Listen to PI social science editor Nikki Jones in conversation with sociologist Karen Sternheimer about the sometimes strange relationship between an ethnographic researcher and the neighborhood she’s studying. Nikki was in the field for three years for her first book, Between Good and Ghetto, and lived in the Fillmore neighborhood of San Francisco for three years for her forthcoming book, The Hustle: Why it’s Hard to Make Good in the New Inner City. Nikki is also producing a short film, The Camera Rolls, the story of one man’s decade-long effort to document daily life in a tough San Francisco neighborhood. Look for the film on PI the coming weeks.

The general strike in Oakland yesterday had the feeling of a street party. The ebullience didn’t seem to suggest that people took the problems facing the 99 percent lightly – the many people who showed up appeared relieved to have a venue for their frustration.

Emily Hauser is ambivalent about the OWS movement – but are the police’s actions in Oakland enough to make anyone a convert to the cause? Emily is a freelance writer and social activist. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic online, The Hairpin and Feministe, and in a variety of print outlets. She blogs at emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com, crossposts at Angry Black Lady Chronicles, and can be followed on Twitter @emilylhauser.

Emily L. Hauser offers a look askance at the Occupy Wall Street movement. Tune in tomorrow for her take on Occupy Oakland. Emily is a freelance writer and social activist. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic online, The Hairpin and Feministe, and in a variety of print outlets. She blogs at emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com, crossposts at Angry Black Lady Chronicles, and can be followed on Twitter @emilylhauser

Poor people have air-conditioning and X-Boxes. Some even have the internet. What more could they want? A lot more, says sociologist Phillip Cohen, who offers a Google-assisted glimpse into the lives of poor mothers in the great recession. Philip is a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He blogs at Family Inequality.

The marriage struggle is an ever-unfolding drama and has captured our attention like no other issue in today’s gay rights movement. Supporters cheer monumental wins – like legalized marriage in places like Iowa – and wince at painful defeats like the passing of Prop 8 in California. But should the struggle for same-sex marriage define the LGBT rights movement? Public Intellectual editor Heather Tirado Gilligan considers that question in the context of other civil rights movements and comes up with a surprising answer.

Imani Perry is not a fan of beauty pageants. So why is she happy to see so many women of color cropping up in crowns and evening gowns? Imani is an interdisciplinary scholar and Princeton professor who studies race and African American culture. She teaches at the Center for African American Studies and in the Program for Law and Public Affairs and is the author of Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop (Duke University Press, 2004).

Heather Tirado Gilligan traces the connection between economic crises and end-of-men panics back to the early 20th century. Heather is executive editor and publisher of The Public Intellectual. She holds a Ph.D. in English and a master’s in journalism. Heather has taught literature, black studies and women’s studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Rutgers University.

Brad Evans is associate professor of English at Rutgers University. He recently co-produced the restoration and screening series of the silent feature film In the Land of the Head Hunters and is editing a volume of companion essays, Restoring the Head Hunters: Edward S. Curtis, the Kwakwaka’waka, and Cinematic Documents of Encounter.

Kettling is an instrument of policing—and silencing—political protest that’s wickedly effective. Jane Elliott, lecturer in contemporary literature at the University of York, experienced the misery of kettling firsthand in protests against education cuts.