Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Buying Racial Capital: Skin-Bleaching And Cosmetic Surgery In A Globalized World, Margaret Hunter
Buying Racial Capital: Skin-Bleaching And Cosmetic Surgery In A Globalized World, Margaret Hunter
Sociology
The merging of new technologies with old colonial ideologies has created a context where consumers can purchase "racial capital" through skin-bleaching creams or cosmetic surgeries. The use of skin-bleaching creams is on the rise throughout Africa and the African Diaspora and cosmetic surgery has increased dramatically among people of color in wealthy countries. Public discourse, however, is fraught with tension over these manipulations of the body. This paper examines three competing discourses: 1) the beauty discourse, based on the mass-marketing of cosmetic whitening products, 2) the public health discourse, designed to dissuade potential skin-bleachers by exposing health risks and 3) …
Homelessness And The Mobile Shelter System: Public Transportation As Shelter, Laura Nichols, Fernando Cázares
Homelessness And The Mobile Shelter System: Public Transportation As Shelter, Laura Nichols, Fernando Cázares
Sociology
Those without housing often use public space differently than those who are housed. This can cause dilemmas for and conflicts among public officials as guardians of public space and goods. In this paper, we look at one such utilisation of space from the perspective of those who board 24-hour public transportation routes and ride the bus all night for shelter. We describe the results of a preliminary survey, observations and informal conversations with unhoused riders on the bus over three nights in one county in the United States. We found that a substantial number of the unhoused riders we surveyed …
New Fieldsites, New Methods: New Ethnographic Opportunities, Laura Robinson, Jeremy Schulz
New Fieldsites, New Methods: New Ethnographic Opportunities, Laura Robinson, Jeremy Schulz
Sociology
As the rapid rate of the adoption and normative use of information technologies accelerates, sociologists must expand the sociological imagination to explore a host of questions related to mediated communication. From Twitter to YouTube, the media convergence anticipated at the close of the millennium is coming into being. Blogs, vlogs, Web browsing, e-mail, and old time television, radio, and phone are all increasingly accessible via digital technologies. Furthermore, not only can we consume these digital media, but we can now produce them easily and quickly. Yet, sociological methods have not kept pace with the profound changes in communication ensuing from …