tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/sociology-400/articlesSociology – The Conversation2024-02-28T17:09:36Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220322024-02-28T17:09:36Z2024-02-28T17:09:36ZW.E.B. Du Bois’ study ‘The Philadelphia Negro’ at 125 still explains roots of the urban Black experience – sociologist Elijah Anderson tells why it should be on more reading lists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576236/original/file-20240216-26-ucw3z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mural dedicated to Du Bois and the Old Seventh Ward is painted on the corner of 6th and South streets in Philadelphia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/general-view-of-the-mural-commemorating-the-seventh-ward-on-news-photo/502954290">Paul Marotta/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>W.E.B. Du Bois is widely known for his civil rights activism, but many <a href="https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.87.3.0230">sociologists argue</a> that he has yet to receive due recognition as the founding father of <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-sociology-a-sociologist-explains-why-floridas-college-students-should-get-the-chance-to-learn-how-social-forces-affect-everyones-lives-222365">American sociology</a>. His groundbreaking study, “<a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9781512824346/the-philadelphia-negro/">The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study</a>,” was published in 1899 and exhaustively detailed the poor social conditions of thousands of Black Philadelphians in the city’s historic Seventh Ward neighborhood.</em> </p>
<p><em>We spoke with <a href="https://sociology.yale.edu/people/elijah-anderson">Elijah Anderson</a>, Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University, about the importance of Du Bois’ seminal study and why it’s still relevant for Philadelphians 125 years later.</em></p>
<p><strong>How did the ‘Philadelphia Negro’ study come about?</strong></p>
<p>Much of Philadelphia’s elite of the day believed that the city was going to the dogs, and that the reason was the huge influx of Black people from the South. Susan Wharton, a philanthropist and the wife of Joseph Wharton – after whom the Wharton School is named – and then-provost at the University of Pennsylvania Charles Harrison invited Du Bois to come to Philadelphia to study Philadelphia’s Black population and try to find answers to this problem.</p>
<p>Du Bois accepted their offer, which came with a small stipend, and came to Philadelphia along with his new bride, Nina Gomer. They settled in the Old Seventh Ward in a local settlement house, located at Sixth and Waverly streets, down the street from Mother Bethel AME, the famous Black church. Du Bois then set about studying the Seventh Ward, known for its concentration of the Black population. These people lived in the alleys and streets adjacent to the wealthy white people for whom they worked as servants. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Family portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois, his wife Nina, and their baby son Burghardt in 1898." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Family portrait of W.E.B Du Bois, his wife, Nina, and their baby son Burghardt in 1898.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-i0389">W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Due to Du Bois’ upbringing and Harvard education, his bearing was that of the elite. While conducting his field work, he at times dressed in spats and a suit and tie. </p>
<p>Du Bois approached his subjects as an objective social scientist. He wanted to understand the condition of Philadelphia’s Black population and then provide his report to the white elite whom he believed would use his work to improve the condition of Black people, both within Philadelphia and beyond. </p>
<p><strong>Can you explain his idea of the benevolent despot?</strong></p>
<p>This term is based on Du Bois’ original premise: that the inequality between the living conditions of Blacks and whites could be rectified by the wealthy people who controlled the city. He regarded these leaders as despots due to the power they wielded, but also believed them to be benevolent as well as rational. Du Bois observed the Irish and Scottish immigrants who were employed in certain industries. He wondered why these companies would fail to employ Black people, as well, and concluded that they must simply be ignorant. After all, in his mind, these were benevolent people as well as rich and powerful – and most importantly, they were rational. So why would they employ the Irish and Scots, but not the Black people? This was a critical question for Du Bois, and one he was determined to answer through his study.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover of 'The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study' by W.E.B. Du Bois" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elijah Anderson wrote the introduction to the 1995 and 2023 editions of ‘The Philadelphia Negro.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pennpress.org/9781512824346/the-philadelphia-negro/">University of Pennsylvania Press</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, as the study progressed, Du Bois began to realize that the problem was much more complicated than he’d originally assumed. He realized that the so-called benevolent despots may not be so benevolent after all, focusing on their own financial interests. These included pitting Irish and Scottish workers against Black people to keep wages low, but also a simple preference of white workers over Black workers.</p>
<p>Halfway through the study, Du Bois pours out a soliloquy of disappointment. He declares that there is, in fact, no benevolent captain of industry, because if such a person existed, he wouldn’t let these Black boys and girls fester in poverty and crime. </p>
<p>He writes:</p>
<p>“If now a benevolent despot had seen the development, he would immediately have sought to remedy the real weakness of the Negro’s position, i.e., his lack of training; and he would have swept away any discrimination that compelled men to support as criminals those who might support themselves as workmen.</p>
<p>"He would have made special effort to train Negro boys for industrial life and given them a chance to compete on equal terms with the best white workmen; arguing that in the long run this would be best for all concerned, since by raising the skill and standard of living of the Negroes he would make them effective workmen and competitors who would maintain a decent level of wages. He would have sternly suppressed organized or covert opposition to Negro workmen.</p>
<p>"There was, however, no benevolent despot, no philanthropist, no far-seeing captain of industry to prevent the Negro from losing even the skill he had learned or to inspire him by opportunities to learn more.”</p>
<p>This is also where Du Bois began to see and clarify the situation as a problem of racism. He doesn’t use the word “racism” – that word did not exist at the time – but he speaks in terms of racial preferences and discrimination. </p>
<p><strong>How are his findings relevant to Philadelphians today?</strong></p>
<p>“The Philadelphia Negro” remains a powerful work. It depicts the social organization of the Black community, and especially the Black class structure of Du Bois’ day. It also utilizes the technique we know today as “<a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wc8v8cv">cohort analysis</a>” – the idea that social conditions affecting a group are also impactful to the individual, and that what happens to the group is a function of historic moments of society. </p>
<p>Du Bois’ ethnographic descriptions of Black people living in isolated communities after the end of slavery and migrating to these cities presages the dire conditions in inner-city communities of today, many of which are still largely Black. </p>
<p>Additionally, the role of European immigration in Du Bois’ day played a critical role in undermining the position of Black people in society. In the context of “white over Black,” each successive wave of immigration from Europe since the end of the Civil War typically worked to undermine the position of the emerging Black middle class. </p>
<p>Du Bois pointed this out back in 1899. He observed that employers preferred white immigrants from Europe over Black people. The benevolent despot Du Bois hoped to reach ignored his work, with implications for Philadelphia race relations to this day.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="W.E.B. Du Bois seated at desk in office at Atlanta University in 1909" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">W.E.B. Du Bois seated in his office at Atlanta University in 1909.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://credo.library.umass.edu/cgi-bin/pdf.cgi?id=scua:mums312-i0393">W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries</a></span>
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<p><strong>How did it inform your own work as a sociologist?</strong></p>
<p>When I was a sociology graduate student at the University of Chicago in the 1970s, “The Philadelphia Negro” was not required reading. But later, I taught a summer course at Northwestern University about Du Bois and, like so many young Black scholars of my generation, I was deeply inspired by his work.</p>
<p>Afterwards, when I was recruited by Swarthmore College – located 11 miles outside Philadelphia – I felt honored to reside near the city where Du Bois had conducted his work. I often traveled to Philadelphia to walk through the neighborhoods where he’d worked. Ultimately, the University of Pennsylvania – the very place that had originally recruited Du Bois to conduct his study – offered me a position. I moved to the city and began conducting ethnographic studies. In some sense, I followed in the footsteps of Du Bois. </p>
<p>In fact, my entire body of ethnographic work grows out of some of the questions Du Bois raises, and the unresolved problems he uncovers. “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3638183.html">Streetwise</a>” focuses on the sociology of gentrification and its implications for both white and Black people living in gentrifying neighborhoods. “<a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/Code-of-the-Street/">Code of the Street</a>” addresses the violence that occurs in inner-city neighborhoods, as well as the issue of policing and the abdication of the police. After that, I began to deal with some of the issues that brought different races together. “<a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393340518">The Cosmopolitan Canopy</a>” is an ethnographic study of Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square and the Reading Terminal Market and Center City.
Most recently, in 2022, I published “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo119245209.html">Black in White Space</a>,” a fine-grained ethnographic portrait of how systemic racism operates in everyday life. </p>
<p>All these books, based on studies that were conducted in Philadelphia, stem from the inspiration of reading Du Bois as a graduate student.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="View of empty street in Kensington neighborhood of North Philadelphia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Philadelphia has more residents living in poverty than any other big city in the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/buildings-stand-in-the-neighborhood-where-the-west-news-photo/1308933509">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><strong>Why should Philadelphians read this book?</strong></p>
<p>The book is a seminal work, and while it has influenced many Black sociologists, it has <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520286764/the-scholar-denied">not yet received the attention it deserves</a>. However, an increasing number of scholars, both Black and white, are beginning to grapple with Du Bois’ work.</p>
<p>Philadelphians should read this book to become enlightened about the city’s history and how it relates to the dire circumstances of the city’s impoverished population of today. </p>
<p>The Philadelphia economy is undergoing a <a href="https://selectgreaterphl.com/doing-business/economic-overview/">period of profound transition</a>, from an economy based on manufacturing to one based increasingly on service and high technology, including robotics, computers and social media. Jobs and financial opportunities are <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2022/02/how-the-pandemic-has-affected-philadelphias-economy-and-jobs">sent away from Philadelphia</a> to non-metropolitan America and to underdeveloped nations around the world. As a result, many residents of the city have become dislocated economically; <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-poverty-rate-big-city-20230914.html">22% of the city’s population is impoverished</a>, and a <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2017/11/pri_philadelphias_poor.pdf">majority of them are Black</a>. Hence, the condition of the disenfranchised underclass whom Du Bois regarded as the “submerged tenth” has become remarkably more complicated and dire.</p>
<p>This complex mix of factors creates a good deal of crime and alienation, which feeds into the dominant narrative that our cities are falling apart – and that it’s the fault of this disenfranchised underclass, this “submerged tenth.” This is blatantly incorrect. The problems facing today’s poor inner-city residents stem from <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo119245209.html">systemic racism</a> and <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo13375722.html">the structure of capital</a>, not the individuals trapped inside that structure. </p>
<p>Strikingly, despite being written over a century ago, “The Philadelphia Negro” anticipates not only the condition of today’s poor inner-city Blacks, but also the unwillingness or the inability of today’s “benevolent despots” to rectify or even address the situation. We see Du Bois’ “submerged tenth” in today’s drug dealers, drug addicts and the persistently impoverished Black community. And we see his not-so-benevolent despots in politicians who would rather blame the victims than take any steps to improve their lot.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elijah Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over a century ago, white Philadelphia elites believed the city was going to the dogs – and they blamed poor Black inner-city residents instead of the racism that kept this group disenfranchised.Elijah Anderson, Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2237172024-02-23T00:02:10Z2024-02-23T00:02:10ZHow people get sucked into misinformation rabbit holes – and how to get them out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576118/original/file-20240216-28-bwac7i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C35%2C6000%2C3952&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sleepy-exhausted-woman-lying-bed-using-2142188351">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As misinformation and radicalisation rise, it’s tempting to look for something to blame: the internet, social media personalities, sensationalised political campaigns, religion, or conspiracy theories. And once we’ve settled on a cause, solutions usually follow: do more fact-checking, regulate advertising, ban YouTubers deemed to have “gone too far”.</p>
<p>However, if these strategies were the whole answer, we should already be seeing a decrease in people being drawn into fringe communities and beliefs, and less misinformation in the online environment. We’re not.</p>
<p>In new research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833241231756">published in the Journal of Sociology</a>, we and our colleagues found radicalisation is a process of increasingly intense stages, and only a small number of people progress to the point where they commit violent acts. </p>
<p>Our work shows the misinformation radicalisation process is a pathway driven by human emotions rather than the information itself – and this understanding may be a first step in finding solutions.</p>
<h2>A feeling of control</h2>
<p>We analysed dozens of public statements from newspapers and online in which former radicalised people described their experiences. We identified different levels of intensity in misinformation and its online communities, associated with common recurring behaviours. </p>
<p>In the early stages, we found people either encountered misinformation about an anxiety-inducing topic through algorithms or friends, or they went looking for an explanation for something that gave them a “bad feeling”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-why-disinformation-is-so-pervasive-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-188457">Three reasons why disinformation is so pervasive and what we can do about it</a>
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<p>Regardless, they often reported finding the same things: a new sense of certainty, a new community they could talk to, and feeling they had regained some control of their lives.</p>
<p>Once people reached the middle stages of our proposed radicalisation pathway, we considered them to be invested in the new community, its goals, and its values. </p>
<h2>Growing intensity</h2>
<p>It was during these more intense stages that people began to report more negative impacts on their own lives. This could include the loss of friends and family, health issues caused by too much time spent on screens and too little sleep, and feelings of stress and paranoia. To soothe these pains, they turned again to their fringe communities for support. </p>
<p>Most people in our dataset didn’t progress past these middle stages. However, their continued activity in these spaces kept the misinformation ecosystem alive. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Photo showing man and woman lying in bed in the dark, facing away from each other and looking at their phones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Engagement with misinformation proceeds in stages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-asian-couple-using-smartphone-midnight-2131573395">TimeImage / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>When people did move further and reach the extreme final stages in our model, they were doing active harm. </p>
<p>In their recounting of their experiences at these high levels of intensity, individuals spoke of choosing to break ties with loved ones, participating in public acts of disruption and, in some cases, engaging in violence against other people in the name of their cause. </p>
<p>Once people reached this stage, it took pretty strong interventions to get them out of it. The challenge, then, is how to intervene safely and effectively when people are in the earlier stages of being drawn into a fringe community.</p>
<h2>Respond with empathy, not shame</h2>
<p>We have a few suggestions. For people who are still in the earlier stages, friends and trusted advisers, like a doctor or a nurse, can have a big impact by simply responding with empathy. </p>
<p>If a loved one starts voicing possible fringe views, like a fear of vaccines, or animosity against women or other marginalised groups, a calm response that seeks to understand the person’s underlying concern can go a long way. </p>
<p>The worst response is one that might leave them feeling ashamed or upset. It may drive them back to their fringe community and accelerate their radicalisation. </p>
<p>Even if the person’s views intensify, maintaining your connection with them can turn you into a lifeline that will see them get out sooner rather than later.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/out-of-the-rabbit-hole-new-research-shows-people-can-change-their-minds-about-conspiracy-theories-222507">Out of the rabbit hole: new research shows people can change their minds about conspiracy theories</a>
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<p>Once people reached the middle stages, we found third-party online content – not produced by government, but regular users – could reach people without backfiring. Considering that many people in our research sample had their radicalisation instigated by social media, we also suggest the private companies behind such platforms should be held responsible for the effects of their automated tools on society. </p>
<p>By the middle stages, arguments on the basis of logic or fact are ineffective. It doesn’t matter whether they are delivered by a friend, a news anchor, or a platform-affiliated fact-checking tool.</p>
<p>At the most extreme final stages, we found that only heavy-handed interventions worked, such as family members forcibly hospitalising their radicalised relative, or individuals undergoing government-supported deradicalisation programs.</p>
<h2>How not to be radicalised</h2>
<p>After all this, you might be wondering: how do you protect <em>yourself</em> from being radicalised? </p>
<p>As much of society becomes more dependent on digital technologies, we’re going to get exposed to even more misinformation, and our world is likely going to get smaller through online echo chambers. </p>
<p>One strategy is to foster your critical thinking skills by <a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/abstract/S1364-6613(23)00198-5">reading long-form texts from paper books</a>. </p>
<p>Another is to protect yourself from the emotional manipulation of platform algorithms by <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751">limiting your social media use</a> to small, infrequent, purposefully-directed pockets of time.</p>
<p>And a third is to sustain connections with other humans, and lead a more analogue life – which has other benefits as well.</p>
<p>So in short: log off, read a book, and spend time with people you care about. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-month-at-sea-with-no-technology-taught-me-how-to-steal-my-life-back-from-my-phone-127501">A month at sea with no technology taught me how to steal my life back from my phone</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Booth is supported by funding from the Australian Department of Home Affairs and the Defence Innovation Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marian-Andrei Rizoiu receives funding from the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the Defence Science and Technology Group, the Defence Innovation Network and the Australian Academy of Science.</span></em></p>People who dive into misinformation are driven to satisfy an emotional need, according to our new research.Emily Booth, Research assistant, University of Technology SydneyMarian-Andrei Rizoiu, Associate Professor in Behavioral Data Science, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223652024-02-08T13:37:50Z2024-02-08T13:37:50ZWhat’s sociology? A sociologist explains why Florida’s college students should get the chance to learn how social forces affect everyone’s lives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573612/original/file-20240205-25-cpme8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=464%2C226%2C7475%2C3916&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Studying this discipline helps you understand how society works.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/portrait-of-a-mid-adult-man-in-the-classroom-royalty-free-image/1468066295?adppopup=true">FG Trade/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In January 2024, Florida <a href="https://www.flbog.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Agenda-Item-for-Board-Approval-9.pdf">officially voted to reduce</a> the number of students enrolled in sociology courses. </p>
<p>That might sound baffling if you haven’t tuned into this cultural skirmish. But for me – I’m the <a href="https://www.asanet.org/for-press/press-releases/joya-misra-elected-115th-asa-president-jennifer-a-reich-voted-vice-president/">American Sociological Association’s current president</a> and a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Jc-a1IwAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">professor of sociology and public policy</a> at the University of Massachusetts Amherst – it’s both disturbing and an opportunity to help the public better understand my academic discipline. </p>
<p>Sociology is the study of social life, social change and the social causes and <a href="https://www.asanet.org/about/what-is-sociology/">consequences of human behavior</a>.</p>
<p>Sociologists analyze how society is structured and how people interact with one another in groups, organizations and society.</p>
<p>A central concept to sociology is the “<a href="https://guides.temple.edu/c.php?g=247388&p=1647916">sociological imagination</a>.” As defined by the scholar <a href="https://sociology.plus/charles-wright-mills-profile-theories-and-contribution-to-sociology/">C. Wright Mills</a>, it’s the ability to link someone’s experiences to societal forces or historical trends; for example, connecting losing a job to waves of unemployment due to a recession.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Sociology can change how you see the world.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Why does sociology matter?</h2>
<p>Because my discipline helps identify how social structures work, it provides insight into how to fix processes that malfunction. Sociological research has helped address questions like why <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo20809880.html">700 people died during a Chicago heat wave</a> in 1995, or why <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo22781921.html">the space shuttle Challenger exploded</a> in 1986, identifying strategies to avoid such catastrophes in the future.</p>
<p>The research that sociologists conduct can identify better approaches for <a href="https://theconversation.com/breast-cancer-awareness-campaigns-too-often-overlook-those-%20with-metastatic-breast-cancer-heres-how-they-can-do-better-190877">supporting people with breast cancer</a>. It can explain how social media platforms like X, formerly Twitter, <a href="https://theconversation.com/twitters-design-stokes-hostility-and-controversy-heres-why-and-how-it-might-change-166555">profit from hostility between users</a>.</p>
<p>Sociologists do studies that show that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122418823184">jobs with unpredictable schedules</a> are bad for your health and that <a href="https://theconversation.com/homicide-rates-are-up-in-young-men-austerity-and-inequality-may-be-to-blame-112980">homicide rates typically increase as inequality grows</a>. </p>
<p>Sociologists also study inequalities, such as gender or racial inequalities in workplaces. These studies can show how workplaces can create <a href="https://hbr.org/2023/11/creating-an-organizational-culture-thats-more-inclusive-for-black-employees">more inclusive cultures</a> that benefit Black workers as well as other employees. </p>
<p>Learning about sociology can help students hone their <a href="https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/critical-thinking-skills">critical thinking skills</a> by training them to evaluate evidence, analyze data and clearly communicate its meaning – all skills needed in most well-paid jobs.</p>
<p>Sociology also <a href="https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/soft-skills">provides students with soft skills</a>, giving them a better understanding of how to work effectively with others, including those with different backgrounds and experiences.</p>
<p>The Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, an exam required for anyone wishing to attend medical school, <a href="https://students-residents.aamc.org/whats-mcat-exam/psychological-social-and-biological-foundations-behavior-section-overview">emphasizes sociological concepts</a> because they give future doctors tools for how to engage with their patients most effectively. </p>
<p>In 2020, more than 25,000 students earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology, and approximately 1,300 earned a master’s degree, with another <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_325.92.asp">600 earning a Ph.D</a>.</p>
<p>Many people who <a href="https://www.themuse.com/advice/sociology-degree-major-jobs-careers">majored in sociology</a> work as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2E2IXPbCZkY">social workers</a>, teachers, school counselors, market research analysts, human resource coordinators, tech workers, paralegals, public relations professionals, urban planners and community health workers.</p>
<h2>Curbing sociology in Florida</h2>
<p>The boards that oversee the education of hundreds of thousands of students enrolled in Florida’s public colleges and universities <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/trustees-regents/2024/01/18/dei-spending-banned-sociology-scrapped-florida">voted to reduce the number of students who study sociology</a> on those campuses.</p>
<p>They officially removed principles of sociology from the lists of classes that count as <a href="https://www.flbog.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Agenda-Item-for-Board-Approval-9.pdf">core courses that satisfy requirements</a> for undergraduate degrees. </p>
<p>This change, made in January 2024, was in response to a law that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in 2023. That measure <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/15/politics/desantis-signs-dei-defunding-bill/index.html">bans general education college credits for instruction</a> “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.”</p>
<p>Introductory sociology classes, such as the <a href="https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-sociology-3e">principles of sociology</a> course taught in Florida’s public colleges and universities, teach students how a variety of social institutions work, such as families, education, religion, health care, the economy, politics, the criminal justice system and the media.</p>
<p>Students also learn about topics such as globalization and inequality – whether it’s tied to wealth, income, race, gender, age or whether people live in urban or rural areas. </p>
<p>Sociology is a major that most students first become acquainted with in college, often through courses that satisfy general education requirements. As a result of this policy change, it is likely that enrollment in sociology classes will <a href="https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/latest-target-floridas-culture-wars-sociology">drastically drop in Florida</a>, and fewer students will major in sociology. </p>
<p>Sociology courses, by considering inequalities by wealth, income, race, gender, sexuality and age, may <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/26/florida-sociology-classes-ron-desantis-condemned">seem overly “woke” to conservatives</a>. But sociological findings are based on scientific analysis of data from objective sources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau. </p>
<h2>Global history of censorship</h2>
<p>U.S. conservatives are not the only ones who have tried to ban the spread of sociological knowledge. </p>
<p>Sociology has been censored for long periods in many countries, including <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/soviet-and-post-soviet-sociology">Russia</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-16303-7">Hungary</a> and <a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202204/15/WS6258dd30a310fd2b29e57302.html">China</a>.</p>
<p>In April 2019, <a href="https://theconversation.com/sociology-and-philosophy-are-just-the-first-victims-in-bolsonaros-culture-war-120052">then-president Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil also lashed out at sociology</a>. Since January 2023, <a href="https://www.gov.br/planalto/en/composition/biography-president-of-the-republic">Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva</a> is again serving as Brazil’s president. Because he married sociologist <a href="https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/smiley-and-discreet-the-sociologist-marrying-brazils-lula.phtml">Rosângela Lula da Silva</a> in 2022, sociology is safe for the time being in Brazil.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222365/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joya Misra is currently the president of the American Sociological Association. </span></em></p>The boards that oversee the education of students enrolled in Florida’s public colleges and universities are trying to restrict enrollment in sociology courses on those campuses.Joya Misra, Provost Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2157492024-01-11T13:27:12Z2024-01-11T13:27:12ZChurch without God: How secular congregations fill a need for some nonreligious Americans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567496/original/file-20231229-29-rjfaky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C20%2C4495%2C2994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sunday Assembly is one of the larger secular congregations aiming to provide community and ritual for nonreligious people. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CORRECTIONAtheistMegachurches/a408a90613b243ee90974d507a2d60ed/photo?Query=%22sunday%20assembly%22&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=9&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Jae C. Hong</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Shared testimonies, collective singing, silent meditation and baptism rituals – these are all activities you might find at a Christian church service on a Sunday morning in the United States. But what would it look like if atheists were gathering to do these rituals instead?</p>
<p>Today, almost 30% of adults in the United States <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/">say they have no religious affiliation</a>, and only half <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/">attend worship services</a> regularly. But not all forms of church are on the decline – including “secular congregations,” or what many call “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/10/atheist-mega-churches/3489967/">atheist churches</a>.” </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.cla.purdue.edu/directory/profiles/jacqui-frost.html">sociologist of religion</a> who has spent the past 10 years studying <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110458657-010">nonreligious communities</a>, I have found that atheist churches serve many of the same purposes as religious churches. Their growth is evidence that religious decline does not necessarily mean a decline in community, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soac042">ritual or people’s well-being</a>. </p>
<h2>What is an atheist church?</h2>
<p>Secular congregations often mimic religious organizations by using the language and structure of a “church,” such as meeting on Sundays or hearing a member’s “testimony,” or by adapting religious language or practices in other ways.</p>
<p>For example, there are a growing number of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-nones-the-religiously-unaffiliated-are-finding-meaning-purpose-and-spirituality-in-psychedelic-churches-207461">psychedelic churches</a>, which cater to people looking to experience spirituality and ritual <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-atheist-churches-to-finding-healing-in-the-sacred-flower-of-cannabis-spiritual-but-not-religious-americans-are-finding-new-ways-of-pursuing-meaning-191840">through drug use</a>. </p>
<p>There are also secular organizations that promote the idea that people can live forever, such as the <a href="https://www.churchofperpetuallife.org/">Church of Perpetual Life</a>. Members believe they <a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/human-body/the-church-of-perpetual-life-the-people-who-believe-they-can-cheat-death-forever/news-story/79e6860884ebca53cc02ba40968db1b0">can achieve immortality</a> on Earth through radical life-extension technologies such as gene editing or cryonic preservation – <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/health/how-cryopreservation-and-cryonics-works/index.html">freezing bodies after death</a> in hopes that they can someday be resuscitated.</p>
<p>These secular congregations often appeal to atheists and other secular people, but their main purpose is not promoting atheism. </p>
<p>However, “atheist church” organizations like the <a href="https://www.sundayassembly.org/">Sunday Assembly</a> and <a href="https://www.oasisnetwork.com/">the Oasis</a> explicitly celebrate atheists’ identities and beliefs, even though <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122419871957">not everyone who attends identifies as an atheist</a>. Testimonies and activities extol values like rational thinking and <a href="https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/philosophy/materialism">materialist philosophies</a>, which promote the idea that only physical matter exists. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567497/original/file-20231229-15-kir3wp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man with a blonde beard raises his arms and looks upward as he stands facing a small crowd of people in a dimly lit room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567497/original/file-20231229-15-kir3wp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567497/original/file-20231229-15-kir3wp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567497/original/file-20231229-15-kir3wp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567497/original/file-20231229-15-kir3wp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567497/original/file-20231229-15-kir3wp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567497/original/file-20231229-15-kir3wp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567497/original/file-20231229-15-kir3wp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">British comedian Sanderson Jones leads a Sunday Assembly meeting in 2013 in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/british-comedian-sanderson-jones-leads-the-sunday-assembly-news-photo/452045207?adppopup=true">Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>There are also long-standing humanist and <a href="https://religionnews.com/2014/10/01/original-atheist-church-dont-atheists-know-ethical-culture/">ethical communities</a> that promote secular worldviews and provide secular ceremonies for major life transitions, like births, funerals and weddings. The <a href="https://americanhumanist.org/">American Humanist Association</a>, for example, describes its values as “Good without a God.” And for decades, Unitarian Universalist congregations, which grew out of Christian movements, have drawn on teachings from both religious and nonreligious traditions, without imposing specific creeds of their own.</p>
<p>But there has been a recent rise in secular congregations that explicitly mimic religious organizations and rituals to celebrate atheistic worldviews. Many have just one or two chapters, such as the <a href="https://seattleatheist.church/">Seattle Atheist Church</a> and the <a href="https://www.churchoffreethought.org/">North Texas Church of Freethought</a>. </p>
<p>However, Sunday Assembly and the Oasis have networks with dozens of chapters, and Sunday Assembly has been dubbed the “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/10/atheist-mega-churches/3489967/">first atheist mega-church</a>.” Many chapters of Sunday Assembly <a href="https://www.npr.org/2014/01/07/260184473/sunday-assembly-a-church-for-the-godless-picks-up-steam">see hundreds of attendees</a> at their services. </p>
<h2>Testimonies, singalongs – but nothing supernatural</h2>
<p>Many features of atheist churches in the U.S. are directly borrowed from religious organizations. At Sunday Assembly, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soac042">where I spent three years doing research</a>, services include collective singing, reading inspirational texts, silent reflection and collecting donations. They center around a central lecture given by a member of the congregation or a member of the larger local community. I attended one service where an astronomer gave a talk about the <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/mission/pluto-exploration/">New Horizons spacecraft’s mission to Pluto</a>. At another service, a member of a local community garden organization talked about building community through her community garden program. </p>
<p>Atheist church organizers I met told me that they intentionally borrow the structure of a church because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110458657-010">they see it as a good model</a> for building effective rituals and communities. More generally, the structure of a “congregation” <a href="https://studyingcongregations.org/congregationalism-in-american-churches-a-reaction-by-r-stephen-warner/">is popular and familiar</a> to most attendees. </p>
<p>However, there are key differences. Sunday Assembly has no hierarchical structure, and there is no pastor or minister, meaning that decisions are made by the community. Attendees share duties for running the services and finding speakers and readings. </p>
<p>The other key difference is the complete lack of reference to the supernatural. Lectures and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soac042">rituals I have encountered</a> at atheist church services are centered around affirming atheistic beliefs, celebrating science, cultivating experiences of awe and wonder for nature, and creating communities of support. </p>
<p>Sociologists of religion call these practices “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-016-9350-7">sacralizing the secular</a>” and “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/atheist-awakening-9780199986323?cc=de&lang=en&">secular spirituality</a>”: activities that enable nonreligious people to express their shared beliefs and cultivate a sense of belonging and purpose. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567498/original/file-20231229-23-9mioe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Stickers with messages such as 'Born again humanist' and 'I believe in life before death.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567498/original/file-20231229-23-9mioe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567498/original/file-20231229-23-9mioe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567498/original/file-20231229-23-9mioe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567498/original/file-20231229-23-9mioe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567498/original/file-20231229-23-9mioe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567498/original/file-20231229-23-9mioe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/567498/original/file-20231229-23-9mioe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An attendee grabs a brochure at the Sunday Assembly in Los Angeles in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AtheistMegachurches/b0e301a630c643f2aae47f2cabea555f/photo?Query=%22sunday%20assembly%22&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=9&currentItemNo=8">AP Photo/Jae C. Hong</a></span>
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<p>One example is collective singing: borrowing a familiar aspect of religious services that can give members a sense of transcendence. Most Sunday Assembly chapters have church bands that lead singalongs to pop songs like “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi and “Brave” by Sara Bareilles. When the astronomer talked to Sunday Assembly about NASA’s mission to Pluto, the congregation sang “Across the Universe” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by the Beatles to reinforce their reverence for the vastness of the universe.</p>
<p>Another borrowed ritual is the sharing of testimony. Many Sunday Assembly services involve a member standing in front of the congregation to share something they learned recently, to express gratitude, or to affirm their atheistic beliefs by sharing why they left religion. </p>
<p>Some atheist communities, although not Sunday Assembly, even engage in <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/atheists-conduct-de-baptisms/story?id=11109379">“debaptism” ceremonies</a> in which they renounce their former religion. Some atheists I interviewed sent their debaptism certificates to their former churches as a way of solidifying their new nonreligious identity. </p>
<h2>Change ahead?</h2>
<p>As rates of religious affiliation continue to decline, many scholars and pundits have argued that there will be a <a href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/losing-our-religion-and-its-spaces">decline in community engagement</a> <a href="https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/decline-in-religiosity-a-public-health-crisis-117821.html">and other important indicators of well-being</a>, such as health, happiness and people’s sense of meaning and purpose.</p>
<p>However, atheist churches are an example of how nonreligious Americans are finding <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/sraa016">new ways</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srad002">meet those needs</a>. A member of Sunday Assembly told me: “I honestly can’t think of a word to describe it. I mean, ‘life-changing’ sounds stupid, but Sunday Assembly just helped so much. I’ve always struggled with depression, and I’m so much happier now that I have this group of friends who share my beliefs and who are trying to do good out in the world with me.” </p>
<p>Atheist churches are still fairly new, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.5334/snr.102">studies have shown</a> that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2010.510829">participation in them</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110458657">other types of atheist organizations</a> can bring social and emotional benefits. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000392">In particular</a>, it can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab165">help atheists buffer the negative effects</a> of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2012.642741">experiencing stigma</a> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26166844">or discrimination</a>. </p>
<p>Whether the atheist church trend will continue remains to be seen. But such churches’ recent growth is evidence that they can work much like religious organizations to build community, cultivate rituals and bolster well-being in a time of religious change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215749/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqui Frost does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A sociologist of religion explains how atheist churches are helping people find meaning and community – serving many of the same purposes as religious churches.Jacqui Frost, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Purdue UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1977512024-01-11T07:09:39Z2024-01-11T07:09:39ZWhy AI software ‘softening’ accents is problematic<p><a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/accent-masking-software-aims-to-smooth-call-center-interactions/7252799.html">“Why isn’t it a beautiful thing?”</a> a puzzled Sharath Keshava Narayana asked of his AI device masking accents.</p>
<p>Produced by his company, Sanas, the recent technology seeks to “soften” the accents of call centre workers in real-time to allegedly shield them from bias and discrimination. It has sparked widespread interest both in the <a href="https://abc7news.com/sanas-voice-technology-silicon-valley-startup-accent-remover-translator/12162646/">English-speaking</a> and <a href="https://www.ouest-france.fr/leditiondusoir/2022-09-02/ce-logiciel-qui-gomme-les-accents-dans-la-voix-des-teleoperateurs-fait-polemique-voici-pourquoi-933e7c7f-96eb-498e-b444-f4753f9019f5#:%7E:text=La%20start%2Dup%20am%C3%A9rican%20Sanas,new%20technology%20surrect%20the%20controversy.">French-speaking world</a> since it was launched in September 2022. </p>
<p>Far from everyone is convinced of the software’s anti-racist credentials, however. Rather, critics contend it plunges us into a <a href="https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03831544">contemporary dystopia</a> where technology is used to erase individuals’ differences, identity markers and cultures. </p>
<p>To understand them, we could do worse than reviewing what constitutes an accent in the first place. How can they be suppressed? And in what ways does ironing them out bends far more than sound waves? </p>
<h2>How artificial intelligence can silence an accent</h2>
<p>“Accents” can be defined, among others, as a set of oral clues (vowels, consonants, intonation, etc.) that contribute to the more or less conscious elaboration of hypotheses on the identity of individuals (e.g. geographically or socially). An accent can be described as regional or foreign according to different narratives. </p>
<p>With start-up technologies typically akin to black boxes, we have little information about the tools deployed by Sanas to standardise our way of speaking. However, we know most methods aim to at least partially transform the structure of the sound wave in order to bring certain acoustic cues closer <a href="https://www.cairn.info/la-phonetique--9782130653356-page-58.htm">to a perceptive criteria</a>. The technology tweaks vowels, consonants along with parameters such as rhythm, intonation or accentuation. At the same time, the technology will be looking to safeguard as many vocal cues as possible to allow for the recognition of the original speaker’s voice, such as with <a href="https://ircamamplify.com/realisations/cloning-vocal-pour-thierry-ardisson/"><em>voice cloning</em></a>, a process that can result in <a href="https://www.20minutes.fr/high-tech/2831107-20200729-le-deepfake-audio-la-nouvelle-arnaque-tendance-des-hackers"><em>deepfake vocal</em></a> scams. These technologies make it possible to dissociate what is speech-related from what is voice-related.</p>
<p>The automatic and real-time processing of speech poses technological difficulties, the main one being the quality of the sound signal to be processed. Software developers have succeeded in overcoming them by basing themselves on <a href="https://www.science-et-vie.com/definitions-science/deep-learning-69467.html"><em>deep learning</em></a>, <a href="https://www.rts.ch/info/sciences-tech/12796888-supprimer-les-accents-dune-voix-peut-la-rendre-plus-comprehensible.html">neural networks</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-francaise-de-linguistique-appliquee-2007-1-page-71.htm">large data bases of speech audio files</a>, which make it possible to better manage the uncertainties in the signal.</p>
<p>In the case of foreign languages, Sylvain Detey, Lionel Fontan and Thomas Pellegrini identify <a href="http://www.atala.org/sites/default/files/article-tap-didactique_21092017.pdf">some of the issues inherent in the development of these technologies</a>, including that of which standard to use for comparison, or the role that speech audio files can have in determining them. </p>
<h2>The myth of the neutral accent</h2>
<p>But accent identification is not limited to acoustics alone. Donald L. Rubin has shown that listeners can <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40196047">recreate the impression of a perceived accent</a> simply by associating faces of supposedly different origins with speech. In fact, absent these other cues, speakers are <a href="http://glottopol.univ-rouen.fr/telecharger/numero_31/gpl31_03avanzi_boulademareuil.pdf">not so good at recognising accents</a> that they do not regularly hear or that they might stereotypically picture, such as German, which many associate with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_xUIDRxdmc">“aggressive” consonants</a>.</p>
<p>The wishful desire to iron out accents to combat prejudice raises the question of what a “neutral” accent is. Rosina Lippi-Green points out that <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203348802/english-accent-rosina-lippi-green">the ideology of the standard language</a> - the idea that there is a way of expressing oneself that is not marked - holds sway over much of society but has no basis in fact. <a href="https://luminosoa.org/site/chapters/e/10.1525/luminos.148.c/">Vijay Ramjattan</a> further links recent collossal efforts to develop accent “reduction” and “suppression” tools with the neoliberal model, under which people are assigned skills and attributes on which they depend. Recent capitalism perceives language as a skill, and therefore the “wrong accent” is said to lead to reduced opportunities. </p>
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<p>Intelligibility thus becomes a pretext for blaming individuals for their lack of skills in tasks requiring oral communication according to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0261927X19884619">Janin Roessel</a>. Rather than forcing individuals with “an accent to reduce it”, researchers such as <a href="https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/jslp.20038.mun">Munro and Derwing</a> have shown that it is possible to train individuals to adapt their aural abilities to phonological variation. What’s more, it’s not up to individuals to change, but for public policies to better protect those who are discriminated against on the basis of their accent - <a href="https://accentism.org/">accentism</a>.</p>
<h2>Delete or keep, the chicken or the egg?</h2>
<p>In the field of sociology, Wayne Brekhus calls on us to pay specific attention to the invisible, weighing up what isn’t marked as much as what is, the “lack of accent” as well as its reverse. This leads us to reconsider the power relations that exist between individuals and the way in which we homogenise the marked: the one who has (according to others) an accent. </p>
<p>So we are led to Catherine Pascal’s question of <a href="https://www-cairn-info.bases-doc.univ-lorraine.fr/revue-management-des-technologies-organisationnelles-2019-1-page-221.htm">how emerging technologies can hone our roles as “citizens” rather than “machines”</a>. To “remove an accent” is to value a dominant type of “accent” while neglecting the fact that other co-factors will participate in the perception of this accent as well as the emergence of discrimination. “Removing the accent” does not remove discrimination. On the contrary, the accent gives voice to identity, thus participating in the phenomena of humanisation, group membership and even empathy: the accent is a channel for otherness.</p>
<p>If technologies such AI and <em>deep learning</em> offers us untapped possibilities, they can also lead to a dystopia where dehumanisation overshadows priorities such as the common good or diversity, as spelt out in the <a href="https://www.unesco.org/fr/legal-affairs/unesco-universal-declaration-cultural-diversity">UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity</a>. Rather than hiding them, it seems necessary to make recruiters aware of how accents can contribute to customer satisfaction and for politicians to take up this issue.</p>
<p>Research projects such as <a href="https://prosophon.atilf.fr/">PROSOPHON at the University of Lorraine (France)</a>, which bring together researchers in applied linguistics and work psychology, are aimed at making recruiters more aware of their responsibilities in terms of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0261927X19884619">biais awareness</a>, but also at empowering job applicants “with an accent”. By asking the question “Why isn’t this a beautiful thing?”, companies like SANAS remind us why technologies based on internalized oppressions don’t make people happy at work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197751/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grégory Miras ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>While AI now allows us to erase accents, is this really a good idea? Besides, who doesn’t have an accent?Grégory Miras, Professeur des Universités en didactique des langues, Université de LorraineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2163542024-01-10T19:13:24Z2024-01-10T19:13:24ZIn The Culture of Narcissism, Christopher Lasch excoriated his self-absorbed society – but the book’s legacy is questionable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563787/original/file-20231205-27-b9jmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C4633%2C3953&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sum+It/Pexels</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Our cultural touchstones series looks at books that have made an impact.</em></p>
<p>A cultural critic rails against a society that worships celebrity and prizes images over ideas. A progressive intellectual attacks the dominance of corporate elites. A curmudgeonly academic condemns his society’s ignorance of its past and the dumbing down of public education. A psychologically astute writer explores the conflicts eddying around gender and sexuality.</p>
<p>Who are these disparate thinkers, you ask? Not four contemporary pundits, but a single controversialist, writing almost half a century ago. </p>
<p>The American historian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Lasch">Christopher Lasch</a>, who died in 1994, authored a series of books that established him as one of his nation’s leading public intellectuals. The most influential of these, first published in 1979, was <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Culture-of-Narcissism">The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations</a>.</p>
<p>This blockbuster earned Lasch audiences with President Jimmy Carter, a National Book Award, and a spread in People magazine, where he shared top billing with Olivia Newton-John. The book was contentious in its time, drawing flak from feminists and Lasch’s erstwhile friends on the Left. It received qualified support from some conservatives, who were otherwise antagonistic to his anti-capitalist principles. Reissued in 2018, this important work warrants a new look.</p>
<p>The Culture of Narcissism’s era now seems very distant. The Vietnam War had ended in American failure only four years earlier. Carter’s presidency was lurching toward its own failure in the midst of an energy crisis, soaring inflation and Cold War tensions. The Reagan revolution was yet to take the nation rightwards. A spirit of decline prevailed as the nation’s pride, confidence and optimism were under threat.</p>
<p>Lasch’s book gave this diminished condition a new diagnosis. The United States was in the grip of a narcissistic culture, a malign transformation of its individualist traditions. Whereas the individualist aspired to the Protestant virtues of self-reliance and self-discipline, the narcissist was self-absorbed and self-indulgent, seeking shallow sociability, pleasure and packaged self-awareness. Modern narcissists have a therapeutic sensibility, Lasch argued, seeing mental health as “the modern equivalent of salvation,” but they feel empty and inauthentic.</p>
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<p>Narcissism can mean many things, and Lasch was at pains to distinguish his understanding from popular alternatives. In an afterword written in 1990, he dismissed the idea that narcissism is a synonym for selfishness or that his book was just another critique of the 1970s as the “me decade”. </p>
<p>Laschian narcissism is not, he says, a moralistic concept for savaging the failings of a society or generation, nor is it another word for arrogance. </p>
<p>Narcissism should instead be understood within a psychoanalytic framework. It is embodied not only in anxiously preening individuals, but in the institutions that produce and nurture them. Following Freud and leading American analysts of his time, Lasch views narcissism as a condition of grandiosity and inner emptiness, in which the person sees the world as their mirror. Narcissism reveals itself in compulsive self-surveillance and fantasies of fame, power and beauty. Its dark side is repressed rage and envy and a tendency to engage in superficial and exploitative relationships.</p>
<p>Lasch equivocated on the extent of this new narcissism. Arguing “every age develops its own peculiar forms of pathology”, he asserted that candidates for psychotherapy in the 1970s no longer complained of traditional neuroses, with their alienated obsessions and phobias. Instead, they presented with disorders of the self. He proposed that many high profile public figures were narcissists, but backs off the claim that narcissistic personalities were more prevalent in the general population than in earlier times. </p>
<p>Lasch saw the reverberations of narcissism throughout American life. Most of his book offers a critical analysis of the manifestations of a narcissistic culture in several domains.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-many-types-of-narcissist-are-there-a-psychology-expert-sets-the-record-straight-207610">How many types of narcissist are there? A psychology expert sets the record straight</a>
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<h2>Family, sex, education, ageing</h2>
<p>Reflecting the preoccupations of his previous book, Haven in a Heartless World (1977), Lasch sees the traditional family as the endangered foundation of society. Under pressure from hedonistic cultural trends and mass consumption, parenting has become indulgent. Mothers and fathers abdicate their authority to child rearing fads, the state, and the therapeutic professions. Authority itself has been discredited, although hierarchies remain as strong as ever in “a society dominated by corporate elites with an anti-elitist ideology”.</p>
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<p>Lasch’s critique of the “appropriation of parental functions” by therapeutic institutions is part of a broader denunciation of a “new paternalism”. He sees a troubling rise in the popular use of therapeutic jargon and in the regulation of private and public behaviour by helping and welfare professions. </p>
<p>There is a gentle irony in Lasch’s use of the concept of narcissism to criticise the “popularization of psychiatric modes of thought” in American society, but his fundamental concern is that understanding deviance as illness erodes self-reliance and personal responsibility. </p>
<p>Lasch’s account of the effects of a narcissistic culture on relations between the sexes is equally pessimistic. It trivialises close relationships and undermines marriage, as women and men flee deep emotional entanglements in search of less demanding forms of connection. </p>
<p>The decline of traditional gender roles brings with it an intensified “sexual warfare” of mutual resentment. Lasch sees feminism as a contributing current in these developments, “often mak[ing] women more shrewish than ever in their daily encounters with men”. In a not entirely convincing show of balance, he also skewers men’s “deeply irrational” feelings of being imperilled by changing gender arrangements.</p>
<p>Mass education is another of Lasch’s targets, excoriated for creating a “spread of stupidity”, an “atrophy of competence” and “new forms of illiteracy”. A progressive might be expected to celebrate the expansion of access to higher education, but Lasch sees a wholesale lowering of standards and a rising ignorance of history, literature and civics. Meanwhile, universities are plagued by grade inflation, commodified degrees, swollen administrative bureaucracies and cafeteria-style curricula.</p>
<p>Behind these grim developments, Lasch sees a decline in the social value placed on personal achievement, a narrow emphasis on relevance and the vocational mission of higher education, and an anti-elitism that erodes the quality and ambitions of education across the spectrum, from community colleges to the Ivy League.</p>
<p>Narcissistic culture also reveals itself in shifting views of ageing. Lasch bemoans a rising “cult of youth” and a dread of getting old, expressed in obsessions with physical appearance and desperate striving for longevity. </p>
<p>Behind this panic is a more basic “cult of the self”. Narcissistic adults cling to the illusion of youth because they are over-invested in personal image and appearance and feel no connection to a future beyond their lifespan.</p>
<p>Lasch is an avid collector of cults: his book also proclaims cults of authenticity, celebrity, compulsive industry, consumption, expanded consciousness, friendliness, intimacy, growth, lost innocence, pragmatism, privatism, self-culture, sincerity, sports, the strenuous life, teamwork, victory and womanhood.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/welcome-to-the-age-of-collective-narcissism-71196">Welcome to the age of collective narcissism</a>
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<h2>The book’s legacy</h2>
<p>In an introduction to the 2018 edition, the political commentator E.J. Dionne writes that “The Culture of Narcissism seems to leap across the decades” carrying enduring truths for our time. Just how prescient it was – how much it leaps rather than stumbles – is a matter for debate. The book sounds an early warning for several trends that have endured and intensified, but in other respects it seems dated. </p>
<p>One dated feature is the book’s heavy reliance on psychoanalytic ideas. Outside of small remnant communities of analysts, it is now profoundly unusual to see Freudian jargon littered so freely and unapologetically through works of social criticism, or to come across references to castrating mothers. Lasch wrote at a time when the cultural prominence of psychoanalysis in the literary Anglosphere had reached its peak, only to <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01489/full">fall off a cliff</a> in the 1990s. </p>
<p>Intellectual fashions come and go, of course – Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut are no longer literary icons either – but sections of The Culture of Narcissism now speak an almost foreign language, occasionally peddling arrant psychoanalytic nonsense, such as the familial origins and narcissistic basis of schizophrenia.</p>
<p>The Culture of Narcissism’s positions on sex and gender now seem reactionary and almost quaint. The conflicts Lasch examines continue in struggles over gender inequality and sexual violence, and in the manosphere backlash, but few would see them as being in a state of crisis: more a constant low hum of ongoing friction than signs of impending disaster. The idea that feminism has turned women shrewish now seems risible, emanating from a time when inequality at work and in the home still appeared to be the natural state of affairs. </p>
<p>Lasch’s critical remarks on mass education also seem retrograde, especially coming from a time when participation in higher education was much lower and more limited to a social elite than it is today. The proportion of Americans with college degrees is now well over double the proportion in 1979, when it was below one in six. </p>
<p>The declinist view that educational standards are slipping long preceded Lasch’s critique. It persists to this day around the globe, often in reaction to broadened access. With the complaint being so generalised across time and space, it seems questionable to attribute a decline specifically to rampant narcissism in 1970s America, especially as the excellence and scale of the nation’s universities were the envy of the world at the time.</p>
<p>But Lasch was surely correct in identifying narcissism as a major American cultural trend before others had made the connection. Narcissism is now a vastly more popular concept in everyday discourse than it was in 1979. It has become the focus of an enormous psychological literature. Repeated surveys of young Americans have demonstrated steadily <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Narcissism-Epidemic/Jean-M-Twenge/9781416575993">rising levels</a> of the trait, and it is indispensable in making sense of public figures, recent presidents included.</p>
<p>Equally precocious is Lasch’s emphasis on the rise of images in the social world. His language is anachronistic, but his sentiment resonates in this digital age:</p>
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<p>Cameras and recording machines not only transcribe experience but alter its quality, giving to much of modern life the character of an enormous echo chamber, a hall of mirrors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Lasch could not have foreseen how social media and the internet would saturate us with alluring images, amplify our narcissistic concerns with appearance and self-curation, and foster the shallow and diffuse social relationships and obsession with youth that his book condemned.</p>
<p>More generally, The Culture of Narcissism’s critique of the then new therapeutic mindset rings even truer today. Lasch offered an early diagnosis of the prevailing tendency to frame problems of meaning in psychiatric terms and to identify mental health with personal authenticity. </p>
<p>At a time when therapy-speak is rife, when concepts of mental ill-health <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25934573-900-why-being-more-open-about-mental-health-could-be-making-us-feel-worse/">continue to expand</a>, and when “authentic” has been crowned as 2023’s <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/word-of-the-year">word of the year</a>, it is clear Lasch’s book foretold a psychologised future.</p>
<p>The Culture of Narcissism is a product of its time: what book is not? Even so, it remains an important work of criticism. Whether its central concept can bear the explanatory weight Lasch loads upon it can be queried, but narcissism serves as a novel point of attack on an ambitious range of cultural targets. In this regard, the book still deserves to be read. </p>
<p>In our polarised times, readers might also appreciate a work of criticism that resists political categorisation. Lasch is radical on some issues, but socially conservative on others. He is fierce in his attack on corporate elites, but unabashed in his cultural elitism. He is critical of feminism, but bracing in his attack on male insecurity. He is favourable towards restoring authority and the traditional family, but keen to build new local “communities of competence”. </p>
<p>Lasch’s voice is usually sharp-tongued and dyspeptic – he is against much more than he is for – but it is always interesting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Haslam receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Christopher Lasch’s sharp-tonged a critique of American society was a product of its time, but has things to say about the present.Nick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2168872023-11-22T13:17:20Z2023-11-22T13:17:20ZAre rents rising in your Philly neighborhood? Don’t blame the baristas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559130/original/file-20231113-26-z577xu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sociology researchers at Temple University interviewed 61 Philadelphia baristas who work in gentrifying neighborhoods. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/female-barista-using-coffee-filter-at-cafe-royalty-free-image/991180452">Maskot/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Baristas who work in specialty coffee shops, along with hipsters more generally, have been referred to as the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/30/nyregion/on-a-wall-in-the-west-bronx-a-gentrification-battle-rages.html">shock troops</a>” of urban gentrification – and it’s no different in Philadelphia. These servers of artisanal coffee contribute to economic and demographic changes in neighborhoods in two ways.</p>
<p>First, they work in coffee shops that appeal to a new wave of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6040.2009.01269.x">middle-class residents</a> who can afford higher rents – while at the same time alienating longtime and less economically advantaged residents. </p>
<p>Second, these baristas almost invariably live in gentrifying neighborhoods. They don’t have much money, but they tend to exude a cool, white middle-class presence. The appearance of specialty coffee shops and baristas signifies that a neighborhood is becoming trendy and more expensive.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://liberalarts.temple.edu/academics/faculty/moss-geoff">professor of sociology</a> at Temple University who is fascinated with urban artistic subcultures, I recently published a book called “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Barista-in-the-City-Subcultural-Lives-Paid-Employment-and-the-Urban-Context/Moss-McIntosh-Protasiuk/p/book/9781032272030">Barista in the City</a>” with co-authors <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=944Dq8MAAAAJ&hl=en">Keith McIntosh</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bBhibN8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Ewa Protasiuk</a>. In 2019, we interviewed 61 baristas in a variety of gentrifying neighborhoods in Philadelphia, including Fishtown, Kensington, Point Breeze and West Philadelphia. </p>
<p>We wanted to understand why baristas become gentrifiers and how they view their role as agents of change. </p>
<h2>Privileged but low-wage workers</h2>
<p>A few baristas whom we interviewed were managers or assistant managers. Some were employed by Starbucks, but the vast majority worked in specialty coffee shops that strive to outdo Starbucks by offering coffee that is slightly more expensive and relatively high in quality, sustainability and fairness to coffee farmers. </p>
<p>We classified most of the baristas we interviewed as either artistic baristas or coffee careerists. </p>
<p>Artistic baristas work in coffee shops primarily because they offer flexible employment that allows time for low-paid artistic activities, or enables them to finance their undergraduate education at art schools or other academic institutions.</p>
<p>Coffee careerists, on the other hand, have a strong interest in artisanal coffee. They aspire to become coffee shop managers, coffee roasters or coffee buyers who travel to other countries in search of the best beans. </p>
<p>Both types of baristas were attracted to the relatively relaxed coffee shop environment. They enjoy chatting with their co-workers and favorite customers. Many stated that they have nothing against those who do corporate work but wouldn’t feel comfortable in that environment. “I would probably like lose my mind in a 9-to-5 kind of thing,” an artistic barista explained. “I just am not that type of person. I don’t like paperwork. I also don’t like the feeling of not being able to be myself. … I just know I would end up hating it.”</p>
<p>Most come from middle-class families and have attended, if not graduated, from college. As such, they have rejected relatively well-paid, middle-class positions in favor of an occupation suited to the lifestyle they wish to lead.</p>
<p>Living in a gentrifying neighborhood not only enables them to be near their job, but also to be near emerging art and music scenes, thrift shops or vegan eateries. It also provides relatively low-cost housing that is compatible with their budgets. The average barista in our sample earned $23,000 per year in 2019 and typically worked 32 hours per week. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560195/original/file-20231117-23-u4oo72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rowhomes with Philadelphia skyline in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560195/original/file-20231117-23-u4oo72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560195/original/file-20231117-23-u4oo72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560195/original/file-20231117-23-u4oo72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560195/original/file-20231117-23-u4oo72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560195/original/file-20231117-23-u4oo72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560195/original/file-20231117-23-u4oo72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560195/original/file-20231117-23-u4oo72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A view from Fishtown, a former working-class Philadelphia neighborhood that’s been heavily gentrified.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/fishtown-district-in-philadelphia-pennsylvania-royalty-free-image/641120274">peeterv/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>On being a gentrifier</h2>
<p>The baristas we interviewed tended to view gentrification as a process that is harmful to lower socioeconomic class and mostly minority populations. A barista who observed affluent university students move into a low-income West Philadelphia neighborhood and displace working-class Black residents stated: “Obviously, it’s terrible.”</p>
<p>They felt a degree of guilt about being part of this process. But their low-wage employment and need for affordable urban space that is compatible with their lifestyle caused them to feel they have little recourse to make other residential decisions. </p>
<p>“I understand that I’m also part of the problem when it comes to gentrifying an area,” one of the baristas said. “My boyfriend tends to disagree with me on that. He’s like, ‘Well, where are we going to move, then?’ And it’s true. Like, I don’t know, we can’t afford to live in Rittenhouse Square. I can just barely afford to live in Fishtown at this point. I thought this would be a good area for meeting other creatives. And I don’t want to live in the suburbs.”</p>
<p>Many baristas, however, were ignorant of the role that their coffee shop plays in commercial gentrification. They tend to believe that such shops open only after a neighborhood has already gentrified. As one barista put it: “I think coffee shops are a symptom rather than a cause of gentrification. They spring up in neighborhoods that have already been taken over by gentrifiers.” </p>
<p>Urban scholarship suggests that the relationship is more complicated, with coffee shops being both a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/04/coffee-shops-hipsters-gentrification-communities">cause and effect</a> of neighborhood gentrification.</p>
<p>While specialty coffee shops generally present themselves as progressive and inclusive, longtime residents often view them as expensive, culturally alienating and what American sociologist Elijah Anderson referred to as “<a href="https://news.yale.edu/2022/03/24/elijah-anderson-burden-being-black-white-spaces">white spaces</a>.” Furthermore, these cafes often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6040.2009.01269.x">displace other retail businesses</a> that long-term residents relied on.</p>
<p>There are, of course, some specialty coffee shops in Philadelphia that have designed their prices, programming and decor to <a href="https://billypenn.com/2019/01/28/these-philly-coffee-shops-do-the-opposite-of-gentrification">attract customers and residents that often feel excluded</a> from such shops. These include <a href="https://www.unclebobbies.com/">Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books</a> in Germantown and <a href="https://www.kayuhcafe.com/">Kayuh Bicycles & Cafe</a> in Francisville. Some, like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/quakercitycoffee/">Quaker City Coffee</a> and <a href="https://www.themonkeyandtheelephant.org/#home-page-test-section">The Monkey & the Elephant</a> in Brewerytown, employ vulnerable populations such as <a href="https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/meet-the-disruptor-quaker-city-coffee/">formerly incarcerated people</a> and <a href="https://themonkeyandtheelephant.squarespace.com/program-overview">former foster youth</a>. But specialty coffee shops designed to appeal to those that often feel excluded are rare, and they employ only a handful of baristas. </p>
<h2>Blame the barista?</h2>
<p>The coffee shops that the baristas we interviewed work for are not the main drivers of urban gentrification. Such gentrification is pushed mainly by real estate developers and by local governments seeking to <a href="https://www.constructiondive.com/news/the-gentrification-effect-what-new-development-means-for-communities/445529/">enhance their tax base</a>.</p>
<p>Gentrification, furthermore, is fundamentally a result of <a href="https://www.planetizen.com/news/2022/07/117708-whos-blame-gentrification">larger structural forces</a> such as zoning rules that prohibit multi-unit and mixed-use construction, and government acquiescence to <a href="https://citylimits.org/2023/07/19/opinion-can-a-science-based-approach-break-the-nimby-yimby-divide-on-housing/">NIMBY resistance</a> to high-rise buildings. These forces limit the supply of housing in walkable urban neighborhoods. In Philadelphia, such neighborhoods include, but are not limited to, <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/venice-island-construction-philadelphia-infill-development-20221019.html#loaded">Chestnut Hill, Germantown, Society Hill, Mount Airy, Strawberry Mansion and Point Breeze</a>.</p>
<p>To ease residential gentrification, baristas could relocate. But they are low-wage service workers, and their housing options are limited by affordability issues and the <a href="https://cityobservatory.org/everything-that-causes-gentrification-from-a-to-z/">shortage of urban neighborhoods</a> – issues that zoning boards, community groups and political leaders have <a href="https://cityobservatory.org/everything-that-causes-gentrification-from-a-to-z/">failed to address</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216887/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Moss does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When it comes to gentrification, Philadelphia baristas say they’re ‘part of the problem.’ But as low-wage workers, where else should they live and work?Geoff Moss, Professor of Sociology, Temple UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134902023-10-11T15:15:40Z2023-10-11T15:15:40ZWhy ‘toxic masculinity’ isn’t a useful term for understanding all of the ways to be a man<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551355/original/file-20231002-17-jilxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C8%2C5812%2C3874&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Masculinity is complex, diverse and can be expressed in multiple ways.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/view-back-lonely-standing-man-high-1469768498">yanik88/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There seem to be as many interpretations of what “<a href="https://theconversation.com/toxic-masculinity-what-does-it-mean-where-did-it-come-from-and-is-the-term-useful-or-harmful-189298#:%7E:text=The%20phrase%20emphasises%20the%20worst,%22toxic%22%20for%20two%20reasons.">toxic masculinity</a>” means as there are uses of the term.</p>
<p>Some believe it’s a way to criticise what they see as specific negative behaviour and attitudes often associated with men. Others, such as broadcaster Piers Morgan, claim that media interest in toxic masculinity is part of a “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/wake-up-why-the-world-has-gone-nuts-piers-morgan?variant=33046214377506">woke culture</a>” that aims to emasculate men. Others believe toxic masculinity is a fundamental part of <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/work/boys-will-be-boys/">manhood</a>. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00380385231172121#bibr26-00380385231172121">research</a> into working-class young men in south Wales shows how masculinity is changing. Some men remain hostile to the notion of toxic masculinity and see the term as a vehicle for shaming men. And some are caught in a conflict between changing ideas of masculinity and traditional, unhealthy expressions of manhood. This is further complicated by the term itself.</p>
<p>In its simplest sense, toxic masculinity refers to an overemphasis or exaggerated expression of characteristics <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Toxic_Masculinity.html?id=9FzBDwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">commonly associated</a> with masculinity. These include traits such as competition, self-reliance and being stoic, which produce behaviours such as risk-taking, fear of showing weakness, and an inability to discuss emotions. These have negative implications for both men and women. </p>
<p>For example, a rejection of weakness and vulnerability may prevent some men from <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Dying-to-be-Men-Psychosocial-Environmental-and-Biobehavioral-Directions/Courtenay/p/book/9780415878760#:%7E:text=Description,In%20this%20book%2C%20Dr.">discussing issues</a> such as mental health. Similarly, an inability to express emotion may expose itself through frustration, anger and acts of physical violence. </p>
<p>But masculine traits such as being stoic can equally be valuable in some circumstances, such as emergencies and making lifesaving decisions. In essence, masculinity is complex, diverse and can be expressed in multiple ways.</p>
<h2>More than one type of masculinity</h2>
<p>However, masculinity that involves courage, toughness and physical strength has <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3149/jms.0703.295">historically</a> been held in high regard by society. </p>
<p>Masculinity is socially, historically, culturally and individually determined, and subject to change. It can be influenced by a person’s status, power, place, social class and ethnicity. So, a person’s differing circumstances establish or enable different expressions of masculinity. </p>
<p>For example, traditionally high rates of manual employment in heavy industries and family relationships helped establish the gender roles of the male breadwinner and female homemaker. This reinforced masculine traits such as toughness and stoicism in men.</p>
<p>In recent decades though, the way people in western countries work has changed a lot. Manual jobs have <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-10792-4_6">decreased</a> while service sector work has increased. These alterations have contributed to the increase in <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/introducing-gender-and-womens-studies-9781352009903/#:%7E:text=With%20fully%20revised%20chapters%20written,examples%20and%20questions%20to%20consider.">the number of women</a> working, and their wages have became an <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Redundant+Masculinities%3F%3A+Employment+Change+and+White+Working+Class+Youth-p-9781405105866">important part</a> of household incomes.</p>
<p>Movements like <a href="https://metoomvmt.org">#MeToo</a> and brands like Gillette and its We Believe: The Best Men Can Be advert have led to further <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/15/gillette-metoo-ad-on-toxic-masculinity-cuts-deep-with-mens-rights-activists">examination</a> of masculinity. They have challenged negative expressions of masculinity, encouraging men to change their behaviour and instead adopt a <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442232921/Masculinities-in-the-Making-From-the-Local-to-the-Global">more positive</a> version of masculinity. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gilette’s We Believe The Best Men Can Be advert from 2019.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Against this backdrop, we urgently need to reassess what the current research tells us about men and masculinity.</p>
<h2>Men are changing</h2>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Inclusive-Masculinity-The-Changing-Nature-of-Masculinities/Anderson/p/book/9780415893909">studies</a> suggest that men are changing their behaviour as society and the economy change. For example, studies of white, middle-class men who attend university have found that they are more likely to express their emotions verbally and physically.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-78819-7">critics</a> of that idea say that such young men can transgress typical notions of masculinity because of their higher social status.</p>
<p>A new wave of qualitative research has shown that some <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Young-Working-Class-Men-in-Transition/Roberts/p/book/9780367473723">working-class</a> young men are changing their behaviour. They are more open about their emotions, admit to feeling vulnerable and have more egalitarian views on housework. However, they still sometimes use sexist and homophobic language. </p>
<p>My recent <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00380385231172121#bibr26-00380385231172121">study</a> is part of a growing criticism of how masculinity is defined and talked about. I carried out my research at a youth centre and focused on a group of working-class young men aged between 12 and 21. I talked to the young men about their school experiences, work ambitions and looked at their behaviour. </p>
<p>The study was based in the Gwent valleys, a former coal mining community. It is a place known for its traditional ideas of masculinity, such as being strong and tough. But also I found that these young men showed softer sides of masculinity, such as empathy, compassion and sensitivity.</p>
<p>These changes and softer sides of masculinity coexisted with behaviours often linked with negative expressions of masculinity, such as violence and crime. I describe this as “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00380385231172121#bibr26-00380385231172121">amalgamated masculinities</a>”.</p>
<p>My findings strengthen the idea that positive changes in masculinity are happening socially. </p>
<h2>Changing the narrative</h2>
<p>We must be aware of the harm caused by exaggerated masculine traits but language like “toxic masculinity” can be unhelpful. We should focus on promoting the benefits of positive expressions of manhood, such as emotional openness and empathy. </p>
<p>We should also do more work to try to understand why positive changes in masculinity are happening. Once we understand this, we can think about how to encourage these positive changes to make them more common in society. This could help to make masculinity better for everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Gater works for Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data. He receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>A new wave of research shows how working-class young men are changing their behaviour. But some remain hostile to the term “toxic masculinity” and see it as a vehicle for shaming men.Richard Gater, Postdoctoral research fellow at the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2128152023-10-03T19:35:52Z2023-10-03T19:35:52ZBook review: African thinkers analyse some of the big issues of our time - race, belonging and identity<p>The subjects of race, identity and belonging are often fraught with contention and uneasiness. Who are you? Who belongs? Who is native, or indigenous to a place? These perennial questions arise around the world.</p>
<p>They are the subject of the book <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/9783031387968">The Paradox(es) of Diasporic Identity, Race and Belonging</a>, edited by <a href="https://scholar.google.co.jp/citations?user=EEyB8sMAAAAJ&hl=en">Benjamin Maiangwa</a>, a political scientist at Lakehead University in Canada. </p>
<p>The contributors are academics, mostly early career scholars and doctoral candidates in African and North American universities. They study genocide, peace and conflict, gender, decolonial practices, identity, race and war. </p>
<p>Unavoidably, questions that defy convenient answers pervade the reflections and analyses in the book. </p>
<p>In my own work as <a href="https://www.mtroyal.ca/ProgramsCourses/FacultiesSchoolsCentres/Arts/Departments/EnglishLanguagesCultures/FacultyStaff/Ademola-Adesola.htm">a scholar</a> of African literature with an interest in the subjects of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10402659.2017.1344526">conflict</a>, childhood and identity, I underscore the relevance of these questions. </p>
<p>The Paradox(es) of Diasporic Identity, Race and Belonging assembles voices that urge us to think more critically about how the politics of race and identity hampers healthy interrelations among people.</p>
<p>In a world increasingly divided by supremacist ideologies, the insights in this collection of essays are highly relevant. </p>
<h2>What the book’s about</h2>
<p>The contributors to the book use a variety of forms of writing. Some of the essays are autobiograpical; some are literary criticism; others scholarly analyses. They re-examine familiar but controversial concepts. </p>
<p>Among them are ideas about naming, indigeneity, land, citizenship, identitarian disparity, diasporic (un)being, immigration and migration, and the political economy of (un)belonging. These are topical ideas that predominate in discourses on nationalism, ethnicity and nation states. Their engagement in this collection helps us to further appreciate how unfixed and complex they are; they are never amenable to any easy analysis. </p>
<p>The volume is structured into three parts: Identity, Coloniality, and Home; Diaspora, Race, and Immigration; and Belonging: Cross-Cutting Issues. Each section has an introduction, a conversation among four of the contributors, an epilogue and an afterword.</p>
<p>This layout attests to the careful editing of the whole. There is an organic flow of engagement with ideas from one chapter to the next. Yet no chapter’s unique argument is overshadowed by another’s. </p>
<h2>Critical probing and analysis</h2>
<p>The chapters inspired by personal experiences do as much critical probing as those framed by hardcore analyses. </p>
<p>The contributions don’t sound jointly rehearsed, but represent a form of dialogue. Readers will find a kaleidoscope of interrelated but distinct compelling arguments on matters of race, identity and belonging, and the violent and paradoxical patterns they take in the <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520204355/on-the-postcolony">postcolony</a>. This is a notion that is concerned with a particular historical course involving societies that have latterly experienced colonialism, as theorised by the Cameroonian historian and political theorist <a href="https://wiser.wits.ac.za/people/achille-mbembe">Achille Mbembe</a>. </p>
<p>As is customary in volumes of this kind, the opening chapter comes from the editor. He welcomes readers with questions that invite them to ruminate on place and identity construction and the way it determines relations. </p>
<p>Such questions, which reverberate throughout the volume, are “What is home? What creates the feeling of belonging or (dis)connection to a place/space or other people? Is home a place, a feeling, other people, or an idea? Is it a destination or a spiritual entity or experience? Who am I in this political space?” </p>
<p>For the reader who has taken their identity for granted thus far, such questions can be jarring and unnerving. They can also provoke deep thoughts. </p>
<h2>The construction of race</h2>
<p>The chapter underlines the fact that identity is constructed and is fluid. It stresses racial signifiers – indigenous, native, white, black – as markers which mask, confuse, distress and misrepresent. </p>
<p>In some people they produce false triumphalism and superiority and in others they activate demeaning nervousness. As the chapter maintains, cultural essentialism, the product of these markers, distorts cultural facts. It also abjures a cultivation of interest in history and critical mindedness. And it is this matter of invented racial/cultural identity that the conversation in chapter 12 of the book foregrounds. </p>
<p>In that conversation, such constructs as “Black”, “African”, “White” and “immigrant” ricochet from one discussant to another. The conversation makes it clear that there is a kind of under-appreciation of the violence that minoritised people within national boundaries and diasporic spaces experience when designated in certain senses. </p>
<h2>Interconnected humanity</h2>
<p>With its other chapters, the volume broadens the frontiers of research in the intersecting areas of race, ethnicity, peace, home(lessness), gender and other forms of identity and diasporic formations. It calls for a spiritual reawakening of our identities. </p>
<p>This volume is a force in the promotion and celebration of the dignity of human differences. One can hear again and again the refrain in Maya Angelou’s timeless poem, Human Family:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://allpoetry.com/Human-Family">We are more alike, my friends,/than we are unalike</a>. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The humanistic ring in this book results from a conviction that the human or spiritual identity trumps all other ones, including institutionalised discriminatory ways of being and exclusionary policies and regulations, all of which enable the questioning of other people’s humanity. </p>
<p>The contributors’ insistence is on interconnected human relations and, to borrow from the Canadian novelist and essayist, Dionne Brand, on life – </p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Map-Door-No-Return-Belonging/dp/0385258925">It is life you must insist on</a>. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Scholars, students and general readers interested in migration studies, peace and conflict studies, political science, literary studies, African studies, international relations, gender studies, sociology and history will find this work an enlightening resource.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212815/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ademola Adesola does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The book makes invaluable contributions to subjects of race, identity and belonging and how they shape human interrelations.Ademola Adesola, Assistant Professor, Mount Royal UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2075842023-09-06T12:25:58Z2023-09-06T12:25:58ZNot religious, not voting? The ‘nones’ are a powerful force in politics – but not yet a coalition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535164/original/file-20230702-192977-l8drvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2117%2C1409&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Politicians all over the spectrum have long tried to appeal to religious voters. What about atheists, agnostics and nothing-in-particulars?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/atheist-checkbox-on-white-paper-with-metal-pen-royalty-free-image/1137047566?phrase=atheist+voter&adppopup=true">Y.Gurevich/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nearly 30% of Americans say they <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/">have no religious affiliation</a>. Today the so-called “nones” represent <a href="https://www.prri.org/spotlight/prri-2022-american-values-atlas-religious-affiliation-updates-and-trends/">about 30% of Democrats and 12% of Republicans</a> – and they are making their voices heard. <a href="https://secular.org/">Organizations lobby</a> on behalf of <a href="https://www.atheists.org/">atheists</a>, agnostics, <a href="https://americanhumanist.org/">secular humanists</a> and other nonreligious people. </p>
<p>As more people leave religious institutions, or never join them in the first place, it’s easy to assume this demographic will command more influence. But as a sociologist <a href="https://www.umb.edu/directory/evanstewart/">who studies politics and religion</a>, I wanted to know whether there was evidence that this religious change could actually make a strong political impact.</p>
<p>There are reasons to be skeptical of unaffiliated Americans’ power at the ballot box. Religious institutions have long been key for mobilizing voters, both <a href="https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/black-church-has-been-getting-souls-polls-more-60-years">on the left</a> and <a href="https://www.oah.org/tah/issues/2018/november/evangelicalism-and-politics/">the right</a>. Religiously unaffiliated people <a href="https://www.prri.org/research/2020-census-of-american-religion/#:%7E:text=While%20more%20than%20one%2Dthird,those%20ages%2065%20and%20older.">tend to be younger</a>, and younger people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2012.12.006">tend to vote less often</a>. What’s more, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/">exit polls</a> from <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/exit-polls/president/national-results">recent elections</a> show the religiously unaffiliated may be a smaller percentage of voters than of the general population. </p>
<p>Most importantly, it’s hard to put the “unaffiliated” in a box. Only a third of them <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/">identify as atheists or agnostics</a>. While there is a smaller core of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108923347">secular activists</a>, they tend to hold different views from <a href="http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/books/b9789004319301s009">the larger group</a> of people who are religiously unaffiliated, such as being more concerned about the separation of church and state. </p>
<p>By combining all unaffiliated people as “the nones,” researchers and political analysts risk missing key details about this large and diverse constituency.</p>
<h2>Crunching the numbers</h2>
<p>In order to learn more about which parts of religious unaffiliated populations turn out to vote, I used data from the <a href="https://cces.gov.harvard.edu/">Cooperative Election Study</a>, or CES, for presidential elections in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. The CES collects large surveys and then matches individual respondents in those surveys to validated voter turnout records.</p>
<p>These surveys were different from exit polls in some key ways. For example, according to these survey samples, overall validated voter turnout looked higher in many groups, not just the unaffiliated, than exit polls suggested. But because each survey sample had over 100,000 respondents and detailed questions about religious affiliation, they allowed me to find some important differences between smaller groups within the unaffiliated.</p>
<p><iframe id="oK8sa" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/oK8sa/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>My findings, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srad018">published in June 2023 in the journal Sociology of Religion</a>, were that the unaffiliated are divided in their voter turnout: Some unaffiliated groups are more likely to vote than religiously affiliated respondents, and some are less likely.</p>
<p>People who identified as atheists and agnostics were more likely to vote than religiously affiliated respondents, especially in more recent elections. For example, after controlling for key demographic predictors of voting – like age, education and income – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srad018">I found</a> that atheists and agnostics were each about 30% more likely to have a validated record of voting in the 2020 election than religiously affiliated respondents. </p>
<p>With those same controls, people who identified their religion as simply “nothing in particular,” <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/">who are about two-thirds of the unaffiliated</a>, were actually less likely to turn out in all four elections. In the 2020 election sample, for example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srad018">I found</a> that around 7 in 10 agnostics and atheists had a validated voter turnout record, versus only about half of the “nothing in particulars.”</p>
<p>Together, these groups’ voting behaviors tend to cancel each other out. Once I controlled for other predictors of voting like age and education, “the nones” as a whole were equally likely to have a turnout record as religiously affiliated respondents.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535350/original/file-20230703-252214-2e0whd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Five people with their backs to the camera vote at small booths in a room with bunting in the colors of the American flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535350/original/file-20230703-252214-2e0whd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535350/original/file-20230703-252214-2e0whd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535350/original/file-20230703-252214-2e0whd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535350/original/file-20230703-252214-2e0whd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535350/original/file-20230703-252214-2e0whd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535350/original/file-20230703-252214-2e0whd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535350/original/file-20230703-252214-2e0whd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Religious and nonreligious voting patterns may not be so different after all.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/voters-voting-in-polling-place-royalty-free-image/138711450?phrase=young+voters&adppopup=true">Hill Street Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2024 and beyond</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/after-trump-christian-nationalist-ideas-are-going-mainstream-despite-a-history-of-violence-188055">Concern about growing Christian nationalism</a>, which advocates for fusing national identity and political power with Christian beliefs, has put a spotlight on religion’s role in <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-god-strategy-9780195326413?cc=us&lang=en&">right-wing advocacy</a>. </p>
<p>Yet religion does not line up neatly with one party. The <a href="https://religionnews.com/2023/04/21/christian-nationalists-have-provoked-a-pluralist-resistance/">political left also boasts a diverse coalition of religious groups</a>, and there are many Republican voters for whom religion is not important. </p>
<p>If the percentage of people without a religious affiliation continues to rise, both Republicans and Democrats will have to think more creatively and intentionally about how to appeal to these voters. My research shows that neither party can take the unaffiliated for granted nor treat them as a single, unified group. Instead, politicians and analysts will need to think more specifically about what motivates people to vote, and particularly what policies encourage voting among young adults.</p>
<p>For example, some activist groups talk about “<a href="https://secular.org/grassroots/valuesvoter/#:%7E:text=Secular%20Values%20Voter%20is%20a,values%20for%20which%20they%20stand.">the secular values voter</a>:” someone who is increasingly motivated to vote by concern about separation of church and state. I did find evidence that the average atheist or agnostic is about 30% more likely to turn out than the average religiously affiliated voter, lending some support to the secular values voter story. At the same time, that description does not fit <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108923347">all the “nones</a>.”</p>
<p>Instead of focusing on America’s declining religious affiliation, it may be more helpful to focus on the country’s <a href="https://www.interfaithamerica.org/">increasing religious diversity</a>, especially because many unaffiliated people still report having religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. Faith communities have historically been important sites for political organizing. Today, though, motivating and empowering voters might mean looking across a broader set of community institutions to find them.</p>
<h2>Rethinking assumptions</h2>
<p>There is good news in these findings for everyone, regardless of their political leanings. <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Bowling-Alone-Revised-and-Updated/Robert-D-Putnam/9780743219037">Social science theories from the 1990s and 2000s argued</a> that leaving religion was part of a larger trend in declining civic engagement, like voting and volunteering, but that may not be the case. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srad018">According to my research</a>, it was actually unaffiliated respondents who reported still attending religious services who were least likely to vote. Their turnout rates were lower than both frequently attending religious affiliates and unaffiliated people who never attended.</p>
<p>This finding matches up with previous research on religion, spirituality and other kinds of civic engagement. Sociologists <a href="https://www.cla.purdue.edu/directory/profiles/jacqui-frost.html">Jacqui Frost</a> and <a href="https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/edgell">Penny Edgell</a>, for example, found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764017746251">a similar pattern in volunteering</a> among religiously unaffiliated respondents. In a previous study, sociologist <a href="https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/our-faculty/directory/faculty-detail/jaime-lee-kucinskas">Jaime Kucinskas</a> and I found that spiritual practices like meditation and yoga were <a href="https://theconversation.com/yoga-versus-democracy-what-survey-data-says-about-spiritual-americans-political-behavior-187960">just as strongly associated with political behavior</a> as religious practices like church attendance. Across these studies, it looks like disengagement from formal religion is not necessarily linked to political disengagement.</p>
<p>As the religious landscape changes, new potential voters may be ready to engage – if political leadership can enact policies that help them turn out, and inspire them to turn out, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evan Stewart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nonreligious voters are poised to make an impact, but sweeping statements about the ‘nones’ don’t tell the full story.Evan Stewart, Assistant Professor of Sociology, UMass BostonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2115582023-08-22T12:25:41Z2023-08-22T12:25:41ZOnline gaming communities could provide a lifeline for isolated young men − new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543047/original/file-20230816-15-gx4a3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5104%2C2858&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many gamers discuss deeply personal and sensitive topics with each other.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/back-of-the-head-shot-of-an-african-american-gamer-royalty-free-image/1448557185">gorodenkoff/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Online gaming communities could be a vital lifeline for young men struggling silently with mental health issues, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2023.2199171">according to new research</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=dn6NJr4AAAAJ">My</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Rj7Jpt8AAAAJ">colleagues</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=TOKNbGcAAAAJ">I</a> analyzed an all-male online football gaming community over the course of a year. We discovered that members who reported more depressive symptoms and less real-life support were roughly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2023.2199171">40% more likely</a> to form and maintain social ties with fellow gamers compared with those reporting more real-life support.</p>
<p>This finding suggests the chat and community features of online games might provide isolated young men an anonymous “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/04/third-places-meet-new-people-pandemic/629468/">third place</a>” – or space where people can congregate other than work or home – to open up, find empathy and build crucial social connections they may lack in real life. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Mental health issues like depression and suicide are on the rise <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291717002781">among young men</a> in the U.S., yet social stigmas and traditional masculinity often inhibit them <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2016.09.002">from seeking professional assistance</a>. Up to <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt29393/2019NSDUHFFRPDFWHTML/2019NSDUHFFR1PDFW090120.pdf">75% of people</a> with mental illnesses go without treatment, with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017224">men especially unlikely to pursue counseling or therapy</a>. </p>
<p>Online social spaces, like gaming communities, may offer an alternative avenue to find connection and discuss serious personal problems without the barriers of formal mental health services. The social features of online games allow players to privately chat and build friendships, potentially creating vital informal support networks. While not a substitute for professional care, these virtual forums could encourage discussion of mental health challenges among young men facing social isolation and untreated depression. </p>
<p>More comprehensive research is still needed, but the social features of online games may literally provide young men a lifeline when they have nowhere else to turn.</p>
<h2>How we do our work</h2>
<p>We asked members of a small online gaming community to tell us specifically who in the community they talked to about important life matters. Using an open-ended survey, we then asked about these conversations. We also asked them to report how often they felt certain depressive symptoms, as well as their feelings on in-person and online social support.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542863/original/file-20230815-21-1h8pry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man with gaming headphones looks distressed while staring at his screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542863/original/file-20230815-21-1h8pry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542863/original/file-20230815-21-1h8pry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542863/original/file-20230815-21-1h8pry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542863/original/file-20230815-21-1h8pry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542863/original/file-20230815-21-1h8pry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542863/original/file-20230815-21-1h8pry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542863/original/file-20230815-21-1h8pry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Virtual friendships can have real-life impacts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/asian-gamer-is-upset-royalty-free-image/1395300802">PonyWang/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found some members discussed deeply personal and sensitive topics with each other. Many mentioned talking about struggles like stress, anxiety and depression. Some brought up relationship problems they were facing with romantic partners or family members. Others sought advice on major life decisions related to jobs, moving or going back to school. </p>
<p>Several participants specifically said they confided about topics they felt unable to discuss with people in their real lives, suggesting these online friendships provided an outlet they were otherwise lacking. The depth of sharing indicates these online friendships had moved beyond superficial topics into deeper emotional support and bonding.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Our research was limited to 40 male participants interested in college football video games. Further investigations using larger, more diverse samples across various gaming genres are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.</p>
<p>A key question is whether online social support directly improves depression – or are depressed individuals simply more inclined to seek connections virtually? Despite a massive industry and audience for online gaming, its mental health impacts remain murky. </p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>My colleagues and I are launching studies that analyze the impact of multiplayer games on teamwork, leadership and social skills in high school and college students compared with traditional extracurricular activities. We are also investigating how involvement in esports can cultivate lasting social relationships and foster a sense of community. </p>
<p>Through multiyear studies, we hope to understand online gaming’s risks – alongside its promise for improving mental health, social integration and life skills.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211558/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyler Prochnow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For young men who struggle with mental health or lack connections in real life, chat and community features of online games can be a source of support.Tyler Prochnow, Assistant Professor of Health Behavior; School of Public Health, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2109552023-08-04T12:30:01Z2023-08-04T12:30:01ZAre we alone in the universe? 4 essential reads on potential contact with aliens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541095/original/file-20230803-27-wa23kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C0%2C8694%2C5617&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">UFOs usually have non-extraterrestrial origins, but many have urged the government to be more transparent about UFO data. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/long-exposure-of-andromeda-galaxy-royalty-free-image/1455373371?phrase=space&adppopup=true">Westend61/Westend61 via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The House subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?529499-1/hearing-unidentified-aerial-phenomena">met in July 2023 to discuss</a> affairs so foreign that they may not even be of this world. During the meeting, several military officers testified that unidentified anomalous phenomena – the government’s name for UFOs – <a href="https://theconversation.com/whistleblower-calls-for-government-transparency-as-congress-digs-for-the-truth-about-ufos-210435">pose a threat</a> to national security. </p>
<p>Their testimony may have <a href="https://theconversation.com/whistleblower-calls-for-government-transparency-as-congress-digs-for-the-truth-about-ufos-210435">raised eyebrows in the chamber</a>, but there’s still no public physical evidence of extraterrestrial life. In fact, most UFO sightings <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-people-tend-to-believe-ufos-are-extraterrestrial-208403">have earthly explanations</a>, from tricks of the light to weather balloons. </p>
<p>Whether or not these testimonials hold any grains of truth, some scholars argue that simply by listening for signs of extraterrestrials, we’re already <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-contact-with-aliens-could-end-in-colonization-and-genocide-if-we-dont-learn-from-history-207793">engaging in the first phase of contact</a> with alien life. </p>
<p>These four articles from our archives dive into what went down during the subcommittee hearing, why perceived UFO sightings usually have human explanations, and how humanity can learn from history when it comes to engaging with extraterrestrials. </p>
<h2>1. Whistleblower allegations</h2>
<p>The most interesting testimony of the July 26 subcommittee hearing came from ex-Air Force Intelligence Officer David Grusch, who <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Dave_G_HOC_Speech_FINAL_For_Trans.pdf">claimed that</a> the U.S. has nonhuman biological material recovered from a UFO crash site. The Pentagon has <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-oversight-plans-ufo-hearing-after-unconfirmed-claims/story?id=99899883">denied this claim</a>, and it has <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-oversight-plans-ufo-hearing-after-unconfirmed-claims/story?id=99899883">denied the existence of any program</a> designed to retrieve and reverse-engineer crashed UFOs. </p>
<p>All witnesses at the hearing advocated for more government transparency around reports of UFOs. Intelligence agencies and the Pentagon currently steward this data, most of which <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/pentagon-blocks-lawmakers-ufo-data-uap-hearing/">is not public</a>. While having access to more data may help understand what’s going on, as the University of Arizona’s <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OrRLRQ4AAAAJ&hl=en">Chris Impey</a> put it, “the gold standard is physical evidence.”</p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whistleblower-calls-for-government-transparency-as-congress-digs-for-the-truth-about-ufos-210435">Whistleblower calls for government transparency as Congress digs for the truth about UFOs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>2. Sociological explanations</h2>
<p>Again, while no physical evidence has been made public, anyone surfing the internet can see plenty of alleged UFO videos, photos and stories. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZEQu09wAAAAJ&hl=en">Barry Markovsky</a>, from the University of South Carolina, is a sociologist of shared beliefs and misconceptions who explained why UFOs seem to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-people-tend-to-believe-ufos-are-extraterrestrial-208403">captivate the public</a> every few years.</p>
<p>People want explanations <a href="https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/ambiguity-effect">for ambiguous situations</a>, and they’re easily influenced by others. Social media enables a concept called <a href="https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v3i2.21">bottom-up social diffusion</a>. Say one user posts a blurry video claiming it depicts a UFO. It’s easy for that user’s network to see and repost the video and so on, until it goes viral. Then, when organized institutions like news outlets or government sources publish UFO-related information, that’s called <a href="https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v3i2.21">top-down social diffusion</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two circle-and-line graphics, the left showing several circles connected to one another with lines, while the right shows one circle at the top connecting several other circles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The left image shows bottom-up diffusion, in which information spreads from person to person. The right shows top-down diffusion, in which information spreads from one authority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Barry Markovsky</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>“Diffusion processes can combine into self-reinforcing loops. Mass media spreads UFO content and piques worldwide interest in UFOs. More people aim their cameras at the skies, creating more opportunities to capture and share odd-looking content,” Markovsky wrote. “Poorly documented UFO pics and videos spread on social media, leading media outlets to grab and republish the most intriguing. Whistleblowers emerge periodically, fanning the flames with claims of secret evidence.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-people-tend-to-believe-ufos-are-extraterrestrial-208403">Why people tend to believe UFOs are extraterrestrial</a>
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</em>
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<h2>3. Signature detection</h2>
<p>While UFOs might have traction on social media, it’s likely that the first trace of extraterrestrial life won’t come from a crashed alien spaceship. Instead, scientists could potentially <a href="https://theconversation.com/signatures-of-alien-technology-could-be-how-humanity-first-finds-extraterrestrial-life-191054">pick up signals</a> like radio waves or pollution from some distant galaxy that might indicate extraterrestrial technology. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.seti.org/">Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence</a> is a group of scientists all working on the search for extraterrestrial life. Part of what they do is listen for these “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1473550419000284">technosignatures</a>”.</p>
<p>As two astronomers who work on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Penn State’s <a href="https://sites.psu.edu/macyhuston/">Macy Huston</a> and <a href="https://sites.psu.edu/astrowright/">Jason Wright</a> wrote about how humans often <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/science.199.4327.377">unintentionally broadcast signals</a> like radio waves into space. In theory, extraterrestrial civilizations could be doing the same thing – and if scientists can pick up on these signals, they might have their first hints at alien life. </p>
<p>“However, this approach assumes that extraterrestrial civilizations <a href="https://www.universetoday.com/149513/beyond-fermis-paradox-xvii-what-is-the-seti-paradox-hypothesis/">want to communicate</a> with other technologically advanced life,” Huston and Wright explained. “Humans very rarely send targeted signals into space, and some scholars argue that intelligent species may <a href="https://theconversation.com/blasting-out-earths-location-with-the-hope-of-reaching-aliens-is-a-controversial-idea-two-teams-of-scientists-are-doing-it-anyway-182036">purposefully avoid broadcasting</a> out their locations. This search for signals that no one may be sending is called <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.physics/0611283">the SETI Paradox</a>.” </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/signatures-of-alien-technology-could-be-how-humanity-first-finds-extraterrestrial-life-191054">Signatures of alien technology could be how humanity first finds extraterrestrial life</a>
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<h2>4. Ethical considerations</h2>
<p>While the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence hasn’t yet detected any extraterrestrial technosignatures, a <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2sq6f3b0">working group of interdisciplinary scholars</a> in Indigenous studies argued that the act of listening for these signals may already count as engaging in first contact with extraterrestrial life.</p>
<p>The Indigenous studies working group argued that first contact may not be just one event – rather, you can think of it as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848619862191">long phase</a> that begins with listening and planning. Listening can be an act of surveillance, and with that comes ethical considerations. </p>
<p>But research groups like the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence don’t often include perspectives from the humanities, even though there are many histories of first contact between groups of people here on Earth to draw from. </p>
<p>James Cook’s 1768 voyage to Oceania, for example, was planned as scientific exploration. But its <a href="https://doi.org/10.17953/aicrj.45.1.lempert">legacy of genocide</a> still affects the Indigenous people of Australia and New Zealand today. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">This BBC video describes the modern ramifications of Captain James Cook’s colonial legacy in New Zealand.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“The initial domino of a public ET message, or recovered bodies or ships, could initiate <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2010.0236">cascading events</a>, including military actions, corporate resource mining and perhaps even geopolitical reorganizing,” wrote <a href="https://www.wacd.ucla.edu/people/faculty/david-shorter">David Shorter</a>, <a href="https://www.bowdoin.edu/profiles/faculty/wlempert/index.html">William Lempert</a> and <a href="https://kimtallbear.com/">Kim Tallbear</a>. “No one can know for sure <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-your-religion-ready-to-meet-et-32541">how engagement with extraterrestrials would go</a>, though it’s better to consider cautionary tales from Earth’s own history sooner rather than later.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-contact-with-aliens-could-end-in-colonization-and-genocide-if-we-dont-learn-from-history-207793">First contact with aliens could end in colonization and genocide if we don't learn from history</a>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210955/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Whistleblower allegations that the government possesses UFOs may not be backed up by public physical evidence, but some argue that listening for extraterrestrial life is the first phase of contact.Mary Magnuson, Assistant Science EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2102992023-07-27T14:47:54Z2023-07-27T14:47:54Z‘A weather-map of popular feeling’: how Mass-Observation was born<p>On August 29 1938, in the build-up to the second world war, a now-defunct London newspaper asserted that Europe was tensely watching the crisis over Czechoslovakia unfold. But how could a newspaper know what a population was feeling? What if some people, even lots of people, were tensely watching “the racing news and daily horoscope”? This is the question posed by Mass-Observation at the start of <a href="https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/features/feb04b.shtml">the 1939 book, Britain</a>.</p>
<p>Mass-Observation was <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/mass-observation-tom-harrisson-social-experiment-bellport-a8544331.html">established</a> as a social movement in 1937 by Tom Harrisson, an ornithologist and self-taught ethnographer, surrealist poet and Daily Mirror journalist Charles Madge and Humphrey Jennings, a filmmaker and painter. Jennings didn’t last long. Three large male egos were probably at least one too many. </p>
<p>The trio were inspired by <a href="https://theconversation.com/salvador-dali-entertainer-who-brought-surrealism-to-a-mass-market-109320">surrealism’s</a> interest in coincidence and the unconscious, as well as by the <a href="https://www.bsu.edu/academics/centersandinstitutes/middletown">Everyday Life in Middletown</a> sociological studies being carried out in the US. And their output was an <a href="https://www.massobservation.amdigital.co.uk/FurtherResources/Essays/EverydayLifeAndTheBirthOfMassObservation">odd mix</a> of science and poetry. It was also a democratic riposte to a newspaper and radio culture where the few communicated to the many: <a href="http://epapers.bham.ac.uk/1810/1/SOP55.pdf">what would happen</a>, they wondered, if the balance shifted the other way? </p>
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<p>I first came across Mass-Observation while doing my doctoral research in the 1990s and became a trustee in 2022. That same year, coinciding with the project’s 85th anniversary, English Heritage installed a <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/mass-observation/">blue plaque</a> at 6 Grotes Buildings in Blackheath, south London – the building in which it was conceived. </p>
<p>Predating the internet and social media by over half a century, this archive can be seen as an early form of collective content production or citizen ethnography. But unlike social media, Mass-Observers – as the project’s voluntary contributors are known – write with posterity in mind, and write at length, anonymously and with candour. </p>
<h2>Candour and idiosyncrasies</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/massobservation-9781350226470/">1937 founding pamphlet</a> describes Mass-Observation as an “anthropology of ourselves”.
To this end, people were invited to volunteer to answer directives, to write diaries on specific days and to observe and describe the world around them. </p>
<p>Mass-Observation also established various projects – such as the Worktown project in Bolton – where <a href="https://boltonworktown.co.uk/">paid observers took notes</a> on activities in the street, in pubs and at football matches and local elections.</p>
<p>The first Mass-Observation material I worked on, in the 1990s, was a microfiche file entitled Bad Dreams and Nightmares. I was researching <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Everyday-Life-and-Cultural-Theory-An-Introduction/Highmore/p/book/9780415223034">theories of everyday life</a>. These accounts had been collated a few months before the start of the second world war, in an attempt to gauge social anxiety. </p>
<p>Reading about one or two nightmares can be banal. Reading the 66 reports that observers had sent in, however, had a cumulative effect of gnawing unease. </p>
<p>Ten years later, going through material that had been collected in the 1980s, I became obsessed with one woman’s response to <a href="http://www.massobs.org.uk/images/Directives/Autumn_1983_Directive.pdf">a directive on housework</a>. She had typed a 50-page report of two weeks of domestic routines. It was funny, beautifully written and deeply idiosyncratic. Uncertain about how long she had spent doing a chore and how long she had spent resenting the fact of doing the chore, she decides to use a stopwatch. </p>
<p>Early in the report, she was filled with self-doubt. She writes: “The trouble is I don’t like the way I am but it obviously doesn’t bother me enough to actually change my ways it just means that I have a constant low opinion of myself which I try to cover up by laughing about it.”</p>
<p>By the end of the report, she has had a family meeting to reallocate household work more fairly. It was practical feminism in action.</p>
<h2>Archive of feelings</h2>
<p>The first era of Mass-Observation stretched from the 1930s through the war (where the organisation worked with the UK government’s Ministry of Information) and into the postwar settlement and the building of the welfare state. By the mid-1950s, it had stopped using a national panel of voluntary writers and slowly shut up shop. Harrisson and Madge had long since gone on to other things. </p>
<p>Mass-Observation found a new lease of life in the mid-1970s when Harrisson bequeathed the archive to the University of Sussex, for safekeeping and public use. In 1981, a new generation of democratically minded academics got involved. </p>
<p>Inspired by oral history, <a href="https://theconversation.com/shulamith-firestone-why-the-radical-feminist-who-wanted-to-abolish-pregnancy-remains-relevant-115730">second-wave feminism</a> and the social sciences, they revived the national panel. About 700 volunteer writers were recruited. They would go on to write responses to directives about the Falklands conflict and Gulf wars, royal weddings, soap operas, gardening and electronic banking. </p>
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<p>Every year for the last ten, as a nod to the 1937 book, <a href="http://www.massobs.org.uk/write-for-us/12th-may">Mass Observation Day Survey May 12</a>, the organisation has asked the country at large to send in a diary for that same date. </p>
<p>During the first COVID lockdown, on May 12 2020, 5,000 accounts were sent in. These now form part of a significant collection of Mass Observation material <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09526951231152139">generated</a> about the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09526951221133983">pandemic</a>, currently being mined by <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13607804231164486">sociologists</a>, geographers and those concerned with public health. It represents an invaluable archive for future historians.</p>
<p>You don’t go to the Mass-Observation archives to get a representative sample of opinion. It isn’t a Mori poll. You go to get at <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies/article/massobservation-market-research-and-the-birth-of-the-focus-group-19371997/9842EC5E912F1A1CB8046E004C5E6ECB">something being lived through</a>: a sense of felt experience in all its particularity and peculiarity. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/massobservation-9781350226470/">As detailed</a> in the 1937 pamphlet, the original intention – and the one that still drives the project today – was that its voluntary writers would form “meteorological stations from whose reports a weather-map of popular feeling can be compiled”. Mass-Observation is a growing archive of feelings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Highmore is a trustee of Mass Observation, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (registered charity number: 1179673) in the care of the University of Sussex. </span></em></p>Since 1937, this sociological project has sought to catalogue the nation’s feelings on everything from royal weddings and football matches to wars, dreams and elections.Ben Highmore, Professor of Cultural Studies, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2041782023-07-17T12:24:18Z2023-07-17T12:24:18ZReligion shapes vaccine views – but how exactly? Our analysis looks at ideas about God and beliefs about the Bible<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534684/original/file-20230628-29-ibxriy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C1017%2C677&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Widespread skepticism toward COVID-19 vaccines took some scientists by surprise.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/malik-jaffer-lead-nurse-prepares-a-syringe-with-a-covid-19-news-photo/1251770818?adppopup=true">Eric Lee/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many scientists and public health officials were surprised that large swaths of the public were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-023-00334-w">hesitant or outright hostile</a> toward COVID-19 vaccines. “I never saw that coming,” <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2022/09/19/francis-collins-trust-science-covid-communication-failures/">Francis Collins</a>, a former director of the National Institutes of Health, commented in 2022. Even today, three years after the start of the pandemic, <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-people-booster-percent-pop5">about 1 in 5 Americans</a> have not received a single dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.</p>
<p>What could be the reason for such widespread vaccine hesitancy? When it comes to skepticism toward vaccines, <a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/vaccine-hesitancy-is-not-a-matter-of-doctrine-but-for-some-it-remains-a-matter-of-faith/">religion is often cited</a> as an important factor. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=6_MGHUYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">sociologists</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=RMqU9jcAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">researching</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=3L7KSCQAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">the role of religion</a> in vaccine attitudes and behaviors, we have found that <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/02/atheists-most-vaccinated-against-covid/8568654002/">the religion-vaccine connection</a> is significant, but much more nuanced than simple stereotypes assume.</p>
<p>Both religious life and vaccine views are complex. A person’s religion <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1995.tb02325.x">cannot be boiled down to just one thing</a>. It includes an identity, a place of worship and a variety of beliefs and practices. Each of these components can have its own distinct effect on vaccine attitudes and behaviors. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.03.018">Attitudes toward vaccines are complicated</a>, as well. Someone’s feelings about vaccines in general might differ from their feelings about one specific type of vaccine, for instance. </p>
<p>To help make sense of this complexity, <a href="https://www.nsssr.org/projects/religion-science-and-the-enchanted-worldview">we surveyed a representative sample</a> of 2,000 U.S. adults in May 2021 about their religious identities, beliefs, behaviors and their attitudes toward <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231211049841">a number of scientific issues</a>, including vaccines. This sample included individuals across many religious traditions, as well as people who do not affiliate with any religion. However, Christians represented the bulk of the sample, given their larger share of the American population, and so our research focuses heavily on on their views.</p>
<h2>Bible beliefs</h2>
<p>One part of religious life that social scientists are often interested in is people’s views of the Bible. For example, does someone think of the Bible as the literal word of God; inspired by God, but not literally true; or as an ancient book of legends, history and moral codes that has no divine source?</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231211049841">We found that</a> respondents who see the Bible as either the “inspired” or “the actual word of God” were less likely to see vaccines in general – not the COVID-19 vaccine in particular – as safe and effective, compared with those who see the Bible as just a book of history and morality created by humans. All else being equal, those who said that the Bible is the literal word of God, for instance, scored 18% higher on our measure of general vaccine skepticism than those who see the Bible as having no divine source or inspiration.</p>
<p>Although such literalist views might be found at higher rates in particular religious traditions, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2008/06/01/chapter-1-religious-beliefs-and-practices/">such as evangelical Protestantism</a>, we found that an individual’s religious tradition itself did not make much of a difference. An evangelical Protestant and a Catholic, for instance, would be predicted to have similar attitudes toward vaccines if they share the same view of the Bible.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman wearing sunglasses holds a bright pink sign proclaiming her belief that she doesn't need to be vaccinated or wear a mask because Jesus will protect her from COVID-19, as anti-vaccination protesters pray nearby" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530720/original/file-20230607-15-zy6mft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530720/original/file-20230607-15-zy6mft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530720/original/file-20230607-15-zy6mft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530720/original/file-20230607-15-zy6mft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530720/original/file-20230607-15-zy6mft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530720/original/file-20230607-15-zy6mft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530720/original/file-20230607-15-zy6mft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Religion has been a key theme in many people’s opposition to getting the COVID-19 vaccine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/woman-holds-a-sign-proclaiming-her-belief-that-she-doesnt-news-photo/1234683312?adppopup=true">Photo by David McNew/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In contrast, when we asked <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231211049841">similar questions specifically about COVID-19 vaccines</a>, we found that an individual’s religious tradition is what matters the most. Protestants – both those who identify as evangelical and those who do not – express more skepticism toward the COVID-19 vaccines than respondents from other religious traditions and nonreligious respondents.</p>
<h2>God and country</h2>
<p>In additional studies, we have attempted to identify the reasons for these patterns. That is, why does one’s view of the Bible or one’s religious tradition matter when it comes to vaccine attitudes and behaviors? </p>
<p>One factor could be Christian nationalism, which has been increasingly visible in the public sphere <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srx070">since Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190057886.001.0001">Christian nationalism is described</a> by sociologists of religion <a href="https://raac.iupui.edu/about/who-we-are/our-staff/andrew-l-whitehead/">Andrew Whitehead</a> and <a href="https://www.ou.edu/cas/soc/people/faculty/samuel-perry#">Samuel Perry</a> as an ideology that advocates for the fusion of Christianity with American politics and public life. </p>
<p>For example, Americans who hold a Christian nationalist ideology tend to agree when surveys ask them whether the federal government “should declare the United States a Christian nation.” In our own survey, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.09.074">we found that</a> individuals’ responses to that statement are strongly correlated with their willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine.</p>
<p>We asked for respondents’ level of agreement or disagreement with that statement on a 5-point scale. A 1-point increase in agreement meant someone was 17% less likely to have received or plan to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Although not exclusive to Protestants, adherence to Christian nationalist ideology <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/10/27/45-of-americans-say-u-s-should-be-a-christian-nation/">is more prominent among this group</a> – especially among its more conservative or evangelical traditions.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">False claims can have real consequences.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-022-00495-0">Another of our studies</a> focused on how people view God. Our data showed that simply believing there is a God, or a higher power that supervises the world, does not make an individual less likely to have received the COVID-19 vaccine. On the other hand, believing that God can and will actively intervene in the world does make a difference. According to our analysis, with all else being equal, we would expect those with the lowest belief in an intervening higher power to be vaccinated, or intend to get vaccinated, 88% of the time. In contrast, we would expect those with the highest belief in an intervening higher power to be vaccinated, or intend to be, 73% of the time. </p>
<p>In addition, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srac024">our data shows</a> that belief in <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100305739;jsessionid=26AA106115736AB428595375CDE00546">parareligious phenomena</a> – including New Ageism, occultism, psychism and spiritualism – is also significantly associated with a reduced likelihood of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. We used a 5-point parareligoius belief scale, with a 1-point increase in an individual’s belief in parareligious phenomena being associated with a 40% decrease in the likelihood of having received a COVID-19 vaccine. </p>
<p>Once we accounted for higher rates of conspiratorial belief and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192868459.003.0002">distrust in science</a> among respondents who believe in parareligious phenomena, however, this vaccine gap was reduced. This suggests that those underlying factors help explain why more people who believe in parareligious phenomena are skeptical toward vaccines.</p>
<p>All of these studies demonstrate that he link between religion and vaccine attitudes is neither simple nor uniform. Public health campaigns that target faith communities would do well to keep this in mind.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204178/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher P. Scheitle has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. The research discussed in this article was funded by a grant from the Science and Religion: Identity and Belief Formation grant initiative spearheaded by the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University and the University of California-San Diego and provided by the Templeton Religion Trust via The Issachar Fund. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research discussed in this article was funded by a grant from the Science and Religion: Identity and Belief Formation grant initiative spearheaded by the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University and the University of California-San Diego and provided by the Templeton Religion Trust via The Issachar Fund.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie E. Corcoran has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the International Research Network for the Study of Belief and Science, the West Virginia University Humanities Center, the Lake Institute, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. The research discussed in this article was funded by a grant from the Science and Religion: Identity and Belief Formation grant initiative spearheaded by the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University and the University of California-San Diego and provided by the Templeton Religion Trust via The Issachar Fund.</span></em></p>Specific beliefs may have more to do with people’s vaccine views than their religious affiliation – but it depends on which vaccine you’re talking about.Christopher P. Scheitle, Assistant Professor of Sociology, West Virginia UniversityBernard DiGregorio, Ph.D. Student in Sociology, West Virginia UniversityKatie Corcoran, Associate Professor of Sociology, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2089872023-07-04T11:00:48Z2023-07-04T11:00:48ZThe fascinating Cameroonian art of spider divination is on display at London exhibition<p><a href="https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/tomas-saraceno-webs-of-life-exhibition/">Tomás Saraceno In Collaboration: Web(s) of Life</a>, which opened at London’s Serpentine South Gallery in June, explores how humans relate to spiders. It features installations of spider webs displayed and lit to be viewed as sculptures. There are also films: one made about Saraceno’s work with groups battling lithium mining in Argentina and another about <a href="http://nggamdu.org/">spider diviners</a> from Somié village in Cameroon.</p>
<p>That’s where I came in. <em>Ŋgam dù</em> (the Mambila term for spider divination) is one of many types of oracle or divination used by Mambila people in Cameroon. It is the most trusted form and – unlike other types which are sometimes dismissed as mere games – its results <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Mambila-Divination-Framing-Questions-Constructing-Answers/Zeitlyn/p/book/9781032174082">can be used as evidence in the country’s courts</a>. Variants of this form of divination are found throughout southern Cameroon and the long history of the word <a href="https://nggamdu.org/nggam-du/"><em>ŋgam</em></a> attests to the longevity of the practice.</p>
<p>I work as a social anthropologist in the Mambila village of Somié. I have visited almost every year since 1985, working on a variety of projects. Divination was the focus of a chapter in my PhD in 1990, but I never stopped working on the subject. As well as becoming an initiated diviner, I have continued to think about the wider implications of using divination or oracles.</p>
<p><em>Ngam dù</em> is a form of divination in which binary (either/or) questions are asked of large spiders that live in holes in the ground. The options are linked to a stick and a stone then, using a set of leaf cards marked with symbols, the spider is left to make its choice.</p>
<p>The hole plus the stick, stone and cards are covered up. The spider emerges and will move the cards so the diviner can then interpret the pattern relative to the stick and stone. If cards are placed on the stick, then the option associated with that has been selected, and vice versa if the cards are placed on the stone.</p>
<p>Things get more interesting (at least to me and other diviners) if both options are selected, or neither. Sometimes a contradictory response is interpreted to mean that the question posed is not a good one. The diviner is thereby told to go and discuss the issue with the client and reframe the problem, posing a different question.</p>
<p>The process is “calibrated” regularly by asking test questions such as “Am I here alone?” or “Will I drink tonight?”. Spiders that fail these tests are discarded as liars and not used for future consultations. It’s also common to ask the same question in parallel to get a consistency check, so more than one spider can be used at the same time. Sometimes the stick and stone option are reversed to ensure that the spider isn’t just moving the cards always in the same direction.</p>
<p>Mambila diviners rely on these tests to justify the system, although they also say (as do many groups in Cameroon) that spiders are a source of wisdom since they live in the ground where the “village of the dead” is found.</p>
<h2>Tomás Saraceno and spider divination</h2>
<p>As an anthropologist, I avoid questions about whether spider divination is true. For me the important question is: “Does it help?”</p>
<p>Sometimes the results of divination are considered, but rejected, and the advice is not followed. Even in these instances it can be helpful, however, since it enables people decide on a course of action.</p>
<p>People use the results as a tool to help them think through hard decisions such as who to marry, or where to go for treatment when a child is ill. The latter involves weighing up conflicting considerations about expense, the possibility an illness has been caused by witchcraft and the reputations for effective treatment of different traditional healers as well as of rival biomedical health centres.</p>
<p>I met the Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno when he had an exhibit at the Venice Bienale in 2018. He was intrigued by the <a href="http://www.era.anthropology.ac.uk/Divination/Spider/index.html">computer simulation of spider divination</a> that my colleague Mike Fischer had made. He invited me to Venice to demonstrate the simulation and talk about spider divination in front of his “sculptures”, which are made in collaboration with spiders. They are patterns of spiderwebs displayed as art.</p>
<p>As we talked, I said that if one day he wanted to visit Cameroon I would be happy to introduce him to the diviners I worked with. In December 2019, he came with his friend, the filmmaker Maxi Laina. We visited Somié, where he worked with the diviner Bollo Pierre Tadios and the Mambila filmmaker Nguea Iréné.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FFesNa4qMXA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Tomás Saraceno in Collaboration: Web(s) of Life.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Saraceno and Laina came with some questions to ask from their friends. This included “Who would win the 2020 US election?” This was the Trump v Biden election, the results of which Trump went on to question. The answer was that there would be a new president but it would not be straightforward!</p>
<p>Saraceno liked the idea that spiders could help humans resolve their personal problems. It gave an example of a different way in which human-spider relationships are expressed. Bollo liked the idea of opening the process up to questions from outside the village. He already has some clients from other places in Cameroon who call him, so working internationally is very doable.</p>
<p>He suggested that Saraceno could make his work accessible via the internet, which he has now done <a href="http://nggamdu.org/">through a dedicated website</a>. Some of the first results are included in the Serpentine exhibition along with film made by Nguea Iréné of Bollo in action. The film will also be shown in the village later in the summer.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/tomas-saraceno-webs-of-life-exhibition/">Tomás Saraceno In Collaboration: Web(s) of Life</a> is on at London’s Serpentine South Gallery until 10 September.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208987/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Zeitlyn has received funding from AHRC, ESRC, EPSRC</span></em></p>Ngam dù is a form of divination in which questions are asked of large spiders that live in holes in the ground. The results of spider divination can be used as evidence in Cameroon’s courts.David Zeitlyn, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040782023-06-09T12:29:14Z2023-06-09T12:29:14ZThe US has a child labor problem – recalling an embarrassing past that Americans may think they’ve left behind<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530946/original/file-20230608-2398-osoifr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=311%2C187%2C2993%2C2286&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lewis Wickes Hine, 'A little spinner in a Georgia Cotton Mill, 1909.'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gelatin silver print, 5 x 7 in. The Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (P545)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Special Collections, where I am head curator, we’ve recently completed <a href="https://umbc.edu/stories/preserving-the-photography-of-lewis-hine/">a major digitization and rehousing project</a> of our collection of over 5,400 photographs made by <a href="https://iphf.org/inductees/lewis-hine/">Lewis Wickes Hine</a> in the early 20th century.</p>
<p>Traveling the country with his camera, Hine captured the often oppressive working conditions of thousands of children – some as young as 3 years old. </p>
<p>As I’ve worked with this collection over the past two years, the social and political implications of Hine’s photographs have been very much on my mind. The patina of these black-and-white photographs suggests a bygone era – an embarrassing past that many Americans might imagine they’ve left behind. </p>
<p>But with <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/shows/make-me-smart/in-2023-america-has-a-child-labor-problem/">numerous reports</a> of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/us-crack-down-child-labor-amid-massive-uptick-2023-02-27/">child labor violations</a>, many involving immigrants, occurring in the U.S., along with an uptick in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/10/1162531885/arkansas-child-labor-law-under-16-years-old-sarah-huckabee-sanders">state legislation</a> <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iowa-child-labor-bill-d2546845dd6ad7ec0a2c74fb3fc0def3">rolling back the legal working age</a>, it’s clear that Hine’s work is as relevant today as it was a century ago.</p>
<h2>‘An investigator with a camera’</h2>
<p>A sociologist by training, Hine began making photographs in 1903 while working as a teacher at the progressive Ethical Culture School in New York City. </p>
<p>Between 1903 and 1908, he and his students photographed migrants at Ellis Island. Hine believed that the future of the U.S. rested in its identity as an immigrant nation – a position that contrasted with <a href="https://pluralism.org/xenophobia-closing-the-door">escalating xenophobic fears</a>. </p>
<p>Based on this work, the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/background.html">National Child Labor Committee</a>, which advocated for child labor laws, hired Hine to document the living and working conditions of American children. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Boy covered in soot poses with his hands clasped behind his back." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530975/original/file-20230608-29-2g9rie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lewis Wickes Hine, ‘Trapper Boy, Turkey Knob Mine, MacDonald, West Virginia, 1908.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gelatin silver print. 5 x 7 in. The Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (P148)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the late 19th century, several states had passed <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-2-the-reform-movement.htm">laws limiting the age of child laborers</a> and establishing maximum working hours. But at the turn of the century, the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-1.htm">number of working kids soared</a> – between 1890 and 1910, 18% of children ages 10 to 15 were employed.</p>
<p>In his work for the National Child Labor Committee, Hine journeyed to farms and mills in the industrializing South and the streets and factories of the Northeast. He <a href="https://90025031.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/9/4/22941172/6532401.png?256">used a Graflex camera</a> with 5-by-7-inch glass plate negatives and employed flash powder for nighttime and interior shots, hauling upward of 50 pounds of equipment on his slight frame. </p>
<p>To gain entry into factories and other facilities, Hine sometimes disguised himself as a Bible, postcard or insurance salesman. Other times he’d wait outside to catch workers arriving for or departing from their shifts.</p>
<p>Along with photographic records, Hine collected his subjects’ personal stories, including their ages and ethnicities. He documented their working lives, such as their typical hours and any injuries or ailments they incurred as a result of their labor. </p>
<p>Hine, who considered himself “<a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL2525831M/Lewis_Hine_in_Europe">an investigator with a camera</a>,” used this information to create what he termed “photo stories” – combinations of images and text that could be used on posters, in public lectures and in published reports to help the organization advance its mission.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boys standing at a table splayed with seafood as an older worker obsveres" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531002/original/file-20230608-21-jdp136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lewis Wickes Hine’s photograph of three young fish cutters working at the Seacoast Canning Co. in Eastport, Maine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/nclc/00900/00972v.jpg">National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Legislation follows</h2>
<p>Hine’s muckraking photographs exemplify the genre of <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/edph/hd_edph.htm">documentary photography</a>, which relies upon the perceived truthfulness of photography to make a case for social change. </p>
<p>The camera serves as an eyewitness to a societal ill, a problem that needs a solution. Hine portrayed his subjects in a direct manner, typically frontally and looking straight into the camera, against the backdrop of the very factories, farmland or cities where they worked. </p>
<p>By capturing details of his sitters’ bare feet, tattered clothes, soiled faces and hands, and diminutive stature against hulking industrial equipment, Hine made a direct statement about the poor conditions and precarity of these children’s lives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Five young boys wearing caps and holding newspapers in front of an imposing white building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530972/original/file-20230608-19-jlog7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lewis Wickes Hine, ‘Group of newsies selling on Capitol steps, April 11, 1912.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (P2904)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hine’s photographs made a successful case for child labor reform. </p>
<p>Notably, the National Child Labor Committee’s efforts resulted in Congress establishing the <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/Story_of_CB.pdf">Children’s Bureau</a> in 1912 and passing the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/keating-owen-child-labor-act">Keating-Owen Act</a> in 1916, which limited working hours for children and prohibited the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor.</p>
<p>Although the <a href="http://sites.gsu.edu/us-constipedia/child-labor-law/">Supreme Court later ruled</a> it and a subsequent Child Labor Tax Law of 1919 unconstitutional, momentum for enshrining protections for child workers had been created. In 1938, Congress passed the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa">Fair Labor Standards Act</a>, which established restrictions and protections on employing children. </p>
<p>The National Child Labor Committee’s project also included advocacy for the enforcement of existing child labor regulations, a regulatory problem reemerging today as the Department of Labor – the agency tasked with enforcing labor laws – <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/dols-wage-arm-vows-child-labor-focus-despite-no-rule-changes">comes under fire</a> for failing to protect child workers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Hooded girl in a field of cotton stares forlornly at the camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530998/original/file-20230608-29-alq94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young picker carries a large sack of cotton on her back.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/young-cotton-picker-carries-a-large-sack-of-cotton-on-her-news-photo/640486085?adppopup=true">Lewis Wickes Hine/Library of Congress via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ethics of picturing child labor</h2>
<p>A recent surge of unaccompanied minors, primarily from Central America, has brought new attention to America’s old problem of child labor and has threatened the very laws Hine and the National Child Labor Committee worked to enact. </p>
<p>Some estimates suggest that one-third of migrants under 18 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html">are working illegally</a>, whether it’s laboring more hours than current laws permit, or working without the proper authorizations. Many of them perform hazardous jobs similar to those of Hine’s subjects: handling dangerous equipment and being exposed to noxious chemicals in factories, slaughterhouses and industrial farms.</p>
<p>While the content of Hine’s photographs remains pertinent to today’s child labor crisis, a key distinction between the subject of Hine’s photographs and working children today is race. </p>
<p>Hine focused his camera almost exclusively on white children who arrived in the country during waves of immigration from Europe during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. <a href="https://journalpanorama.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Zelt-American-Photographs-Abroad.pdf">As art historian Natalie Zelt argues</a>, Hine’s pictorial treatment of Black children – either ignored or forced to the margins of his images – implied to viewers that the face of childhood in America was, by default, white. </p>
<p>The perceived racial hierarchies of Hine’s era reverberate into the present, where underage migrants of color live and work at the margins of society.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of women hold drums and signs reading 'Popeyes Stop Exploiting Child Labor.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531004/original/file-20230608-29-lcdhg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers protest outside a Popeye’s restaurant in Oakland, Calif., on May 18, 2023, after reports emerged of the franchise exploiting child labor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/betty-escobar-left-and-other-fast-food-workers-protest-at-news-photo/1491552588?adppopup=true">Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/underage-workers/">Contemporary reports</a> of child labor violations offer few images to accompany their texts, graphs and statistics. There are legitimate reasons for this. By not including identifying personal information or portraits, news outlets protect a vulnerable population. <a href="https://www.unicef.org/eca/media/ethical-guidelines">Ethical guidelines</a> frown upon revealing private details of the lives of children interviewed. And, as Hine’s experience demonstrates, it can be difficult to infiltrate the sites of these labor violations, since they are typically kept secure.</p>
<p>Digital cameras and smartphones offer a workaround. Beginning in 2015, the International Labor Organization <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/our-work/child-forced-labor-trafficking/My-PEC">urged child laborers in Myanmar</a> to become “young activists” and use their own images and words to create “photo stories” – echoing Hine’s use of the term – that the organization could then disseminate.</p>
<p>Photographs of child labor in foreign countries are far more common than those made in the U.S., which leaves the impression that child labor is someone else’s problem, not ours. Perhaps it’s too hard for Americans to look at this domestic issue square in the eyes. </p>
<p>A similar effect is at work when viewing Hine’s photographs today. While they were originally valued for their immediacy, they can seem to belong to a distant past.</p>
<p>But if Hine’s photographic archive of child laborers is evidence of the power of photography to sway public opinion, does the lack of images in today’s reporting – even if nobly intended – create a disconnect? </p>
<p>Is the public capable of understanding the harmful consequences of lack of labor enforcement when the faces of the people affected are missing from the picture?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Saunders does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While Lewis Hine’s early-20th century photographs of working children compelled Congress to limit or ban child labor, the US Department of Labor is now under fire for failing to enforce these laws.Beth Saunders, Curator and Head of Special Collections and Gallery, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2063792023-06-01T12:31:10Z2023-06-01T12:31:10ZI study migrants traveling through Mexico to the US, and saw how they follow news of dangers – but are not deterred<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528414/original/file-20230525-19-azqzru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Haitian migrants wait in a line to receive food in Coahuila state, Mexico, in 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1235448842/photo/topshot-mexico-us-haiti-migration.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=P6gsYIeQD167feJkAerRN8rPN78Nry3greIZN6tLRDM=">Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world awoke one morning in late March 2023 to the news that at least 38 Central and South American <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/28/world/americas/mexico-fire-ciudad-juarez.html">migrants had died</a> in a fire in a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/americas/100000008837794/i-heard-them-screaming-witness-says-migrants-were-left-to-die-in-mexico-fire.html">widely circulated video</a> from the closed-circuit cameras inside the detention center showed the building burning, with migrants trapped inside trying to break the metal bars of their cells – and detention center officers allegedly leaving them there. </p>
<p>The Mexican government has said the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/39-dead-in-fire-at-mexico-immigration-detention-center">migrants themselves started the fire</a> after learning they would be deported from Mexico – which is increasingly a destination for migrants and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-mexico-united-states-government-albert-rivera-asylum-7f4f722c152438ead32a8ae4b61dffa1">asylum seekers</a> – back to their home countries.</p>
<p>The video spread quickly across social media, and many Mexican <a href="https://cmdpdh.org/2023/03/28/lamentar-ya-no-es-suficiente-urgimos-a-las-autoridades-correspondientes-responder-por-los-hechos-en-la-estacion-provisional-de-cd-juarez/">migrant advocacy groups</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6EwOoBou_I">activists decried</a> the event. </p>
<p>Another group also paid close attention to this tragedy – migrants who are in transit through Mexico. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://sociology.yale.edu/people/angel-escamilla-garcia">a sociologist</a>, I have studied the impacts of violence against Central American migrants in Mexico for nearly a decade. I have considered questions like how migrants who are on their way to the U.S. react to news of violence against other migrants, and whether such news alters their plans. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.angelescamillagarcia.com/experience">My research</a> has shown that migrants pay close attention to any information that can give them clues about the dangers that lie between them and the U.S. </p>
<p>Migrants have shared with me that they highly value information about any dangers ahead as they move north, whether it relates to criminal groups or U.S. immigration policy changes. Migrants use this knowledge to implement a variety of strategies to avoid, or at least prepare for, any suffering – and it can lead them to take different routes to the U.S. border. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528419/original/file-20230525-27-456h99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People crouch near a series of candles and photos outside of a large fence." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528419/original/file-20230525-27-456h99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528419/original/file-20230525-27-456h99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528419/original/file-20230525-27-456h99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528419/original/file-20230525-27-456h99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528419/original/file-20230525-27-456h99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528419/original/file-20230525-27-456h99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528419/original/file-20230525-27-456h99.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrants attend a vigil outside the Mexican immigration detention center where migrants died in a fire in Ciudad Juárez in March 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1249839438/photo/topshot-mexico-us-migrants-vigil-migration-fire.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=YCuJhz8LHEaePkzoc-p8ssSl5MLbpKKgHKk3gNec3sc=">Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Understanding migrants in Mexico</h2>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of migrants from around the world transit through Mexico every year on their way to the U.S.-Mexico border. In <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters">April 2023</a> alone, the U.S. detained more than 211,000 migrants along that border. That statistic coincides with an overall rise in <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/12/16/key-facts-about-recent-trends-in-global-migration">global migration</a> and rise in <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/01/13/monthly-encounters-with-migrants-at-u-s-mexico-border-remain-near-record-highs/">migrants trying to reach the U.S.</a></p>
<p>The majority of migrants crossing the U.S. border come from Latin American <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/01/13/monthly-encounters-with-migrants-at-u-s-mexico-border-remain-near-record-highs/">countries other than Mexico</a>, including Central American countries, but also Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Cuba.</p>
<p>Most of these migrants are <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters">single adults</a>, though a number of them are also families and children. People <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/us/politics/title-42-border-history-immigration.html">migrate through Mexico</a> for many reasons, including political instability, lack of work opportunities and violence in their own countries. </p>
<p>My interviews with migrants moving through Mexico show that they tend to widely circulate tragic news, such as news of the June 2022 news of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/28/us/migrants-san-antonio-tractor-killed.html">migrants found dead</a> locked in a tractor trailer in San Antonio. Videos and photos of this and other tragic instances, like the Ciudad Juárez fire, provide real, vivid images of what can happen if migrants decide to pursue the same pathway. </p>
<p>And for these migrants, the images and news stories aren’t secondhand information that they can <a href="https://arch.library.northwestern.edu/concern/parent/c247ds452/file_sets/8623hz116">question or doubt</a> – images can be interpreted as unchangeable truths.</p>
<h2>How migrants get their news</h2>
<p>Migrants don’t receive news from New York Times alerts or nightly news. </p>
<p>Their information-sharing largely occurs in an <a href="https://arch.library.northwestern.edu/concern/generic_works/c247ds452">underground informal information exchange</a> that circulates news and stories among migrants heading toward the U.S. through Mexico. </p>
<p>That information is shared, discussed, interpreted and commented on through social media platforms, chat groups and word of mouth. Within 24 hours of the Ciudad Juárez fire, every single social media outlet and migrant chat that I follow as part of my research, comprised of thousands of transit migrants moving throughout Mexico and Guatemala in real time, had posted and reposted the video and news of the incident.</p>
<p>Some comments and replies in social media and chat groups about the incident prayed for mercy and peace for the dead and their loved ones. </p>
<p>Others asked for a list of names of the dead, or about their places of origin, as people desperately sought to find out whether their family members and friends were among the dead and injured. Still others asked for tips and discussed ways to avoid suffering the same fate, such as asking about alternate routes to the border, or sharing ways to avoid ending up in Mexican migrant detention centers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528416/original/file-20230525-29-4ifrwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person, seen from below the neck, holds a large framed photo of a young man, smiling, wearing a blue shirt and hat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528416/original/file-20230525-29-4ifrwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528416/original/file-20230525-29-4ifrwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528416/original/file-20230525-29-4ifrwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528416/original/file-20230525-29-4ifrwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528416/original/file-20230525-29-4ifrwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528416/original/file-20230525-29-4ifrwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528416/original/file-20230525-29-4ifrwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The father of Francisco Rojche, a Guatemalan migrant who died in a Mexican immigration detention center in March 2023, holds a photo of his son.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1250755394/photo/topshot-guatemala-mexico-migration-fire.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=4Zm4IU_D1fbAF642u-CuXsGeWUZmvNNkiFxHIgTA9qU=">Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A shared response</h2>
<p>Common among migrants’ reactions to the March 2023 fire was a deep sense of grief. Migrants recognized how close they are to those who lost their lives and expressed a sense of “that could have been me.”</p>
<p>And yet, in my field work, I have found that these horrific events do not deter migrants’ desire to reach the U.S. What they do is reset migrants’ expectations going forward. </p>
<p>Through my field work, I have heard migrants repeatedly tell stories about the dire conditions in detention <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S1537-466120220000029002/full/html">centers in Mexico</a>. </p>
<p>They report that these poor <a href="https://sinfronteras.org.mx/docs/inf/inf-derechos-cautivos.pdf">conditions</a> – <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/7/22/siglo-xxi-my-24-hours-in-mexicos-21st-century-migrant-prison">rotten food, fleas,</a> lack of clothing or blankets for the cold weather – <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexico-migrant-detention-centers-inhumane-conditions-fire-rcna77068">have triggered</a> hunger strikes and protests.</p>
<h2>Broader effects</h2>
<p>Another of my main findings is that violent and tragic incidents tend to prompt migrants to avoid any interactions with police or any other officials, even under the guise of help or support. </p>
<p>For example, my research suggests that stories and images of violence like the Ciudad Juárez tragedy will generate a further lack of trust in the Mexican government. I believe that the incident will create certain expectations about the perils of spending time near the border. If they can, I think that migrants will likely avoid Ciudad Juárez and other areas where they feel they may be detained. </p>
<p>I believe the fire will also leave a symbolic scar on migrants in Mexico, who will collectively remember this event and construct their journeys around it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206379/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angel Alfonso Escamilla García does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A fire killed 38 migrants in a Mexico detention facility in March 2023. A sociologist’s conversations with migrants show that they had a common response to this news – a deep sense of grief.Angel Alfonso Escamilla García, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1998902023-04-13T20:09:19Z2023-04-13T20:09:19ZFriday essay: in an age of catastrophe is there still a place for utopian dreams? Or might our shared vulnerability be the key?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518960/original/file-20230403-24-5hy66r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C29%2C4895%2C3293&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A stuffed toy at the site of collapsed buildings after the earthquake in Hatay, Turkey, 17 February 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin Divisek/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>As utopian oases dry up, a desert of banality, and bewilderment spreads …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>– Jürgen Habermas (<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/019145378601100201">1986</a>)</p>
<p>The last few years have been truly catastrophic. One might easily argue that, during “The COVID Years”, we have witnessed more dramatic social and political change than at any time since 1939-1945. In terms of its scale and duration, we should call this pandemic a catastrophe rather than merely a disaster in terms of the loss of life and more mundane issues such as the reorganisation of work and city life. </p>
<p>We have also grappled with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the increasing possibility of nuclear catastrophe, the spread of monkey-pox, food shortages in Africa, a drought across much of Europe, a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, North Korean missile tests, rising authoritarianism in eastern Europe, the threat of civil unrest in the United States, and the terrible earthquake in Turkey and associated crisis in Syria. This has been a cascade of catastrophes.</p>
<p>If we believe we are “all doomed” (to quote a signature line from the TV Series <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062552/">Dad’s Army</a>) what should one do? Do any credible utopian dreams paint an optimistic future? Or is the prospect of human happiness ruled out by the scale of our contemporary problems? </p>
<p>A response to this challenge is to consider the various attempts to defend hope and optimism in the face of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/298972.Archaeologies_of_the_Future?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=PE3fwID8Rt&rank=1">previous catastrophes, and pessimistic prescriptions</a>. One modest way forward is the pursuit of intergenerational justice with respect to climate change. What steps might we take to protect or to improve the prospects of future generations?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518969/original/file-20230403-18-bhn2vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518969/original/file-20230403-18-bhn2vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518969/original/file-20230403-18-bhn2vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518969/original/file-20230403-18-bhn2vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518969/original/file-20230403-18-bhn2vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518969/original/file-20230403-18-bhn2vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518969/original/file-20230403-18-bhn2vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518969/original/file-20230403-18-bhn2vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How to improve the world for future generations?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Khadejeh Nikouyeh/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Thomas More’s Utopia</h2>
<p>In many respects, contemporary analysis of catastrophe and utopian hope continues to return to the legacy of Thomas More (1478-1535), whose book Utopia, first published in 1516, has enjoyed a remarkable longevity. In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(book)">Utopia</a>, More envisioned a society without private property or a propertied class. The population would enjoy the benefits of a welfare state, living a sober and simple lifestyle. They would loathe fighting and any form of violence, hence the death penalty would be banished.</p>
<p>Utopia is often thought to have been a socialist response (before the advent of socialism), to the difficulties of the age in which More lived. But More was a devout Catholic statesman – in 1886 he was beatified by Pope Leo XIII. Utopia reflected the place of monasticism in the Catholic tradition. </p>
<p>Indeed, socialist and Christian utopias have often historically been intertwined. This convergence is important – any contemporary utopian vision might also draw on a Christian belief in a world to come and a socialist vision of a land of plenty, shared by all.</p>
<p>While More’s perfect society was a fiction, there have been many attempts to create actual utopian societies. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_Community">Oneida Community</a>, a religious perfectionist commune founded by preacher, philosopher and radical socialist John Humphrey Noyes in New York state, survived from 1848 to 1881. It folded due to conflicts over power, wealth and sexuality.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514150/original/file-20230308-22-khb6j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514150/original/file-20230308-22-khb6j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514150/original/file-20230308-22-khb6j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514150/original/file-20230308-22-khb6j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514150/original/file-20230308-22-khb6j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514150/original/file-20230308-22-khb6j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514150/original/file-20230308-22-khb6j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514150/original/file-20230308-22-khb6j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Humphrey Noyes’ utopian Oneida community, circa 1870.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recent utopian societies developed in Southern California in the 1950s and 1960s as hippie communes promoting pacifism and alternative lifestyles involving experiments with drugs and sex. Another example is the Israeli kibbutz movement, which emerged with socialist Zionism in the early 20th century. </p>
<p>In the realm of fiction, many believe that if a utopian tradition continues at all today, it is confined to science fiction. Feminist authors have opted for dystopian visions, famously in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and less so, in Octavia Butler’s 1993 novel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Sower_(novel)">The Parable of the Sower</a>. The latter depicts 21st century California in a state of collapse; the streets are militarised and the rich live behind walls. This apocalyptic vision is intended to act as a call to communal action though whether it does so is questionable.</p>
<p>Still, the key issue for much contemporary thinking about utopia is the failures of socialism and the survival of capitalism in its various forms. Indeed many radical sociologists, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Socialism-the-Active-Utopia-Routledge-Revivals/Bauman/p/book/9780415573085">such as Zygmunt Bauman</a>, have concluded we live in post-utopian times.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-dystopian-or-utopian-future-claire-g-colemans-new-novel-enclave-imagines-both-182859">A dystopian or utopian future? Claire G. Coleman's new novel Enclave imagines both</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<h2>Grappling with melancholy</h2>
<p>If utopia is no more, are we left only with melancholy in the face of so many modern catastrophes? If discussing melancholy, we must also consider nostalgia. These emotional dispositions – nostalgia, melancholy, pessimism – are hardly new. For instance, Robert Burton’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/557658.The_Anatomy_of_Melancholy">The Anatomy of Melancholy</a> (first published in 1621) went through many reprints. He rejected what he called unlawful remedies, relying ultimately on “our prayer and physic both together”. </p>
<p>Debate about melancholy was also a basic aspect of psychology in the earlier, Tudor period. Timothe Bright’s A Treatise of Melancholie in 1586 provided the basis for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, whose inability to take decisive action was treated as a key indicator of melancholy. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514149/original/file-20230308-20-eglw0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514149/original/file-20230308-20-eglw0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514149/original/file-20230308-20-eglw0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514149/original/file-20230308-20-eglw0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514149/original/file-20230308-20-eglw0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514149/original/file-20230308-20-eglw0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514149/original/file-20230308-20-eglw0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514149/original/file-20230308-20-eglw0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Edvard Munch Melancholy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such historical details remind us that disease categories tell us a lot about social and political conditions. In the history of medical thought, for instance, melancholy was once seen to be the specific companion of intellectuals and monks, who suffered from isolation, contemplation and inactivity.</p>
<p>Modern day thinkers, in particular, may suffer from <a href="https://www.booktopia.com.au/prison-notebooks-antonio-gramsci/book/9780231157551.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6fafBhC1ARIsAIJjL8kc8255PcX4cvyA5sHFa1xf_zQGS8F7sivW8A2l9yeZ4vd1hHUGWpkaAlR7EALw_wcB">what Antonio Gramsci called</a> “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will”. He meant often rational reflection on our problems leads to pessimism, but we need to counter that by action. Getting involved is more likely to result in a renewed optimism and confidence about the future. </p>
<h2>World pain</h2>
<p>Germany has a well-established vocabulary for unhappiness and melancholy. The word <em>weltschmerz</em> means “world weariness” or “world pain”. The idea that the world, as it is, cannot satisfy the needs of the mind, became part of the regular currency of romanticism. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche promoted nihilism as response <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31785.The_Will_to_Power?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=m6dPNjdBbQ&rank=1">to the meaninglessness of existence</a>. Sigmund Freud saw <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7925239-civilisation-and-its-discontents?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_21">human evil as unavoidable</a> and ubiquitous, rooted in the basic instincts of our nature. </p>
<p>German sociologist Wolf Lepenies, in his 1992 book <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/medical-history/article/wolf-lepenies-melancholy-and-society-transl-jeremy-gaines-and-doris-jones-cambridge-mass-and-london-harvard-university-press-1992-pp-xviii-253-3195-0674564685/1763D12E4A0368FCFE09EC81CB95A793">Melancholy and Society</a>, traces the origins of <em>weltschmerz</em> to the peculiar status of the bourgeois class, who were permanently excluded from entry into the world of the prestigious elite. However, the driving force in Germany after both world wars was the sense of suffering and loss from warfare with no tangible or beneficial outcome.</p>
<p>Another German sociologist, Max Weber, is <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9780203759240-8/politics-vocation-gerth-wright-mills">a major figure in understanding German pessimism</a>. In 1898, Weber suffered from severe <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/neurasthenia">neurasthenia</a> due to years of overwork. The condition forced him to withdraw from teaching in 1900. In the two years between the end of the first world war and the Treaty of Versailles, Weber had time to write some of his most provocative reflections on the fate that had befallen Germany. “Not a summer’s bloom lies ahead of us,” he wrote, “but rather a polar night of icy darkness and hardness”.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-nietzsche-nihilism-and-reasons-to-be-cheerful-130378">Explainer: Nietzsche, nihilism and reasons to be cheerful</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<hr>
<h2>Beyond the secular standpoint</h2>
<p>German social theorist Jürgen Habermas has argued utopian traditions, which imaginatively open up new alternatives for action, <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/HABTNO-3">are now more or less exhausted</a>. While Habermas has a basically secular view of history, many modern philosophers have turned to religion to extract some hope for the future. </p>
<p>Contemporary secular philosophers such as Alain Badiou have been struck by Paul the Apostle’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galatians_3:28#:%7E:text=There%20is%20neither%20Jew%20nor,all%20one%20in%20Christ%20Jesus.">proclamation of universalism in the Bible</a>: “there is neither Jew or Greek, slave nor free, male nor female” but all are gathered together in Jesus Christ. Paul’s universal gospel had world-changing consequences.</p>
<p>What Badiou calls “truth-events” are major disruptions to our lives out of which we emerge as different beings. Out of these disruptions, he argues, there are grounds for hope. Hope, <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=4042">he concludes</a>, “pertains to endurance, to perseverance, to patience […]” – qualities that characterised Paul’s personality in the face of many trials and tribulations. </p>
<p>In the west, these two utopian traditions – the Judeo-Christian and the secular socialist-Marxist – have in fact merged. Both traditions have equated the coming of a new order with the overthrowing of powerful rulers and the uprising of the poor, the needy and the oppressed. </p>
<p>The crucifixion of Christ was interpreted by Paul in the New Testament as the overthrow of the military and political might of the Roman Empire. For Marx, the class struggle would overthrow the power and privilege of the capitalist class, ushering in an age of equality and justice. But are these utopian traditions exhausted?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518958/original/file-20230403-18-ilm0au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518958/original/file-20230403-18-ilm0au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518958/original/file-20230403-18-ilm0au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518958/original/file-20230403-18-ilm0au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518958/original/file-20230403-18-ilm0au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518958/original/file-20230403-18-ilm0au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518958/original/file-20230403-18-ilm0au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518958/original/file-20230403-18-ilm0au.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hope pertains ‘to endurance, to perseverance, to patience…’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sedat Suna/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Intergenerational justice</h2>
<p>Marx had a utopian picture of large-scale change, indeed the emergence of new societies. Unfortunately, the revolutionary movements of recent history – from the Russian Revolution of 1917, to the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and the Arab Spring(s) of 2011-2019 – did not have the lasting or desired outcomes of the young protesters. (These apparent failures contrast with more lasting outcomes from radical movements in South America, for instance.) Widespread protest movements in modern day Iran suggest hope for social and political change has not be extinguished. Similarly, Israel has recently been swamped by protest movements in support of democratic institutions. </p>
<p>Sociologist Ulrich Beck <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Risk-Society-Modernity-Published-association/dp/0803983468">argues</a> that even the worst catastrophes, such as the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0011392114559951">can have emancipatory consequences</a>. Destroyed communities can still experience collective hope and regeneration. Towns are rebuilt and communities pull together.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518961/original/file-20230403-20-to279l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518961/original/file-20230403-20-to279l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518961/original/file-20230403-20-to279l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518961/original/file-20230403-20-to279l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518961/original/file-20230403-20-to279l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518961/original/file-20230403-20-to279l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518961/original/file-20230403-20-to279l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518961/original/file-20230403-20-to279l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People hold umbrellas with portraits of young survivors of the earthquake and tsunami that hit eastern Japan on March 11, 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Itsuo Inouye/AP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Significant beneficial changes to society do not have to be on a large scale or involve political revolutions. We may, for instance, be able to manage further global pandemics by improvements in vaccination and advanced planning. Scientific organisations, such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation, have been established to be better prepared to confront the next pandemic. The future spread of new, zoonotic disease can also be addressed, just as medical science has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-021-00640-w">contained the spread of polio</a>, especially in Africa. </p>
<p>There are modest changes we can make that might limit the effects of climate change and environmental degradation: such as weaning ourselves off petrol-driven engines in favour of electric cars and bicycles.</p>
<p>Of course, activists in green politics with a radical agenda will probably dismiss such “remedies” as pathetic and pointless. In response, we might say that large scale solutions in the climate-change agenda, such as the end of dependence on fossil fuels, show no sign of being enthusiastically embraced by most western governments.</p>
<p>Perhaps we need a compelling moral argument to engage “ordinary” citizens in green thinking. Pragmatic responses are reasonable, but they fail to address the compelling ethical issue that confronts those who have survived the catastrophes of recent history, namely the issue of inter-generational justice. </p>
<p>It is here that the question of climate change gains in urgency. Acting on climate change now can have no benefit for me, because the consequences of taking action may have no positive effect until after I am dead. So why take action? </p>
<h2>Our vulnerability</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518963/original/file-20230403-18-p77pnf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518963/original/file-20230403-18-p77pnf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518963/original/file-20230403-18-p77pnf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518963/original/file-20230403-18-p77pnf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518963/original/file-20230403-18-p77pnf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518963/original/file-20230403-18-p77pnf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518963/original/file-20230403-18-p77pnf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518963/original/file-20230403-18-p77pnf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>One line of argument was developed by Amartya Sen in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6610623-the-idea-of-justice?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=PkPXnlHmmu&rank=1">The Idea of Justice</a>. He refers to the Buddha’s teaching that we have a responsibility towards animals precisely because of the asymmetry of power. The Buddha illustrated his argument by referring to the relationship between mother and child. The mother can do things to influence the child’s life the child cannot do for itself. </p>
<p>The mother receives no tangible reward, but she can, in an asymmetrical relationship, undertake actions that can make a significant difference to the child’s wellbeing and future happiness. Acting now on climate change can reasonably be expected to enhance the benefits of future generations to come, so it is reasonable to do so. Such actions can be seen to be “justice enhancing” in Sen’s terms. </p>
<p>If the utopian dreams of yesteryear, from More to Marx, are exhausted and the generation that fuelled the communal experiments of the 1960s is now in retirement, then Sen’s idea of justice may be better suited to our times. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519139/original/file-20230403-28-x0olw0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519139/original/file-20230403-28-x0olw0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519139/original/file-20230403-28-x0olw0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519139/original/file-20230403-28-x0olw0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519139/original/file-20230403-28-x0olw0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=743&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519139/original/file-20230403-28-x0olw0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519139/original/file-20230403-28-x0olw0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519139/original/file-20230403-28-x0olw0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>The decline of natural resources and the accumulation of waste are problems that affect everybody regardless of their wealth and status. What is required, however, is a deeper and more compelling notion of what it is to be human. </p>
<p>The idea of the “dignity of the human being” that underpins human rights is not necessarily adequate, because of its obvious cultural baggage. An alternative is to consider the vulnerability of human beings, namely that in the long run, we are all condemned to ageing, disease and death. That is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1468795X211049303?journalCode=jcsa">our lot as humans, which we all share</a>. </p>
<p>Climate change perfectly illustrates the shared vulnerability of all human beings and the need for common action to secure a future, not for us, but for our children.</p>
<p><em>Bryan S. Turner’s book <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/isbn/9783110772364/html?lang=en#:%7E:text=As%20a%20study%20of%20sociological,idea%20of%20inter%2Dgenerational%20justice.">A Theory of Catastrophe</a> is published by De Gruyter Contemporary Social Sciences.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryan Stanley Turner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is easy to feel jaded in a time of catastrophe but there is a compelling moral argument for us to work towards a better world.Bryan Stanley Turner, Professor of Sociology, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1948082023-04-10T20:02:35Z2023-04-10T20:02:35ZWhy are the poor shunned? The reasons are complicated<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519691/original/file-20230405-16-eznx5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C23%2C5121%2C3406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jon Tyson/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/central-european-history/article/what-it-means-to-have-nothing-poverty-and-the-idea-of-human-dignity-in-nineteenthcentury-germany/8C8F12F666689B75396E67A212E69EBD">study</a> of 19th century ideas of poverty, the German historian Beate Althammer observes a strange dichotomy. On the one hand, “there existed a deep-rooted tradition of ascribing to the poor a special proximity to God”. As a Hamburg teacher wrote in 1834:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Who obliges us more to sympathy and reverence than he who faces the inescapable blows of an erratic fate with manly steadiness, pious resignation and wise abstinence? What a dignified appearance is the neediness simultaneously ennobled and keenly veiled by an indestructible love of honor, which will bear suffering rather than pity!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet the same teacher sounds a dissonant note when writing about the “depraved, ignominious poverty” of the beggar, “who has rid himself of all shame and discipline on the way to impoverishment”. </p>
<p>“Where idleness has become a trade and begging a fraudulent art,” he continues, “all human feeling has died.”</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Aporophobia: Why We Reject the Poor Instead of Helping Them – Adela Cortina (Princeton University Press).</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The idea that the poor are impoverished morally as well as materially, that they lack humanity as well as means, has a long history. It is expressed most mordantly in Jonathan Swift’s <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm">A Modest Proposal</a>, a 1729 satire on British attitudes to Irish poverty. Starvation among large families could be averted with a simple solution:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Swift’s suggestion that poor children could become a commercial food source is mocking heartless responses to poverty. His “proposal” rests on a dehumanising equation of people with animals or consumer goods. A new book argues that this animus is an enduring feature of contemporary society.</p>
<h2>Aporophobia</h2>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adela_Cortina">Adela Cortina</a> is a distinguished Spanish political philosopher who has written extensively on ethics, justice, civil society and democracy. Around the new millennium, she began to write on the rejection of the poor as an overlooked form of prejudice. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516835/original/file-20230322-174-mac17x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516835/original/file-20230322-174-mac17x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516835/original/file-20230322-174-mac17x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=675&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516835/original/file-20230322-174-mac17x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=675&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516835/original/file-20230322-174-mac17x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=675&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516835/original/file-20230322-174-mac17x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516835/original/file-20230322-174-mac17x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516835/original/file-20230322-174-mac17x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jonathan Swift – Charles Jervas (1710).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Public domain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cortina coined the term “aporophobia” – from the Ancient Greek <em>aporos</em>, meaning poor or without means – and published an influential 2017 book on the subject in Spanish. That book has now been published in English as <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691205526/aporophobia">Aporophobia: Why We Reject the Poor Instead of Helping Them</a>.</p>
<p>Cortina does not present aporophobia as a clinical condition or narrowly as a species of fear. Much like other faux-phobias, such as homophobia and xenophobia, she takes it to be a widespread aversion, based on contempt as much as dread, which justifies the ongoing deprecation of the poor.</p>
<p>Her primary case for the reality and significance of aporophobia rests on the harsh treatment of immigrants and displaced people. What might first appear to be a xenophobic response, Cortina argues, may not be motivated by their foreignness or race, but by the perception that their poverty leaves them unable to reciprocate the host nation’s beneficence:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Do we reject immigrants because they are foreign or because they are poor and seem to bring problems while offering nothing of value in return?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cortina observes that some groups of foreigners are welcomed. Tourists, investors and international students, all of whom bring resources, encounter widespread xenophilia. The roots of prejudice towards immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, Cortina suggests, are therefore to be found in the perception of their indigence rather than their alienness.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516827/original/file-20230321-22-pa1ljw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516827/original/file-20230321-22-pa1ljw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516827/original/file-20230321-22-pa1ljw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516827/original/file-20230321-22-pa1ljw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516827/original/file-20230321-22-pa1ljw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516827/original/file-20230321-22-pa1ljw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1173&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516827/original/file-20230321-22-pa1ljw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1173&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516827/original/file-20230321-22-pa1ljw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1173&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>Having defined and made a theoretical case for aporophobia, Cortina moves on to the problem of hatred, understood as group-based animosity based on the assumed superiority of its perpetrators. </p>
<p>Hate crimes against the poor and homeless motivated by aporophobia, which she estimates as constituting around 1% of Spain’s total, must be acknowledged and taken seriously. Even so, she maintains that aporophobic hatred is distinct from other kinds because “involuntary poverty […] is neither a personal identity nor a choice”.</p>
<p>Cortina’s prescription for combating hate speech is the cultivation of “active respect” and “mutual recognition of dignity” in civil society. Juridical solutions are insufficient, she maintains. The grounds for objecting to hate speech is a proposed “right to self-esteem”, a right that some might seem to have in excess. </p>
<p>Although many examples of hate speech appear to be based on race, religion or ideology, Cortina proposes that poverty is their essential common ingredient. Aporophobia, she argues, “is inevitably at the root of speech acts that target those in subordinate positions”. On this expansive view, any form of subordination or “position of weakness” is interpreted as a form of poverty. </p>
<p>Overcoming hatred may be challenging because “our brains are aporophobic”. Cortina explores the neuroscience of social conflict, finding evidence of a “contractualist brain” that is primed to expect reciprocity and respond with moralistic aggression to violations of that principle. To override this brain-based rejection of free riders, she argues, we need a program of “moral bioenhancement”. </p>
<p>The ultimate way forward does not involve tinkering with our brains, however. “Economic institutions that eliminate poverty and inequality are the best ways to eradicate aporophobia.” In addition, universal values and “cosmopolitan hospitality” must be taught and practised. Cortina closes her book with suggestions for how a more compassionate citizenry and a more economically fair international order can be created.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519496/original/file-20230405-26-yyb8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519496/original/file-20230405-26-yyb8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519496/original/file-20230405-26-yyb8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519496/original/file-20230405-26-yyb8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519496/original/file-20230405-26-yyb8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519496/original/file-20230405-26-yyb8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519496/original/file-20230405-26-yyb8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519496/original/file-20230405-26-yyb8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adela Cortina.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Montserrat Boix/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-concept-of-class-is-often-avoided-in-public-debate-but-its-essential-for-understanding-inequality-187777">The concept of class is often avoided in public debate, but it's essential for understanding inequality</a>
</strong>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>Impoverished emotions</h2>
<p>Cortina’s work is a philosophically rich and sometimes rousing call to end poverty and secure human dignity. Whether the concept of aporophobia can bear the interpretive load she places on it is another matter. The concept is both too narrow and too ambitious to serve its intended explanatory function. Its diagnosis of the source of antipathy to the poor is questionable in three respects.</p>
<p>First, the concept of aporophobia asserts that the ingredients of antipathy to the poor are fear and contempt. The poor are dreaded from a position of threat and scorned from a position of imagined superiority. These emotional elements may be present in responses to the poor, but indifference and neglect are at least equally powerful. The poor suffer as much from a cold lack of concern, reinforced by spatial separation, as they do from heated aversion. Residential segregation and national borders help to keep poverty out of sight and out of mind, but this motivated ignorance is invisible in Cortina’s account.</p>
<p>Second, the concept of aporophobia overlooks a key aspects of the rejection of the poor. By centring fear and contempt, Cortina omits the moral dimension of that aversion. The poor are not merely dreaded and scorned, but are also believed to have transgressed rules of fairness. This dynamic is evident in the dichotomous reactions to the virtuous and vicious poor characters mentioned at the beginning of this review. Polarised responses to people viewed as deserving and undeserving of their impoverished state are common. Those seen as not responsible for their condition are judged worthy, whereas those who are thought to have brought it on themselves are reviled. Attitudes to the poor hinge on moral evaluations of deservingness, which ideas of amoral aversion fail to capture.</p>
<p>Third, if our views of the poor are indeed polarised by judgements of deservingness, is there a powerful aversion to the poor as a class, as Cortina suggests, or only to its undeserving variety? The poor are sometimes stereotyped as lacking in warmth and capability – though <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/josi.12208">not invariably</a>. But it is unclear whether that perception reveals attitudes to poverty <em>per se</em> or only to that demonised form. </p>
<p><a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/asap.12313">Recent Australian research</a> suggests that evaluations of poverty may be quite benevolent. The study examined how public attitudes are influenced by poverty, unemployment and receipt of income support. It found that poverty itself carries little stigma. Members of the working poor were judged no less sympathetically than other workers. </p>
<p>Being unemployed, however, carried a negative charge, and receiving unemployment benefits an additional one. Benefit recipients were perceived as less disciplined, emotionally stable and warm than other unemployed people. </p>
<p>These findings are consistent with the well established phenomenon of <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-social-policy/article/abs/stigma-of-claiming-benefits-a-quantitative-study/AF30092AE7D5B7C659798228B219F02C">benefit stigma</a>, related to a stereotype of recipients as lazy, parasitic, and undeserving. They are not consistent with an aversion to poor people that is directly attributable to their poverty. Any account that invokes an amoral generalised aversion to the poor rather than a moralised aversion to the supposedly undeserving poor is incomplete.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516830/original/file-20230321-20-gxs4l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=113%2C107%2C3802%2C4479&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516830/original/file-20230321-20-gxs4l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=113%2C107%2C3802%2C4479&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516830/original/file-20230321-20-gxs4l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516830/original/file-20230321-20-gxs4l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516830/original/file-20230321-20-gxs4l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=696&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516830/original/file-20230321-20-gxs4l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516830/original/file-20230321-20-gxs4l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516830/original/file-20230321-20-gxs4l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gin Lane – William Hogarth (c.1750)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Public domain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-only-they-made-better-life-choices-how-simplistic-explanations-of-poverty-and-food-insecurity-miss-the-mark-190430">‘If only they made better life choices’ – how simplistic explanations of poverty and food insecurity miss the mark</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Is aporophobia primary?</h2>
<p>In addition to querying Cortina’s characterisation of the emotions underlying our views of the poor, we can also quibble with her argument for the primacy of aporophobia over xenophobia in the rejection of immigrants and displaced people. </p>
<p>It is unquestionably true that attitudes to outsiders are rarely monolithically negative, and that wealthy foreigners are welcomed in ways that refugees are not. But the argument that xenophobia can be reduced to aporophobia – not to mention the more general claim that aporophobia is at the root of all forms of subordination – is entirely far-fetched. </p>
<p>Our tendency to show an ethnocentric preference for our own kind – to value and favour in-group over out-group – is very <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/0022-4537.00126">well established</a> and even wealthy outsiders are not immune to it. We routinely denigrate and distrust foreign nationals, even – and sometimes especially – when they are rich and powerful. </p>
<p>The fact that poverty is one reason for our rejection of immigrants or displaced persons does not make it the only one. Any rejection based on lack of means or reciprocity is compounded by rejection based on foreignness (xenophobia), on race, and potentially on other factors, such as religion or gender. </p>
<p>To reduce the hostility of rich European nations to immigrants from North Africa and beyond to aporophobia, as Cortina does, or to racism, as others prefer to do, is to oversimplify. Single-barrelled explanations overlook the fact that prejudice is layered.</p>
<p>Consider Australia’s historically unwelcoming attitude to many immigrants and displaced persons. It has been popular to view this rejection through a racism or xenophobia monocle. If that were the whole story, public attitudes would be equally antagonistic to immigrants, refugees admitted through the humanitarian program, and undocumented asylum seekers. But those attitudes are decidedly unequal.</p>
<p>Attitudes towards immigrants are typically warmer and more compassionate than those towards refugees, with special scorn reserved for undocumented boat arrivals. Aporophobia may help to account for some of these differences: immigrants are assumed to be skilled and economically self-sufficient, whereas refugees and asylum seekers are assumed to require substantial welfare supports. </p>
<p>However, much of the animus towards asylum seekers focuses not on their race, foreignness, or lack of resources, but on moralistic reactions to their mode of entry, as the shrill language of “illegals” and “queue-jumpers” attests. To reduce popular attitudes towards displaced people to racism, xenophobia or aporophobia is to bulldoze several tiers of aversion into one flattened explanation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519694/original/file-20230405-28-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519694/original/file-20230405-28-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519694/original/file-20230405-28-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519694/original/file-20230405-28-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519694/original/file-20230405-28-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519694/original/file-20230405-28-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519694/original/file-20230405-28-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519694/original/file-20230405-28-zx48ni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A boatload of refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Somalia and Sri Lanka off the coast of Libya, April 4, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Salvatore Cavalli/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A confluence of factors</h2>
<p>Social rejection can take many forms and have many determinants. The idea of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality">intersectionality</a>” offers one perspective. How we evaluate and respond to a person may reflect the unique intersection of their identities. The stereotype of “Asian woman” is not a simple sum of the stereotypes of “Asian” and “woman” but may call up a distinct configuration of perceptions. </p>
<p>Sometimes, though, it helps to remember that some attitudes are not so much intersectional as additive, at least in their virulence. How negatively we perceive groups such as asylum seekers may reflect a confluence of factors: their outsider status, their race, their poverty, their officially sanctioned versus unsanctioned means of entering the country, and so on. </p>
<p>“Additivity” doesn’t have the same ring as “intersectionality”, but it might help to warn us off simplifying accounts of social exclusion.</p>
<p>Aporophobia is nevertheless a valuable addition to the social scientist’s conceptual arsenal. Cortina’s work draws welcome attention to a form of prejudice that is too often shunted aside by our identitarian focus on race, gender and sexuality. </p>
<p>We might quibble with some inflated claims for the primacy of aporophobia, with the imperfect analysis of its emotional signature, and with the omission of social class from Cortina’s discussion of economic inequality. Her emphasis on the rejection of displaced people within European nations – understandable given the book’s original publication in 2017 when a refugee crisis was convulsing the continent – can also be faulted. Examining public responses to the domestic poor might afford a clearer view of aporophobia than one complicated by displacement and ethnic differences.</p>
<p>Despite these reservations, Cortina has written a significant work of social philosophy that deserves close attention in the Anglophone world. Aporophobia is a provocative book that will stimulate discussion, argument and investigation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194808/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Haslam receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>The idea that the poor are impoverished morally as well as materially, that they lack humanity as well as means, has a long history.Nick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2031172023-04-05T18:38:03Z2023-04-05T18:38:03ZDownshifting: why people are quitting their corporate careers for craft jobs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519276/original/file-20230404-24-9qym5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C1902%2C1264&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The experiential relationship to work that exists in the craft industry helps returnees make sense of their new job.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/fr/image-photo/stylish-professional-potter-sculptor-works-clay-1847508151">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Long coveted by job centres and PowerPoint presenters, the old image of moving up the career ladder makes less and less sense by the day. In France and other Western societies, it is increasingly common to see interior designers become bakers, ex-bankers opening up cheese shops, and marketing officers taking up electricians’ tools. </p>
<p>In January 2022, <a href="https://csa.eu/news/barometre-de-la-formation-et-de-lemploi-3e-edition/">21% of French working people</a> were in the course of changing career, while 26% were reported to be considering a career switch in the long term. As part of this trend, executives or the highly educated are increasingly drawn to the world of craft. The practice is sometimes referred to as <em>downshifting</em> in English, which, <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/downshifting">according to the Cambridge Dictionary</a>, is “the practice of leaving a job that is well paid and difficult in order to do something that gives you more time and satisfaction but less money”.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lenvers-des-mots-bifurquer-191438">« L’envers des mots » : Bifurquer</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>These career changes are a puzzle for sociologists, who have traditionally sought to understand the factors driving upward mobility, class reproduction, or social downgrading. These days, the latter can be observed on an <a href="https://www.cairn.info/cadres-classes-moyennes-vers-l-eclatement%20--%209782200255909-page-173.htm">intergenerational scale</a>, with children increasingly occupying lower positions in the social hierarchy than their parents’, but also on an <a href="https://www.cereq.fr/declassements-et-reclassements-selon-le-diplome-et-lorigine-sociale">intragenerational scale</a>, with individuals carrying out jobs for which they are overqualified. In both cases, the phenomenon at play is thought of as something people are subject to, not the result of their own decision. How, then, can we get our heads around managers moving into the craft industry?</p>
<p>For individuals who have scaled the career ladder or who are highly educated, switching to a “manual” craft trade could indeed be understood as a paradoxical “voluntary downgrading”. As part of <a href="https://www.theses.fr/s208931">my PhD</a>, I therefore embarked onto a mission to understand downshifters’ motivations, interviewing 55 of them.</p>
<h2>A specific relationship to work</h2>
<p>The first takeaway to emerge from these interviews is the majority of career switchers show a relationship to work which we can describe as “experiential”. This means that, more than material resources or the prestige of professional status, these professionals prioritise satisfying and fulfilling work life.</p>
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<p>The economic dimension, while not totally omitted, was all the more easily overlooked because our interviewees often had safety nets. For some, this means unemployment benefits for the time needed to retrain, income from a spouse; for others financial assistance from relatives, prior savings or even property assets.</p>
<p>In this regard, Tom (first names have been changed), who has a PhD in physics and works as a carpenter, confirmed to me that having “the cultural and economic capital” and the security of knowing that “his parents [who are both academics] are there” are the conditions that allow him to “wander from one job to another”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/la-formation-continue-garantie-dune-reconversion-professionnelle-reussie-189267">La formation continue, garantie d’une reconversion professionnelle réussie ?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Thanks to their degrees or past professional experience, these professionals also know they can return to a more qualified job if things don’t pan out the way they would like. Under these conditions, career switchers, who are after a job that is more in line with their values, can allow themselves to transgress socio-professional boundaries.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DmrDwV7FhJ4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Reading of an extract from “The Praise of the Carburetor”, by Matthew B. Crawford (The Blob).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Admittedly, the craft trade corresponds to a more working-class job sector than the one their initial background had accustomed them to. It requires a lower education level than theirs, and generally confers lower or more irregular income. But the experiential relationship with work leads the career switchers to focus less on these criteria than on the satisfaction that their new job can intrinsically provide. They therefore only rarely told me that they felt downgraded, assessing their situation more on an individual level and in terms of fulfilment than in terms of the socio-professional status associated with their new job.</p>
<h2>Giving meaning to one’s job</h2>
<p>This experiential relationship to work often leads career switchers to indicate that craft work would have more “meaning” than their former profession. Gabriel, a former account manager who now works as a cheesemonger, sums up what led him to consider that his job “lacked meaning”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Every day is a bit the same […] and you say to yourself, ‘Well, am I really going to spend 40 years at a desk, with my arse on a chair staring at a computer? Is this really what I want to do?’”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not all of the people who retrained were necessarily working in a computer-based “office” job. But this type of activity is nonetheless repulsive, which structures their relationship with “intellectual” work. Several shortcomings are attributed to it: first, the sedentary nature of the work, both in terms of being indoors and sitting time. Second, the feeling of unproductivity that “intellectual” work sometimes brings is often mentioned. Finally, such “office jobs” often involve a strong division of labour, which can make people feel like a “number”, a “link” or a “cog in a mechanism”.</p>
<p>In contrast, craftsmanship is given qualities that <strong>mirror these shortcomings</strong>. First of all, it allows people to work outside – which many people who have retrained in construction value – and to exercise their bodies. In contrast to studies highlighting the <a href="https://books.openedition.org/pur/150105?lang=en">physical vulnerability associated with craft work</a>, career switchers tend to describe this bodily engagement as something that “feels good”, strengthens “muscles”, makes you feel “fit” and “good in your body”, or that helps avoid “getting fat”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IT7iytAoJv4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Changing lives: Sarah, from advertising to ceramics (Brut).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, craftsmanship is valued for its “concrete” character. By this we mean that the product of the activity is palpable, tangible, which makes it easier to equate the efforts engaged with the result they produce. This concrete aspect contrasts with feelings associated with the former job, of losing oneself in “endless meetings”, in “frills”, in reflections that can last “ hours and hours” on subjects which interviewees criticise as “superficial”, “artificial”, “abstract” or “excessively complex”.</p>
<p>Joëlle, a training manager who became a baker, underlined that she had the impression of “finishing late […] to do nothing”. She contrasts this activity where, at the end of the month, she had “still earned 5,500 euros”, but without knowing “who she was benefiting”, and her new job: “There, every day I feed at least a hundred people”.</p>
<p>Finally, the craft activity often allows retrained workers to supervise all stages of production, which is valued as opposed to an overly marked division of labour. The challenge lies in the possibility of benefiting from greater autonomy, both technical (mastering all the tasks necessary to produce the product) and organisational (not depending on others to carry out one’s activity).</p>
<p>This concern for professional autonomy can be seen in the very high proportion of career switchers who become self-employed in the very short term, compared to those in the trade. From this point of view, access to independence emerges as an essential condition for retraining in the craft trade.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203117/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Antoine Dain ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The reconversions of graduates and executives to manual trades can be seen as “voluntary downgrading” and are highly publicized.Antoine Dain, Doctorant en sociologie, Aix-Marseille Université (AMU)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1959392023-04-02T20:03:15Z2023-04-02T20:03:15ZEver feel like your life is a performance? Everyone does – and this 1959 book explains roles, scripts and hiding backstage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516550/original/file-20230321-14-d8qd03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Our cultural touchstones series looks at books that have made an impact.</em></p>
<p>Shakespeare’s adage — “All the world’s a stage” — suggests human beings are conditioned to perform, and to possess an acute social awareness of how they appear in front of others. </p>
<p>It resonates in the age of social media, where we’re all performing ourselves on our screens and watching each other’s performances play out. Increasingly, those screen performances are how we meet people, and how we form relationships: from online dating, to remote work, to staying in touch with family.</p>
<p>While the idea of performance as central to social life has been around for centuries, <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199756384/obo-9780199756384-0228.xml">Erving Goffman</a> was the first to attempt a comprehensive account of society and everyday life using theatre as an analogy. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518637/original/file-20230331-24-w3md7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518637/original/file-20230331-24-w3md7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518637/original/file-20230331-24-w3md7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518637/original/file-20230331-24-w3md7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518637/original/file-20230331-24-w3md7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518637/original/file-20230331-24-w3md7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518637/original/file-20230331-24-w3md7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518637/original/file-20230331-24-w3md7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the social media age, we’re all performing ourselves on our screens and watching each other’s performances play out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">George Milton/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His influential 1959 book <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life-9780241547991">The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life</a> is something of a “bible” for scholars interested in questions of how we operate in everyday life. It became a surprise US bestseller on publication, crossing over to a general readership.</p>
<p>Goffman wrote about how we perform different versions of ourselves in different social environments, while keeping our “backstage” essential selves private. He called his idea <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003160861-3/dramaturgy-charles-edgley?context=ubx&refId=6e9b71d0-973c-4ebe-b90b-41a372d12623">dramaturgy</a>.</p>
<p>Playwright Alan Bennett <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v03/n19/alan-bennett/cold-sweat">wrote admiringly</a> of him, “Individuals knew they behaved in this way, but Goffman knew <em>everybody</em> behaved like this and so did I.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-shifting-identities-performing-sexual-selves-on-social-media-145322">Friday essay: shifting identities - performing sexual selves on social media</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Goffman as influencer (and suspected spy)</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/about-isa/history-of-isa/books-of-the-xx-century">poll of professional sociologists</a>, Goffman’s book ranked in the top ten publications of the 20th century. </p>
<p>It influenced playwrights such as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/019027250907200402">Tom Stoppard</a> and, of course, Bennett, who <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Alan-Bennett-A-Critical-Introduction/OMealy/p/book/9780815335405">was interested in</a> depicting and analysing the role-playing of everyday life that Goffman identified. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518632/original/file-20230331-22-d1kllv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518632/original/file-20230331-22-d1kllv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518632/original/file-20230331-22-d1kllv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518632/original/file-20230331-22-d1kllv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518632/original/file-20230331-22-d1kllv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518632/original/file-20230331-22-d1kllv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518632/original/file-20230331-22-d1kllv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518632/original/file-20230331-22-d1kllv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Goffman was <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781444396621.ch24">born in Mannville</a>, Alberta in 1922 to Ukrainian Jewish parents who migrated to Canada. The sister of the man who would become famous for his theatre analogies was an actor, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0062844/">Frances Bay</a>: late in life, she would play quirky, recognisable roles such as the “marble rye” lady on <a href="https://theconversation.com/science-of-seinfeld-131606">Seinfeld</a> and a recurring part on <a href="https://theconversation.com/ill-see-you-again-in-25-years-the-return-to-twin-peaks-32624">Twin Peaks</a> (as Mrs Tremond/Chalfant).</p>
<p>The path to Goffman’s book was an unusual one. It didn’t come from directly studying the theatre, or even from asking questions about theatregoers.</p>
<p>While completing postgraduate studies at the the University of Chicago, Goffman was given the opportunity to conduct fieldwork in the Shetland Islands, an isolated part of northern Scotland, for his <a href="https://www.mediastudies.press/pub/ns-ccic/release/4">PhD dissertation</a>.</p>
<p>Goffman pretended to be there to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470999912.ch3">study agricultural techniques</a>. But his actual reason was to examine the everyday life of the Shetland Islanders. As he observed the everyday practices and rituals of the remote island community, he had to negotiate suspicions he may <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Goffman-Social-Organization-Sociological-Routledge/dp/0415112044?">have been a spy</a>. </p>
<p>In Goffman’s published book, the ethnography of the Shetland Islands takes a back seat to his dramaturgical theory.</p>
<h2>More than a popular how-to manual</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life-9780241547991">The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life</a> quickly became <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Sociological-Bent-InsideMetro-Culture/dp/0170120015">a national bestseller</a>. It was picked up by general readers “as a guide to social manners and on how to be clever and calculating in social intercourse without being obvious”.</p>
<p>This fascinating and complex academic work could indeed be read as a “how-to” manual on how to impress others and mitigate negative impressions. But Goffman <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Erving-Goffman/Smith/p/book/9780415355919">didn’t mean</a> “performance” literally. Reading the book as a guide to middle-class etiquette misses some of its nuances.</p>
<p>One is the sophisticated understanding of how reality and contrivance relate to each other. A good performance is one that appears “unselfconscious”; a “contrived” performance is one where the fact the social actor is performing a role is “painstakingly evident”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bVilBKyMLYk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A ‘contrived’ performance is when the actor playing a social role is ‘painstakingly evident’, or trying too hard.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In everyday language, we tend to describe the latter as trying too hard. But Goffman is making a more general point, about the way we all perform ourselves, all the time – whether the effort is visible or not.</p>
<p>If “All the world is not, of course, a stage”, then “the crucial ways in which it isn’t are not easy to specify”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-emotional-labour-and-how-do-we-get-it-wrong-185773">What is emotional labour - and how do we get it wrong?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Playing roles and being in character</h2>
<p>Today, we regularly use theatrical terms like “role”, “script”, “props”, “audience” and being “in and out of character” to describe how people behave in their everyday social life. But Goffman is the one who introduced these concepts, which have become part of our shared language.</p>
<p>Together, they highlight how social life depends on what Goffman terms a shared definition of particular situations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518638/original/file-20230331-28-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518638/original/file-20230331-28-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518638/original/file-20230331-28-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518638/original/file-20230331-28-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518638/original/file-20230331-28-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518638/original/file-20230331-28-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518638/original/file-20230331-28-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518638/original/file-20230331-28-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Goffman introduced theatrical terms like ‘role’, ‘script’ and being ‘in and out of character’ as ways of talking about social performance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monica Silvestre/Pexels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whether we are performing our work roles, having dinner with someone for whom we have romantic affections, or dealing with strangers in a public setting, we need to produce and maintain the appropriate definition of that reality. </p>
<p>These activities are “performances”, according to Goffman, because they involve mutual awareness or attentiveness to the information others emit. This mutual awareness, or attention to others, means humans are constantly performing for audiences in their everyday lives.</p>
<h2>Being in and out of character</h2>
<p>It matters who the audience is – and what type of audience we have for our performances. When thinking about how people adapt their behaviour for others, Goffman differentiates between “front regions” and “back regions”. </p>
<p>Front regions are where we must present what is often referred to as the “best version of ourselves”. In an open-plan office, a worker needs to look busy if their supervisor is about. So, in the front region, they need to look engaged, industrious and generally perform the role of being a worker. In an open-plan office, a worker needs to be constantly “in character”, as Goffman puts it.</p>
<p>Back regions are where a social actor can “let their guard down”. In the context of a workplace, the back regions might refer to the bathroom, the lunchroom or anywhere else where the worker can relax their performance and potentially resort to “out of character” behaviour. </p>
<p>If the worker takes a diversionary break to gossip with a colleague when their supervisor is no longer in earshot, they could be said to be engaging in back region conduct.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518636/original/file-20230331-18-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518636/original/file-20230331-18-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518636/original/file-20230331-18-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518636/original/file-20230331-18-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518636/original/file-20230331-18-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518636/original/file-20230331-18-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518636/original/file-20230331-18-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518636/original/file-20230331-18-zj6jqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In an open-plan office, a worker needs to be constantly ‘in character’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Israel Andrade/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Front and back regions are not defined by physical locations. A back region is any situation in which the individual can relax and drop their performance. (Of course, this means regions overlap with physical locations to some extent – people are more likely to be able to relax when they’re in more private settings.)</p>
<p>Thus, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/08/opinion/open-plan-office-awful.html">open-plan offices</a> are often unpopular because workers feel they are constantly under surveillance. Conversely, the work-from-home arrangements that have become more common since the era of COVID lockdowns are popular because they allow people to relax their work personae.</p>
<p>Renowned writer Jenny Diski <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v26/n05/jenny-diski/think-of-mrs-darling">reflected</a> in 2004:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Reading Goffman now is alarmingly claustrophobic. He presents a world where there is nowhere to run; a perpetual dinner party of status seeking, jockeying for position and saving face. Any idea of an authentic self becomes a nonsense. You may or may not believe in what you are performing; either type of performance is believed in or it is not. </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-moscow-stage-to-monroe-and-de-niro-how-the-method-defined-20th-century-acting-179088">From the Moscow stage to Monroe and De Niro: how the Method defined 20th-century acting</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>21st-century Goffman</h2>
<p>Dramaturgy has survived the onset of our new media environment, where the presentation of the self has migrated to platforms as diverse as <a href="https://theconversation.com/instagram-and-facebook-are-stalking-you-on-websites-accessed-through-their-apps-what-can-you-do-about-it-188645">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-corn-how-the-online-viral-corn-kid-is-on-a-well-worn-path-to-fame-in-the-child-influencer-industry-189974">TikTok</a>. In some ways, it’s more relevant than ever. </p>
<p>Goffman’s approach has been applied to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/no-sense-of-place-9780195042313?cc=au&lang=en&">electronic media</a>, radio and <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Media_and_Modernity/asB7QgAACAAJ?hl=en">television</a> <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003160861-19/reception-goffman-work-media-studies-peter-lunt">studies</a>, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262515047/new-tech-new-ties/">mobile phones</a> – and, more recently, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13548565211036797">social media</a> and even <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0263276419829541">AI studies</a>.</p>
<p>The “successful staging” (as Goffman terms it) of our social roles has only become more complex. This is perfectly illustrated by “BBC Dad” Robert Kelly, whose 2017 <a href="https://junkee.com/bbc-dad-pictures-kids-now-marion-james/324165">live television interview</a> from his home study was interrupted when his children wandered into the room. This was before COVID lockdowns, when our home and work lives (and personae) increasingly merged. </p>
<p>“Everyone understands that now,” <a href="https://junkee.com/bbc-dad-pictures-kids-now-marion-james/324165">wrote Reena Gupta</a> in 2022. “You or someone in your family or circle of friends has been BBC Dad.”</p>
<p>Maintaining and maximising performances still matters. And so does Goffman.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195939/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is a ‘bible’ for scholars, voted a top 10 book of the 20th century. It also fascinated general readers, as a guide to social manners.Michael James Walsh, Associate Professor in Social Sciences, University of CanberraEduardo de la Fuente, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Justice and Society, UniSA, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987132023-02-20T13:19:59Z2023-02-20T13:19:59Z3 things the pandemic taught us about inequality in college — and why they matter today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509519/original/file-20230210-16-k7jjvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C5800%2C2552&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Low-income college students often face financial pressures and family obligations that their instructors cannot see. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/tired-college-student-studies-late-at-night-royalty-free-image/677955278">SDI Productions/E+ Collection/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Elise, a nursing student at an elite U.S. university in the Northeast, found herself back home and sleeping on the floor of her parents’ one-bedroom apartment after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020. </p>
<p>It was tough to get a good night’s sleep as family members passed through to the kitchen or the front door. Such interruptions also made it difficult to concentrate during lectures and exams. Sometimes, limited internet bandwidth made it impossible for Elise to attend class at all. She couldn’t ask her parents to buy her a new computer to replace the one that was breaking down, she explained, because she knew they couldn’t afford it.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Elise’s classmate, Bella, a business student and the daughter of two Ivy League-educated professionals, had two empty bedrooms at her parents’ home. She used one for sleep, the other for schoolwork. Her parents had purchased “a monitor and all these other accessories to help make studying easier.”</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.elenavanstee.com/">doctoral candidate in sociology</a>, I study inequality among young adults. Elise and Bella are two of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12895">48 undergraduates I interviewed</a> to understand how college students from different socioeconomic backgrounds dealt with COVID-19 campus closings. Although all attended the same elite university, upper-middle class students like Bella often enjoyed academic and financial benefits from parents that their less affluent peers like Elise did not.</p>
<p>Just because most college students have gone back to in-person classes doesn’t mean these <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X20954263">disparities</a> have gone away. Here are three lessons from the pandemic that can help colleges better address <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13021">student inequality</a> going forward: </p>
<h2>1. The digital divide disrupts learning</h2>
<p>Elise wasn’t the only student in my study who didn’t have the learning technology she needed. “It was a solid two and a half weeks where I didn’t have a laptop,” said Shelton, a social sciences major, describing how he wrote a four-page research paper on his phone. Although Shelton had secured a laptop by the time I interviewed him in June 2020, he still didn’t have Wi-Fi in his off-campus apartment. </p>
<p>Before the pandemic, college students could typically use their school’s computer labs and internet hot spots on campus. During remote instruction, however, many had to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/us/covid-poor-college-students.html">join classes from smartphones</a> or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/technology/parking-lots-wifi-coronavirus.html">park outside stores</a> to access free Wi-Fi.</p>
<p>Although most undergraduates <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2011/07/19/college-students-and-technology/">own a cellphone and laptop</a>, the functionality of these devices and their ability to stay connected to the internet <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650218796366">are not equal</a>. </p>
<h2>2. Living conditions are learning conditions</h2>
<p>When residential universities sent undergraduates home in March 2020, some students <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/12/colleges-confronting-coronavirus-tell-students-move-out-many-urge-attention-needs">did not have a home they could safely return to</a>. Others, including some in my study, feared exposing parents to COVID-19 or being a financial burden. Still others had concerns about space, privacy, internet access or disruptions from family members. </p>
<p>“I didn’t even have a desk at home,” recalled Jennifer, a STEM major who stayed in a friend’s living room before moving to her grandparents’ house.</p>
<p>Even before the pandemic, students living in dormitories were in the <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=23137">minority</a>. Far more undergraduates <a href="https://robertkelchen.com/2018/05/28/a-look-at-college-students-living-arrangements/#_ftn1">live off campus</a>, many with their parents. In a fall 2019 survey, 35% of four-year college students and half of community college students reported <a href="https://agency.foodbankccs.org/agency/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/02/2019_RealCollege_Survey_Report.pdf">housing challenges</a>, which included being unable to pay rent and leaving a household because they felt unsafe.</p>
<p>The struggles of students like Jennifer call attention to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13021">socioeconomic divides</a> among students who were living off campus all along. These include inequalities in space, quiet and furniture for studying. </p>
<h2>3. Many students are family caregivers, too</h2>
<p>Finally, the pandemic increased many students’ <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7h06q880">caregiving responsibilities</a>, which sometimes limited the time they could spend on schoolwork.</p>
<p>For example, Ashley, a social sciences major, described how she shopped, cooked and managed her younger siblings’ remote schooling while her mom worked a retail job. “It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing that I was [home] to help, but it definitely impaired my studies,” she told me. </p>
<p>Before the pandemic, Ashley had helped support her family financially from a distance. But her responsibilities grew when she returned home and was the only adult available to help her younger siblings. </p>
<p>Contrary to the popular idea of college as a time of self-focused exploration, recent studies describe ways that some students — often from low-income, minority or immigrant families — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X211064867">support their families</a>. These include <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/07311214221134808">sending money home</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2020.1801439">helping siblings with homework</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558418788402">assisting parents with digital technology</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798410372624">chaperoning medical appointments</a>. Such responsibilities are often invisible to university instructors and administrators.</p>
<p>Students are members of families and communities, and they enter the classroom with different resources and responsibilities. Inclusive classrooms require instructors to demonstrate awareness, empathy and flexibility around these differences.</p>
<p>But empathy won’t fix students’ laptops or pay their rent. The pandemic highlighted inequalities that are reinforced by universities designed for so-called <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=23137">“traditional” college students</a> — fresh out of high school, living on campus, financially supported by their parents, and having few caregiving responsibilities. Yet <a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/08/24/129402669/typical-college-student-no-longer-so-typical">such students are a privileged minority</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198713/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences Predoctoral Training Fellowship Program under award #3505B200035 to the University of Pennsylvania. The opinions expressed are my own and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. I am also grateful for support from Penn’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration and Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences Student Government.</span></em></p>The pandemic put a spotlight on inequalities among college students. But students’ resources were unequal all along.Elena G. van Stee, Doctoral candidate in sociology, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1877772022-11-21T02:58:44Z2022-11-21T02:58:44ZThe concept of class is often avoided in public debate, but it’s essential for understanding inequality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495777/original/file-20221117-20-d6joj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4480%2C3353&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin Bergsma/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Australian news, opinion and popular culture, the figures of the hipster and the bogan are everywhere. These figures are proxies for cultural, commercial and moral aspects of class, signalling differences in fashion, accents and tastes. Perhaps one of the most recognisable examples is the popular television series, Upper Middle Bogan. </p>
<p>So potent and provocative are these figures in Australian popular culture, that in our experience of talking about class in the media earlier this year, following the release of our book <a href="https://publishing.monash.edu/product/class-in-australia/">Class in Australia</a>, interviewers most often wanted to talk about hipsters and bogans. </p>
<p>These figures are important for understanding class in Australia, including how moralised classed judgements about “good” versus “trashy” culture are made. But to talk about class in Australia involves talking about material inequality, work conditions, and the social, economic and political relations that produce wealth and poverty. </p>
<p>In a settler colony like Australia, it also involves addressing how class relations have been built on the foundations of colonialism and the exclusion and exploitation of Indigenous people, as Eualeyai/Kamilaroi academic, lawyer, filmmaker and advocate Larissa Behrendt noted in her contribution to our book. </p>
<p>The ongoing crisis of COVID-19 has highlighted the need to acknowledge the drastically different experiences of the global pandemic, depending on the kind of work you do. Front-line “essential” workers, often precariously employed, many of whom are in working-class jobs, have fundamentally different experiences of risk and exposure than white-collar workers able to work from home. </p>
<p>COVID-19 has also exposed the complex and <a href="https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/57949/978-981-19-3155-0.pdf?sequence=1#page=48">fragile global flows of migrant agricultural workers</a>, whose labour Australians rely upon to put food on the table, and whose lives were put in limbo. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495773/original/file-20221116-27-chh7pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495773/original/file-20221116-27-chh7pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495773/original/file-20221116-27-chh7pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495773/original/file-20221116-27-chh7pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495773/original/file-20221116-27-chh7pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495773/original/file-20221116-27-chh7pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495773/original/file-20221116-27-chh7pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495773/original/file-20221116-27-chh7pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Eight-hour day procession, Melbourne, April 1914.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Public domain</span></span>
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<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-your-race-class-and-gender-influence-your-dreams-for-the-future-183904">How your race, class and gender influence your dreams for the future</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The rhetoric of class</h2>
<p>Class has a unique place in Australian public life. At times it looms large, acting as an organising frame to declare interests and political sentiments. In Australia, the concept of “class” has a cultural history with deep connections to unionism and the struggle for workers’ rights, including, for instance, <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/eight-hour-day">the campaign for the eight-hour day</a>. </p>
<p>Yet often class is obscured. It is markedly absent from contemporary public and political debates on poverty, inequality, disadvantage and wealth. These other terms appear to roll off the political tongue with ease. They lend themselves to policy discourse and political rhetoric where structural inequalities are broken down into a series of “risk factors” attributed to individuals.</p>
<p>When the concept of class is mentioned, it is often presented in an inverted top-down manner. Some of Australia’s most privileged and powerful people routinely use anti-“elite” rhetoric. The notion of elitism is used to stereotype and denigrate so-called inner-city latte sippers. Their education and “progressive” political values are cited as evidence that they fail to grasp the needs and beliefs of “ordinary” people, exemplified by the “quiet” Aussie “battler”. </p>
<p>The symbols of class are invoked when our highly paid politicians cosplay as working class, dressing in high-vis and helmets, wearing army fatigues, or getting on tractors when visiting farms. These performances are attempts to connect the political class with the everyday worker, while at the same time glossing over social and employment inequalities. </p>
<p>Whenever arguments about income or economic redistribution arise, we hear immediate invocations of a “class war”. For instance, arguing in favour of lowering the minimum wage in 2012, Australian mining magnate <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-30/rinehart-sets-out-road-to-riches/4232326">Gina Rinehart</a> implored Australians to </p>
<blockquote>
<p>get through the class warfare smokescreen […] if you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain; do something to make more money yourself – spend less time drinking, or smoking and socialising, and more time working.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It seems that in Australia, as elsewhere, as US-based billionaire investor Warren Buffett <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html">quipped</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s class warfare all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gentrification-is-dividing-australian-schools-53098">Gentrification is dividing Australian schools</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is class in Australia?</h2>
<p>The term “class” – as distinct from related concepts like socio-economic status, inequality or disadvantage – remains useful because it refers to the cultural, social, economic and employment relations that have produced <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/social-affairs/new-report-wealth-inequality-australia-and-rapid-rise-house-prices">widening inequality</a>. It means acknowledging that some must sell their labour for wages, while others generate wealth from the capital produced from that labour. </p>
<p>At the same time, any genuine understanding of class in Australia requires qualifications. Class also refers to deep cultural and social practices which shape our identities, our communities and ways of being. </p>
<p>Class is a term that is hotly contested. Many have revisited the term, considering it in relation to, for instance, Indigenous experiences, gender and women’s work, and questions of race and racism. Not all distinctive experiences of difference, disadvantage and inequality – gender, race, Indigeneity, sexuality, ability, age for instance – represent equivalences that can be subsumed into class.</p>
<p>For instance, in our book, Rose Butler, Christina Ho and Eve Vincent discuss how ethnicity complicates straightforward understandings of class when it comes to education. Their research shows that many white parents denigrate Asian-Australian parents who invest in tutoring for their children, believing that it is “unfair” and does not allow kids to be kids. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487197/original/file-20220929-18-46ny3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487197/original/file-20220929-18-46ny3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487197/original/file-20220929-18-46ny3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487197/original/file-20220929-18-46ny3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487197/original/file-20220929-18-46ny3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487197/original/file-20220929-18-46ny3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487197/original/file-20220929-18-46ny3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Behrendt, too, reflects on how Indigenous people have been left out of debates about class, as the concept itself was imported from Europe and, in many colonial settler histories, Indigenous people were not even treated as people. These examples and others in the book highlight the need for continual reflection on how different contours of inequality interact with class. </p>
<p>Class is often omitted from public debate because it reveals the systemic nature of inequality and poverty. It does not fit with the political narrative that society is meritocratic. The realities of class-based inequity call into question the idea that if you work hard and make the right choices, you can rise to the top. </p>
<p>The problem is that when wealth, inequality and success are understood to be the result of individual choices, the social relationships and structures that create such inequalities are hidden from view. This kind of thinking gives rise to individualised responses to inequality, or a presumption that inequality might be the result of personal characteristics or “failings”. </p>
<p>It is this kind of thinking that enables Bernard Salt to declare that young people might be able to buy a house if they just <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/15/australian-millionaire-millennials-avocado-toast-house">didn’t eat avocado toast</a>, or former prime minister Scott Morrison to suggest that if you want to earn more all you need to do is work harder. Such comments demonstrate the significant and increasing discrepancy between political rhetoric and the reality of inequalities.</p>
<p>A richly informed understanding of class can play a powerful role in grasping how unequal social and economic experiences are articulated through relations of property, labour, capital and value in capitalist societies. </p>
<p>To put it plainly, class allows us to understand inequalities not as personal failings, but as experiences that are produced through social and economic relations. Using the term class makes inequality a public issue anchored in material structures and socio-cultural institutions. This makes class a necessary concept for understanding how Australian society functions, how the powerful maintain their interests, and how social and cultural institutions work to reproduce inequalities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Gerrard receives funding from the Australian Research Council </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Threadgold does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Class allows us to understand inequality not as a consequence of personal failings, but as a socioeconomic issue.Jessica Gerrard, Associate Professor, The University of MelbourneSteven Threadgold, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1930522022-11-07T13:34:54Z2022-11-07T13:34:54ZPickleball’s uphill climb to mainstream success<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492796/original/file-20221101-25191-t2wwl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C11%2C3892%2C2595&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For every headline about pickleball’s miraculous growth, you can also find stories about conflicts and infighting.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jorja-johnson-of-the-hard-eights-holds-her-franklin-paddle-news-photo/1434128821?phrase=pickleball&adppopup=true">Emilee Chinn/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most newer sports are hybrids of older ones, and pickleball is no exception. The progeny of tennis, badminton and pingpong, pickleball is played by singles or doubles teams who hit a ball back and forth over a 3-foot-high net until one opponent commits a fault.</p>
<p>In 1965, the <a href="https://usapickleball.org/what-is-pickleball/history-of-the-game/">inventors of pickleball</a> played with what they had – a repurposed badminton setup, pingpong paddles and a perforated plastic ball. </p>
<p>Today’s <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">4.8 million</a> American pickleballers have much more to play with: In the U.S. there are <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">38,140</a> courts, <a href="https://www.si.com/sports-illustrated/2022/05/24/pickleball-fastest-growing-sport-daily-cover">300</a> manufacturers of pickleball equipment and
<a href="https://usapickleball.org/get-involved/pickleball-clubs/">hundreds</a> of grassroots clubs.</p>
<p>There’s been a good amount of speculation about the explosion of pickleball’s popularity. But now the sport seems poised to burst into the mainstream, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/sports/major-league-pickleball.html">Lebron James</a> and other luminaries of the NBA and NFL recently announcing large investments in the professional circuit.</p>
<p>Still, the young sport is not immune to growing pains. As I argue in my book “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-76457-9">Emerging Sports as Social Movements</a>,” the popularity of some fledgling sports may seem self-evident in splashy headlines. But their less visible social undercurrents ultimately shape whether they’ll continue to attract new players and fans. </p>
<h2>Pickleball’s feudal period</h2>
<p>For an organized sport to grow, it needs structure – a common set of rules, rankings, equipment standards, scheduled events and a sense of identity that can unite players and fans.</p>
<p>At present, pickleball’s social fabric is spread thin and woven together by a network of competing interests. For every headline about pickleball’s miraculous growth you can also find stories about conflicts and infighting among various leagues and governing bodies, as well as between pickleballers and tennis players.</p>
<p>The sport has three professional leagues battling for control of the pickleball kingdom. It has two international governing bodies: the International Federation of Pickleball and the World Pickleball Federation. The lesser lords of pickleball also <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/25/can-pickleball-save-america">feud with tennis players</a> over dual-use courts and plans for expansion in public parks, with reports of “<a href="https://jezebel.com/pickleball-turf-wars-are-the-niche-drama-ravaging-the-c-1849678697">turf wars</a>” and “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/20/pickleball-growth-tennis/">a tug-of-war</a>” between the two racket sports.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.si.com/sports-illustrated/2022/05/24/pickleball-fastest-growing-sport-daily-cover">Picklebalkanization</a>,” anyone?</p>
<p>Internal squabbles are common in emerging sports movements. Cornhole, disc golf and esports, for instance, have faced <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-76457-9">similar challenges</a>. In some cases, conflict can be a good thing. It may spur innovation. But it can also leave some would-be fans, sponsors and players wondering whom they should watch, invest in or play for.</p>
<p>Compared with traditional racket sports, pickleball is less expensive, requires less space and may be more compatible with the aches and pains that come with age. And unlike other emerging sports, pickleball’s future seems bright. But for now it has more in common with <a href="https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-03781-3.html">French feudalism</a> of the ninth century – when territorial disputes were commonplace – than a modern unified sport movement headed for the Olympics.</p>
<h2>Birds of a feather dink together</h2>
<p>If two strangers meet in a bar and happen to share an interest in pickleball, they won’t be strangers for long. Shared passion is the glue and fuel of emerging sports communities. But the human tendency to bond with those who are like us also poses a problem for sports seeking to achieve widespread popularity.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.415">Sociological studies</a> show that our love of sameness partly explains why our groups and social networks tend to be homogeneous, such as male-dominated occupations, predominantly white community groups, and friendship circles united by a single religion. For grassroots sports, which spread through social networks, the sameness problem can limit growth by narrowing the flock to those with similar feathers.</p>
<p>Pickleball insiders like to talk about the sport’s relatively balanced <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">gender ratio</a>, which stands at roughly 60% to 70% men and 30% to 40% women. The newest professional league, Major League Pickleball, is promoting the sport through <a href="https://www.majorleaguepickleball.net/mlp-descriptions">mixed-gender competitions</a>, with teams comprising two men and two women – a unique format in the male-dominated world of pro sports.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492797/original/file-20221101-23-ykkbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Female pickleball player lunges toward a ball to return a shot." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492797/original/file-20221101-23-ykkbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492797/original/file-20221101-23-ykkbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492797/original/file-20221101-23-ykkbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492797/original/file-20221101-23-ykkbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492797/original/file-20221101-23-ykkbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492797/original/file-20221101-23-ykkbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492797/original/file-20221101-23-ykkbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pickleball seems to have more gender parity than other sports.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/melanie-beckstrand-returns-a-shot-against-kelly-mceniry-news-photo/1421105751?phrase=pickleball&adppopup=true">Ronald Martinez/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But grassroots sports sprout from the ground up, and long-term growth depends partly on the demographic diversity of core players. Pickleball may be trending younger, but one-third of its avid players are of <a href="https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-fact-sheet/">retirement age</a>. Roughly half the population of pickleball players probably saw the Apollo 11 moon landing. Calculating accurate statistics on niche communities is difficult, but based on my review of multiple academic and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/19/1081257674/americas-fastest-growing-sport-pickleball">journalistic sources</a>, pickleballers are predominantly older, white, affluent and suburban. For instance, two survey-based studies with large samples estimated the proportion of white players at <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31629346/">93.5%</a> and <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/japa/27/1/article-p28.xml">94.1%</a>.</p>
<p>Demographic homogeneity is a tough trend to buck. Of course, some sports, like golf and NASCAR, have expanded their reach <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/which-sports-have-the-whitest-richest-oldest-fans/283626/">without solving the sameness problem</a>. But given the nation’s reckoning around race and gender, a successful push for greater diversity could be the one thing that separates pickleball from the crowd of dreamer upstarts.</p>
<h2>Will the revolution even need to be televised?</h2>
<p>That sports grow when mainstream media pay attention to them seems obvious. Increased media coverage from ESPN or CBS attracts more participants and consumers, enticing sponsors and fostering stronger sport institutions.</p>
<p>Yet, as a growth strategy, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/24/744775904/cornhole-and-other-less-traditional-sports-gather-more-attention">buying airtime</a> on ESPN – which sports like cornhole and ax throwing are doing – may provide little more than airy hope. As pickleball strives to expand its audience, it faces stiff competition from traditional sports brands like the NFL and NBA, as well as emerging brands like esports, mixed martial arts, disc golf, cornhole, drone racing, round net, darts and ax throwing.</p>
<p>With so many options, some sports just won’t make it big. The history of emerging sports is filled with booms and busts. Interest in gambling sports like jai alai and horse racing has <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/longform/2013/2/28/4036934/jai-alai-sport-in-america-miami">declined tremendously</a> since the late 20th century. ESPN’s X Games popularized alternative sports like <a href="https://www.goskate.com/top/47-facts-about-x-games-skateboarding/">skateboarding</a> in the late 1990s, but some disciplines, like <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/x-games">street luge</a>, were left behind. Drop “poker” in a <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends">Google Trends</a> search box and you’ll see that the Texas hold ‘em boom lasted for about three years, from 2004 to 2006.</p>
<p>The next big thing in sports may not boom at all. Given that younger consumers are <a href="https://www.theringer.com/sports/2021/4/15/22385705/live-sports-streaming-wars-future-industry">migrating to streaming services</a>, the revolution may not be televised to a mass audience but instead will be streamed to die-hard fans. </p>
<p>Niche sports like pickleball may have an advantage as sports spectatorship fragments. For small sports, a modest audience with slow but steady growth could be a recipe for sustainable success. There are numerous options for watching pickleball matches, such as YouTube channels, livestreams via Facebook, fuboTV, and some coverage on broadcast and cable channels, but demand for live coverage <a href="https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/zane-explains-3/">remains modest</a>.</p>
<p>Ultimately, with so many shiny new sports to choose from, the winners will be determined not by flashy media exposure or top-down commercial forces but rather by bottom-up community development. No matter how hot the publicity gets around pickleball, the consumer base for watching the sport will draw heavily on people who already love playing it. The love of any sport has roots in culture – not commerce.</p>
<p>If pickleball lives up to the hype, it will do so on the backs of volunteers and grassroots organizers who can transform a loose network of casual players into an international community of pickleball fanatics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Josh Woods does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Headlines about pickleball’s exploding popularity abound. But the less visible social undercurrents of an emerging sport ultimately shape its long-term future.Josh Woods, Professor of Sociology, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1914772022-10-21T12:38:29Z2022-10-21T12:38:29ZWhy is 13 considered unlucky? Explaining the power of its bad reputation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490737/original/file-20221019-20-g6fx2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C0%2C2072%2C1414&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many elevators do not have a floor numbered 13 because of common superstitions about the number.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-a-businessman-using-hotel-elevator-royalty-free-image/1401402377?phrase=elevator&adppopup=true">Luis Alvarez/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Would you think it weird if I refused to travel on Sundays that fall on the 22nd day of the month?</p>
<p>How about if I lobbied the homeowner association in my high-rise condo to skip the 22nd floor, jumping from the 21st to 23rd?</p>
<p>It’s highly unusual <a href="https://theconversation.com/happy-twosday-why-numbers-like-2-22-22-have-been-too-fascinating-for-over-2-000-years-176093">to fear 22</a> – so, yes, it would be appropriate to see me as a bit odd. But what if, in just my country alone, more than 40 million people shared the same baseless aversion?</p>
<p>That’s <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/26887/thirteen-percent-americans-bothered-stay-hotels-13th-floor.aspx">how many Americans</a> admit it would bother them to stay on one particular floor in high-rise hotels: the 13th.</p>
<p>According to the Otis Elevator Co., for every building with a floor numbered “13,” six other buildings <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130430013751/http:/realtytimes.com/rtpages/20020913_13thfloor.htm">pretend to not have one</a>, skipping right to 14.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/kingstree/community-news/some-scared-others-amused-by-friday-the-13th/article_50e1a1d2-cd6b-11ec-9c50-3b6b3897ea36.html">Many Westerners</a> <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-friday-the-13th-affects-peoples-behaviour">alter their behaviors</a> on <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1697765/pdf/bmj00052-0013.pdf">Friday the 13th</a>. Of course bad things <a href="https://www.readersdigest.ca/culture/friday-the-13th-history/">do sometimes happen</a> on that date, but there’s no evidence they do so disproportionately.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZEQu09wAAAAJ&hl=en">a sociologist</a> specializing in social psychology and group processes, I’m not so interested in individual fears and obsessions. What fascinates me is when millions of people share the same misconception to the extent that it affects behavior on a broad scale. Such is the power of 13. </p>
<h2>Origins of the superstition</h2>
<p>The source of 13’s bad reputation – “triskaidekaphobia” – is murky and speculative. The historical explanation may be as simple as its chance juxtaposition with lucky 12. <a href="https://centerforinquiry.org/blog/authors/nickell-joe/">Joe Nickell</a> investigates paranormal claims for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a nonprofit that scientifically examines controversial and extraordinary claims. He points out that 12 often <a href="https://centerforinquiry.org/press_releases/freaking_out_over_friday_the_13th_skeptics_say_relax/">represents “completeness”</a>: the number of months in the year, gods on Olympus, signs of the zodiac and apostles of Jesus. Thirteen contrasts with this sense of goodness and perfection. </p>
<p>The number 13 may be associated with some <a href="https://www.livescience.com/46284-origins-unlucky-friday-the-13th.html">famous but undesirable dinner guests</a>. In Norse mythology, the god Loki was 13th to arrive at a feast in Valhalla, where he tricked another attendee into killing the god Baldur. In Christianity, Judas – the apostle who betrayed Jesus – was the 13th guest at the Last Supper. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A painting shows thirteen men seated on one side of a long table, wearing colored robes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490678/original/file-20221019-22-4f7v7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490678/original/file-20221019-22-4f7v7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490678/original/file-20221019-22-4f7v7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490678/original/file-20221019-22-4f7v7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490678/original/file-20221019-22-4f7v7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490678/original/file-20221019-22-4f7v7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490678/original/file-20221019-22-4f7v7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Last Supper,’ a 15th-century mural painting in Milan created by Leonardo da Vinci.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-last-supper-15th-century-mural-painting-in-milan-news-photo/113493718?phrase=last%20supper%20da%20vinci&adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the truth is, sociocultural processes can associate bad luck with any number. When the conditions are favorable, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62585-9#:%7E:text=In%20addition%2C%20rumor%20spreading%20is,social%20environments%20in%20rumor%20spreading.">a rumor</a> or superstition generates its own social reality, snowballing like an urban legend as it rolls down the hill of time. </p>
<p>In Japan, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130913-friday-luck-lucky-superstition-13">9 is unlucky</a>, probably because it sounds similar to the Japanese word for “suffering.” <a href="https://www.thelocal.it/20200717/thirteen-of-italys-strangest-superstitions-bad-luck-fate-belief-traditions/">In Italy</a>, it’s 17. In China, 4 sounds like “death” and is more actively avoided in everyday life than 13 is in Western culture – including a willingness to <a href="https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2604">pay higher fees </a> to avoid it in cellphone numbers. And though 666 is considered lucky in China, many Christians around the world associate it with an evil beast described in the biblical Book of Revelation. There is even a word for an intense fear of 666: <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia-2671858">hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia</a>.</p>
<h2>Social and psychological explanations</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/list-of-phobias-2795453">many kinds</a> of specific <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519704/table/ch3.t11/">phobias</a>, and people hold them for a variety of psychological reasons. They can arise from direct negative experiences – fearing bees after being stung by one, for example. Other <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/specific-phobias/symptoms-causes/syc-20355156#:%7E:text=Many%20phobias%20develop%20as%20a,to%20genetics%20or%20learned%20behavior.">risk factors</a> for developing a phobia include being very young, having relatives with phobias, having a more sensitive personality and being exposed to others with phobias.</p>
<p>Part of 13’s reputation may be connected to a feeling of unfamiliarity, or “<a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247037#sec008">felt sense of anomaly</a>,” as it is called in the psychological literature. In everyday life, 13 is less common than 12. There’s no 13th month, 13-inch ruler, or 13 o'clock. By itself a sense of unfamiliarity won’t cause a phobia, but <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8721.00154">psychological research</a> shows that we favor what is familiar and disfavor what is not. This makes it easier to associate 13 with negative attributes.</p>
<p>People also may assign dark attributes to 13 for the same reason that many believe in “full moon effects.” Beliefs that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.051119">full moon</a> influences mental health, crime rates, accidents and other human calamities have been thoroughly debunked. Still, when people are looking to <a href="http://www.sakkyndig.com/psykologi/artvit/nickerson1998.pdf">confirm their beliefs</a>, they are prone to infer connections between unrelated factors. For example, having a car accident during a full moon, or on a Friday the 13th, makes the event seem all the more memorable and significant. Once locked in, such beliefs are <a href="https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/socialpsychology/n62.xml#:%7E:text=Belief%20perseverance%20is%20the%20tendency,the%20basis%20of%20that%20belief.">very hard to shake</a>.</p>
<p>Then there are the potent effects of social influences. It takes a village – or Twitter – to make fears coalesce around a particular harmless number. The emergence of any superstition in a social group – fear of 13, walking under ladders, not stepping on a crack, knocking on wood, etc. – is not unlike the rise of a “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Selfish_Gene/ekonDAAAQBAJ?hl=en">meme</a>.” Although now the term most often refers to widely shared online images, it was <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/richard-dawkins-memes">first introduced</a> by biologist <a href="https://richarddawkins.net/">Richard Dawkins</a> to help describe how an idea, innovation, fashion or other bit of information can diffuse through a population. A meme, in his definition, is similar to a piece of genetic code: It reproduces itself as it is communicated among people, with the potential to mutate into alternative versions of itself. </p>
<p>The 13 meme is a simple bit of information associated with bad luck. It resonates with people for reasons given above, and then spreads throughout the culture. Once acquired, this piece of pseudo-knowledge gives believers a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000225">sense of control</a> over the evils associated with it.</p>
<h2>False beliefs, true consequences</h2>
<p>Groups concerned with public relations seem to feel the need to kowtow to popular superstitions. Perhaps owing to the near-tragic <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo13.html">Apollo 13 mission</a>, NASA stopped sequentially numbering space shuttle missions, dubbing <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/behind-the-space-shuttle-mission-numbering-system">the 13th shuttle flight</a> STS-41-G. In Belgium, complaints from superstitious passengers led Brussels Airlines to revamp <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/business/worldbusiness/21iht-logo.4676788.html">its logo</a> in 2006. It had been a “b”-like image made of 13 dots. The airline added a 14th. Like many other airlines, its planes’ row numbering <a href="https://simpleflying.com/row-13-on-planes/#:%7E:text=There%20is%20a%20long%2Dheld,based%20on%20a%20superstitious%20belief.">skips 13</a>.</p>
<p>Because superstitious beliefs are inherently false, they are as likely to do harm as good – consider <a href="https://quackwatch.org/">health frauds</a>, for example. I’d like to believe influential organizations – perhaps even elevator companies – would do better to warn the public about the dangers of clinging to false beliefs than to continue legitimizing them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191477/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Markovsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A sociologist unpacks how common superstitions like fear of 13 can gain steam.Barry Markovsky, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.