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St. Clair Drake was responsible for a major shift in the way urban sociologists studied cities. While educated by Chicago school scholars in sociology and anthropology, such as Robert Park and Ernest Burgess, Drake was one of many Black doctoral students who veered from the dominant perspective of his White teachers on race. His skills in ethnographic research were indebted not only to Park and Burgess, but also to the work of Black scholars who came before him, such as W. E. B. Du Bois and E. Franklin Frazier. His unique personal approach to cities and their racial problems transitioned into a more global focus on the Black diaspora, colonialism and the history of African people, and cultures which connected him to a world of social action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While trust has become an important symbol of social health, this essay proposes that critical mistrust is essential to social progress and personal well-being. Trust is examined here as a foundational element of liberal and neoliberal ideology that has taken the place of religious faith in the unseen. However, its commodification is responsible for its scarcity and inflated value. While trust is a tool that commands allegiance to the powerful, those with power have little trust in the vast majority. Expenditures on systems of security appear to correlate with ever-declining rates of trust in social institutions, just as they decline with the increasing disparities between rich and poor around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This critical review proposes that Lacan’s concept of alienation has little relevance to Marx’s notion of estrangement of labor and in fact depoliticizes it. Proceeding from a position that is not unsympathetic to poststructuralist theory, the author finds fault with Lacanian structuralism and particularly enlisting the help of Durkheim in attempting to enrich Marx’s psychology. While the author credits professors Worrell and Krier for attempting to take their critique of Marx to a more contemporary theoretical level, one which can potentially have value, he nevertheless sees the use of Lacan and Durkheim to rescue Marx as inappropriate, problematic, and a rejection of Marx’s humanistic understanding of human relations as well as an unsupported dismissal of his notion of alienation based on human and material commodification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial crisis has as much to do with psychological needs as with economic aims. This essay assesses the role of the commodity fetish and its significant position in the current capitalist disaster. It specifically looks at credit card debt as an attempt to address the need for self-empowerment and promote a sense of community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]