The poorest and most vulnerable regularly find themselves at the mercy of the juvenile and criminal justice systems – through policing and detention, of course, but also child removals and child support, property seizure, and probation. Scholar and lawyer Daniel Hatcher illustrates how U.S. courts, prosecutors, sheriffs, and probation departments are generating vast amounts of … Continued
It’s been described at the most turbulent period of global class struggle in history — the turn of the 20th century when revolutionaries around the world found common cause against capital and empire. Christina Heatherton discusses the revolutionary internationalism swirling around the Mexican Revolution and the remarkable intersection of radicals at that time. (Encore presentation.) … Continued
Some causes make for strange bedfellows, but few like the campaign against sex trafficking, which brings together radical feminists, Christian evangelicals, the US state, and even QAnon. Cultural anthropologist Gregory Mitchell separates myth from fact and examines how allegedly rescuing women and girls from trafficking, included at mega sporting events, leads to increased police violence, … Continued
Fossil fuels lie at the center of contemporary life — powering, despoiling, and altering everything around us. And that includes environmentalism itself, according to anthropologist David Bond. He discusses how concepts like toxic thresholds and environmental impact assessments are an accommodation to the continued existence of the oil and petro-chemical industries, rather than ways to … Continued
Why do so many people who see themselves as progressive nonetheless support the state of Israel, considered an apartheid state for its treatment of the native Palestinian population? Scholar Saree Makdisi argues that the answer partially lies in the Israeli state’s cultivation of Western liberal support. He discusses campaigns designed to appeal to progressives — … Continued
Work changed dramatically during the Covid pandemic. Enormous numbers of people lost their jobs, while others were able to work remotely. And then there were so-called essential workers, whose in-person jobs put them at the highest risk. In response, many of them organized, often informally. Sociologist Jamie McCallum argues that the struggles of essential workers … Continued
Who is ultimately responsible for global warming? Most often it’s cast as a problem we’ve all created equally, whether we’re rich or poor. In recent years, some attention has been paid to the top 10% of the population, whose high consumption lifestyles — large houses, large vehicles, and frequent plane flights — generate disproportionately large … Continued
One of conservation’s greatest achievements happened mostly by accident and is still hiding in plain sight for most of us. When settlers established cities in the United States, they decimated the existing ecosystems. But in recent decades, as environmental historian Peter Alagona illustrates, there has been a remarkable return of wildlife to urban areas across … Continued
Atlanta is a pivotal city for reasons cultural, economic, and political. And so the changes that the city and metropolitan area have undergone since the 1990s have been consequential, deepening class and racial inequality. As Dan Immergluck points out, these shifts were not the inevitable product of market forces, but the result of political decisions. … Continued
Following the attacks of September 11th, the administration of George W. Bush instituted the widespread use of coercive interrogations of detainees, as well as kidnapping, forced disappearance, and sham commission proceedings. Yet for the first several years of the “war on terror” little was known about what the U.S. state was doing to prisoners, until … Continued
