A Worthwhile Blog!

In today’s post I want to profile another blog which might be of interest to some of my readers. The blog, “Inequalities: Research and reflection from both sides of the Atlantic,” was started in September 2010 by a group of young academic researchers who met at a ‘Social Change: a Harvard-Manchester Initiative’ (SCHMI) workshop in Crewe, England. The fields covered by the collective range between sociology, political science, geography, demography, social policy, and economics. They come from “universities on both sides of the Atlantic,”  and aim to provide:

… a space to critically discuss research on inequality, both our own research and the most interesting research we come across; and
 … a community of people who want to try and tackle the injustices they see in the world by shedding light on things that would otherwise be invisible.

I am really excited to share this blog, and I think that the posts will be relevant to all readers who have taken interest in my posts. While the broad base of posters limits the continuity of the blog as a whole, I welcome the variety as refreshing. I often get caught on a single track or mindset when it comes to inequality, and reading informed posts from different points of view serves as a great reminder of the number of factors which impact this topic.

I’ll share a couple of my favorite posts to set you off in the right direction. A post questioning the purpose of elite universities brings to light some interesting questions about the goal in higher education. The author draws an analogy between elite universities and the preparations of a country’s Olympic program. He highlights how, similar to an Olympic training program, our elite universities pick out the best and brightest and cultivate them to be the very best in the world. To go along with the idea of competing countries, each country’s universities may exist only to produce the best intellects who will compete intellectually with the innovators of other countries. I appreciate the efforts the post makes to look at the way existing institutions may unintentionally contribute to inequality. The post is very well written and forces readers to think in a new way about inequality.

Another post I wanted to highlight pulls some interesting points out of a book called, “Doormen,” by Peter Bearmen. The book details how a close look at the seemingly minor details surrounding the job of a doorman reveal interesting aspects about social status and function. The post provides a succinct summary and guides readers of shorter blog-based material to more in-depth and thorough reading through relevant literature.

While this blog is not going to be your front page for the latest in inequality, it can provided thoughtful and insightful reading for whenever you want to check for updates. I really enjoy learning from those who are in the trenches at universities, doing the research necessary to push for evidence-based reform. While there may be some overlap in the content posted on my blog, I think that “Inequality” is likely to take a more informed and original approach, whereas my blog largely serves as a place for synthesis of existing material that is on the web. It appears others have found their blog to be useful as well; According to majesticseo.com, the blog has accumulated more than 100,000 backlinks in the last 5 years. I hope that you go and check it out! I think it will be worth your time.