Category: Topics

woman reading

Class & Stratification / Opinion

Green Against Greed? Why Pro-Environmental Views Flourish Among the Culturally Privileged

Climate change and environmental degradation affect us all. Yet concern about these issues is far from evenly distributed. People’s willingness to prioritize the environment, make sacrifices for sustainability, or even believe in climate change varies sharply by social class. Why is this the case? My new study, published in The British Journal of Sociology, uses detailed survey data to map how environmental attitudes vary across the social landscape. It offers not only a clearer picture of who holds what views...

A graphic showing how to move from inequalities to inclusion by growing together

Class & Stratification / Political & Economic Sociology / Research Brief / Rural Sociology / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Behind Every Business: Smallholder Struggles and Shared Hope

‘Through fields of uneven fortune and lean harvests, untiring hands of the farming communities across the Global South cultivate life and hope against the odds.’ In agricultural societies of developing economies, small-scale farmers rise early to farm the lands that have sustained their families for generations. Their labour, however, extends far beyond local needs—these crops fuel regional economies, support industrial supply chains, and cross borders to feed communities in the Global North. Despite playing a critical role in global food...

head appearing from mobile phone

Opinion / Science & Technology / Sociology of Media & Communication

Living With the Machine: How AI Shapes Our Everyday Choices

It starts with the gentlest of prompts. A phone buzzes softly with a reminder: “Leave early to avoid traffic.” Then, a streaming service cues up a show before the viewer has even started to scroll. A grocery app nudges the user with a “smart list” of suggested items based on prior shopping. These little acts of attention slide so seamlessly into daily life that they commonly go unconsidered. But then, one day, looking at that list of things, a phone...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Social Movements / Social Change

Forging A Gender-Household Plastics Nexus in The Circular Economy

Inexpensive, lightweight and durable, it is difficult to imagine a world without the ubiquitous plastics. If you have ever looked around your kitchen, bathroom or living room, you will realise something: plastic is everywhere. From packaging and bottles to bags and straws, it is hard to escape the pervasiveness of plastics. However, plastics are a double-edged sword. Despite playing an indispensable role in modern society, plastic pollution has become a pressing environmental issue. Household plastics in particular, is a key...

Figure 1: A child abuse awareness and prevention poster, part of a public campaign managed by the national government. Image created by Riko Mukuta and the National Network for the Prevention of Child Abuse, 2023.

Applied Sociology / Opinion / Research Methodologies / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Children

Care equity and the welfare state in Japan: Contextualizing what the child protection system seeks to safeguard

The child abuse crisis: Japan has a lively arena of research on children’s social care. Yet, there has been relatively little attention given to social constructions of childhood, abuse, and other pressing topics of debate, particularly in relation to structural and cross-cultural contexts. This is interesting considering how widespread visual and discursive representations of child abuse have proliferated throughout Japan in the past 30 years. I recently wrote a paper on the social-cultural construction of child abuse and its possible...

Opinion / Political & Economic Sociology / Population & Demography / Sociology of Organizations & Work

At risk of social exclusion: the unemployed over 50s in Europe

In the last twenty years, the labour market participation of older workers in Europe is changing. Demographic transformation, better health and a different social role of older people are leading to a different approach to welfare called active ageing. Extending the labour market participation of older workers and delaying retirement are some of its aims. An active ageing policy can be successful if the working life extension does not expose older workers to the risk of unemployment. And, whether older...

Applied Sociology / Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Organizations & Work

A gender milestone: First women presidents in U.S. higher education institutions

By In today’s tense higher education landscape, one may wonder why anyone would take on the role of a university or college president. Indeed, even before the recent accusations against women academics, women who sought to or served as executive leaders of higher education institutions (HEIs) faced gender bias, racial discrimination, and other challenges. Despite this, the number of women presidents in HEIs tripled from 9.5% to 33% between 1986 and 2023. In addition to the personal and professional satisfaction...

Opinion / Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance

How have scholars confronted the War on Drugs in the Philippines and what remains to be done?

The War on Drugs in the Philippines, a signature policy of then President Rodrigo Duterte, killed thousands of people, predominantly alleged drug users and street peddlers from poor communities. Paradoxically, it enjoyed huge support among Filipinos including the poor as reflected in various opinion surveys and in the electoral dominance of Duterte and his allies. Naturally drawn to this complex and intriguing anti-drug campaign and socio-political phenomenon, scholars asked questions like: how to “make sense” of the popularity of the...

Opinion / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Workplace innovation: a human-centric point of view

There is no consensus about the meaning of workplace innovation (WPI) (Oeij, 2024; Oeij & Dhondt, 2024). None is there agreement on whether WPI should be seen as a cause or an effect or a mediating variable. This leaves a void in understanding WPI both scientifically and practically. We regard workplace innovation as a practice to improve how an organisation performs while maintaining or creating a good quality of work for its employees. WPI has, therefore, a causal or mediating...

Opinion / Sociology of Organizations & Work

When is a review of workplace innovation useful for practice?

Unsurprisingly, workplace innovation (WPI) has many different interpretations since the field of research has been expanding substantially in the past 20 years. Reviewing what the field has to offer is warmly welcomed. But what makes a ‘good’ review? From the perspective of the applicability of workplace innovation, its practicality is essential. A number of systematic literature reviews of WPI have been carried out that do not meet the criteria of practicality. Are these really useful? My answer is negative, and...

Opinion / Political & Economic Sociology / Social Welfare / Sociology of the Family

The larger, the poorer, the more penalized families: an Italian perspective

In Italy, as in most other advanced economies, large families are much less common than in the past. But does this mean that their needs should not be specifically considered by social policy? This question is at the heart of an article we recently published on the International Journal of Social Welfare titled “The large family penalty in Italy: Poverty and eligibility to minimum incomes”. This blog article has the aim of delivering its main results to the broader public....

Opinion / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Social Welfare / Sociology of Children / Sociology of Health & Illness

Discussing the ‘obsession’ with childhood disorder labelling

In recent decades, we have too often passed the buck of social problems to children who lack the power to say no to stigmatizing psychiatric labels. Laura Batstra and Ernst Thoutenhoofd call for reflection on these non-evidence-based, ineffective and sometimes even harmful practices. The instability of labels Recently, a well-designed cohort study reported that nearly 40% of 213 toddlers classified with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) no longer met the criteria for ASD at the age of 5-7 years. ‘Recovery’...

Opinion / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Children / Sociology of Health & Illness

You are what you swallow? Considering the moral implications of psychiatric diagnosis for children

It’s not easy to question things that have been life changing for some people. As more and more people seek or receive psychiatric diagnosis, it becomes a very personal thing to question its validity. When I wrote an opinion piece in 2023 suggesting moral implications associated with increasing psychiatric diagnosis of children, I felt nervous. Nervous of invalidating the experiences of others but also nervous of the implications of questioning medical hegemony without undermining the hard fought for systems of...

Class & Stratification / Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Political & Economic Sociology / Rural Sociology / Sociology of the Family

Empowerment in Action: How Women’s Choices Safeguard Food Security in Uganda

In many parts of the world, women play a crucial role in agriculture and food production. Their contributions to farming, fishing, and livestock keeping are significant for food security and nutrition, especially in rural communities. However, women often face challenges that limit their ability to make decisions about what food is grown, prepared, and consumed in their households. Understanding the link between women’s overall empowerment and their specific agency in nutrition can provide valuable insights into improving food security and...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Social Identity

Neurodiversity and Queer Phenomenology: Reflections from Life-Writings

Neurodiversity is a concept that recognizes neurodevelopmental disorders as natural variations of the human brain. The sexual politics of neurodiversity, which is often overlooked, sparked interest in our recently published research. In contrast to neurotypical persons, evidence suggests that neurodiverse individuals, particularly those on the autism spectrum, are more likely to be gender diverse and to have a lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or asexual sexual orientation (George & Stokes, 2018). The causes of this overlap are numerous, but one explanation is...

Opinion / Research Brief / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Social Welfare / Sociology of Children

Can we play to address violence? Feeling vulnerable while free (at school) with LOVE

“Terroriste: This word resonated in my 5th grade ears during lunch. A girl who I had barely talked to began calling me this. It wasn’t just the 5 boys in my class would come up to me shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ as if it were a joke.” — Notebook entry of youth participant in LOVE program LOVE Quebec is a non-profit organization that offers programming to youth, through a social development approach with artistic means such as writing, photography, and drawing....