Why should social scientists and cultural scholars pay attention to aesthetic medical procedures? In this episode, Alka Menon (Yale University) and Anne-Mette Hermans (Tilburg University) take us beneath the surface of Botox, rhinoplasties, and Brazilian Butt Lifts to reveal what these increasingly normalised procedures can tell us about social inequality today. With host Sanne Pieters, they explore how doctors and surgeons shape more than just faces. By deciding which appearances are acceptable, these practitioners navigate the boundaries between medicine and aesthetics, morality and beauty, economics and ethics, and in doing so play a key role in (re)defining racial categories and hierarchal beauty ideals. Our guests tackle some seemingly contradictory puzzles with no easy answers. Why do practitioners insist that “true beauty comes from within”? And how should we understand the normalisation of aesthetic procedures when those who undergo them still face persistent stigma? This episode shows that cosmetic surgery is about much more than just appearance: it holds up a mirror to the social inequalities that exist in society. Alka V. Menon is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yale University. She studies the relationship between medicine, technology, and society, with a focus on race and racism. Her book, Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards shows how forces working at different scales stabilize the continuing use of racial categories in medicine. Anne-Mette Hermans is an Assistant Professor at Tranzo, Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on (consumerist) notions of malleable bodies and cosmetic procedures in particular. Moreover, she co-established the interdisciplinary Expertisegroep Cosmetische Ingrepen, which executes several research projects related to the cosmetic surgery and beauty industry in the Netherlands. Sanne Pieters is a PhD Researcher of cultural sociology at KU Leuven in Belgium. Her research interests include the relation between physical beauty and social inequalities, hegemonic and hybrid gender identities and bodywork as pedagogical practice. Readings: Hermans, A.-M. (2021). Discourses of perfection: Representing cosmetic procedures and beauty products in UK lifestyle magazines. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003001973 Hermans, A.-M., & Nash, R. (2025). Cosmetic gatekeepers: Negotiations of beauty and (re)shaping bodies by medical aesthetic practitioners. Social Science & Medicine, 380, 118165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118165 Menon, A. V. (2023). Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards (1st ed). University of California Press. Menon, A. V. (2017). Reconstructing race and gender in American cosmetic surgery. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(4), 597–616. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1206590 Bonell, S., Barlow, F. K., & Griffiths, S. (2021). The cosmetic surgery paradox: Toward a contemporary understanding of cosmetic surgery popularisation and attitudes. Body Image, 38, 230–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.04.010 Haraway, Donna (1990). "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge. Podcast editors: Luuc Brans, Sanne Pieters, Kobe De Keere & Geert Veuskens. This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
Meatscapes? Meat Paradoxes? Happy Meat? Eco-Types? In this episode, we interrogate the fraught ethical and cultural landscape of the climate crisis with three guests: prof. Josée Johnston (UToronto), prof. Shyon Baumann (UToronto) and prof. Emily Huddart (U British Columbia). We learn how and why people make and eat happy if not ecologically and ethically questionable meat, how people care for the environment in many ways and why this is often so politically divisive. We also learn why some sociologists take courses in animal butchery to answer such questions. Hosted by Luuc Brans, we do so by discussing two recent books: (1) the just-published Happy Meat by Josée Johnston, Shyon Baumann, Emily Huddart and Merin Oleschuk (Stanford UP, 2025) and (2) Emily Huddart’s Eco-Types (Princeton UP, 2022). Happy Meat shows how consumers and producers make a story of ‘happy meat’ to overcome the ‘meat paradox’ while Eco-Types demonstrates how we all care in different ways for the environment and how this is linked to polarization. Finally, Emily Huddart and Josée Johnston also reveal some insights on their latest project on climate polarisation. Our guests show how a cultural sociological approach centring meaning making in the climate crisis can tell us important things about inequality, the climate crisis, and consumption, overlooked by other approaches. Readings: • Huddart, E. (2022). Eco-types: Five ways of caring about the environment. Princeton UP https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691239583/eco-types • Johnston, J., Baumann, S., Huddart, E., & Oleschuk, M. (2025). Happy Meat: The sadness and joy of a paradoxical idea. Stanford UP https://www.sup.org/books/sociology/happy-meat Emily Huddart (PhD, University of Alberta) is a Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research explores the motivations behind civic engagement aiming to protect the environment, and how pro-environmental practices reflect and reproduce social differences. She engages these problems in a research program centred on examining how gender, class, and political ideology contour environmental beliefs and practices and social solidarity. Josée Johnston (PhD, University of Alberta) is a Professor of Sociology at University of Toronto who aims to advance knowledge in the sociological study of food and consumer culture and understand how cultural and political forces reproduce and legitimate the inequitable and unsustainable features of capitalist economies. Her research spans the sub-fields of culture, gender, and political sociology; the subject of food is a natural way to make connections across these various sub-fields. Shyon Baumann (PhD, Harvard University) is Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. His research centres on the sociology of culture, with a focus on people's cultural evaluations, preferences and choices. He also studies the broad social influences on the status and legitimacy of cultural productions. His work aims to understand how cultural consumption and production are linked to social inequality. Luuc Brans (PhD, KU Leuven) is an FWO postdoctoral fellow at KU Leuven. His research focuses on the intersection between culture, politics, and climate crisis, particularly in fashion. He currently explores how sustainability advocacy in fashion is linked to climate polarization. Podcast editors: Luuc Brans, Sanne Pieters, Kobe De Keere & Geert Veuskens This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
In this episode, we take on big questions about gender and far-right politics with Sarah Bracke and Charléne Calderaro, two scholars who arrived at the topic of gender and the far right through distinct yet overlapping research paths: one through replacement ideology and the systematic problematization of Islam and Muslims in contemporary Europe, the other through the study of racialized street harassment in France and the UK. With host Norah Schulten, they unpack the central role of gender in far-right movements and explore how feminist ideas are co-opted and reframed to reinforce normative gender roles, entrench binaries, racialize sexism and sustain racial hierarchies. Dr. Charlène Calderaro is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Lausanne. Her PhD focused on the criminalisation of street harassment in France and the UK, and the way in which far-right activists appropriated this cause, which was initially championed by feminists. Prof. Sarah Bracke is Professor of Sociology of Gender and Sexuality at the University of Amsterdam. She is the Principal Investigator of the research project EnGendering Europe's 'Muslim Question' funded by the NWO Talent scheme Vici grant (2018-2024) and a partner in the collaborate Erasmus+ funded project ReVisualize: Muslim Women's Empowerment. Dr. Norah Schulten is the host of this episode and is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam's AISSR. She is part of The Politics of Diversity Group that studies real-world questions on political representation and power, struggles for equality, backlash, oppression and policies. Works discussed this episode and further reading: • Bracke, S., & Hernández Aguilar, L.M. (Eds.). (2023). The Politics of Replacement: Demographic Fears, Conspiracy Theories, and Race Wars Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003305927 • Bracke, S. (2024). “A Victory for White Life”: Reproduction, Replacement, and a Handmaid’s Tale. In S. Bracke, & L. M. Hernández Aguilar (Eds.), The Politics of Replacement: Demographic Fears, Conspiracy Theories, and Race Wars Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003305927-22 • Weinbaum, A. E. (2004). Wayward Reproductions: Genealogies of Race and Nation in Transatlantic Modern Thought. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822385820 • Calderaro, C. (2025). Beyond Instrumentalization: Far-Right Women’s Appropriation of Feminism in France. Politics & Gender, 1–29. Doi:10.1017/S1743923X2500003 • Calderaro, C. (2023). The racialisation of sexism: how race frames shape anti-street harassment policies in Britain and France. Policy & Politics, 51(3), 413-438. https://doi.org/10.1332/030557321X16832763188290 • Scrinzi, F. (2023). The Racialization of Sexism: Men, Women and Gender in the Populist Radical Right Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315112831 - Blee, K. M. (1996). BECOMING A RACIST: Women in Contemporary Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazi Groups. Gender & Society, 10(6), 680-702. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124396010006002 • Blee, K. (2020). Where Do We Go from Here? Positioning Gender in Studies of the Far Right. Politics, Religion & Ideology, 21(4), 416–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/21567689.2020.1851870 Podcast editors: Sanne Pieters, Luuc Brans, Kobe De Keere & Geert Veuskens This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
We’re speaking at a time of historic economic inequality, with current debates marked by a surge in public attention to elite power, influence, and visibility. As wealth gaps reach levels not seen since World War II, we ask: how are today’s elites responding? Are they expressing status and superiority in the same ways as before, or has their mindset evolved in a world that claims to be more democratic and meritocratic? We’ll also explore elite culture through institutions like classical music, and examine how major cultural organizations are navigating calls for greater diversity and inclusivity. Our discussion draws on two recent books by our guest Kristina Kolbe and Aaron Reeves (co-authored with Sam Friedman). Aaron Reeves a Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, focusing on the causes and consequences of social inequality, particularly in the areas of public health, welfare reform, and elite formation. He recently published th is the co-authored book Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite (with Sam Friedman). Our second guest is Kristina Kolbe, an Assistant Professor of Sociology of Arts and Culture at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research examines how inequalities of class, race, and gender are reconfigured through cultural production. She just published her book The sound of difference: Race, class and the politics of ' Diversity ' in classical music. Bryan Boyle is the host of this episode an a Lecturer and Doctoral Researcher in Sociology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, where he specializes in the intersection of labor, culture, and elite studies. His ethnographic research includes immersive fieldwork as a butler to explore how service labor sustains elite lifestyles. - Kolbe, K. (2024). The sound of difference: Race, class and the politics of ' diversity ' in classical music. Manchester University Press. - Kolbe, K. (2021). Playing the system: ’ Race ’- making and elitism in diversity projects in Germany's classical music sector. Poetics, 87, 101532. - Reeves, A., & Friedman, S. (2024). Born to rule: The making and remaking of the British elite. Harvard University Press. - Reeves, A. (2019). How class identities shape highbrow consumption: A cross-national analysis of 30 European countries and regions. Poetics, 76, 101361. Podcast editors of this season: Luuc Brans, Kobe De Keere, Sanne Pieters & Geert Veuskens This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
In this episode we’ll be discussing the climate crisis through the lens of risk, loss and the role of sociology. For a long time, environmental issues sat on the margins of the discipline, rarely appearing in core journals or debates. That’s starting to change, with climate change gaining more attention in recent sociological research—but given the urgency of the crisis, we might still ask: are sociologists doing enough? Another key point is how sociological knowledge is valued outside the discipline. Climate science has long been dominated by the natural sciences, with institutions like the IPCC reflecting that imbalance. Yet as the need for societal transformation becomes more pressing, sociology’s insights into behavior, systems, and power could be more relevant than ever. As guests we have Catherine Mei Ling Wong, an Assistant Professor of Cultural Sociology at the University of Amsterdam, specializing in environmental sociology, risk governance, and sustainability transitions. Her research explores how cultural, institutional, and epistemological factors shape perceptions of risk in areas like nuclear energy, climate policy, and green finane. She joined by Rebecca Elliott, an Associate Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, specializing in the intersections of climate change, risk governance, and the moral economy. Her research examines how environmental risks, particularly flooding, are managed through institutions like insurance, and how these mechanisms influence societal responses to climate change. Thijs van Dooremalen is the host of this episode an Assistant Professor at Leiden University's Institute of Security and Global Affairs, specializing in the sociology of crises and public discourse. His research focuses on how major events—such as 9/11, elections, and extreme weather—transform national public spheres, employing mixed methods to analyze cultural and political shifts across media, politics, and policymaking. Further reading for this episode - Wong, C. M. L., & Lockie, S. (2020). Climate policy and industry elite perceptions of risk and uncertainty: a cross-national study. Society & Natural Resources, 33(11), 1399-1418. - Wong, C. M. L. (2018). Energy, Risk and Governance. Palgrave Macmillan. - Wong, C. M. L. (2015). The mutable nature of risk and acceptability: A hybrid risk governance framework. Risk analysis, 35(11), 1969-1982. - Elliott, R. (2024). The sociology of property value in a climate-changed United States. Social Problems, spae074. - Elliott, R. (2021). Underwater: Loss, flood insurance, and the moral economy of climate change in the United States. Columbia University Press. - Elliott, R. (2018). The sociology of climate change as a sociology of loss. European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie, 59(3), 301-337. Podcast editors of this season: Luuc Brans, Kobe De Keere, Sanne Pieters & Geert Veuskens This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
We’re back with a new season on anything culture and inequality! From clickbait culture and influencer marketing to content farms and algorithm-driven platforms, we kick off the 2025 season by unpacking the mechanics behind our increasingly digital economic lives. How has the digital realm evolved into a powerful economic force that's reshaping the way we live, work, and consume? We examine the spread of digital payments, the influence of tokens, and the growing power of algorithms in decision-making. Along the way, we'll consider broader shifts like platform labor, surveillance capitalism, and the emergence of a new digital feudalism. We’re joined by Ashley Mears, Professor and Chair of Cultural Sociology and New Media at the University of Amsterdam. She’s the author of Pricing Beauty: The Making of a Fashion Model and Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit, and is widely recognized as an expert on the culture and economics of aesthetics and digital labour. Also with us is Rachel O’Dwyer, a media scholar, writer, and lecturer at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. A leading authority on digital payments, blockchain, and the rise of tokens, Rachel brings a sharp critical lens to the infrastructures that shape our digital transactions and value systems. She’s is the author of Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform. This episode's host is Kobe De Keere, an Associate Professor of cultural sociology at the University of Amsterdam. He explores the moral and cultural dimensions of economic life, focusing on topics such as valuation, the labour market, and cryptocurrencies. Further reading for this episode - O'Dwyer, R. (2023). Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform. Verso Books. - Mears, A. (2023). Bringing Bourdieu to a content farm: Social media production fields and the cultural economy of attention. Social Media+ Society, 9(3), 20563051231193027. - Schüll, Natasha Dow. Addiction by design: Machine gambling in Las Vegas. Princeton university press, 2012. - Bailey, P. (1990). Parasexuality and glamour: The Victorian barmaid as cultural prototype. Gender & History, 2(2), 148-172 - Swartz, L. (2020). New money. Yale University Press. Podcast editors of this season: Luuc Brans, Kobe De Keere, Sanne Pieters & Geert Veuskens This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
In this episode, we host a special guest: Michèle Lamont (professor of Sociology at Harvard). We discuss her new book Seeing Others: How Recognition Works--And How It Can Heal a Divided World, which centers on the role of recognition and dignity in countering inequality after decades of neoliberalism. Based on interviews with cultural change agents in the American cultural industries and Gen Z college students, we unpack how new narratives of hope may lead to a more equal and inclusive future. We also discuss the role of sociology in taking part in a the conversation on inequality, dignity and recognition, nuancing the work of psychologists and economists. Guest: Michèle Lamont (professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University) Host: Giselinde Kuipers (professor of Sociology at KU Leuven university) Editing: Luuc Brans (PhD student at KU Leuven University) Book links EU + UK: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/319027/seeing-others-by-lamont-michele/9780241454633 USA: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Seeing-Others/Michele-Lamont/9781982153786
***This is a rerecording, updated, and better version of our very first episode, which we originally recorded in 2020. We hope you will enjoy this new version! *** In this first pilot episode, we discuss the core themes of the course: how do culture and inequality relate? This meeting will discuss why and how this has become such a central theme in sociology and other disciplines (notably cultural studies, anthropology), how this relation this been theorized in various theoretical traditions (notable Bourdieu's field theory, British cultural studies inspired by Stuart Hall , and American cultural sociology in the vein of Michele Lamont); and how has this been empirically analyzed? Moreover, we will offer a first exploration of the continued relevance of these insights on culture and inequality for contemporary societies, and for the everyday life of (young) people today. --- This week's readings: Bourdieu, P. (1994). Social space and symbolic space. In Calhoun, Craig et al. (eds.) Contemporary Sociologi-cal Theory, 345-358. Bourdieu, P. (1986) The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, 241-258. New York: Greenwood. Hall, S. (1980). Encoding/decoding. In Stuart Hall, Dorothy Hobson, Andrew Love, and Paul Willis (eds.), Culture, Media, Language, pp. 128–38. London: Hutchinson. Link: https://we.riseup.net/as-sets/102142/appadurai.pdf#page=202 Lamont, M. (1992). Implications, contributions and unanswered questions. In Money, Morals and Manners, 174-192. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Kuipers, G. (2006). Television and taste hierarchy: The case of Dutch television comedy. Media, Culture & Society 28(3): 359-378. Additional materials Video: Carle, Pierre (2002). La sociologie est un sport de combat. Pierre Bourdieu. Documentary. https://vimeo.com/92709274 Video: Hall, Stuart (1997). Representation and media. Open University. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGh64E_XiVM Video: Lamont, Michele (2016). Doing sociology. American Sociological Association. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIR1mYsy510 Presentation: Giselinde Kuipers & Luuc Brans Audio production edit: Luuc Brans Theme music by Timothy Dowd We are grateful for the generous support from European Centre for the Study of Culture and Inequality
This episode is about conspiracy theories and their relation to inequality. We talk about this with Elisa Sobo and Jaron Harambam, two scholars who have studied contemporary conspiracy theories in a range of domains, from vaccines, Covid-19 and Big Pharma, to theories that claim the moon is an abandoned spaceship brought here by reptilians who control our world leaders. Both, moreover, have argued -- somewhat controversially -- that “we need to move beyond the positivistic reflex to debunk conspiracy theories as unfounded and irrational”. The arguments they offer for taking conspiracy theories seriously – though maybe not literally—are strongly connected with inequality: inclusivity, democracy, and social justice. Today, therefore, we ask: how are conspiracy connected with inequalities, and how can – or should -- this connection with inequality inform our stance towards conspiracy theories? Guests: - Elisa Sobo, professor and chair of Anthropology, San Diego State University - Jaron Harambam, assistant professor of participatory AI, VU University Amsterdam Hosted by Giselinde Kuipers, professor of cultural sociology at KU Leuven Readings and materials: 1. Grodzicka, Elżbieta Drążkiewicz, and Jaron Harambam. "What should academics do about conspiracy theories? Moving beyond debunking to better deal with conspiratorial movements, misinformation and post-truth." Journal for Cultural Research 25.1 (2021): 1-11. 2. Harambam, Jaron, and Stef Aupers. "Contesting epistemic authority: Conspiracy theories on the boundaries of science." Public understanding of science 24.4 (2015): 466-480. 3. Harambam, Jaron. "Against modernist illusions: why we need more democratic and constructivist alternatives to debunking conspiracy theories." Journal for Cultural Research 25.1 (2021): 104-122. 4. Sobo, Elisa J. "Conspiracy theories in political-economic context: lessons from parents with vaccine and other pharmaceutical concerns." Journal for Cultural Research 25.1 (2021): 51-68. 5. Sobo, Elisa. “What Does the American Dream Have to do With the COVID-19 Vaccine?” Sapiens.org, 25 February 2021. https://www.sapiens.org/culture/covid-19-vaccine-protestors/
Migration has been a characteristic of societies for centuries. Humans have always migrated to either escape harsh lives, search for better ones, or both. Continuing immigration flows and increasing diversity in many societies have led to more complex processes of belonging and integration, as well as the emergence of cross-border engagements of migrants, organizations and institutions. In this episode, we focus on the role played by media and communication in the different aspects of migration, ranging from media representations of migrants to the mediated communication exchanges conducted in digital spaces, from interactions between relevant stakeholders in the different levels of migration governance through the political and economic side of migrants’ lives to the role played by hands-on intercultural mediation and digital solidarity projects. To talk about these topics, Amanda Paz Alencar (Dept of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam) invited Myria Georgiou (Dept of Media and Communications, LSE) and Earvin Cabalquinto (School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University) – experts on the topic of media and migration.
Migration special 2: Football, Race and Racism by Culture & Inequality Podcast
In this first episode of the special Culture & Inequality x IMISCOE The Migration Podcast trilogy, we discuss the linkages between migration and music. For centuries, music has been a powerful source of individual and social well-being, something which studies from psychology to sociology to medicine continue to demonstrate. As people migrated, music migrated with them – causing the rapid and continuing spread of hundreds of music genres in countries across the globe. Since digitalization, music has become more mobile than ever before, as people can connect with their favorite music as long as they have an internet connection. This leads us to ask: How do migrants in the 21st century use music during processes of migration? To talk about this, Julian Schaap (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands) has invited Daniela Jaramillo Dent (Universidad de Huelva, Spain and Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands) and Marco Martiniello (Université de Liège, Belgium). This a special crossover episode between the Migration Podcast and the Culture and Inequality Podcast. The first in a series of three, this episode investigates how Music and Social Media matter in Migration (and vice-versa). Head over to The Migration Podcast to learn more about migration: https://www.imiscoe.org/news-and-blog/podcast?msclkid=47f01fb5d06a11ec8cee483d0b0b504f
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we will be hosting a series of special episodes on the cultural aspects of war. New events like war crequire meaning making, new icons, symbols, ideas to make sense of what is going on in life. But war also suppresse culture as some things cannot be said anymore or have dangerous consequences. We dive into these and related topics over the next weeks with scholars from Ukraine, Russia, and across the world. This week, we talk with Anastasiya Fiadotova* and Ksenia** about the humour emerging during the current war. How do people joke and why do people do so? We talk about the functions of humor are in war and its limits. Rooted in Estonia, Belarus and Russia, our guests are close to this war and provide a candid assessment of the war’s cultural implications. * Anastasiya (Nastya) Fiadotova is a research fellow in the department of Folkloristics at the Estonian Literary Museum in Tartu, Estonia. **last name and institutional affiliation withheld for personal security reasons. Presentation by prof. dr. Giselinde Kuipers (Sociology, KU Leuven) Editing by Luuc Brans
Race is a pervasive and omnipresent dimension of inequality, both within societies and at a global scale. Yet it is the one dimension that is most difficult to talk about. Even the word itself, race, is fraught. How to use the concept of race? How is race done in practice? And how does it create and perpetuate social inequalities? We talk about this with our guests Amade M’Charek, professor in anthropology of science at the University of Amsterdam, and our regular Julian Schaap, assistant professor in the sociology of music at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. We discuss how race is done in domains like forensics and music, and what this tells us about the limits and potentialities of the concept. **Readings: * Abu El-Haj, Nadia (2007) “The Genetic Reinscription of Race.” Annual Review of Anthropology 36: 283–300. * Essed, Philomena (1991) Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory. Newbury Park: Sage - Chapter 5: The integration of racism into everyday life: The story of Rosa N. and Chapter 7: Conclusions. * M'charek, Amade. (2020) "Tentacular faces: Race and the return of the phenotype in forensic identification." American anthropologist 122.2: 369-380. Recommended readings: Schaap, Julian, and Pauwke Berkers. (2020) "“Maybe it’s… skin colour?” How race-ethnicity and gender function in consumers’ formation of classification styles of cultural content." Consumption Markets & Culture 23.6: 599-615. Essed, P., & Trienekens, S. (2008). ‘Who wants to feel white?’Race, Dutch culture and contested identities.Ethnic and Racial Studies, 31(1), 52-72.
In this episode, we are joined by Hartmut Rosa, one of today’s ‘big thinkers’ in sociology, to talk about his work on the concept of resonance and how it relates to inequalities. After becoming popular in Germany, his work is now gaining ground in anglophone sociology too. But what does resonance mean? What is a sociology of the good life? And how does resonance theory affect how we think about and understand social inequalities? By dealing with these questions, we discover blindspots of current inequality studies and explore directions for new research. Join us for this special episode with Hartmut Rosa to learn more about his social theory of resonance. Hartmut Rosa is a professor of Sociology at the Friedrich Schiller Universität in Jena and Director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies in Erfurt (both in Germany). He is interviewed by dr. Julian Schaap (Erasmus University Rotterdam) & prof. dr. Giselinde Kuipers (KU Leuven). Readings: ‘Escalation: the crisis of dynamic stabilisation and the prospect of resonance’ in: Dörre, K.; S. Hertenich & H. Rosa (2015) Sociology, Capitalism, Critique. New York: Verso (translated by Loren Balhorn & Jan-Peter Herrmann) Introduction to: Rosa, H. (2019) Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World. London: Polity (translated by James Wagner)
In this episode, we talk with prof. dr. Ashley Mears (Boston University) and dr. Anne Monier (ESSEC Paris) about gender and the body in contemporary elites. Both sociologists have done extensive ethnographic research on elites – respectively the global VIP party circuit, and the Philantropic scene of the 'American friends' of French cultural institutions. Their ethnographic work sheds light on the way gender operates in contemporary elites. What can a “gender lens” contribute to our understanding of today’s elites? And more specifically: what is the role of women – as a dominated social category – in this exclusive and dominant segment of society? And how does ethnographic work help us to answer these questions? Readings and materials: Glucksberg, Luna (2018) A gendered ethnography of elites: women, inequality, and social reproduction. Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, 81. pp. 16-28. Mears, A. (2015). Girls as elite distinction: The appropriation of bodily capital. Poetics, 53, 22-37. Mears, A. (2020) Five Surprising Things I Learned from Partying with Rich People. Literary Hub https://lithub.com/five-surprising-things-i-learned-from-partying-with-rich-people/ Monier, A. (2018). The role of social capital in transnational elite philanthropy: the example of the American Friends groups of French cultural institutions. Socio-Economic Review, 16(2), 387-410. Monier, A. (2021) Women’s philanthropy: an invisible phenomenon. The conversation https://theconversation.com/womens-philanthropy-an-invisible-phenomenon-157927 Recommended readings Bessiere, C. & Gollac, S. (2020). Le genre du capital (the Gender of Capital). Paris: La Découverte. https://celinebessiere.ovh/index.php/the-gender-of-capital/ Mears, A. (2020). Very important people: Status and beauty in the global party circuit. Princeton University Press.
It’s all wealth, social mobility and class ceilings in this week’s episode as we ask ourselves: How does social mobility work, and why does it matter for culture and inequality? Dave O’Brien talks with Maren Toft (Uni Oslo) and Sam Friedman (LSE) about parental wealth, cultural matching, the class ceiling and labour market outcomes. How does the bank of mum and dad contribute to a class ceiling in Norwegian social mobility? Why does it matter that you have the same cultural tastes as those hiring you for a job? And how are these cultural mechanisms of social mobility gendered? Dave, Sam and Maren discuss various papers and demonstrate how privileges in the labour market are profoundly material, cultural and symbolic at the same time. In the final stretch of the episode, they explore various promising new directions for the field of social mobility and culture research. Papers (all open access): - Adamson, M. & M. Johansson (2020) - Writing Class In and Out: Construction of Class in Elite Businesswomen’s autobiographies - Sociology https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520962393 - Rivera, L.A. (2012) Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms - American Sociological Review https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122412463213 - Toft, M. & S. Friedman (2020) Family Wealth and the Class Ceiling: The Propulsive Power of the Bank of Mum and Dad - Sociology https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520922537 Class assignments separately available on our Soundcloud stream.
Welcome back to our new season! It is Oscar season, and we thus watch last year's Best Picture winner Parasite, together with Ricky Changwook Kim (Handong Global University) and Dan Hassler-Forest (Utrecht University). What does this movie tells us about the link between culture and inequalities? Are these links and inequalities culturally specific? Or does the film's global success reveal a universal fatigue with growing inequality in late capitalism? **** Podcast includes major spoilers for Parasite **** Dr. Changwook Kim (Ricky) is an assistant professor of sociology at Handong Global University in South Korea. His research focuses on creative and digital industries in Korea, and the precarious labor conditions in this industry. Dr. Dan Hassler-Forest is an assistant professor at the Media & Culture studies department at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His research interest is in the relation between politics and entertainment. ***Readings & assignments: * The film Parasite (2019) * Hagen Koo (2019): Rising Inequality and Shifting Class Boundaries in South Korea in the Neo-Liberal Era, Journal of Contemporary Asia: https://bit.ly/2RoCAcc * Hassler-Forest, D. (2020) Bong Joon-ho: Love in the Time of Capitalism. LA Review of Books: https://bit.ly/3eb2VDd * Assignments: https://bit.ly/3eeWRtm * Also see ECCI's website for additional readings and assignments: https://eucci.eu/podcast/ *** Presentation: prof. dr. Giselinde Kuipers Editing: Luuc Brans
In the final episode for this semester, we look back and ahead and ask, where do we go from here? We approach this in two ways: where does the study of culture and inequality go from here? Based on our podcast, what is the direction for fruitful research? And what have been the missing links? Secondly, this is for a small part also a meta-podcast, a podcasts about podcasts: we discuss where do we go from here with the podcast as a platofrm for academic work and for the academic community? To dive into these topics, we are joined by this podcast's curator and founder, prof. Giselinde Kuipers and our regular host dr. Dave O’Brien.
This week, we turn the table and look at how non-sociologists, i.e. normal people believe about inequality. Giselinde speaks with dr. Jonathan Mijs (EUR/Harvard) and prof. dr. Magne Flemmen to dive deeper in the relation between rising inequalities, meritocratic beliefs, and egalitarianism. Inequalities are rising yet people seem to care increasingly less about it. Why do people display meritocratic beliefs instead? And how do lower class people in supposedly egalitarian societies perceive cultural inequalities? And how does cycling relate to egalitarianism and inequalities? Why is the Dutch royal family, one of the most wealthy families in the world, cycling? We discuss this and many more topics in this intriguing conversation. Readings —— Mijs, Jonathan (2019). The paradox of inequality: income inequality and belief in meritocracy go hand in hand. Socio-Economic Review https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwy051 Jarness, Vegard, & Flemmen, Magne (2019). A struggle on two fronts: boundary drawing in the lower region of the social space and the symbolic market for ‘down‐to‐earthness’. The British journal of sociology, 70(1), 166-189. Kuipers, Giselinde (2013). The rise and decline of national habitus: Dutch cycling culture and the shaping of national similarity. European journal of social theory 16(1): 17-35.