EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY Decentralized Autonomous Communities? The other day I heard Kim Stanley Robinson talk about The Ministry for the Future, his inspiring science fiction novel about tackling climate change and other huge societal challenges. I really like the book, even though I think “ministries” are the wrong direction. I believe that the energy needed to pull civilization back from the brink […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY What Is The Metaverse? Facebook’s Plan To Change The World Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg recently announced the tech giant will shift from being a social media company to becoming “a metaverse company”, functioning in an “embodied internet” that blends real and virtual worlds more than ever before. So what is “the metaverse”? It sounds like the kind of thing billionaires talk about to earn headlines, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY STARTUPS The Relationship Economy Terry Mollner — whose Calvert Impact Capital funds are the world’s largest, at $9 billion (or $12 billion, depending on what source you cite) — is one of the great pioneers of a new economy based on meaningful relationshipsand the common good — a conceptual framework that is increasingly called ‘Game B’ these days, as an alternative to the prevailing […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY & WELLNESS What To Do When Life Is On Hold I get it. You have COVID ennui. I do, too, but as long as we have our health and our jobs, both 2020 and 2021 deserve nothing but to be met with gratitude. Not everyone is as lucky. The truth is, until last year sent us hiding, we were all running at full tilt with our default lives, scarcely […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY Theoretical Perspectives On Culture Music, fashion, technology, and values—all are products of culture. But what do they mean? How do sociologists perceive and interpret culture based on these material and nonmaterial items? Let’s finish our analysis of culture by reviewing them in the context of three theoretical perspectives: functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. Functionalists view society as a […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK ENTREPRENEURSHIP PSYCHOLOGY & WELLNESS STRATEGY The Case For Bad Ideas I was speaking to a friend this morning about the alarming increase in peanut allergies in certain populations, chiefly the overdeveloped West. For example, they have increased fivefold in the UK in just the past 20 years. The latest science behind the cause stipulates that we are just too clean; and that our avoidance of potential threats — a legume, in this […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK POLITICS The Relevance Of Political Science Political scientists face increasing demands to demonstrate the relevance of their research beyond the academy (the so-called ‘impact agenda’). Matthew Flinders argues that this should be seen less a threat to the discipline’s autonomy than an opportunity to rise to public responsibilities that have always accompanied a political science career The ‘noble science of politics’ has changed […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
JOURNAL & RESEARCH POLITICS The Politics Of Intellectual Property Introduction: This Article argues that we need a politics, or perhaps a political economy, of intellectual property. Using the controversy over copyright on the Net as a case-study and the history of the environmental movement as a comparison, it offers a couple of modest proposals about what such a politics might look like — what theoretical […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY PSYCHOLOGY & WELLNESS STRATEGY The Truth Beneath Our Complexity We are all guilty of it. When we are left to our own devices, we all, with rare exception, build incredibly complex and fictitious self-narratives, as a lens through which to interpret everything in our worlds. The reason we do this is simple: we have built the world around ego, against which we must now buttress our […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN SOCIOLOGY Art And The Development Of Vibrant Communities There was never a golden age of the arts and humanities. Artists and scholars of the humanities seem to have always struggled for financial support, public prestige, political influence, and that ever-changing, seemingly intangible status . . . relevance. Except for the fortunate few who found generous patrons, artists have scrapped and struggled. Except in the halls […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How To Disagree Without Making Enemies Have you ever been mocked or abused for your views on COVID? If so, you’re not alone. Anyone wishing to engage in an open dialogue surrounding the pandemic can often encounter a hostile climate, especially online. This extreme polarisation around COVID reflects a broader “culture war” in society, where disagreements on political, cultural and social […] Written by James Gravy September 21, 2022September 21, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How Did Patriarchy Start? The patriarchy, having been somewhat in retreat in parts of the world, is back in our faces . In Afghanistan, the Taliban once again prowl the streets more concerned with keeping women at home and in strict dress code than with the impending collapse of the country into famine. And on another continent, parts of […] Written by Ruth Mace September 20, 2022September 20, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How To Disagree Without Making Enemies Have you ever been mocked or abused for your views on COVID? If so, you’re not alone. Anyone wishing to engage in an open dialogue surrounding the pandemic can often encounter a hostile climate, especially online. This extreme polarisation around COVID reflects a broader “culture war” in society, where disagreements on political, cultural and social […] Written by James Gravy September 21, 2022September 21, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How Did Patriarchy Start? The patriarchy, having been somewhat in retreat in parts of the world, is back in our faces . In Afghanistan, the Taliban once again prowl the streets more concerned with keeping women at home and in strict dress code than with the impending collapse of the country into famine. And on another continent, parts of […] Written by Ruth Mace September 20, 2022September 20, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Significance Of The Queen’s Funeral Great royal events in the United Kingdom are often a mix of old and new, and the commemoration and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II will be no exception. While there will be several strikingly new features, the seemingly traditional elements are not as old as they may appear. While some newer elements are revivals from […] Written by Philip Williamson September 19, 2022September 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. Its prime accomplishment was the expansion of our ability to abstract the world. Until then, pragmatism reigned, limiting most people’s thoughts and interactions primarily because we lacked the tools to extrapolate information, to wield it for things that lay beyond obvious […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022March 2, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
