In the News

In the News

National Debt Hits Historic High

3.28.18

Department Chair Steve Fazzari becomes the guest of "National Debt Hits Historic High" by Gretchen Brown, discussing the issues of the growing national debt after the recent action in Congress.

WashU Experts: Retail giants Dick’s, Walmart regulate where politicians won’t

3.28.18

Two U.S. retailers made moves this week to regulate their gun sales based on principle — moves that legislators failed to make in recent years despite public outcry following each incident in a line of mass-shooting tragedies. A pair of Washington University in St. Louis experts say that these actions represent “an expansion of corporate social responsibility.”

Trump tariffs are based on flawed view of trade

3.28.18

President Donald Trump likes to talk about the trade deficit as if it were the score of a football game — with the home team, of course, losing. Department Chair Steve Fazzari expresses his opinion towards Trump's view of trade and tariff.

Rules Without Rights: Land, Labor, and Private Authority in the Global Economy

3.22.18

This book is about the idea that transnational corporations can push these standards through their global supply chains, and in effect, pull factories, forests, and farms out of their local contexts and up to global best practices.

Right-to-work holdouts face new efforts to change labor laws

2.7.18

Missouri’s new law will go to a statewide referendum in November, while a pair of Republican lawmakers in Ohio announced last month they want to put the issue before voters in two years. Professor Jake Rosenfeld comments on this issue.

Police kill unarmed blacks more often, especially when they are women, study finds

2.6.18

Blacks, especially women, are more likely to have been unarmed when killed by police than non-blacks, and that risk appears to increase in police departments with a greater presence of non-white officers, according to a new study of nationwide data from Washington University in St. Louis.

Does Labor Have a Death Wish?

2.5.18

Among union households, Professor Jake Rosenfeld and Washington University postdoc Patrick Denice pointed out in an April blog post, fully 6 percent said they voted for neither Trump nor Clinton, which in most cases likely means they voted for Johnson or Stein.

Racism Is Stopping Black Men From Solving Our Nursing Shortage

2.5.18

Professor Adia Harvey Wingfield argues that for some men, gendered ideas about work can make entering a field like nursing very difficult. These beliefs persist even when labor market conditions shift so that male-dominated jobs become more scarce. Racism is stopping black men from solving our nursing shortage.

Welcome to WashU: Q&A with Tim Bartley

2.5.18

Timothy Bartley's specializations include global political economy and governance, environment and sustainability standards, and work and labor standards. He joined the sociology department this fall as a professor. As part of our ongoing series highlighting new faculty, we asked Bartley about his forthcoming book, his transition to St. Louis, and what's next.

Full employment in the United States? Not for many women

2.5.18

With jobless rates at a two decade low, the United States is nearing full employment — but women are not reaping the full benefit, due to a lack of childcare options. Professor Caitlyn Collins says that the US has the most inhospitable family policy of any country in the developed world.

Record expansion of U.S. hate groups slows under Trump administration

2.5.18

As President Donald Trump prepares to offer his first State of the Union address, a new analysis by a Washington University in St. Louis sociologist may explain why the pronounced, decades-long expansion of U.S.-based hate groups has slowed to a crawl during the first year of his administration.

Would You Be My Neighbor?

2.5.18

Using survey data, sociologist Ariela Schachter has investigated how Americans think about race, immigration status, assimilation, and what it means to be ‘similar.’ She discusses her process and findings.