Sociologist Amy C. Finnegan provides a critical analysis of the movement behind the Kony 2012 campaign and how this unique form of activism coalesces with the biographies of the activists, who are notably white, privileged, Christian, adolescent females.
Erudite comment on “their most popular post ever” over at Sociological Images.
“Judgments”
I took this last year, but in retrospect, I think it’s my strongest piece from high school.Working on this project really made me examine my own opinions, preconceptions and prejudices about “slutty” women and women who choose to cover all of their skin alike. I used to assume that all women who wore Hijabs were being oppressed, slut-shame, and look down on and judge any woman who didn’t express her sexuality in a way that I found appropriate.
I’d like to think I’m more open now.
I have friends who live in or have roots in Newtown, CT. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who suffer from violence. This includes the slow trickle of inner city violence as well as these very dramatic incidents.
It’s time to reduce the incidence of such tragedies by following policy recommendations which flow from good sociology that’s already been done. Good social policy would include, but not be limited to more strict gun control. It would also include spending on mental health services.
Questions, comments concerns?
For an in-depth but not wholly dispassionate view, listen.
Amy Finnegan on Uganda and Kony 2012
Office Hours podcast on The Society Pages.
This week we talk with Amy Finnegan about Uganda and Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 campaign. For the past dozen years, Finnegan has been teaching and doing research in Uganda. In particular, Finnegan has studied the relationship between outside groups like Invisible Children and local Ugandan activists. How are campaigns like Kony 2012 received in Uganda? And do they help or hurt the cause of indigenous Ugandan activists? Listen up to find out.
Sociologist Joel Best debunks the idea that “sex bracelets” — bracelets that indicate what type of sex you’re interested in and that oblige you to perform it — are really a thing. He and his colleague, Katherine Bogle, have been tracing the story over time on the internet and across continents in what he calls “the dynamics of rumor and legend.”
Last spring I published some reflections to my course blog that included some reflections on a talk by Leymah Gbowee, one of three women who won the Nobel Peace Prize today.
Discussion not facilitated by me broke out in The Sociology of War and Peace today, in consideration of Alex Morrison’s contribution to Patterns of Conflict, Paths to Peace, (Ch. 3), on conflict resolution in the international arena. It seems that this topic has been waiting to break out all…
It’s the birthday of activist Jane Addams (books by this author), born in Cedarville, Illinois (1860). She is probably best known as the founder of Hull House, a settlement house in Chicago. Her work as a social activist earned her the first Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a woman, in 1931. She was also a philosopher, in the same school of Pragmatism made famous by the likes of William James and John Dewey. She published 500 articles and wrote more than 10 books, including Democracy and Social Ethics (1902), Peace and Bread in Time of War (1922), and The Excellent Becomes the Permanent (1932). Just as James and Dewey looked at the practical outcome of an idea and tried to get beyond artificial divides in theory, Jane Addams focused her philosophy on the practical outcomes of social work in society and tried to develop theories that would be as inclusive as possible.
In Democracy and Social Ethics (1902), she wrote: “Action is indeed the sole medium of expression for ethics. We continually forget that the sphere of morals is the sphere of action, that speculation in regard to morality is but observation and must remain in the sphere of intellectual comment, that a situation does not really become moral until we are confronted with the question of what shall be done in a concrete case, and are obliged to act upon our theory.”via The Writers Almanac with Garrison Keillor for 9/6/11While often relegated to the field of social work or to “activism,” Jane Addams is properly considered one of the women founders of sociology.
