Social Class

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How Visual Sociology Ended Child Labor

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How Visual Sociology Ended Child Labor

Vox, 2019, 6:35… Child labor was widely practiced until a photographer showed the public what it looked like. The 1900 US Federal Census revealed that 1.75 million children under the age of 16, more than one in five, were gainfully employed. They worked all over the country in cotton mills, glass blowing factories, sardine canneries, farms, and even coal mines. In an effort to expose this exploitation of children, the National Child Labor Committee hired a photographer to travel around the country and investigate and report on the labor conditions of children.

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Slum Tourism

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Slum Tourism

Vice News, 2019, 7:02… Mzu Lembeni runs one of the many tour companies that takes tourists into Cape Town’s townships, impoverished areas that were first created when the Apartheid government forced nonwhites to live in segregated areas. On his tour, tourists can walk right into people’s homes, drink homemade liquor, play with children at a local school, and take as many pictures as they like. For some people, this sounds like exploitation. But Lembeni, who grew up in a township himself, disagrees. “If there was no poverty ... I'll do the township tour, because [of] the culture,” Lembeni says. “I don't sell the poverty, I sell the culture.”

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Sugar Daddies

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Sugar Daddies

60 Minutes Australia, 2019, 25:03… For the so-called “sugar daddies”, the equation is simple: the wealthier they are, the more attractive they are. But as Sarah Abo finds out, it’s not hard to read between the lines here. The term sugar baby is often code for sex worker, and the male moneybags are often crinkled-up creeps. And that leads to a very important question: is this sugar baby phenomenon about empowering women or exploiting them?

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Fox News & The False Consciousness

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Fox News & The False Consciousness

Vox, 2019, 8:37… Carlson’s show is meant to distract Fox News viewers from Republican economics, channeling their frustration and anger at groups that don’t deserve it. That kind of misdirection produces what Marxist theorists call “false consciousness”: when workers are tricked into accepting their own exploitation.

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Homogenized Aspiration (Coffee Shops)

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Homogenized Aspiration (Coffee Shops)

Quartz, 2019, 5:02… In coffee shops all over the world, the same set of design elements keep popping up. What is happening? Distinctive design elements—Edison bulbs, reclaimed wood, potted plants, exposed brick—are popping up in coffee shops everywhere. But it isn’t just the design of these spaces that are becoming increasingly uniform…

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The Rich Guy Who Wants To Pay More Taxes

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The Rich Guy Who Wants To Pay More Taxes

NowThis, 2019, 14:00… Prince believes that raising the minimum wage will increase consumption and we're better off putting money into the hands of people who will spend it in the economy than those at the top who already have plenty of money. Prince also says that the wealthy people in charge do not care if the economy improves just if they're making more money.

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Play Labs

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Play Labs

Quartz, 2018, 4:59… At more than 513 “play labs” in Uganda, Tanzania and Bangladesh, kids participate a child-centered curriculum built by a team of global play scholars delivered in a space designed by architects, right down to the corners for stories, crafts and dreaming.

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Universal Basic Income

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Universal Basic Income

The Atlantic, 2018, 3:20… America is the richest civilization in history. Why, then, are our living standards so low compared to those of other wealthy democracies? “There’s a big idea out there that could help solve this,” says The Atlantic writer Annie Lowrey. “It’s called a universal basic income.” In a new animated video, Lowrey argues that UBI—a concept that has existed for more than 500 years—would help close the income inequality gap, eliminating poverty and increasing mobility and opportunity for all American citizens.

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Hobo Graffiti

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Hobo Graffiti

Vox, 2018, 5:36… Hobos used graffiti, or tramp writing, as a messaging system to tell their fellow travelers where they were and where they were headed next. Hobos would scratch or draw their road persona, or moniker, onto stationary objects near railroad tracks like water towers and bridges. News stories at the time, largely informed by hobos themselves, spread tales of a different kind of graffiti though.

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The Concerted Cultivation of Spelling

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The Concerted Cultivation of Spelling

Vice News, 2018, 7:12… If you keep up with the world of competitive spelling, you've noticed the 10 year winning streak of South Asian-Americans. Kids from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have simply dominated the competition, and the South Asian Spelling Bee circuit has a lot to do with that. Launched in 2008, the South Asian Spelling Bee is an elite circuit whose alumni account for a decade of spelling dominance in the nation's most competitive spelling competition.

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McMansions & The American Dream

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McMansions & The American Dream

Washington Post, 5:26... There’s a certain type of house that people love to hate. They're called "McMansions," and architecture critic Kate Wagner has dedicated her website, McMansion Hell, to explaining why these houses rub people the wrong way.

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Modern Slavery

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Modern Slavery

According to new figures, it is estimated that 35 million people are suffering under slavery. It is a booming global business, relying on oppression and exploitation. The film shows the many forms slavery can take in today’s world: from political imprisonment, to child labor to the forcible recruitment of child soldiers as well as more classical forms of physical and economic exploitation.