A Analysis John Crowley’s Boy A tests our perceptions of social acceptance of a boy/young man (Eric/Jack) in arrested masculine development who has had few opportunities to properly mature outside of a prison/youth detention culture for fifteen years. Crowley contrasts this vis a vis Jack’s male co-workers and the masculinity of his girlfriend Michelle’s romantic advances as… Read More
Reflections on Giddens Analysis Of Durkheim Anthony Giddens, in Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, reintroduces us to the first self-described sociologist, Emile Durkheim. Giddens, analyses the three areas of importance that Durheim fixated on: 1) He worked to establish sociology as an academic discipline in order to advance his belief that sociology has value and that it should be studied, 2)… Read More
Reflections on Stiglitz’ The Price Of Inequality: Part 2 In chapters 4-7 of The Price of Inequality, Stigitz concentrates on the importance of inequality, the fragility of democracy, influence and propaganda, and the rule of law. Here, he continues to utilize sweeping generalities but fails to analyze those generalities in detail. In fact, he uses some of the same tactics that have been used… Read More
Y Tu Mama Tambien Analysis From the outset, director Alfonso Cuaron tests and questions collective sexual mores and taboos in Y Tu Mama Tamabien, forcing us to question, forcing us to think, forcing us to reevaluate. Full frontal nudity confronts us almost before the opening credits have finished. And given that graphic violence in U.S. media is an accepted norm… Read More
Reflections on Anthony Giddens On Marx Anthony Giddens, in Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, discusses the development and evolution of Karl Marx from a youth to a theorist with Marx analyzing his own time and specific epochs in history to determine what he later determined to be patterns of economic development towards capitalism. Marx’s focus was on three subjects: 1. His… Read More
Reflections on Stiglitz’ The Price Of Inequality: Part 1 In The Price of Inequality, Joseph Stiglitz focuses primarily on the economic and the political, on why the US economic system is failing, rather than other factors that may contribute to inequality. Although he admits to sweeping generalities, his analysis of inequality is probing. His explanation of grievances could be used to explain how a… Read More
An Outline of Bryman’s (2008) Social Research Methods Bryman, A. (2008). Social Research Methods (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA. Some of you may or may not be interested in this, but this was essentially my crash course/note taking in sociology methods. I keep it here for future reference. I may or may not modify it or add to it.… Read More
A Possible Idea For Study From a Friend This site is many things for me. It is a sketch pad for doodles, for fleshing out article ideas, and for suggestions from friends, like this one below. “Yes I watched TV more in those days. In fact there is a channel here that features a lot of the best shows of the 60s and… Read More
Cultural Conditioning Part One At the point I wrote this passage, I was convinced that the subject of propaganda was one which I might be unable to introduce to my academic general public. While I believe that academia is better suited to accept the word on its own terms, I still observe more than subtle indications that the word… Read More