@contexts.org
Contexts is a quarterly magazine that makes cutting-edge sociology research accessible to general readers. Edited by David Grazian, with managing editor Elena van Stee.
@contexts.orgIt’s hard to get ahead when every pay rise goes toward rent.
In Contexts, Zachary Parolin looks at how housing costs can undo gains from income supports, and why reducing poverty also means making housing affordable.
@contexts.orgIs an equal inheritance always fair?
In Contexts, Nazli Kibria and Catherine Rosa examine how splitting an estate equally can leave years of unpaid caregiving unrecognized and preserve inequalities between siblings.
@contexts.orgWho profits when investing starts to feel like a game?
Even losing money can become something to post about, laugh at, and try again. In Contexts, Kobe De Keere examines “hype finance” and how platforms benefit from keeping people playing.
@contexts.orgWhat happens when getting help means moving through an assembly line?
In Contexts, Josh Seim examines how welfare offices divide people’s cases into tasks, and what happens to care when no single worker follows the whole situation.
@asanews.bsky.socialReposted by @contexts.orgThe new issue of ASA's Contexts Magazine is out now and features photo essays on NY Fashion Week and marketing cannabis in Thailand. You can read the entire issue—including articles, research briefs, and sections on culture, policy, and more—until Oct. 28! @contexts.org http://bit.ly/ASAContexts
@contexts.orgWhat happens when drug legalization outpaces public acceptance?
Sociologist Ronald Weitzer examines how Thailand’s cannabis boom transformed a criminalized substance into a highly visible tourist commodity, even as most Thais opposed recreational access.
@contexts.orgWhat if biology textbooks teach gender inequality through flowers?
Pollen competes, penetrates, and succeeds. Female plant parts wait and nurture. Shuster, Wonderlin, and Masani show how cultural myths about gender become scientific “facts.”
@contexts.orgWhat happens when food a community was once shamed for becomes someone else’s cultural discovery?
C. Winter Han uses “H Mart Gate” to examine race, cultural memory, and who gets to feel at home in ethnic spaces.
@contexts.orgWhat happens when being seen replaces being paid?
Behind the glamour of Fashion Week is a workforce often paid in exposure rather than wages. In this visual essay, Jillian Sunderland shows how masculinity shapes who can claim space and turn exposure into paid work.
@contexts.org🔥Hot off the press!🔥
What political work is done when a president posts himself as Superman?
Trump’s AI memes turn dissent into disorder and domination into leadership. Tristan Bridges and James Messerschmidt show how humor makes autocratic power feel ordinary.
@contexts.orgLGBTQ+ People’s Views of the Police: Friend or Foe?
Stefan Vogler and Valerie Jenness find that LGBTQ+ respondents are more likely than non-LGBTQ+ respondents to see police as a foe, but this varies across gender identity and sexuality.
@contexts.orgTaiwanese parents send kids to California summer camps. Their friends in Boston order Taiwanese textbooks.
Sociologist Pei-Chia Lan finds that parents diverge in how they prepare kids for the future, each responding differently to the global economy.
@contexts.orgWhat does it mean when college enrollment falls while elite universities receive record numbers of applications?
Sociologist Steven Brint asks what we lose when access contracts most sharply for those least well served.
@contexts.orgWhat happens when economic change feels like a threat to masculinity?
In Contexts, Dan Cassino examines how men’s political preferences change when the traditional breadwinner role becomes less secure.
@contexts.orgWhat happens when “fake news” determines press access?
Recently, Trump barred CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House after attacking their coverage.
In Contexts, sociologist Jared Wright shows how the label becomes a weapon for deciding who can scrutinize power.
@contexts.orgHow can someone be surrounded by people and still be treated as though they aren’t there?
In this brief essay, sociologist Jacob Avery writes about Neon, a man asking for change on Atlantic City’s boardwalk. He shows how quickly we turn poverty into a moral category.
@contexts.orgWhat happens when public problems are framed as personal failures?
Revisiting C. Wright Mills, Jerry Jacobs defines “sociological curiosity” as locating private troubles within the institutions shaping them.
@contexts.orgWhy does breaking the rules seem to make populist leaders more popular, not less?
Francesco Duina argues that populist leaders turn private grievance into public voice. For people who feel ignored, breaking political norms can feel like recognition.
@contexts.orgWhat happens when authenticity becomes a sales strategy?
Sociologists Eleanor Matheson and Donna Sedgwick show how curated glimpses of private life create trust, turning authenticity into commercial power.
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doi.org/10.1177/1536...
@contexts.orgHow could conflict be good for communities?
Evelyn M. Perry shows how disagreements can expose whose standards define neighborhood life and create room to renegotiate belonging.
Read in Contexts ➡️
