Daniel Little
There is a view in the United States that impactful racial discrimination has declined significantly over time. This view flies in the face of an afternoon's walk through Detroit, the south side of Chicago, or the Bronx, where racial segregation in housing and the disadvantages that flow from that system are evident. But what is …
Continue reading "Racial discrimination in employment today"
No Kings Protest Anti-Orban Protest A central theme in Rethinking Analytical Sociology is my concern that the founders of analytical sociology presented the field as a general and universally applicable approach to sociological research. Associated with this claim is what I called "ABM fundamentalism" -- the view that computational models could and should be applied …
Here is an interesting opportunity to do some thinking about the ways that organizational features create hazards for technology systems at many levels... Dear problem-solving communityPlease join us on Friday, May 15, 11AM Eastern time (17:00 CET), at this Zoom Link for a problem-solving coffee hour with Catino Maurizio (University of Milano-Bicocca) on "Solving the scapegoat problem in organizations." Abstract: When a large …
Continue reading "Organizational failure — upcoming video seminar"
Ethnic cleansing, Srebrenica, July 1995 Milan Obaidi is a prolific Danish social psychologist who has worked extensively on right-wing extremism. His scientific publications provide greater detail on his emerging views of the psychology of extremism. A useful document for the ongoing discussion of the mechanisms of right-wing extremism here is a well-documented 2020 summary of …
Continue reading "Racist extremism and inter-group violence"
Our current political scene presents an unresolved and important question: why have the ideologies of hate, fear, nationalism, antagonism, and violence had such appeal to a segment of young men across many countries in the past thirty years? How does it happen that many fairly typical twelve-year-old boys somehow become captivated by the extremist right-wing …
Continue reading "Social psychologists on the appeal of antagonism and hate"
March on Selma, 1965 Human beings have attitudes, behaviors, habits, stereotypes, and values. And somehow these mental attributes are developed or acquired in the course of normal human social life. But how, when, and with what results does this process work? And how persistent are a set of attitudes and values once established in the …
Continue reading "How are an individual’s political values formed?"
The United States is a multicultural democracy. This is simply an empirical fact; the country is a democracy (imperfect by many important measures); and it is multiracial, multi-ethnic, and multi-national. So what is involved in helping bring about a transition to an "inclusive" multicultural democracy -- a social and political order embodying fundamental equality across …
Continue reading "Group identities and inclusive multicultural democracy"
The United States has a long history of racism against African-Americans, at multiple levels. At the level of individuals, we have a history of negative attitudes, stereotypes, fears, and antagonisms that are built into the social consciousness of white men and women about African-Americans. Racist attitudes about "genetic inferiority", crime, and other negative stereotypes have …
Continue reading "New thinking about generational change about race"
Many countries are facing a resurgence of racism and ethnic hostility in the current political environment, catalyzed in complicated ways by the refugee crisis in Europe, the Brexit vote in the UK, and the rise of trumpism in the United States. Animosity against black and brown people, immigrants, and Muslims is rising in many countries, …
What is needed for a community of diverse people and groups to maintain its resilience in the face of hateful language, incidents, and provocations? This question is particularly important for universities, which commonly seek to create a climate of welcome and respect for the various groups of students who make them up, and which are …
Understanding Society 