images from occupy toronto

occupy toronto

As Occupy Toronto entered it's third week, the spirits of the occupants in the two hundred or so tents in Toronto's St. James park continue to be high. The unrelenting rain and the unseasonably cold weather have not put a damper on the enthusiasm of the camped out activists. Specific tents house a library, an information centre, a food station, a media relations centre and a logistics unit. On a cool crisp Sunday morning, many activists are already up. Some are singing on the gazebo that has become a stage; others line up for coffee and toast; yet others are busy with a very public meeting, discussing strategies for the next few days. A young man in his early twenties tells me that he was an engineering student, obssessed only about his grades until he encountered philosophy and began to think about social equity.

A Ryerson University psychology major, also in her twenties, recounts the process that led to her taking an active interest in social issues beyond the class-room. Many tell me that the numbers who have joined the residents of "a city in a park" has grown over the past week. While the long term effects of this movement are as yet unclear, it is heartening to see a wide swathe of people from all walks of life convert, in the words of C. Wright Mills (who else?), "personal troubles" into "public issues".

martin nicolaus and "fat cat sociology"

At the American Sociological Association's annual meetings in 1968, Martin Nicolaus, a graduate student, literally shook up the faux "scientific" sociological establishment with his "Fat Cat Sociology" presentation. Later, he taught Sociology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby on the outskirts of Vancouver (set up, as he points out by the conservative Social Credit government to generate "human capital") during its tumultous years but left after many faculty members were either under fire or were getting fired for their anti-war activism. He went on to translate Marx's "Grundrisse" - an incredible accomplishment for which this native German speaker was more than eminently qualified.

I am not the only one to have wondered whatever happened to this proverbial thorn in the side of the powerful. Thanks to Google, I finally managed to locate him. His site is the proverbial treasure trove for those interested in the social history of scoiology and his reflexive takes on Sociology, sociologists of all stripes and his life so far. It is also a treat for photography enthusiasts such as me. Those who live for sociology, not off it, will enjoy his site:

martin nicolaus


Enjoy!

G. W. Domhoff on the Legacy of C. Wright Mills' _The Power Elite_

G. W. Domhoff on the living legacy of C. Wright Mills' _The Power Elite_

Domhoff on the legacy of Mills