The Global Sociology Blog

Wasted: 40 Percent of Food | Mother Jones via kwout

Welcome to the waste and garbage society!

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Israel ready to release 1,000 Palestinians for captive soldier | World news | guardian.co.uk via kwout

What social factors determined the “value” of this particular hostage?

The length of time he has been hostage? (Since 2006)
How badly Israel wants him back in one piece because it does not make it look good?
The pressure from the soldier’s family [...]

Via Eric Stoller:

Food Stamp Usage Across the Country – Interactive Map – NYTimes.com via kwout

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When it comes to new technologies of information and communication, one of the common zombie themes that keeps coming back from the dead is that new communication platforms isolate the individual. There is in this debunked argument the underlying assumption that the only authentic form of social interaction, and the deepest one, is the face-to-face [...]

Via Richard Florida on Twitter.
This is how you create a more unequal society… by transferring money directly from the average population to the wealthy at the same time that the practices of said wealthy precarize the conditions of everyone else:

Robert Reich’s Blog: The Housing Crisis and Wall Street Shame via kwout

So much for free market, [...]

How can a town or a city make sure that the sight of homeless people does not offend the good, hard-working citizens? Especially in these bad economic times when there might be more of them hanging around the cities of France? Easy, make it impossible for them to sit down where they normally would, but [...]

Dubai has been in the news a lot these past few days, mostly because it is near bankrupt:

Dubai’s debt shakes world markets – Middle East, World – The Independent via kwout

But when I read this, I was reminded of something else about Dubai:

“When Dawood [Mumbai organized crime hotshot] skipped India for Dubai in 1984, few [...]

Cory Doctorow’s Makers has a lot in common with the previous books I have read from him and the themes developed throughout the stories are also familiar to many regular Doctorow readers. As in previous novels, Doctorow locates his story in a futuristic United States / Western hemisphere where capitalism as we know it has [...]

Since it is Thanksgiving and Americans will be stuffing themselves…
The undernourishment map:

And, its opposite, the “Fat Map” (via Gerardo Marti):

India, the Philippines and Central Africa shrink and North America swells up.

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Via Kieran Healy:

Kieran Healy’s Weblog – The Visual Display of Stupid via kwout

Wow.. just wow

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SOCIOLOGOS – Société! Avez-vous dit société? via kwout

Which seems to have mostly members from Burkina Faso at this point. Check it out or join!

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After my previous post on sport and stigma regarding L’Affaire Henry, commenter Pat wrote the following (bumped from the comments):

“Football is a global business with huge vested interests.What we are looking at in France’s case,via vi Henry, is a commodity brand who generates massive revenue streams,via its lucrative fanbase in Asia and beyond.
It is no [...]

When it comes to new technologies of information and communication, one of the common zombie themes that keeps coming back from the dead is that new communication platforms isolate the individual. There is in this debunked argument the underlying assumption that the only authentic form of social interaction, and the deepest one, is the face-to-face [...]

Both involve the issue of control of women’s lives in the context of patriarchal religion.
First:

Inside the mind of a female suicide bomber | World news | The Observer via kwout

Note the very patriarchal photograph. The article itself is interesting in that it reveals a mix of religious fundamentalism and nationalism. The women themselves may reclaim [...]

Click on the image for a humongous version:

For those of us who keep track of these things, there results are really not surprising but this is a nice and clean explanation of the measures.

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