Sociology of Culture Commons^™

"At The Very Beginning, There's This Dream." The Role Of Utopia In The Workings Of Local And Cryptocurrencies, Diane-Laure Arjalies

Business Publications

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the number of alternative currencies aiming at transforming global financial institutions, such as local and complementary currencies (LCC) and cryptocurrencies, has exploded. Yet the motivations and workings of such monies are relatively unknown. This chapter aims to fill this gap by providing a framework that uncovers the ideals pursued by alternative currencies, and the effects of those ideals on the production of money. To do so, I present a comparative analysis of the valuation infrastructure – the processes through which value(s) is produced – of one LCC, Sol Violette, and three cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ğ1 …

The Association Between Family Income And Adults’ Attitudes On Whether The Government Should Help The Poor, Emily Malloy

Honors Projects

This research examines whether people in different social classes have varying views on whether the government should help the poor and whether that depends on political affiliation. Income inequality has become a greater problem in the U.S. in recent decades. This means that the poor could require more assistance and it is important to know if the public thinks the government should help the poor. Knowing what influences public opinion on this issue could help policy makers make informed decisions about whether the government should help the poor. Data from the 2008 (N=2,023) and 2018 (N=2,348) General Social Survey (GSS) …

The Constitution And The Tennô – A Trial, Ernst Lokowandt

Japanese Society and Culture

For some time now, I have been thinking about the role of the Tennô versus the Constitution. The religious activities of the Tennô, be it the places of ceremonies, the succession ceremonies, or the yearly ceremonies, are according to most of the constitutional scholars, against the constitution. The present day chaos was made by the GHQ, who at the same time as arranging for the separation of religion and state they also held fast to the Emperor, in order to minimize the number of occupation soldiers and to institute the indirect occupation of Japan. The Emperor fell in between these …

Book Review: The Third Pillar: How Markets And The State Leave The Community Behind, George Morrow

Essays in Education

Rajan, Raghuram (2019). The Three Pillars: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind. New York: Penguin.

Mr. Rajan explains the success and failure of societies through the interrelationship of three social sciences (what he calls pillars): economics (the marketplace), political science (government), and sociology (communities). In Section I, Mr. Rajan describes the origins of each pillar starting at the end of the medieval era. Each pillar has its own tale related to it social science but their stories are interwoven as well. An example: the marketplace and the expansion of trade (both territorially and in complexity) could only …

Citizen-Consumers Wanted: Revitalizing The American Dream In The Face Of Economic Recessions, 1981-2012, Gokcen Coskuner-Balli

Business Faculty Articles and Research

This article brings sociological theory of governmentality to bear on a longitudinal analysis of American presidential speeches to theorize the formation of the citizen-consumer subject. The 40-year historical analysis which expands through four economic recessions and the presidential terms of Ronald Reagan, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Hussein Obama, illustrates the ways in which the national mythology of American Dream myth has been linked to the political ideology of the state to create the citizen-consumer subject in the United States. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data demonstrates first, the consistent emphasis on responsibility as a …

‘Maid In The Usa’: Immigrant Women, Domestic Labor And Double Alienation, Shadyar Omrani, Shadyar Omrani

Sociology Student Work Collection

In the past three decades, as the economy of the industrialized countries has moved towards the growing Tech industry, middle-class women have found more opportunities to fill in white-collared job positions (McDowell, 2009). The increase in the rate of women’s participation in the labor market has made them less willing to do (or capable of doing) the housework and child/elderly care _ the tasks which are historically stereotyped as feminine (ibid). Therefore, a considerably growing trend in paid domestic labor is being introduced to formerly blue-collared and dominantly immigrant women (England, P.: 2005). The tasks which are regarded as “labor …

Trickle Down Nationalism: Interactions Between Liberal Nationalism And Colonialism In The Raj And Nigeria, Aaryaman Sheoran

CMC Senior Theses

The combination of nationalism and colonialism has remained understudied in academia, despite the important interaction between the two phenomena. European ideas bled over into their colonial empires and began to fill the power vacuum created by colonial enterprises. This study analyzes the impact of British colonialism on the development of national identity in British India and Nigeria.

British influences included large scale economic disruption, cultural reform through ‘westernizing’ the population and abolishing local customs, and creating a new set of institutions to replace traditional power centers. Inevitably, these factors created a nationalist surge across both the Raj and Nigeria, as …