Lifestyles & Social Issues
It's easy enough to agree that human beings all around the world have certain basic requirements that must be fulfilled in order to ensure their individual and collective well-being. History has shown us, however, that it's not so easy to form societies or communities that fulfill these requirements for all members. The fight for human and civil rights has persisted for hundreds of years and remains alive today, both within the borders of nations and on an international scale. It has led to large-scale social movements and reforms concerning issues such as suffrage, slavery, women's rights, racism, environmentalism, gay rights, and much more.
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Featured content, December 07, 2024
Our Days Are Numbered: 7 Crazy Facts About Calendars
And you thought page-a-day calendars were crazy.
The Effects of China’s One-Child Policy
In 1980 China implemented a controversial family-planning policy nationwide that limited most Chinese families to just one...
Why Is It Called Black Friday?
You’ve probably heard that Black Friday is the day retailers go back “in the black,” but that’s not the true origin of the...
A Brief (and Fascinating) History of Money
At one time it really did grow on trees.
kinship
Kinship, system of social organization based on real or putative family ties. The modern study of kinship can be traced back...
slavery
Slavery, condition in which one human being was owned by another. A slave was considered by law as property, or chattel,...
John Locke
John Locke was an English philosopher whose works lie at the foundation of modern philosophical empiricism and political...
social service
Social service, any of numerous publicly or privately provided services intended to aid disadvantaged, distressed, or vulnerable...
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Lifestyles & Social Issues Subcategories
Education
Promoting the development of the intellectual faculties in young people and teaching the values and the accumulated knowledge of a society is no easy task, and it's one that carries great responsibility. From at least the time of Plato, schools and academies have had an important role in the cultural molding of the young generations. This discipline is concerned with the methods of teaching and learning, which are an additional support to the informal means usually provided by the familial nucleus. Modern universities, colleges, and specialized academies provide an education often geared toward a specific professional field in all areas of human knowledge.
Articles
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distance learning
education
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John Dewey
American philosopher and educator
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Walter Gropius
German-American architect
Festivals & Holidays
The commemoration of many events—religious, agricultural, or sociocultural—helps to keep traditions alive, while at the same time it unifies the participants in the celebratory spirit of a holiday, feast, or anniversary. In a similar manner, local and international exhibitions, festivals, and fairs unite people with similar causes, interests, or beliefs.
Articles
- Gay Pride
- World Cancer Day
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Christmas
holiday
Human Rights
These are the rights that you’re entitled to simply for being human. The term “human rights” is relatively new, but the concept of human rights had its origins in ancient Greece and Rome. Although the principle of human rights has gained widespread acceptance over the centuries, there has been disagreement over the nature and scope of such rights and their definition. Still, the reality of popular demands for human rights in the early 21st century is undeniable, and a deepening and widening concern for the promotion and protection of human rights on all fronts is now woven into the fabric of contemporary world affairs.
Articles
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Viola Desmond
Canadian businesswoman and civil libertarian
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton
American suffragist
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United Nations
international organization
Human Migration
Human migration has been a part of humankind’s history for millenia. Voluntary migration has often been prompted by a search for better economic opportunities or housing. In other cases, however, large groups of people have been forced to abandon their homes as they flee war, famine, natural disasters, or political or religious persecution.
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Trail of Tears
United States history
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Highland Clearances
Scottish history
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westward movement
United States history
LGBTQ Issues
The gay rights movement originally focused on the rights of homosexual men and women, but it has since come to advocate equal rights for bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals in addition to gay men and lesbians. The movement began in the late 19th century and has continued into the 21st century. Organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, along with individual activists such as Harvey Milk, Audre Lorde, and Larry Kramer, increased the movement's visibility and contributed to its efforts to promote human rights and fight discrimination against LGBTQ persons. The issues of primary importance for the movement have included repealing antisodomy laws, combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic, securing marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples, and lobbying governments for nondiscriminatory policies in employment, housing, and other areas of life.
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Harry Hay
American activist
- homosexuality
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Wolfenden Report
British report
Newspapers & Magazines
The magazine as it is now known came into existence only after the invention of printing in the West. The modern magazine had its roots in the spate of pamphlets, broadsides, ballads, chapbooks, and almanacs that printing had made possible. Much of the energy that went into those texts gradually came to be channeled into publications that appeared regularly and that collected a variety of material that was designed to appeal to particular interests. The magazine thus came to occupy the large middle ground, incapable of sharp definition, between the book and the newspaper.
Articles
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National Enquirer
American newspaper
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Cowles family
American publishing family
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magazine
publishing
Slavery & Human Trafficking
property" of the slaveholder, despite the obvious and grievous violation of human rights that this practice entailed. The abolition movement in western Europe and the Americas began in the late 18th century and was chiefly responsible for creating the emotional climate necessary for ending the transatlantic slave trade. Although slavery no longer exists as a legal phenomenon recognized by a political authority or government, human trafficking—a form of modern-day slavery that involves the illegal transport of individuals by force or deception for the purpose of labor, sexual exploitation, or financial gain—is a growing international phenomenon that affects people of all ages.
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American Civil War
United States history
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human trafficking
crime
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Dred Scott decision
law case
Social Movements & Trends
The rules and cultural norms of an organized society may not be written in stone, but often it does take a dedicated collective effort to disrupt and revise them. Throughout history, people have come together in group campaigns to effect change in the structure or values of a society. Movements such as abolitionism, the women's rights movement, the American civil rights movement, and the gay rights movement illustrate how common citizens can influence legislative action and modify cultural norms when they unite with the shared goal of bringing about a certain social change. Societal change can also take place naturally as a result of the accumulation of many smaller changes within a society. Large-scale trends such as industrialization, modernization, and urbanization provide examples of this more passive process of change.
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Oliver Cromwell
English statesman
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liberalism
politics
- modernization
Sociology & Society
The study of human societies is an important tool for the improvement of living conditions. It analyzes the innumerable factors that are the makeup of human behavior and that can cause social injustice, stratification, and societal disorder in the form of crime, deviance, and revolution. It helps to find the best possible solutions to issues such as economic inequality, race relations, and gender discrimination. The discipline of sociology has grown by leaps and bounds in the last century with the contribution of scholars from different schools of thought.
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linguistics
science
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Conrad Taeuber and Irene Barnes Taeuber
American sociologists
- social service