Fall Newsletter Shawn Cassiman, Chair Poverty, Class and Inequality Division December 9, 2011 Hello division members! I hope your Fall was a good one and that your return to campus has been productive. It was great seeing many of you in Las Vegas. As some of you know we had record attendance, despite the change in venue. A lot has happened since the last newsletter. Interestingly, I ended the last newsletter by describing the possibility for change evidenced by the unrest in Europe. Now we’ve witnessed, “the Arab Spring” beginning with Egypt. This is an amazing turn of events. We’ve also had our own version of spring. Perhaps we should call it the “spring of attacks on workers rights”, or, “the spring of a thousand budget cuts”, or the “spring of attacks on academics interested in labor issues”, or the “continued attacks on welfare claimants”? And now, we survey a landscape, and a discourse, changed dramatically by the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the worldwide solidarity groups. I remain even more hopeful, as the attacks on workers, voting rights, women’s rights, and budget proposals stripping support from people and tax breaks for corporations, have not gone unchallenged. In the US, what began in Madison, Wisconsin, has spread, like a prairie fire, to every state (and there are many) that faces similar assaults on collective bargaining. We’re seeing a rise of organization and activism that includes unions, both private and public, community groups, political groups and folks traditionally unmoved by “partisan politics”. Most recently, the Occupy Wall Street movement has blossomed beyond New York City. At the federal level, the attacks on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, have sparked a backlash from the people. Perhaps this is it? The opportunity we’ve been waiting for. We find ourselves with the opportunity to use our scholarship, advocacy and activism to support political candidates and community groups fighting for rights and programs that support the vulnerable (made vulnerable by structural violence). Mark Rank and Mimi Abramovitz argue, and the current political climate demonstrates, we’re all vulnerable. We all have a stake in this. This is the time, I suggest, that we, who have been divided into ever smaller interest groups, begin to build a real movement, based upon a sense of shared risk and shared responsibility. It is our scholarship that demonstrates who is most at risk of imprisonment, homelessness, poverty, etc. and why, that will help support this/these movement(s). We are also the 99%. So much has happened in a few short months, and so much more may happen before we next meet in August. Some of our organized sessions will examine movements in the U.S. and around the globe, the role that technology plays, and the potential for activist scholarship. All of our work is linked, either directly or indirectly, to the movements we witness rising to draw attention to poverty, class and inequality. This is certainly an exciting time. Look forward to seeing you in Denver. Link to the call for papers: http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/478/fuseaction/ssspsession2.publicView List of our sessions and co-sponsored sessions available at the link above. Revisiting the Economic Crisis: Housing, Employment, and Crime 1. Community Research and Development 2. Poverty, Class, and Inequality 1. McCormack, Karen M. [ MCCORMACK_KAREN@WHEATONMA.EDU ] Environmental Activism 1. Conflict, Social Action, and Change 2. Environment and Technology 3. Poverty, Class, and Inequality 1. Perkins, Tracy E. [ teperkin@ucsc.edu ] 2. Andrzejewski, Julie R. [ JRANDRZEJEWSKI@STCLOUDSTATE.EDU ] Radicalism in the 21st Century: Networking and Social Activism 1. Conflict, Social Action, and Change 2. Poverty, Class, and Inequality 3. Sociology and Social Welfare 1. Peressini, Tracy L. [ tracy.peressini@uwaterloo.ca ] Family and the Economy 1. Family 2. Poverty, Class, and Inequality 1. Cunningham-Stringer, Ebonie L. [ e.cunninghamstringer@wingate.edu ] Egypt, Wisconsin, and the UK: Class 'Acts' in a Digital Age 1. Global 2. Labor Studies 3. Poverty, Class, and Inequality 1. Cassiman, Shawn A. [ shawncassiman@gmail.com ] Health Disparities 1. Health, Health Policy, and Health Services 2. Poverty, Class, and Inequality 1. Monnat, Shannon M. [ SHANNON.MONNAT@UNLV.EDU ] 2. Activating Justice: Examining and Addressing Inequalities 1. Poverty, Class, and Inequality 1. Luna, Yvonne M. [ yvonne.luna@nau.edu ] 2. Wesely, Jennifer K. [ JWESELY@UNF.EDU ] The Art of Teaching and Learning: Activism to Eliminate Inequality 1. Poverty, Class, and Inequality 1. Alessio, John C. [ jcalessio9@gmail.com ] Constructing Sex Work 1. Poverty, Class, and Inequality 2. Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities 1. Cassiman, Shawn A. [ shawncassiman@gmail.com ] …………………………………………….. Nominations needed for chair of PCI and Newsletter Editor! This is my last year as your chair. I’ve enjoyed my service, but am calling upon members to nominate others (or themselves) interested in chairing the division. The responsibilities are not onerous and provide space to assist in shaping the division as we go forward. Please send me your nomination or send directly to Michele. Once candidates are identified, Lisa East, Graduate Research Associate & Webmaster, will contact the candidates directly and request their biographical information and statement.  ALL ELECTIONS WILL BE CONDUCTED ELECTRONICALLY. ………………………………. New Publications Featuring Members: Sociologists in Action: Sociology, Social Change, and Social Justice Edited by Kathleen Odell Korgen, Jonathan White, and Shelley K. White, Pine Forge, December 2011 Sociologists in Action: Sociology, Social Change and Social Justice provides 49 vivid examples of how sociologists are using sociological tools to make a positive impact on our society.  Each of the 14 chapters, closely aligned with key topics in sociology courses, is filled with real-life examples written by sociologists describing how they have used sociology to understand and influence the world around them.  Sociologists in Action: Sociology, Social Change, and Social Justice helps to bring the subject matter of sociology to life for students, giving them clear examples of the power and usefulness of sociology in working toward social change and social justice.  These exciting examples of sociologists applying their skills to the greater society will help students to better understand how their sociology studies can be put to good use.   Discussion questions and suggested additional readings and resources at the end of every chapter provide students the opportunity to delve further into the topics covered and carry out full and nuanced discussions, grounded in the “real world” work of public sociologists. Wonderfully suited for a wide variety of courses, such as Social Problems, Principles of Sociology, Public Sociology, Social Inequality, Senior Seminar, and Social Movements, Sociologists in Action: Sociology, Social Change, and Social Justice is an invaluable tool to connect the classroom to the community. You can see the extended Table of Contents and order an examination copy by going to http://www.pineforge.com/textbooksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book234766#tabview=title …………………………… Call for Papers: Call for Chapter Proposals In 2004 and 2008, the SSSP and the Justice 21 Committee published the first two volumes of the Agenda for Social Justice. Those reports contained chapters on a variety of social problems, among them poverty, educational inequality, unemployment, environmental health risks, global economic change, capital punishment, post-Katrina disaster response, gender inequality in the criminal justice system, the vulnerability of ESL students in public schools, surveillance technologies, civil unions, domestic violence. We are now beginning our work on the third publication--Agenda for Social Justice-2012. This publication is designed to inform the public-at-large about the nation’s most pressing social problems and to propose a public policy response to those problems. This project affirms the commitment of SSSP to social justice, and enables the members of the association to speak on public issues with the sponsorship of the corporate body. This report will be an “agenda for social justice,” in that it will contain recommendations for action by elected officials, policy makers, and the public at large. The report will be distributed as widely as possible to policy makers, those in progressive media, and academics. The quadrennial report will be a product of the most valid and reliable knowledge we have about social problems and it will be a joint effort of the members and Divisions of SSSP. We invite you to consider preparing a chapter for the 2012 publication. We ask you, individually or with colleagues, to consider submitting a brief proposal (1-2 pp) identifying a social problem of concern to members of SSSP, and respond to the questions: - What do we know? - How do we know it? - What is to be done? As the coordinating committee for Justice 21, we invite members to prepare a draft statement for a proposed contribution to the 2012 publication, tentatively to be produced and distributed by the Edwin Mellen Press (http://www.mellenpress.com/). For the 2012 edition, confirmed contributors include the following well-known sociologists: Frances Fox Piven, Alejandro Portes, and Amatai Etzioni. Please submit a copy of your 1-2 page proposals to each of the members of the committee by March 1, 2011, and contact us if you have questions or would like additional information. Final manuscripts will be due near the end of 2011, and will appear in print prior to the 2012 SSSP annual meetings in August 2012. Glenn Muschert (chair), Miami University, muschegw@muohio.edu Kathleen Ferraro, Northern Arizona University, kathleen.ferraro@nau.edu Brian Klocke, SUNY Plattsburgh, bkloc001@plattsburgh.edu JoAnn Miller, Purdue University, jlmiller@purdue.edu Robert Perrucci, Purdue University, perruccir@purdue.edu Jon Shefner, University of Tennessee, jshefner@utk.edu For an expanded discussion of Justice 21, see the May 2001 issue of Social Problems (“Inventing Social Justice”). To see the 2004 and 2008 publications, see the SSSP website at the following address: http://sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/323 ………………….. Announcing a New Book Series Solving Social Problems Series Editor: Bonnie Berry, Director of the Social Problems Research Group, USA www.ashgate.com/sociology Solving Social Problems provides a forum for the description and measurement of social problems, with a keen focus on the concrete remedies proposed for their solution. The series takes an international perspective, exploring social problems in various parts of the world, with the central concern being always their possible remedy. Work is welcomed on subjects as diverse as environmental damage, terrorism, economic disparities and economic devastation, poverty, inequalities, domestic assaults and sexual abuse, health care, natural disasters, labour inequality, animal abuse, crime, and mental illness and its treatment. In addition to recommending solutions to social problems, the books in this series are theoretically sophisticated, exploring previous discussions of the issues in question, examining other attempts to resolve them, and adopting and discussing methodologies that are commonly used to measure social problems. Proposed solutions may be framed as changes in policy or practice, or more broadly as social change and social movement. Solutions may be reflective of ideology, but are always pragmatic and detailed, explaining the means by which the suggested solutions might be achieved. If you would like to submit a proposal for this series, please email: the Series Editor, Bonnie Berry: solving@socialproblems.org or the Commissioning Editor, Neil Jordan: njordan@ashgatepublishing.com