For this episode I talked with Leslie McCall of the City University of New York. Leslie wonders if we should be asking different kinds of research questions, focusing on the possibilities for solidarity among the majority of people in the U.S. She’s particularly critical of how we, as social scientists, frame our research about political polarization. Instead of focusing so intensely on divisions among people, she argues, we should be studying how the ultra wealthy and powerful are able to thwart the will of the majority in reducing economic inequality, for example.
Leslie McCall is Associate Director of the Stone Center, and Presidential Professor of Sociology and Political Science at The Graduate Center, CUNY. She studies public opinion about inequality, trends in earnings and income inequality; and patterns of intersectional inequality. You can find more information about Leslie’s work in the show notes.
https://stonecenter.gc.cuny.edu/people/mccall-leslie/
https://stonecenter.gc.cuny.edu/leslie-mccall-the-multidimensional-politics-of-inequality-lse-event/
https://stonecenter.gc.cuny.edu/panel-building-political-alliances-across-race-and-class/