Here’s a list of the upcoming topics for blog posts. Feel free to suggest topics via @jsradford! Also, given the lack of connection between academic writing and public thinkers, it’s difficult to find bridge sources for many of the academic issues. Feel free to send links that provide accessible opinions and context via @jsradford.
- The Dark Side of Civil Society: What is it and why does it matter?
- Decline in Civic Participation: trends and countertends in the changing landscape of American volunteerism, philanthropy, and socializing
- “New” Social Movements: From ACT-UP to Students Against Sweatshops what’s so new about political theater, consumption politics, and post-materialist values?
- The Professionalizaton of Civil Society: What does the “professionalization” of civil society actually mean and what does it entail?
- Social Media, Social Change: a response to Malcolm Gladwell and his detractors here, here, here, and some here. (another)
- Nonprofits as precarious, flexible labor: Does the current state of the nonprofit sector mirror the externalization of work from traditional, secure sources such as states, religions, and business to smaller, subcontracted organizations? Background readings – Bureau of Labor Statistics report on flexible labor, American Sociological Association’s Presidential address, [I’m having difficulty finding free, blog-length intros to these issues – suggestions?]
Civil Sociology 