Surprise! Sociology.

Wait, That's Sociological?

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Sociology courses often fall into disarray when the topic of race comes up. Ideology is a difficult subject to discuss with a group of students who have never thought about the idea. In looking around for videos or papers that discuss the topic in plain sounding language, I find that this video does a good job of serving as a base for this discussion.

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This semester i’ve had the pleasure of getting outside of Sociology and looking back. In this English Course, The Literature of Margaret Atwood, i’ve been shown a great variety of thought on the ideas of feminism, the impact of science, and humanity as a whole. The fun part about reading literature like this is that you don’t have to decipher academic theory rhetoric, all of that is symbolized through the work itself. This act is very helpful for students seeking an understanding of sociological ideas.  This is a general weakness of sociology. As a discipline, we are interested in studying stories, not telling them. We produce some of the most boring and unstructured stories imaginable.  My first introduction to Sociology was through Ursula K. Leguin and her novel, The Dispossessed. This novel essentially takes an anarchist society and places it on a planet directly next to a capitalist society. Perception of reality is of key importance in understanding society. Empathy for other cultures is also key. The only work i’ve seen on this subject is from Bruno Latour with some ancillary work by Howard Becker.  This piece looks at the structure of sociological writing: Latour, Bruno. Aramis, or the Love of Technology This piece looks at the reasons behind what sociology studies. Becker, Howard. “Who’s Side are we On?” So, with that aside, i’d like to mention two works from Atwood that definitely highlight the application of sociological ideas about the environment and religious influences in society: Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood.  The environment is of special importance to a wide variety of disciplines. This article is an excellent example of tying everything together. ‘“We’re Using Up the Earth. It’s Almost Gone”: A Return to the Post-Apocalyptic Future in Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood’ Margaret Atwood reflects in her 2009 novel The Year of the Flood, as she does in her 2003 novel Oryx and Crake, not only on feminist but also on humanist and posthumanist concerns, as she questions the very survival of humankind in an era of environmental destruction, excessive consumption, unregulated biotechnological experiments and pandemic viruses. Offering a strident critique of the contemporary culture of unbridled consumption, Atwood, in Year, draws on and literalizes the trope of corporate cannibalism in describing her Americanized and corporation-controlled world. In a similar way, she draws on and extends a related idea she has long made use of in her fiction – that of the male commodification and consumption of women – as she tells the intertwined stories of Toby and Ren, two female pleebland survivors of the pandemic plague and former members of the God’s Gardeners, an eco-religious cult and resistance group. Invoking the idea of degeneration as she expresses her long-held fears about environmental and social decline, Atwood looks to religion – specifically eco-religion – as she seeks evidence of our ethical capacity to find a remedy to humanity’s ills.

This semester i’ve had the pleasure of getting outside of Sociology and looking back. In this English Course, The Literature of Margaret Atwood, i’ve been shown a great variety of thought on the ideas of feminism, the impact of science, and humanity as a whole. The fun part about reading literature like this is that you don’t have to decipher academic theory rhetoric, all of that is symbolized through the work itself. This act is very helpful for students seeking an understanding of sociological ideas. 

This is a general weakness of sociology. As a discipline, we are interested in studying stories, not telling them. We produce some of the most boring and unstructured stories imaginable. 

My first introduction to Sociology was through Ursula K. Leguin and her novel, The Dispossessed. This novel essentially takes an anarchist society and places it on a planet directly next to a capitalist society. Perception of reality is of key importance in understanding society. Empathy for other cultures is also key.

The only work i’ve seen on this subject is from Bruno Latour with some ancillary work by Howard Becker. 

This piece looks at the structure of sociological writing: Latour, Bruno. Aramis, or the Love of Technology

This piece looks at the reasons behind what sociology studies. Becker, Howard. “Who’s Side are we On?”

So, with that aside, i’d like to mention two works from Atwood that definitely highlight the application of sociological ideas about the environment and religious influences in society: Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. 

The environment is of special importance to a wide variety of disciplines. This article is an excellent example of tying everything together.

‘“We’re Using Up the Earth. It’s Almost Gone”: A Return to the Post-Apocalyptic Future in Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood’

Margaret Atwood reflects in her 2009 novel The Year of the Flood, as she does in her 2003 novel Oryx and Crake, not only on feminist but also on humanist and posthumanist concerns, as she questions the very survival of humankind in an era of environmental destruction, excessive consumption, unregulated biotechnological experiments and pandemic viruses. Offering a strident critique of the contemporary culture of unbridled consumption, Atwood, in Year, draws on and literalizes the trope of corporate cannibalism in describing her Americanized and corporation-controlled world. In a similar way, she draws on and extends a related idea she has long made use of in her fiction – that of the male commodification and consumption of women – as she tells the intertwined stories of Toby and Ren, two female pleebland survivors of the pandemic plague and former members of the God’s Gardeners, an eco-religious cult and resistance group. Invoking the idea of degeneration as she expresses her long-held fears about environmental and social decline, Atwood looks to religion – specifically eco-religion – as she seeks evidence of our ethical capacity to find a remedy to humanity’s ills.

Filed under applied theory environmental sociology literature teaching sociology

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There is a saying that white people generally don’t hear, “Driving While Black (DWB).” This term generally refers to the (un)intentional racial profiling the police often engage in. Recently, the Donald Trump controversy with Barack Obama’s birth certificate has been linked to this idea. So, we see the term “President While Back” entering the language about Obama.  This type of racism is often referred to by a few different terms: “Color-Blind Racism, Silent Racism, and Institutional Racism.” At its core, you could define this type of racism as unintentional insomuch that most times the idea that one’s behavior is racist is never considered.  Sociological Works of interest: Eduardo Bonilla-SilvaRacism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States Barbara TrepagnierSilent Racism, How Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial Divide Incidentally, these ideas are being explored as they move online. For more information on that topic, please see: Jessie DanielsCyber Racism: White Supremacy Online and the New Attack on Civil Rights Lisa Nakamura Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game

There is a saying that white people generally don’t hear, “Driving While Black (DWB).” This term generally refers to the (un)intentional racial profiling the police often engage in. Recently, the Donald Trump controversy with Barack Obama’s birth certificate has been linked to this idea. So, we see the term “President While Back” entering the language about Obama. 

This type of racism is often referred to by a few different terms: “Color-Blind Racism, Silent Racism, and Institutional Racism.” At its core, you could define this type of racism as unintentional insomuch that most times the idea that one’s behavior is racist is never considered. 

Sociological Works of interest:

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States

Barbara Trepagnier
Silent Racism, How Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial Divide

Incidentally, these ideas are being explored as they move online. For more information on that topic, please see:

Jessie Daniels
Cyber Racism: White Supremacy Online and the New Attack on Civil Rights

Lisa Nakamura
Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game

Filed under race color-blind