Since there has been a lot in the news about the budget deal and food stamps, I thought it might be worthwhile to have some data to inform the discussion. This is the Federal Government’s page on eligibility for food stamps (SNAP) before any changes were made. The maximum income after deductions (for child care […]
Here is an interesting op-ed in the New York Times about unemployment insurance. It examines some of the economic assumptions behind the value of unemployment insurance and issues it may create in the labor market. It clearly examines the outcomes that we are worried about – that people on unemployment insurance will not want to […]
I just ran into this story about an extreme norm violation. This is news because the violation is so unthinkable to us. In fact, we have declared public nudity illegal and she was charged accordingly. This kind of violation is so uncommon because this is one of our most deeply enforced norms, although it is […]
My introduction to sociology classes have been looking at class mobility the past couple of weeks. As I result, I have been looking more intensely at class mobility the past couple of weeks. I ran into a very thoughtful series of reports about the realities of mobility in the U.S. from the Pew Charitable Trust’s […]
A sociologist from my old department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amy Schalet, has completed a comparative study of Dutch and American attitudes towards teen sexuality. I haven’t read the book yet, but there was an interesting interview in Salon, an online magazine. The basic upshot of her research is that families in the […]
My introductory sociology classes have been looking at statistics. This made me think about how we represent income in the U.S. News stories often just report “average” income without defining what that means. The Census released a new report on Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance on September 13. Their press release states that median income […]
Berkshire Community College’s sociologists will be blogging here regularly. There is much in the world that can be connected to sociology. This blog gives us a place to bring together our commentary on current issues, resources, and ideas that connect to what we do in the classroom. We will be kicking the blog off at […]
