Los Angeles has a history of considerable racial and ethnic conflict, ranging from the “zoot suit riots†of 1943 through the Watts riots of 1965 and the so-called “Rodney King†rioting in 1992. Politics in Los Angeles has often reflected this intergroup conflict, from Sam...

David Goodstein outlines the approaching peak of oil drilling that is commonly referred to as Hubbert’s Peak. He notes that most of the energy used by humans, animals and plants is from the sun. This energy is stored in various forms including oil and coal. The exact amount of these forms...

Richard Somerville argues that one of the most important factors left out of debates on policies to address climate change is population growth. He asserts that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report of 2007 probably understates the rapid rise of carbon dioxide in the...

Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas, and Mike Davis, Department of History, UC Irvine, talked about the conservative culture in America. The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording and audience discussion of the talks given by the authors. Those who...

In this study, we integrate research findings on the impact of exposure to stereotype reinforcing local crime news with theories about the impact of residential context on attitudes about race and crime. To date, there has been no research investigating whether neighborhood context mitigates or...

A large number of Koreans have been admitted to the United States as legal immigrants since the change in the immigration law in 1965. A significant proportion of the new Korean immigrants have settled in Los Angeles. As a result, the Los Angeles Korean community, the home of some 200,000...

Adolfo Gilly, Department of Political Science, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), talked about neo-liberalism and the emergence of a “new populism†in many Latin American countries. Alfredo Saad Filho, Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),...

Local television news is the public’s primary source of public affairs information. News stories about crime dominate local news programming because they maintain high audience demand. The prevalence of this type of reporting has led to a crime narrative or “script†that...

Is it possible to explain all political behavior in terms of self-interest? If we interpret self-interest as narrow, direct and short-term, the answer is obviously no. Things that we might call culture, ideology, ideas and moral principles clearly affect individual choices, and, thereby,...

The biotechnology revolution is of particular interest both for the sociology of science and for industrial organization. Indeed, the closeness of progress in the basic science to applications in industry makes it impossible to understand the development of the industry without understanding the...