I've had some really good reading these past few days. I think they'd be enjoyed by everyone in this sub:
"Rupture and Reconstruction: the Transformation of Contemporary Orthodox Jewry". An interesting essay that argues that Orthodox Jews have gone from learning halachic, minhag, and Jewish practice generally from the people around them to learning it from books--books that often contain a lot of strictures not labeled strictures. This has resulted in "What had been a stringency peculiar to the "Right" in 1960, a 'Lakewood or Bnei Brak humra,' as—to take an example that we shall later discuss shiurim (minimal requisite quantities), had become, in the 1990's, a widespread practice in modern orthodox circles, and among its younger members, an axiomatic one."
I also reread R. Daniel Gordis's essay "Conservative Judaism: A Requiem," which makes clear arguments about why the Conservative has numerically declined so much in America (Gordis is a Conservative rabbi). It inspired a lot of debate, and I'm still working my way through all the debate--there are at least eight separate responses. So far, my favorite is the historian Jonathan Sarna's, which argues that Orthodox Judaism in the 1950's and Reform Judaism multiple times were both in danger of dying out, but that they changed (Orthodox Judaism built institutions that carried its members and their children through all phases of life; Reform Judaism became less dogmatic/elitism and a "big tent" that encouraged diversity).
"Modern Orthodoxy in Crisis: a Test Case" by the sociologist Edward Shapiro. It is also about how Modern Orthodoxy has adopted more stringencies, in this case, about the process of change in one Orthodox congregation ( AABJ&D in West Orange, NJ) over the several decades, and most notably focuses on the hiring of a new Black Hat rabbi (who openly says he has no plans to send his kids to the community schools, among other things).
Rabbi Ysoscher Katz and Rabbi Ozer Glickman – Rounds One and Two. A Facebook debate over R. Katz's teshuva that allowed women to breast feed in shul, curated and commented on by Rabbi Allan Brill. It's interesting in part because, as R. Brill points out, R. Katz has a Satmar background and is now a main Open Orthodox Posek, and R. Glickman grew up Conservative and is now an important Centrist Orthodox figure (I think Allan Brill is Centrist Orthodox all the way down, but I'm not sure). It's interesting because while they're arguing about a halachic point, they're really discussing ways in which things outside of halachic (especially ideology) do, can, and should affect halacha.