Global Governance: How a Global Society Could be Led

Timothy J. Sinclair's Global Governance is part of a wider series by publisher Polity. Each book examines a concept in the social sciences: other titles include Freedom and Democracy. Fittingly enough, the series is called Key Concepts. I'm not inclined to bother with many of the other texts at this stage, although one exception might … Continue reading Global Governance: How a Global Society Could be Led →

Luke Martell’s The Sociology of Globalization

About a month ago, I finished the above book. The previous one was written by a sociologist but wasn't a sociological book necessarily, but this one is. More specifically, it examines globalization through subjects that sociology has an interest in. What it does is select different sociological areas and use this focus to examine globalisation, … Continue reading Luke Martell’s The Sociology of Globalization →

Back to Basics: Ritzer on Globalisation

So yesterday I finished another of the books on my Sociology list. This was a book by George Ritzer called Globalization: A Basic Text. This is the second book by Ritzer that I've read and both are rather long and involved, wide-ranging introductions. The other was an Introduction to, like, ALL of social theory to … Continue reading Back to Basics: Ritzer on Globalisation →

Global History: A short overview of A Short Overview

I read this book called Global History: A Short Overview by Noel Cowen. It's an achievement not only because it condenses many dozens of millennia into a little over 200 pages but also because of the fact that there are many dozens of millennia to have to condense in the first place. From a fairly … Continue reading Global History: A short overview of A Short Overview →

Transracialism vs. Transgender

I've never believed that people can transition between races the same way we can transition between genders, but I haven't been able to express why. I did some reading today and now I think I understand. Though both are socially constructed, the process of construction is different in each case. You fall into racial categories … Continue reading Transracialism vs. Transgender →

Thoughts on Fathers and Sons, Chapters I-XI

Turgenev's Fathers and Sons involves the following characters: Nikolai Petrovich, barin (literally master) of the estate Marino; Paul Petrovich, his bachelor brother, a retired soldier; Arkady, Nikolai's son, a recent graduate; Bazarov, his friend and fellow graduate; and Thenichka, Nikolai's young wife (about the same age as the graduates), to whom he's been married just … Continue reading Thoughts on Fathers and Sons, Chapters I-XI →

Introducing Turgenev (and Russia before the Bolsheviks)

I started reading Fathers and Sons today. It's a novel by Ivan Turgenev, published in 1862. The introduction reminded me that I must learn more about nineteenth century Russia, or pre-Bolshevik Russia more generally. It said that they abandoned serfdom in that century and that Turgenev, though associated primarily with the left, had some sort … Continue reading Introducing Turgenev (and Russia before the Bolsheviks) →

The Veil of Secularism

There's a tendency among white feminists to attack religious practice on the basis that they know better than the practitioners themselves. I watched a Simone de Beauvoir documentary and was interested in the three women they had on to contribute. I was dismayed to learn that, for the most part, they're pretty far from Beauvoir's … Continue reading The Veil of Secularism →

Thoughts on a video about Digital Blackface

I watched a video by Khadija Mbowe about digital blackface. I was wary before I watched it because I knew I'd come out of it not wanting to use GIFs of black people anymore and maybe feel guilt at having used those GIFs in the past... ...but then I realised "wait... have I even used … Continue reading Thoughts on a video about Digital Blackface →