SOCIETY

We study mass surveillance for social control, and we see Trump laying the groundwork to ‘contain’ people of color and immigrants. President Donald Trump has vowed to target his political enemies, and experts have warned that he could weaponize U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct mass surveillance on his targets. Mass surveillance is the widespread monitoring of civilians. Governments typically target specific groups – such as religious minorities, certain races or ethnicities, or migrants – for surveillance and use the information gathered to “contain” these populations, for example by arresting and imprisoning people. We are experts in social control, or how governments coerce compliance, and we specialize in surveillance. Based on our expertise and years of research, we expect Tr...

Soaring wealth inequality has remade the map of American prosperity. One need only glance at headlines about Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and other super-wealthy individuals to understand that wealth in America is increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Inequality is sharply on the rise. Until now, however, little has been known about where the richest households are located, which cities are the most unequal and how these trends have evolved. In a new analysis I conducted with my colleagues, we reveal where wealth is most concentrated within and between communities, cities and states. The result is GEOWEALTH-US – the first data that tracks the geography of wealth in the United States and how it has changed since 1960. The overall picture is worrying. The wealthiest cities in th...

Each season, the celebration of Christmas has religious leaders and conservatives publicly complaining about the commercialization of the holiday and the growing lack of Christian sentiment. Many people seem to believe that there was once a way to celebrate the birth of Christ in a more spiritual way. Such perceptions about Christmas celebrations have, however, little basis in history. As a scholar of transnational and global history, I have studied the emergence of Christmas celebrations in German towns around 1800 and the global spread of this holiday ritual. While Europeans participated in church services and religious ceremonies to celebrate the birth of Jesus for centuries, they did not commemorate it as we do today. Christmas trees and gift-giving on Dec. 24 in Germany did not spre...

Christmas and New Year’s are days of celebration in many parts of the world when people gather with family and friends. One thing many typically don’t celebrate on those days is a birthday. That’s because Dec. 25 is the least popular day in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand to give birth. In England, Wales and Ireland, it’s the second-least popular, behind Dec. 26, when Brits celebrate Boxing Day. So why do people have fewer babies on holidays like Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s – the second-least popular birthday in the U.S.? I am personally interested in the question because my wife was a New Year’s Day baby. And as an economist, I find these data puzzles fascinating. Least and most popular birthdays All of the least-favored days in the U.S. are tied to holidays, wheth...

Have you been wondering what the quote "See You In The Funny Papers" actually means? The phrase "See you in the funny papers" is an idiomatic expression that harks back to the era when comic strips were a prominent feature in newspapers. It carries a playful tone, suggesting that the speaker is expecting to encounter someone again, often in a lighthearted or humorous context. This quote evokes nostalgia for a time when families would gather around the breakfast table to read the daily comics, laughing at the antics of beloved characters. In a broader sense, the expression implies that life is filled with unpredictable moments and that we may often find ourselves in amusing situations reminiscent of comic strips. In contemporary usage, saying "See you in the funny papers" can also sugg...

Why do people hate people? Have you ever said “I hate you” to someone? What about using the “h-word” in casual conversation, like “I hate broccoli”? What are you really feeling when you say that you hate something or someone?             Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Why do people hate people? – Daisy, age 9, Lake Oswego, Oregon The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes the word “hate” as an “intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury.” All over the world, researchers like us are studying hate from disciplines like education, history, law, leadership, psy...

US voters say they’re ready for a woman president − but sexist attitudes still go along with opposition to Harris. Since President Joe Biden exited the presidential race on July 21, 2024, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris’ campaign has generated widespread enthusiasm and attention. She quickly became the official Democratic presidential nominee and erased Donald Trump’s lead over Biden in national and swing-state polling. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have also drawn tens of thousands of supporters to their recent rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. Although things could change dramatically over the next two-plus months, there is a real possibility that the United States may ...

Even fictional presidents don’t look like Kamala Harris − although Black men and white women have been represented in the Oval Office. The United States had its first Black president and its first female president over a half-century ago. They were fictional, they were on screen, their names were Douglass Dilman and Leslie McCloud, and in the decades that followed there have been many others. Yet none quite lines up with Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2024 election who is a biracial woman. Even after the United States elected a biracial president – Barack Obama – who has been the subject of two biopics, filmmakers have not created fictional equivalents. Nor have the presidents on screen been of South Asian descent. Instead, almost all the presiden...