Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Sociology: A Guide To Action Or To Analysis In The Global Climate Change Crisis? A Call For Action By The Social Sciences And The Humanities, Kim Scipes

Class, Race and Corporate Power

The debate over the purpose of sociological research has historically been one between Marx and Weber: is sociology’s role to analyze society (ala Weber) or to change it (Marx)?

The issue of climate change and environmental destruction is one that has been relegated to the margins of Sociology, being seen as an “environmental” issue. The changes we’ve seen so far, however, show how this has had and is having a major impact on human beings and, at least in the United States, is having a major impact on the culture of the country, both in general and specifically on different …

The Only Commonality Is Uncommonality: Progressive Protest From The Mid-1980s, Globalization From Below, Environmental Devastation, Climate Change, And Questioning Of Industrial Civilization, Kim Scipes

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Noting the extensive number of progressive protests, mobilizations, and social disruption from below since the mid-1980s, not just in the US but around the world, this article suggests that what is going on is the expansion of the global economic and social justice movement, a bottom-up form of globalization. It suggests that this is, ultimately, a rejection of industrial civilization itself. And it points out, through an examination of the effects of climate change, that the continued existence of industrial civilization is imposing a burden on the peoples of the world that far outweighs its benefits, and suggests that protests …

It's Capitalism, Stupid!: The Theoretical And Political Limitations Of The Concept Of Neoliberalism, Bryant William Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This polemical essay explores the meaning and function of the concept of neoliberalism, focusing on the serious theoretical and political limitations of the concept. The crux of the argument is that, for those interested in overcoming the exploitative and oppressively destructive elements of global capitalism, opposing "neoliberalism" (even if best understood as a process or a spectrum of "neoliberalization" or simply privatization) is both insufficient and potentially self-undermining. This article also goes into some detail on the issues of health care and climate change in relation to "neoliberalism" (both conceptually and the material processes and policies that this term refers …