Claude S. Fischer
Claude S. Fischer is Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. His many books include Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth.
The Neighborhood Effect
A bad environment can worsen the life chances not only of a child, but that of the child’s child.
When Epidemic Hysteria Made Sense
From a historical view, there was a time when alarm, even a run-to-the-hills psychology, made sense in reaction to a disease appearing on our shores.
Do Ideas Matter?
Do they affect individuals and societies more or less than do material circumstances such as economic incentives, physical constraints, and military force?
If Empathy Doesn’t Work, Try Religion
Relying on empathy to motivate charity means that it is not enough that the needy are humans, but they must also be lucky.
#Ferguson: Did Social Media Really Fan the Flames?
However vast the media apparatus may be, the disturbances have not spread.
All Tech Is Social
Concerns about the harms of new devices obscure the ways in which people have long adapted to technologies.
A Short History of Women in Politics
It is worth pausing to reflect on how women’s participation in politics has changed over the course of American history.
Taking the Government for Granted
Corruption of the system certainly occurs, much too often, but stands out precisely because it is not the norm.
How Changes in the Workplace Have Reinforced Pay Inequality
The American workplace increasingly rewards (and expects) long hours.
Are We Really “Alone Together”?
Middle-class Americans have alternatively immersed themselves in and withdrawn from public urban spaces.
Mourning, Victorian Style
The way New Yorkers responded to the 9/11 tragedy harkened back to the earlier Victorian-era styles.
When Money Shrinks Democracy
We are moving into an era where the direct influence of money on politics breaches new ground.
Which Radical Ideas Come True?
Two radical notions in the early 1970s, having a black president and permitting homosexual marriage, have pretty much come to pass.
Dr. Pangloss, Economist
There are great improvements in human welfare yet to be made, especially for the less powerful, over the seemingly optimal arrangements of today.
Male (Job) Insecurity
Critics of the broadening inequality insist that earnings have been flat or dropping. They have—for men.
