The Global Sociology Blog

“On Whose Authority”, from their new album , Lucky.

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During the Dirty War in Argentina, that is the period between 1976 and 1983 which corresponds to the military dictatorship of General Jorge Rafael Videla, the military junta found a very convenient way of getting rid of their political opposition and of making sure the next generation would not be a problem. The regime would [...]

Such is the objective of Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as reported in Le Monde.
Amazonie brésilienne : la déforestation s’aggrave
LE MONDE | 29.02.08
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This is a difficult challenge as deforestation has accelerated in the Amazon region since Summer 2007. During that period, 7,000 km2 were deforested to make room for beets, sugar cane [...]

Via Der Spiegel,

“The European Commission on Wednesday levied the biggest fine in its history against Microsoft, penalizing the software company to the tune of €899 million. Microsoft has pledged to mend its ways — again.”

That would be $1.3 billion, give or take a few pennies. Do I detect a touch of skepticism on the part [...]

Via le Monde, the UN Environmental Program (UNEP) fears that overfishing and pollution are threatening the worldwide stock of fish in the decades to come. It is a serious problem considering that 2.6 billion people depend on fish as their major source of proteins.
The UNEP report estimates that climate change is making the situation worse [...]

For his performance in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Mathieu Amalric received the Cesar (French equivalent of the Oscars) for Best Actor. It is well deserved. However, on the day of the ceremony, the actor was in Panama filming the next James Bond film (there’s gonna be an another James Bond film?? Good grief). [...]

Or at least, according to French economist Elie Cohen in le Monde:
Elie Cohen, économiste : “Après la période 1978-1985, nous assistons à une deuxième vague de désindustrialisation en France depuis 2002″
LEMONDE.FR | 18.02.08
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Elie Cohen locates the first wave of deindustrialization between 1978 and 1985 (which cost France one third of its industrial jobs). He [...]

I have a hunch that this sexism series will become a permanent, never-ending feature of this blog. First off, this article from the Guardian, relating to what happens to women’s careers once they have children. It is a familiar story but we need to report on these things as long as they happen.

“For decades mothers [...]

So, Amazon decided to patent error 404, you know when you click on a link and all you get is “HTTP 404 File Not Found”. The exact title of the patent in question is “Error processing methods for providing responsive content to a user when a page load error occurs“. The purpose of the patent [...]

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It seems that every time I read about a new political initiative by Nicholas Sarkozy and his government, it’s something stupid or something stupid AND harmful, or it has to do with our President’s nice temperament. Case in point, the national agriculture fair that takes place every year and where every president is required to [...]

XKCD builds the Bourdieusian field of fruits.

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SNL was on fire last night.

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Just because it’s hilarious.

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According to Liberation, and based on data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the world is rearming at a fast pace, except for countries of the European Union.
The data from SIPRI show that in 2006, countries spent $1,204 billions. That represents a 3.5% increase from 2005 and 2.5% of the world’s GDP. The [...]