Everything happens so much these days, and so very much of it is very bad...
Books
by Patrick Honohan*, Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland (2009-15) That politicians should leave it to central banks to set interest rates in such a way that price stability is maintained (and restored whenever it is lost), has been an article of faith with most economists, especially since the stagflation of the 1970s given […]
Doctor Who: Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor is set for two new adventures this May - including one with Varada Sethu's Belinda Chandra.
The ambitious intentions of Peter Beinart’s new book are evident from the title: Being Jewish...
Last December, the evangelical organization Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s ban on...
I am devastated by the heartbreaking news of the tragic death of Michael Burawoy, a preeminent, inspiring, and brilliant sociologist, and above all, an extraordinary and gentle human being. What an unfathomable contrast lies between a fleeting, detached report in a local newspaper about a hit-and-run accident that claimed the life of an “Oakland resident” […]
(Hi all, wonderful to become part of this great blog! But now, directly on to some content!) Imagine that you have a toothache, and a visit at the dentist reveals that a major operation is needed. You phone your health insurance. You listen to the voice of the chatbot, press the buttons to go through […]
Erich Fromm’s insights in The Revolution of Hope, written almost 60 years ago, resonate today—probably surprisingly, or unfortunately not—with the same meaningfulness and a sound call for both actionable and intellectual optimism: “Hope is paradoxical. It is neither passive waiting nor is it unrealistic forcing of circumstances that cannot occur… Neither tired reformism nor pseudo-radical […]
Jeffrey Alexander, a prominent sociologist and social theorist: Inside the culture and structure of modernity, good and evil are tensely intertwined. We should not be naïve about the evils of modernity. Modernity’s contradictions cannot be resolved in some magisterial new synthesis. It is a dangerous delusion to think modernity can eliminate evil; new kinds of […]
As this year draws to a close, it is an opportune time to highlight and praise some of the best books in Economic Sociology and Political Economy that have been named and recognized by several major associations in our field. These are extraordinary studies, in their empirical innovation and theoretical contribution. Above all, they are […]