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Contexts Magazine

@contexts.org
2.9K followers 4.1K following 297 posts

Contexts is a quarterly magazine that makes cutting-edge sociology research accessible to general readers. Edited by David Grazian, with managing editor Elena van Stee. contexts.org

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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 4h
What happens when being seen replaces being paid? Behind the glamour of Fashion Week is a workforce often paid in exposure rather than wages. In this visual essay, Jillian Sunderland shows how masculinity shapes who can claim space and turn exposure into paid work. ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536...
Screenshot of the Contexts visual essay “Paid in Exposure at New York Fashion Week” by Jillian Sunderland. Below the title and opening text, a model in a sparkling gown poses on a runway under intense red and orange lights as the audience watches.
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 20h
🔥Hot off the press!🔥 What political work is done when a president posts himself as Superman? Trump’s AI memes turn dissent into disorder and domination into leadership. Tristan Bridges and James Messerschmidt show how humor makes autocratic power feel ordinary. ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536...
AI-generated three-panel image showing Donald Trump wearing a gold crown and oxygen mask while piloting a fighter jet. The jet flies over a city and releases a stream of brown material onto a crowd of protesters below.
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 28/09/2026
LGBTQ+ People’s Views of the Police: Friend or Foe? Stefan Vogler and Valerie Jenness find that LGBTQ+ respondents are more likely than non-LGBTQ+ respondents to see police as a foe, but this varies across gender identity and sexuality. doi.org/10.1177/1536...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 23/09/2026
What happens when economic change feels like a threat to masculinity? In Contexts, Dan Cassino examines how men’s political preferences change when the traditional breadwinner role becomes less secure. ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536... #Sociology #Masculinity #Gender #PoliticalSociology
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 22/09/2026
What happens when “fake news” determines press access? Recently, Trump barred CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House after attacking their coverage. In Contexts, sociologist Jared Wright shows how the label becomes a weapon for deciding who can scrutinize power. ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 21/09/2026
How can someone be surrounded by people and still be treated as though they aren’t there? In this brief essay, sociologist Jacob Avery writes about Neon, a man asking for change on Atlantic City’s boardwalk. He shows how quickly we turn poverty into a moral category. ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 18/09/2026
What happens when public problems are framed as personal failures? Revisiting C. Wright Mills, Jerry Jacobs defines “sociological curiosity” as locating private troubles within the institutions shaping them. ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536... #SociologicalImagination #PublicSociology #ContextsMagazine
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 17/09/2026
Why does breaking the rules seem to make populist leaders more popular, not less? Francesco Duina argues that populist leaders turn private grievance into public voice. For people who feel ignored, breaking political norms can feel like recognition. doi.org/10.1177/1536... #Populism #Democracy
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 16/09/2026
What happens when authenticity becomes a sales strategy? Sociologists Eleanor Matheson and Donna Sedgwick show how curated glimpses of private life create trust, turning authenticity into commercial power. Read here ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536... #InfluencerCulture #SocialMedia #ConsumerCulture
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 15/09/2026
How could conflict be good for communities? Evelyn M. Perry shows how disagreements can expose whose standards define neighborhood life and create room to renegotiate belonging. Read in Contexts ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536... #Sociology #Community #UrbanSociology #ContextsMagazine
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 14/09/2026
Why do economists dominate public debate while sociologists remain on the sidelines? In this interview, Amin Ghaziani interviews a New York Times columnist about the many ways sociologists can enter public discussions. Read "Professors, We Still Need You!" journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 11/09/2026
What can sociology teach us about #neurodiversity? Micki McGee argues that increasing productivity and accelerated work schedules have gradually become the norm, recasting unforgiving institutional expectations as individual medical deficits. doi.org/10.1177/1536... @mickimcgee.bsky.social
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 10/09/2026
What do you picture when you hear “red-light district”? In this visual sociological essay, Ronald Weitzer's photographs complicate the familiar image of red-light districts as uniformly dangerous and disordered. Read in Contexts ➡️ journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 09/09/2026
What can marital infidelity reveal about masculinity? In Contexts, Alicia M. Walker analyzes men who use the platform Ashley Madison to seek out extramarital affairs, finding that men's consistent concerns were about masculine validation. ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536... @aliciamwalker1.bsky.social
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 08/09/2026
How free are we to dream? We are told that anyone can dream big. Yet inequality can shape the future long before opportunity appears. Sociologist Karen Cerulo explores how social position enters even our most private visions of the future. doi.org/10.1177/1536...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 07/09/2026
Many workplace protections we take for granted were won through collective struggle. For Labor Day, Judith Stepan-Norris writes in Contexts about how unions raise wages, reduce inequality and give workers a collective voice, and what their decline costs us. Read here: doi.org/10.1177/1536...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 04/09/2026
What if the most powerful technology in a start-up is the hype? Sociologist Patrick Sheehan shows how hype turns an imagined future into a way of extracting more labour in the present. The breakthrough is always just around the corner. Read more in Contexts: doi.org/10.1177/1536... #Tech
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 03/09/2026
How did dark skin become a deadly blind spot in dermatology? Black patients are often diagnosed later, yet prevention guidelines still center fair skin. Ashley C. Rondini and colleagues examine how racial erasure becomes medical knowledge. doi.org/10.1177/1536... @ashley-c-rondini.bsky.social
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 02/09/2026
AI is reshaping our relationships. What if it is also reshaping how we understand ourselves? Carsten Lund Pedersen asks what happens when algorithms become mirrors and begin shaping the selves they claim to reflect. Read in Contexts: doi.org/10.1177/1536...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 01/09/2026
What if #Girlboss and #Tradwife come from the same feminist crisis? Both respond to the demand that women “have it all” by doing it all. What becomes possible when feminism expands its imagination and makes room for joy? Read in Contexts: doi.org/10.1177/1536...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 31/08/2026
Why do we suddenly need words like rizz, beige flag, and situationship to describe dating? Written by Gabrielle Juteau, Jaden Loo, and Susan L. Brown, this Contexts piece looks at what new dating language reveals about ambiguity, commitment, and changing relationship expectations.
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 28/08/2026
What does the anti-work movement look like when Black women tell its story? On YouTube, Black women are claiming a right to rest. Sociologist Sharla Berry asks who gets to refuse work and who can afford to leave. Read in Contexts: doi.org/10.1177/1536...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 27/08/2026
Why do conspiracy theories remain compelling even after their predictions fail? Sociologists Meggan Jordan and Jennifer Whitmer show how conspiracy theories can become an identity resource. Read here ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 26/08/2026
What happens when AI learns from a world already structured by inequality? Sociologists Sharla Alegria (@salegria.bsky.social) and Catherine Yeh show that machine learning can scale social inequalities and return them as objective predictions. @uoftsociology.bsky.social doi.org/10.1177/1536...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 25/08/2026
What if young men aren’t only buying crypto to get rich, but to feel more like men? Dan Cassino at Fairleigh Dickinson University (@fduwhatsnew.bsky.social) explores how crypto and meme stocks can offer “gender value” through risk, mastery, and independence. Read here: doi.org/10.1177/1536...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 11/08/2026
What are mothers of children with disabilities telling us? Interviews with mothers by Robert Crosnoe and colleagues reveal resilience, growth, and joy over decades of mothering. ➡️https://journals.sagepub.com/loi/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 06/08/2026
How did sexual harassment become recognized as unlawful discrimination in education? Celene Reynolds traces how 1970s and '80s feminist coalitions transformed Title IX, showing how ordinary citizens can change not just laws, but how they're interpreted. ➡️https://journals.sagepub.com/loi/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 15/07/2026
Analyzing Fox News broadcasts from 2012–2024, Jack G. R. Wippell, Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira, Shelby Frye, Bri Londerée, Ryleigh Adkins, and Shreya Yogesh identify the rhetorical strategies broadcasters use to fuel an anti-transgender moral panic. ➡️https://journals.sagepub.com/loi/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 13/07/2026
"To be called 'essential' in America in 2020 was to be deemed expendable by our government and our society." Read David Grazian's interview with Eric Klinenberg in the latest issue of Contexts! ➡️https://journals.sagepub.com/loi/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 08/07/2026
In our Spring 2026 issue, Joslyn Brenton shows how middle-class parents experienced tensions between recognizing inequality and benefiting from it. Read the full article here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 24/06/2026
New issue! Our Spring '26 issue is free to read, share, and download through July 22. ➡️ journals.sagepub.com/home/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 20/05/2026
New in Books! 📚 Ryanne Pilgeram reviews Dividing Paradise and Who We Are Is Where We Are. ➡️https://journals.sagepub.com/loi/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 20/05/2026
Rodney Benson shares "One Thing I Know" about the ownership forms that constrain journalistic independence. Read it in Contexts! ➡️https://journals.sagepub.com/loi/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 14/05/2026
New photo essay! 📸 David Bacon on indigenous dance as an act of resistance. ➡️https://journals.sagepub.com/loi/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 13/05/2026
Many schools have moved away from formal suspensions and expulsions, but more informal disciplinary practices have emerged in their place. Rebecca Gleit and Lily Steyer have the story ➡️https://journals.sagepub.com/loi/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 08/05/2026
Why do some people accept, or even approve of, economic inequalities? Francesco Duina and Luca Storti examine various justifications—market, moral, cultural, and group-based—that people across the world invoke to defend their views. ➡️https://journals.sagepub.com/loi/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 03/05/2026
Whereas homicide laws scale charges by intent, sexual assault laws do not. Julie Fennell considers how updating our legal and cultural vocabulary around sexual violation could benefit both survivors and offenders. ➡️https://journals.sagepub.com/loi/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 01/05/2026
Young Americans aren't simply abandoning religion—they're transforming it. Landon Schnabel, Ilana Horwitz, Peyman Hekmatpour, and Cyrus Schleifer show how young people are breaking away from traditional religious institutions while pursuing new forms of community. ➡️ journals.sagepub.com/loi/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 30/04/2026
New Issue! Read it paywall-free for the next 30 days at journals.sagepub.com/home/ctx
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 05/02/2026
Challenging common notions about kink, BDSM practitioners share their media-fueled awakenings in their own words. Read Alicia M. Walker and Arielle Kuperberg in our Fall '25 issue! ➡️ contexts.org/issues/fall-...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 04/02/2026
In New York City, a restorative justice approach is helping to connect civil servants and the public as they navigate everyday conflict. Read Caroline Hanley in our Fall '25 issue! ➡️ contexts.org/issues/fall-...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 02/02/2026
State legislatures and education officials are rapidly advancing policies that increase religious influence in American public schools. Read Orit Avishai's feature in our Fall '25 issue! ➡️ contexts.org/issues/fall-...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 22/01/2026
From Tupperware to Mary Kay, multi-level-marketing companies promise sellers they can have it all—but at what cost? Read Nicole Muffitt's feature in our Fall '25 issue! ➡️ contexts.org/issues/fall-...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 22/01/2026
Owen Whooley explains why crisis intervention training often fails in its stated goal of improving police officer responses to calls involving mental health crises. ➡️ contexts.org/issues/fall-...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 30/12/2025
New in Contexts! @dmmurphy.bsky.social on political rhetoric versus reality.
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 29/12/2025
Contexts Magazine is closing out 2025 by celebrating outgoing co-editors @aminghaziani.bsky.social and @sethabrutyn.bsky.social, along with senior managing editor @lettapage.bsky.social! Editor-elect David Grazian will take the helm in 2026, with @elenavanstee.bsky.social as managing editor.
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 22/12/2025
Hot off the presses! Contexts co-editors @aminghaziani.bsky.social & @sethabrutyn.bsky.social, along with senior managing editor @lettapage.bsky.social, are signing off with the Fall 2025 issue. Read it here: journals.sagepub.com/toc/ctxa/24/4 @sagepublishing.bsky.social
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 02/12/2025
“During the holiday season, mothers are spending the equivalent of an extra work week on housework and shopping compared to fathers.” Read Kate Prickett and Jennifer Augustine on a maternal Third Shift: journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 17/11/2025
In a thoughtful essay, Laurel R. Davis-Delano and Stephanie A. Fryberg explain how our summer 2025 cover reflected and reinforced settler colonialism. Read their essay and the Contexts editorial team's apology: contexts.org/articles/the...
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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 17/11/2025
Get it while it’s open-access! Today is the last day to read our latest issue for free! contexts.org/articles/su2...
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