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Assessing course goals is often challenging; assessing an abstract goal, like empathy, can be especially so. For many instructors, empathy is central to sociological thinking. As such, fostering empathy in students is a common course goal. In this article, we report the initial findings of a semester-long assessment of empathy change in undergraduate students (N = 619). We employ a mixed-methods research design that utilizes qualitative instructor data to determine independent instructor-level variables and student surveys to measure student empathy change. We compare empathy change between students enrolled in introductory sociology classes to students not enrolled in sociology classes and test which student and instructor variables predict empathy change. We find that students taking sociology classes have positive empathy change compared to those who do not. We interpret these findings as evidence that study of sociology promotes empathy development and discuss implications for the classroom and further research.

What does it take to flood a highway? Penny Harvey and Hannah Knox examine how old infrastructure projects—and old infrastructural publics—get submerged by new ones in Peru.

Radioactive wastes, once discarded with little concern for the spread of contamination, are now subject to concerted state-sponsored efforts to produce secure and effectively perpetual containment infrastructures. Current UK policy is to bury the wastes in a geological disposal facility. The siting of this facility depends on the identification not only of a site with suitable geology but one where residents are demonstrably willing to host the facility. The article focuses on the diverse 'commoning' practices that this voluntaristic policy has brought about, including the possibility of articulating a common good across diverse scales of time and place, of acknowledging the tensions between economic and ecological needs, and ultimately of struggling to reconfigure 'the commons' itself as a lived space of ongoing deliberation and intrinsic uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction outlines an approach to commons that captures and responds to intersecting social, environmental, and political complications. The extractive power of states and corporations has long threatened the lives and livelihoods of the poor. However, contemporary local struggles are not adequately understood by frameworks that rest exclusively on social and political power. Climate change and the lingering effects of colonial and industrial extraction multiply the threats to the wider ecologies on which human lives depend. Debates on the commons have addressed such struggles, but without sufficient attention to the diverse bioethical regimes that underpin conventional commons. We propose that such attention can inform analyses by moving beyond the narrow singularities of modern categories. Our introduction lays the groundwork for an approach to the commons that pays attention to multiple and intersecting modes of dispossession, while also looking at convening or 'commoning' practices that are oriented toward building alternative relational worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream television scarcely features Deaf persons. When they do, they are usually cameo, secondary, and rarely multidimensional characters. This paper examines Deaf identity of a main character, Daphne Vasquez, on the popular show Switched at Birth. We analyze moments where Daphne's identity, a constructed Deaf identity, is showcased. We map how her identity is salient across seasons and then examine key moments of identity formation as Daphne negotiates her Deafness. We find a strong display of Deaf identity salience and impactful moments in the show that resulted in more positive, holistic representations of Deafness. In recent years, the media has come under increased scrutiny for limited representations of minority identities; this case study seeks to contribute to that conversation by studying a show explicitly focused on increased representation. This work is important as it not only examines a show which successfully features a character with a traditionally stigmatized identity but simultaneously quantifies how that identity is invoked as a message to viewers. This paper bridges cultural sociology with social psychology to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of identity representation in entertainment media and comments directly on the social impact of Daphne's character on Deaf presence in 21st century media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meta-abilities are cognitive skills, self-knowledge, emotional resilience, and personal drive, which make a critical difference in coping with change and taking initiative. Interviews with 96 British managers confirm that their individual development took place at the meta-ability level and played a critical role in their ability to have an impact on their organization. (SK)