Social Esteem and Participation in Contentious Politics

Taking a look at recent episodes of social unrest, public protest, and other forms of contentious politics around the globe will tell you a lot about 2014. 

The year opened with violence in Kiev as thousands took to Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital to remove the Yanukovych government from power. Gay rights activists in St. Petersburg, Russia—but also throughout the world in a display of solidarity—protested the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in light of Russia’s controversial laws on “non-traditional” sexuality.... Read more about What Others Think of Us

How Harvard’s Neil Brenner and the Urban Theory Lab are Changing the Urban Game

Image 1: The “dots-on-map,” urban/rural divide, which is commonly derived from and disseminated through recent UN data and images. Researchers in the Urban Theory Lab-GSD warn against such compartmentalized approaches. (Source: Redrawn from UN-DESA-PD, 2012: accessed 14 June 2012)... Read more about The Field Formerly Known as Urban Studies

Recent evidence gathered by Harvard’s Dara Kay Cohen suggests a new paradigm is necessary.

What drives wartime sexual violence? Conventional wisdom points to the sudden breakdown of government, primordial ethnic hatreds, or even patriarchal society writ-large. But a closer look at variation across cases tells a different story.... Read more about Rethinking Wartime Rape