When gold prices go up, so does the cost of a dowry – and baby girl survival rates in India fall
Sep 24, 2018 07:25 am UTC| Insights & Views Life
When world gold prices go up, fewer girl babies in India survive the first month of life, according to our new research. My colleagues and I suggest that this is linked to gold often being part of bridal dowries in India ...

Gurus, gas attacks and pubic hair: the strange history of Japan's new religions
Sep 24, 2018 07:21 am UTC| Insights & Views Life
This summer, Japan finally executed six long-imprisoned former members of the now-banned radical religious group Aum Shinrikyo. All of them had taken part in the groups notorious 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway...
Labour conference: a major stress test for the 'broad church'
Sep 24, 2018 07:13 am UTC| Insights & Views Life Politics
Jeremy Corbyn has promised Labour MPs that their party will remain a broad church. This years Labour Party conference will no doubt test that commitment. The Labour Party, MP Gerald Kaufman wrote in 1966, would not be...
The Catholic Church is a rich male collective
Sep 24, 2018 06:41 am UTC| Insights & Views Life
Im a typical sociologist, meaning I am skeptical about religion and human spirituality. Although I attended Catholic Church as a small child, I could see the hypocrisy, even as a child. I rejected that religion at an early...

Yom Kippur: A time for feasting as well as fasting
Sep 18, 2018 12:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
It was the bag of Fritos that gave me away. As a secular Jewish kid whose family did not belong to a synagogue, I did not think twice about riding my bike to the convenience store around the corner during the afternoon of...

Sep 18, 2018 12:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
Our previous article The predicament of diversity: re-boot for diversity 3.0 explored the multiple definitions of diversity and the factors shifting its focus from social and racial inequality to the diversity of identity...
It's hard to make money in aged care, and that's part of the problem
Sep 18, 2018 12:39 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety on Sunday, responding to concerns about the sector one day before an ABC Four Corners program which was to air them. Aged care...