At #ASA2026, I'm discussing why an attempt by the U.S. far right to create a financial ecosystem parallel to the mainstream failed. The far right hoped it would ensure money doesn't flow to banks and corporations that, to them, push a "woke" agenda. See you Sunday at 10am! @asanews.bsky.social

I wrote about how much Americans wagered on sports betting in 2025 and how it’s more than they spent on movies, art, museums and music combined. Read my article @fortunemagazine.bsky.social fortune.com/2026/07/26/g...

Gambling becomes America's favorite pastime as Americans spend more on sports bets than movies, arts, museums, and music combined | Fortune

Americans wagered $166 billion on sports last year, more than Hollywood, the music industry, books, and museums combined.

fortune.com

In a first, NW Chicago tenants are suing their landlord under a new anti-gentrification law requiring landlords to give tenants a chance to buy their building before it can be sold to another landlord. Laws like these are important. I'm glad they're getting used. blockclubchicago.org/2026/07/15/l...

Logan Square Renters Sue Landlord, Realtor Over Tenant Right Of 1st Refusal Act Violations

The lawsuit is the first legal challenge involving the contentious renters-forward pilot program.

blockclubchicago.org

Do you study geography and health? An upcoming free webinar will teach you how to integrate IPUMS healthcare data into your Python and R workflows. Details and registration information here: umn.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Measuring spatial accessibility to healthcare: An applied example using IPUMS PMA data. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joini...

There is a strong connection between place, healthcare access, and health, however the data traditionally used to measure spatial access are not universally available; this issue is particularly acute...

umn.zoom.us

Folks local to Chicago! Want to help your neighbors during the heat wave this week? Volunteer to deliver water and portable fans to the elderly and disabled this Wednesday (July 1) through My Block My Hood My City. Details here: www.mobilize.us/m3/event/980...

Check On Your People · My Block, My Hood, My City

The mission is simple but incredibly important: we’re delivering box fans and water to senior and disabled neighbors across the city to help them beat the summer heat. Please do not park in any of th...

mobilize.us

Just out in @socialforcesfan.bsky.social some of our work comparing Elites in Brazil and South Africa! Using a small survey with random sample of CEOs, legislators, and top bureaucrats in both countries, we unpack the contradictory ways elite think about merit and taxation and redistrution.

Be careful out there! Conservatives are setting up progressive super PACs to trick people into donating to causes and candidates that might split the Democratic vote or ultimately support conservative candidates. For examples, see this Substack post: popular.info/p/two-progre...

Two “progressive” super PACs linked to House GOP

Two newly formed super PACs which purport to be progressive are linked to House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), a Popular Information investigation reveals.

popular.info

danah boyd recently argued that social media (as we knew it) is mostly dead; what we have now is parasocial media: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... I agree. Networked social media is disappearing, replaced by a new logic/structure of content creator, creator-centered community, & algorithm.

Social Media Is Now Parasocial Media - danah boyd, 2026

When practitioners used the term “social media” to describe the internet tools that emerged in the mid-aughts, they were giving a name to the kinds of platforms...

journals.sagepub.com

A friend just turned me on to a podcast called "Know Your Enemy," which is about the past, present, and future of conservative thought. It is incredible, and I highly recommend it if you want to understand the philosophies guiding our current historical moment. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/k...

Know Your Enemy

Politics Podcast · Updated Biweekly · A leftist's guide to the conservative movement, one podcast episode at a time, with co-hosts Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell.

podcasts.apple.com

A new study shows that communities rich in “third places” like libraries, cafes, and bars can be especially resilient after a natural disaster, using this social infrastructure to support community redevelopment. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I've started reading Wodtke and Zhou's new book on causal mediation analysis and am finding it super clear and helpful. (We've come a long way from Baron and Kenny (1986).) The R package they created as part of the book is useful too. Highly recommend reading it! www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...

Causal Mediation Analysis

Cambridge Core - Research Methods in Sociology and Criminology - Causal Mediation Analysis

cambridge.org

Yes. I’m sure the experts here didn’t do this. Probably because it’s nuts from a social science perspective?

Attending #ICUA and need a reason to wake up early? Come to my Thurs @ 8am session to hear how gentrification unfolds differently for organizations in cultural neighborhoods such as gayborhoods & ethnic enclaves. TL;DR: Gentrification can politicize rather than erase local orgs @uaanews.bsky.social

Right-wing populists are typically hostile to finance, but the far right is trying to create new financial markets so they can avoid giving money to big banks that support "woke" causes. Is it working? I'll answer on Wednesday 4/22 @ 12:30 in UChicago Sociology's colloquium series. Come to find out!

Which counties are cooperating with ICE? Unsurprisingly, it's pro-Trump counties. These counties also have fewer immigrants. This highlights another way that red & blue parts of the country are pulling away from each other, which has real consequences for immigrants www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Sure, the (non-healthcare) job market has lost steam, but a new report by @upjohninstitute.bsky.social shows that the returns to education still matter. Even in the current labor market, folks with a graduate or bachelor's degree are hired more quickly than others. www.upjohn.org/sites/defaul...

A new policy prevents non-citizens in the U.S., including green card holders, from applying for SBA loans. This will cripple growth in industries heavily dependent on immigrant entrepreneurs such as construction, food services, and healthcare. thebusinessjournal.com/new-sba-poli...

New SBA policy threatens financing for restaurants, construction, health care practices

Members of Congress are pushing for a reversal on new requirements for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to exclude green card holders, arguing the policy could restrict access to cap...

thebusinessjournal.com

Months after the surge in ICE raids in Chicago ended, locally owned Latino businesses are still experiencing decreased sales and lower foot traffic, even if the businesses themselves were not raided. blockclubchicago.org/2026/02/13/l...

Latino-Owned Businesses Struggle To Recover As Midway Blitz Impacts Linger

Latino-owned businesses on the Southwest Side are still seeing low sales. "I hope people shop local and support local businesses," one owner said.

blockclubchicago.org

I just finished reading @jbrownsaracino.bsky.social's book on gentrification and the cultural life it's taken on. I highly recommend it. Who knew the concept of gentrification would be used to criticize the upscaling of everything from kale to penile enhancement? press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

The Death and Life of Gentrification

A provocative account of what is gained and what is lost when a word that once narrowly referred to neighborhood change takes on a life all its own

press.princeton.edu

Out now! My paper examining White people displaced from gentrified neighborhoods. While they're displaced as frequently as non-White residents, they earn more and are displaced from richer neighborhoods, which cushions their fall and helps avoid adverse consequences. academic.oup.com/socpro/artic...

Race, Class, and the Displacement of White Residents from Gentrifying U.S. Neighborhoods

Abstract. Are the adverse consequences of gentrification distributed more along racial or class lines? To answer this question, scholars must consider when

academic.oup.com

“the state-approved version doesn’t include chapters on media and technology, global inequality, race and ethnicity, social stratification, or gender, sex and sexuality.” State. Approved. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Florida Introduces “Sanitized” Sociology Textbook

The volume was created after a state review found that existing course materials violated a law prohibiting general education courses from teaching about systemic inequality. So far, at least two univ...

insidehighered.com

Today! A conversation on the state of political violence in the U.S., hosted by @prri.org and featuring speakers such as @profsamperry.bsky.social Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Palantir is providing ICE “confidence scores” on the likely neighborhoods where potential deportation targets live. Their app compiles data from many sources to link suspects to neighborhoods. One officer stated in court records, “It’s kind of like Google Maps.” www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...

‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid

Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activit...

404media.co

As with many things these days, I'm surprised this isn't getting more news coverage than it is. Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Shut Down After 58 Years Due to Trump Eliminating Funding variety.com/2026/tv/news...

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Shut Down After 58 Years Due to Trump Eliminating Funding

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board voted to close the organization after 58 years after the Trump Administration ended funding.

variety.com

NEW AT DEMOGRAPHY: We use difference-in-difference approach using applicant vs. implemented counties w/ 287(g) ICE agreements 2000-2020 to identify a plausibly causal effect immigration enforcement leading to sizeable increase in Latino-White segregation. OPEN ACCESS PDF doi.org/10.1215/0070...

Demography - the flagship journal of PAA@readdemography.bsky.social · 8mo ago

“Deportations & Latino Segregation”: @fertmortmig.bsky.social @jakerugh.bsky.social & Hao Liang examine how 287(g) enforcement slowed drops in local segregation by 1/3rd, esp. in New South states, entrenching “patterns of residential stratification & inequality.” read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...

The academic performance of men in the U.S. has declined so much in comparison to women that, in order to keep gender ratios roughly equal at U.S. colleges, a de facto 'affirmative action for men' has been created. My, how things have changed. yaschamounk.substack.com/p/end-affirm...

The Quiet Scandal of Affirmative Action for Men

Colleges systematically disadvantage female applicants.

yaschamounk.substack.com

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

Google Scholar Is Doomed

Academia built entire careers on a free Google service with zero guarantees. What could go wrong?

hannahshelley.neocities.org

new paper by Sean Westwood: With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research

The 2025 #SSHA conference is almost here! Come to both of my presentations. The first shows how gentrification has transformed LGBTQ organizations in gayborhoods. Gentrified gayborhoods commercialized, but non-gentrifying gayborhoods politicized in response. (1/2) @socscihistory.bsky.social

These days, the U.S.'s affordability crisis will be addressed, if not solved, locally rather than nationally. To provide concrete, attainable local solutions, @urbaninstitute.bsky.social has produced ideas for how to achieve an affordable future: www.urban.org/apps/policy-...

Policy Solutions for an Affordable Future

Everyday Americans are worried about the cost of living, and more than 60 percent feel prices are heading in the wrong direction. American life has become mo…

urban.org