Sociology 1005 – Spring 2009

More tomatoes!

Barbara Kingsolver wrote a whole chapter in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about the tomato harvest in their family garden. She describes being overwhelmed by trying to cope with 20% of a ton of tomatoes (400 pounds, or about 180 kilos). We heard in the Gourmet article about tomato harvesting in Florida that one worker picks a ton of tomatoes per day — which gives us some perspective both on how many tomatoes she is dealing with, and how many tomatoes an industrial farm handles.

Some of you might enjoy reading an article on Wired.com about how the General Services Administration of the U.S. government is working to put government content on the websites that everyone already uses.

The GSA ,which led the effort for 12 agencies over the past nine months, has finally worked out arrangements with Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo and blip.tv, saying these are “representative of high volume and innovation on the Web.”

All of this information is already in the public domain, and it’s available through other websites and offices, but having it on the “public web” will make it more accessible to the community at large.

Do you think that this will help ordinary citizens become more engaged in government? Do you see any potential problems? What sort of government content would you like to see on the internet?

Lots of you already know about this, but here are some links in case you hadn’t heard!

Last week the NYTimes wrote about the plan for the garden.

Starting a few months ago, though, a group called the White House Organic Farm project (WHOFarm) started petitioning the White House to plan to plant a garden this year. They are thrilled, as you can imagine! If you look on their website, you can find lots of articles and videos.

My perennials have started to bloom — I’ve got daffodils and hyacinths in my tiny front yard. But I’m looking forward to planting herbs and tomatoes — and getting to know some of my neighbors who are doing the same thing.

I told you that we’d have a chapter from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to read for Thursday, but the scanner at home wouldn’t cooperate, and I want you to have enough time to read. So next week we’ll have that chapter, and also a chapter from bell hooks’ wonderful recent book, Belonging: A Culture of Place, which is about the same area in Kentucky.

For tomorrow, Thursday, March 26th, I’d like you to read an article about the Ed Roberts Campus, a building project in the San Francisco East Bay area that will house several different agencies that all support people with disabilities.

If you get curious and would like to do more reading, there’s a wonderful article about the history of the disability movement in Berkeley. More information about the Ed Roberts Campus is on their website.

Many of our class themes will come up in this reading — I’d like you to think particularly about how disability affects social class, and how social class affects access to resources to help people with disabilities.

See you on Thursday!

I just read a really smart short article on mobile phone use in the homeless population in Washington, D.C.

“Having a phone isn’t even a privilege anymore — it’s a necessity,” said Rommel McBride, 50, who spent about six years on the streets before recently being placed in a city housing program. He has had a mobile phone for a year. “A cellphone is the only way you can call to keep up with your food stamps, your housing application, your job. When you’re living in a shelter or sleeping on the streets, it’s your last line of communication with the world.”

Advocates who work with the District’s homeless estimate that 30 percent to 45 percent of the people they help have cellphones. A smaller number have e-mail accounts, and some blog to chronicle their lives on the streets.

I know most of you didn’t need convincing on this topic — but this article is even more eye-opening than the first one we read!

Clive Thompson wrote a great short article at wired.com about “Why Urban Farming Isn’t Just for Foodies“.

[Urban farming] could relieve strain on the worldwide food supply, potentially driving down prices. The influx of fresh vegetables would help combat obesity. And when you “shop” for dinner ingredients in and around your home, the carbon footprint nearly disappears. Screw the 100-mile diet — consuming only what’s grown within your immediate foodshed — this is the 100-yard diet.

I’m looking forward to growing cherry tomatoes and basil this year!

Here’s a chapter from Anthony Bourdain’s book, Kitchen Confidential.

It’s a fun and colorful look at what sort of people end up in restaurant kitchens – I think you’ll enjoy reading it. When you’re reading, think about his descriptions of people interacting in a kitchen — what similar situations does your workplace have?

Here’s a 15-minute video from the TED conference, of Iqbal Quadir talking about mobile phones and poverty.

I know you’re all working on your midterms, so I don’t want to give you a huge assignment — so here’s a 15-minute video on a topic we’ve already discussed. See you in class!

There are no new readings to choose from for the midterm — you’ll use any of the readings we’ve already done for the class. I hope that makes things easier for you.

Each of the responses is a maximum of one page — that’s about 500 words. Don’t freak out about whether you’re a little over or under, just don’t hand in one paragraph or three pages!

I’ve been having trouble getting to my lists of everyone’s email addresses — I’ll email the midterm as well as posting it here as soon as I can.

[Edited to add: Ai yi yi! I found out that the topics were not showing up because I pasted the text from Word -- it's fixed now!]

As I mentioned before, I’m *really* sorry that this is late – I’ve had horrible trouble with internet connectivity! I don’t want you to lose time on the midterm, though, so i’m giving everyone a two-day extension.

Instructions: Pick three of the following five topics, and write one-page responses to the topic question. Let me know if you have any questions!

1: Pick any two (or more!) of the readings (or the videos) and relate them to each other, drawing on not just the readings themselves but also the class discussions. Write one page about how they relate.

2: Write one page about something you’ve learned at Baruch this semester (from a class besides this one) that relates to our class topics.

3: One part of the “sociological imagination” is being able to imagine the world through someone else’s eyes. Race, gender, and class are important parts of that. Using anything we have discussed in class or any of our readings, tell me about new insights you’ve gained. (Example: You aren’t immigrant workers in London, or field hands in Florida, but I think many of you saw the world a little differently by reading those articles – now I’d like to hear more about that. Pick any article or class discussion that works for you.

4: We’ve talked a lot in class about food – how it’s picked and grown, how food culture can unite us within our families and ethnic groups, how ecological concerns are intertwined with both those things. I’d like to hear about your food culture. Write a page about the foods you grew up eating, or that you eat now. Also write about how you’d be affected by trying to eat more locally, and whether you think that would be a reasonable goal for you.

5: We’ve also talked about new technologies, and how they are changing the ways we interact not only with our friends and family, but also with strangers. I’d like to hear about your interactions with technology, particularly how you use it to interact socially with others. How do you use cellphones, email, text messages, social networks (LiveJournal, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Skype, etc.) and other forms of communicating through technology to keep in touch with friends? How has that changed for you in the last three years? How do you think it will continue to change?