Category: Social Sciences : Sociology

In the light of the ideas I have set out in earlier pages, it should not appear odd to move directly from the intimacies of domestic life to developments that span the globe. Nothing is more characteristic of our era than the connections between the conduct of our day-to-day lives, specific to time and place, and events in far-flung regions. It is difficult for us, living in a world of more or less instantaneous electronic communication via telephone, radio, and television, and extremely rapid travel by road, rail, and air, to understand the slow pace of communication and travel in previous centurieries. Discuss.

In the light of the ideas I have set out in earlier pages, it should not appear odd to move directly from the intimacies of domestic life to developments that span the globe. Nothing is more characteristic of our era than the connections between the conduct of our day-to-day lives, specific to time and place, and events in far-flung regions. It is difficult for us, living in a world of more or less instantaneous electronic communication via telephone, radio, and television, and extremely rapid travel by road, rail, and air, to understand the slow pace of communication and travel in previous centurieries. Discuss.

Sources:
Part One
“The illusionists” (video, episodes 1 & 2, 97 minutes; FIU Library “Search for anything” box)
Part Two
“The bomb under the world” (each video, 55 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkeU4Xojc_sLinks to an external site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ_BB7VEDyQLinks to an external site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0r0Wj-ZI9kLinks to an external site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ObVN4BASxILinks to an external site.
Part Three
“How Kim Kardashian killed the term ‘empowerment’”
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/a55017/kim-kardashian-naked-selfie-empowerment/Links to an external site.
“Feminism’s greatest obstacle in the digital age is the commodification of women’s bodies”
https://qz.com/658036/feminisms-greatest-obstacle-in-the-digital-age/Links to an external site.
“The commodification and capitalization of the anti-racism industry”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2021/08/09/the-commodification-and-capitalization-of-the-anti-racism-industry/?sh=28ebdbc14b1eLinks to an external site. 
“Pride for sale”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/opinions/pride-for-sale/Links to an external site.
Part Four
“4 marketing tactics e-cigarette companies use to target youths”
https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/tobacco-industry-marketing/4-marketing-tactics-e-cigarette-companies-use-targetLinks to an external site.
“Advertising targets the young in poor countries—with deadly consequences”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/dec/01/big-tobacco-industry-targets-young-people-poor-countries-smokingLinks to an external site.
“How big business got Brazil hooked on junk food”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/16/health/brazil-obesity-nestle.htmlLinks to an external site.
Part Five
GPCC, chapter 1, “Constructing the consumer”
Discussion post – answer the questions with in-text citation sources
According to GPCC, what have been the four components of the creation of the consumer economy and society since the mid-1800s? Give three examples of each component. According to “The Bomb under the World,” how has consumerism been created in India?
According to “The Illusionists,” how have gender and beauty been commodified globally in recent decades?
According to “How Kim Kardashian …” and “Feminism’s greatest obstacle …,” what is the difference between “feeling empowered,” on the one hand, and having actual power in society, on the other?
What are arguably the social repercussions of the “commodification and capitalization of the anti-racism industry”?
What are arguably the social repercussions of “Pride for sale”?
Discuss three examples of how businesses have businesses marketed unhealthy commodities in poor countries.
How have you yourself been created as a consumer in terms of your social class, sexuality/gender, race/ethnicity, age, education, national citizenship, and geographic location in the world? Discuss this process in terms of the four components of the creation of a consumer economy and society.

Respond to two (2) of the following prompts:
Explain what stigmatization of illness means. Choose a common illness and explain how it might be stigmatized for people of different cultures or social classes? (USLO 10.1) 
Why do you think the United States has high obesity-related illnesses in comparison to lower-income nations? Within our society, what contributes to health inequities between people of varying socioeconomic statuses? (USLO 10.2) 
What are the differences between Medicare and Medicaid? What do you think are some of the downfalls of government funded healthcare in our society? (USLO 10.3) 
Describe the theoretical perspective that you think best explains the healthcare in our society? (USLO 10.4) 
Reply

The purpose of this essay is to apply C. W. Mills’s Sociological Imagination concept to explain a personal situation. The essay will demonstrate the student’s ability to use sociological concepts & theories learned in the course, to describe a personal situation. The topic is left to the student’s discretion.
The Essay paper should have the following 5 content areas:
1. Introduction: In this first content area, write a paragraph introducing C. W. Mills’s concept of sociological imagination, and give a general overview of how you will be applying it to the personal situation that you will discuss in your paper.
2. Personal Explanation: In this second content area, describe your personal situation/topic. Based on whether the situation is a current one or a past one, describe how you dealt or are dealing with it. You can also pick a situation from a person’s life who is closely related to you or whose experience affected you. You should know the person well enough to write the essay.
Describe what caused the problem, who were involved, what were others’ and your roles in the situation, and if a resolution was reached. This section is all about your account of your situation and should be no longer than four paragraphs (3/4 – 1 page).
3. Sociological Imagination: In this third content area, analyze your personal situation by applying sociological imagination, i.e., examine how society and social forces affected your situation. This section should be the most substantial portion of your essay. You should use terms and concepts from at least 3 different chapters from the textbook, and one sociological theory.
4. Data/Stats: Utilize at least 2 statistics or research studies from the textbook or outside sources such as the Galen College online library. The references should be scholarly and should be relevant to your situation (E.g., Inclusion of divorce rates in the US if the topic is on Divorce; inclusion of poverty rates, crime and victimization rates, or suicide rates if the topic is either on Poverty or Crime). Citing at least one outside source is required.
5. Conclusion: Write a wrap-up conclusion summarizing the major finding/themes in your paper. This should be no more than a paragraph.
 
Your essay should be 4-6 pages in length (excluding the title page and the references page) and should be double-spaced. You will lose points if your essay is shorter than 4 full pages of content. The font should be 12-point Calibri or Times New Roman. Use APA format for your entire essay, including for references and in-text citations and edit your work carefully for spelling and grammar.
Your essay should be 4-6 pages in length (excluding the title page and the references page). It should be double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5” x 11”) with a 1” margin on all sides. The font should be 12-point Times New Roman or Calibri. Use APA formatting throughout your essay and cite any sources you use.

Respond to two (2) of the following prompts:
Karl Marx studied the social impact of religion and believed religion reflects the material base, which is comprised of the means and modes of production and the relations of production. Marx argued that religion maintains inequality and perpetuates the status quo. Is Marx’s argument that religion maintains inequality and perpetuates the status quo true? Present an example that supports your assessment of Marx’s argument. (USLO 9.4)
Emile Durkheim argued that religion promotes social cohesion, and social control, as well as offering meaning and purpose to human life. Is Durkheim’s argument true? Present an example that supports your assessment of Durkheim’s argument. (USLO 9.4)
What is required of a society for its political structure to be considered democratic? While this question might seem straightforward, it is not and is a topic of contentious debate in current political philosophy circles. The Democracy Index lists 60 different indicators that must be considered when discerning whether a nation is a democracy. While you in no way will be expected to discuss all indicators, please talk about a few of the conditions that must exist for a government to qualify as a democracy. Include textual evidence to support your view. (USLO 9.1, 9.2)
In recent years in the United States, citizens have increasingly made claims that our judicial system is institutionally racist. Evidence provided for these claims has pointed toward unfair drug sentencing laws, stop and frisk policies, the use of police force, and the overwhelming number of black men in prisons and jails in comparison to the rest of the population. Select one claim and discuss whether these claims have merit, presenting specific examples to support your position. Include textual evidence to support your view. (USLO 9.3)
Reply

QUESTIONS MUST BE ANSWER BASED ON BOOK AND CLASSROOM SLIDES THERES ALSO ONE VIDEO AND LINK ITS IN BETWEEN THE SLIDES
Instructios (QUESTIONS)
1) Identify two sociological variables you are interested in studying a relationship between (e.g. social class and marriage rates; race and wage income; gender and police treatment).
2) Provide clear and concise definitions for each variable (conceptualization).
3) Identify one or more empirical indicators for each variable (operationalization).
4) Hypothesize how and why these two variables might be causally related. Please also indicate the direction of hypothesized causation (i.e. will higher social class yield higher marriage rates? lower?).
5) What kind of data might allow you to assess the three criteria for causality between these two variables? Please discuss.
BOOK (Adler and Clark must be purchased/rented; all others provided by instructor)
Adler and Clark.
How It’s Done: An Invitation to Social Research
, any edition. Wadsworth.
Sallaz, Jeffrey J. 2016. “Exit Tales: How Precarious Workers Navigate Bad Jobs.”
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 1-27. Silva, Jennifer M. 2012. “Constructing Adulthood in an Age of Uncertainty.”
American Sociological Review
77(4): 505-522.
Streib, Jessi, Miryea Ayala and Colleen Wixted. 2016. “Benign Inequality: Frames of Poverty and Social Class Inequality in Children’s Movies.”
Journal of Poverty 1-18.Vallas, Steven P. 1987. “White-Collar Proletarians? The Structure of Clerical Work and Levels of Class Consciousness.”
The Sociological Quarterly
, 28(4): 523-540.
CLASS SLIDES
Theory and Research
Overview
•Concepts, Variables and Hypotheses
•Causality
•Deductive and Inductive Reasoning
•Cyclical Model of Science
Concepts, variables, hypotheses
•Concepts
: words or signs that refer to phenomena that share common
characteristics
•Conceptualization
: the process of clarifying what we mean by a concept
•Variable
: a characteristics that can vary from one unit of analysis to another
•Unit of analysis:
the units about which information is collected—can bepersons, organizations, countries, families, cities, etc. but must be
clearly defined
•Hypothesis
: a testable statement about how two or more variables are expected to relate to one another
•Dependent variable
: seen as being affected or influenced by another variable
•Independent variable
: seen as affecting or influencing another variable
Concepts, variables, hypotheses
•Example Hypothesis:
“The neighborhood you grow up in determines your chances of having a high-paying job in adulthood.”
•2  concepts:
“neighborhood” and “high-paying job” – but what do these really mean?
•Conceptualization of each yields variables
•What are the units of analysis?
•Which is the dependent and which the independent variable?
•Why this direction of proposed causation?
Causality
•Causality is never proven, only inferred
.
•3 conditions for inferring causality:
1)Correlation
2)Time sequence:
IV must occur BEFORE the DV
3)Non-spuriousness:
there is no third variable, antecedent to the IV and DV, that causes their correlation
•Complicating factors:
1)Antecedent variable: Z
A
B
2)Intervening variable: A
Z
B
3)Extraneous variable: A
B
Z

Deductive Vs. Inductive Reasoning
•Deductive reasoning
: moving from general to specific statements
•Example: All bachelors are male; Socrates is a bachelor; therefore, Socrates is male.
•Measurement
: strategies for classifying subjects to represent variable concepts
•Empirical generalizations
: statements summarizing a set of individual observations
•Typically quantitative
•Inductive reasoning:
moving from specific to general statements
•Example: Socrates is a bachelor and is male; Pythagoras is a bachelor and is male;
….; therefore, all bachelors are male.
•Grounded theory:
theory derived from data in the course of a study
•Typically qualitative
Cyclical Model of Science
Theories
Hypotheses
Observations
Empirical
Generalizations
Creative Leaps
Statistical/Verbal
Summary
Logical Deduction
Measureme
Deductive reasoning:
•Excellent for testing existing theories and hypotheses—i.e. explanatory and action-oriented research
•Almost useless for developing entirely new concepts, hypotheses, theories—i.e. exploratory and descriptive research
•Inductive reasoning:
•Excellent for developing new concepts, hypotheses, theories
•Almost useless for testing existing theories/hypotheses

Given the definitions and examples of various societal components, as explained in the “Concepts” reading, how would you describe a model of how societies are put together and work? How do the key elements of social life relate to and shape each other? What is your idea or model of a “structure” of society based on these numerous parts? Which element do you see as most foundational or crucial to holding a society together and why is this so?
Your writing should begin with an overview of your opinion and summary of data supporting it and rely or evidence from this unit’s readings and any other pertinent course materials (e.g. lecture video) from this unit, stated in a clear and organized manner. The writing should be approximately the equivalent of one page double-spaced with citations of our relevant sources to provide evidence for your argument.

After you’ve read the Introduction chapter of the book, discuss:(A) one thing that was COMPLETELY NEW to you from the chapter (i.e., you’d never heard or thought of it before)
 and(B) one way in which your thinking was  EXPANDED by something in the chapter

Conduct a simple Google search for TWO (2) recent / current events for EACH topic you chose in the Introductory Discussion on Cognitive Dissonance.
In a Word document and organized by topic – copy/paste the source links for each topic’s recent events.
Under your source links (in the same Word doc) fully and properly answer the following:
A. Discuss generally how you suspect scientific and media literacy can influence (proliferate or assuage) the larger public’s collective cognitive dissonance surrounding each of your current / recent events (in 4-6 sentences per event).
B. Discuss generally how you suspect a lack of scientific and/ or media literacy within a larger society might affect the lived experiences and life chances (political, cultural, and social) for the people affected by each of your recent events (in 4-6 sentences per event).
C. Consider which of these events you’d like to learn more about when it comes to the people affected by the event /topic and the media and scientific literacy surrounding it.
D. Select and then state (type) which ONE of these recent / current event you will use for your Analysis in this course.