Saturday, December 4, 2010

Heads-up for 4 December 2010

Radio Open Source
Ian Morris’s East-West History of an Endangered Species: Us
Morris draws on his first career, scientific archeology, also on biological evolution, to formulate an Index of Social Development (energy use, for example, and destructiveness in war); and then to chart the relative ISD scores, East and West, through roughly 15,000 years since the last Ice Age. One starting point is genomic: we’re one animal the world around, bound by the same imperatives of biology and sociology. It’s geography, as Jared Diamond taught us in Guns, Germs and Steel, that accounts for the differences among us. But then the effective meaning of geography keeps changing as Morris extends the story.
(review, feed)

The Economist
Breaking up the euro area
The barriers to leaving are high but could still be crawled over by a country determined to leave
(review, feed)



Office Hours
Janet Hankin on 50 Years of Medical Sociology
This episode we talk with Janet Hankin, co-editor of the special issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, “What Do We Know? Key Findings from 50 Years of Medical Sociology”. We discuss the contributions and insights sociologists have made in the areas of health, illness, and the medical establishment. Topics include the transformation of the health care system in the United States over the past 50 years, and the distinction between the sociology in medicine and the sociology of medicine.
(review, feed)