Eitzen Chapter 1 1. THE CHALLENGE OF OBJECTIVITY
Maintaining objectivity is a great challenge to researchers. This is especially true when sociologists are faced with comparing vastly different segments of a society with many different patterns of living. It is equally true when they study widely divergent societies, as anthropologists have discovered in the last 100 years. To examine a wide variety of peoples and to see whether you can maintain your own objectivity, go to NativeWeb. When you arrive at NativeWeb, page down until you see ||subject||geographic regions||nations/peoples|| (and so on). Click on geographic regions. You will see a list of areas on the new page. Browse through a number of societies. What do most of them have in common? What are the most widely different elements? Now decide on four rather different peoples and take notes for a 3-4 page paper covering the following questions: 1) Which elements of the societies are you comfortable with? 2) Which ones make you most uncomfortable? 3) How objective do you think you could be doing a field study in each of the four? 4) Briefly describe as objectively as possible what you see as the most important elements in each society. 2. CONSTRUCTING A TABLE
Use secondary analysis of census data to construct a table. Go to 1990 Census Lookup. Select the database, STF#c--Part 1. At the Retrieval Area page, click on the Submit bar. At the Data Retrieval Option page, click on the Submit bar. At the page headed, "Select the tables you wish to retrieve," page down to P70--Sex and Employment Status, and click on the circle in front of the entry. Then go to the top of the page and click on the Submit bar. You should be presented with a table showing employment status of males and females. Depending on your WEB browser, you can either save the table or print it. (Netscape will allow both.) Use these data to practice constructing a table, as described in the Table, "How to Read a Table." Be sure to include all of the elements in a typical table when you prepare the final version of your table. Eitzen Chapter 2 1. STATUSES (POSITIONS IN ORGANIZATIONS)
In this chapter you learned about the statuses and roles found in groups. You will be looking at the organization charts of large organizations to see what the positions (statuses) are and how they differ from group to group. Point your computer to Yahoo and enter the search terms "organization chart" (without the quotation marks). Go to the bottom of the page and click on the AltaVista bar. On the new page you will see the first ten of hundreds of sites containing organization charts. Start by clicking on two or three sites and note the similarities of the positions. Are there any major differences? Once you get a feel for the charts, select several sites in each of two types of organizations. For example, you might look at military, government, education, or religion. Take notes on the general similarities of statuses among the various types of organizations, as well as differences among them. Then select a third site involving another type of organization and make similar notes concerning it. (Also get an organization chart from your college or university if it is available and compare it with what you noted about these other organizations.) Write a two or three page paper on your findings. 2. THE MCDONALDIZATION OF SOCIETY
George Ritzer's concept of "The McDonaldization of society," involves the rationalization of the routine tasks of everyday life. Go to www.umsl.edu/~rkeel/010/mcdonsoc.html. Read the page. After you have finished your research, write a two-part paper. In part one, discuss the general idea of McDonalization and its specific elements. In the second part of the paper, apply the concept to some aspect of your college or university, and discuss the degree to which each of the McDonaldization concepts you learned from your Web research applies to the situation. 3. FORMAL ORGANIZATIONS
The U. S. government bureaucracy is one of the largest and most complex in the world. Explore a small portion of its organization by accessing Secretary of Defense and select Office of the Secretary. On the Secretary's page select the Organization Chart. Browse through the chart, looking for elements that are bureaucratic. What are the advantages of these bureaucratic features? What are the drawbacks? Can you think of any alternative ways of organizing the Department of Defense? Print the chart and bring it to class for discussion. Eitzen Chapter 3 No Internet Activities Eitzen Chapter 4 1. SUBCULTURES
One of the fascinating aspects of studying about culture lies in the concept of subculture. Subcultures are groups with norms, roles, and lifestyles which deviate extensively from those in their society's general culture. In this project, you will look at at the characteristics of some religious groups to see if they seem to be subcultures. To begin, direct your computer to Sociosite - Religion and Spirituality. Under "Eastern Religions", click on "Bahai." Click on several of the listed subjects and read the material, looking for how much their beliefs and behaviors deviate from the dominant U.S. culture. When you finish you should be able to explain how Bahai is a subculture. Now, go back to the Religion and Spirituality page and choose three religions. Follow the procedure you used in studying Bahai. When you have completed your research, write a paper of 3-5 pages comparing the groups as possible subcultures. 2. CORE VALUES
Freedom is a core value in U.S. society. Compare the eleven excerpts from Declarations on Religious Freedom. Write a one to two page report on common principles and differences that you find. Also discuss whether you think people in our society agree on what religious freedom means. Do you think this core value is changing? Eitzen Chapter 5 1. THE SOCIALIZATION OF CHILDREN
Child rearing and child care vary widely in from one society to another. To explore some of these differences on the Internet, enter the search terms, "child rearing." You might also try "child care." Try to discover some of the varieties of values and practices within the United States. Can you identify any of the social characteristics of those proposing a particular point of view? Try the same exercise by looking at different countries. Look at the term after the last address "dot"--for example, www.ucalg.ca/. You might try ca (Canada), uk (England), au (Australia) for a start. Japan (jp) is interesting if you can find text in English.
Eitzen Chapter 6 1. USING FBI STATISTICS
Investigate changes in the crime index for major cities. Go to the FBI's home page and page down to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. At "Preliminary 199- Statistics," select Report. On the Report page, select Table 4--OFFENSES KNOWN TO THE POLICE. (The table number may change.) Select Proceed to Table 4 at the top of the page. Save or print the table. Note the changes in index crimes from the previous year in the column, "Crime Index total," for several different sized cities in various regions of the country. Are there patterns in the changes, or is each city fairly unique? Why do you think this is? (Your instructor may want you to figure the percentage change for each of the cities you use in your report.)
Eitzen Chapter 7 1. CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Criminal behavior is only one part of deviance. Still, it is an important part. To pursue this topic further go to Cecil Greek's Criminal Justice home page and browse through the topics. (This is probably the most complete CJ site on the Internet.) First, form a research question. (What do you want to know about?) Then follow links relating to your topic, taking notes as if you were working in a library.
When you finish, write a paper according to your instructor's directions. (Don't forget a good paper has an introduction and a conclusion, and is well organized into topical sections and paragraphs.) Eitzen Chapter 8 1. POSTINDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
There are three eras in the history of economic systems: preindustrial,industrial, and postindustrial. Perhaps the most crucial for all of us is the one we are living in, "Postindustrial Societies: The New Technology Gives Birth to the Information Age." To learn more about this vital topic, first, read the entire section headed "The Transformation of Economic Systems," paying special attention to the nature of postindustrial society. Next, go to The Millennial Files (You might want to print each section so it is easier to take notes.)
When you finish, write a five or six page paper on the background, characteristics, problems, and future of postindustrial society.
Eitzen Chapter 9 1. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Is there a social stratification among the nations of the world? If we classify countries as highly industrialized, industrializing, and least industrialized, we should be able to find variables which will indicate levels of stratification among the levels. In this project you will be comparing an industrializing nation (e.g. Indonesia) with a highly industrialized one (the United States). Go to United Nations - Social Indicators. Make as many comparisons with the U.S. as you can with the industrializing nation you have chosen to research. You should find enough information to make some rough comparisons of several variables.
After you have completed your research, write a brief report of analysis and interpretation: What are some of the marked differences between the two nations? Are any of them surprising? What might be some of the social forces contributing to the levels of social welfare in each of the two countries?
Eitzen Chapter 10 1. EXTREME INEQUALITY
The disparities become the rich and the poor become even clearer as you look at more detailed data. With this in mind, go to How The Pie Is Sliced and read Wolff's article. (You may want to print it out so you can make notes on the copy.) Write a one or two page paper based on this article, in which you address the following questions: 1) Of all of the growth in wealth and income in the 1980s, how much was gained by the richest 1%? By the bottom 80%? 2)What is the long term trend in the distribution of wealth and income? 3) How does the level of inequalities in the U.S. compare with other industrialized nations? In the final two sections of your paper, discuss why the rich gained so much in the 1980s, and the possible solutions to the problem of extreme inequalities. 2. WELFARE REFORM
Welfare reform is an issue that continues to raise impassioned emotions, especially in Presidential election years. Use Lycos with the search words "welfare reform" to browse several sites related to the topic. What issues are currently being raised? How do the positions being taken seem to relate to social class differences in the United States? Explain why you think this is true. What is your view of these issues? Do you think your own social position has any influence on your position? Explain. 3. POVERTY AND RACE/ETHNICITY
To measure poverty in the United States go to 1990 Census Lookup. Select the database, STF#c--Part 1. At the Retrieval Area page, click on the Submit bar. At the Data Retrieval Option page, click on the Submit bar. At the page headed, "Select the tables you wish to retrieve," page down to P19--Poverty Status in 1989 by race and age, and click on the circle in front of the entry. Then go to the top of the page and click on the Submit bar. You should be presented with a table showing poverty status of five racial categories. Depending on your WEB browser, you can either save the table or print it. (Netscape will allow both.) Next, compute the percentages for those in poverty for each racial category. (Your instructor may ask you to do this for age groups as well.) Total those in "Income in 1989 above poverty level: White." (User the most recent year available at the time you do this exercise.) Do the same for those in "Income in 1989 below poverty level: White." Add the two figures and divide the sum found in "Income in 1989 below poverty level: White" by the result. This is the percent of White people whose income was below the poverty level in 1989. Now repeat the process for the other four racial categories.After you have the percentages, construct a table of the results. (For help, refer to Table 2.1 on page 23 "How to Read a Table.") Then, write a short paper in which you materials from this chapter to explain the data in your table. (Be sure to include your table in the paper.)
4. SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN YOUR TOWN
Sometimes studying demography can seem very abstract. Even when the implications for poverty and starvation are dealt with, the problems may appear very far from the relative safety of our own lives. In this project you will be bringing the study of population to your own world. First, go to U.S. Census Bureau's Population Division. Select "1990 Census Data," then page down to "1990 Census Lookup." Select "STF3a (detailed geography)." On the new page, you should find "Retrieve the areas you've selected" marked. Click on "Go to level: state--place" to mark it instead. Now page down, select your home state, and click on the "Select" bar. When the next page comes up, scroll down to select your home town, and again click on the "Select" bar. On the new page, "Choose tables" should already be marked, so just click on "Select." Now you should see a heading telling you to "Select the tables you wish to receive." For now, mark "P1 Persons" and "P7 Sex (2)." Click on "Submit." There should already be a dot before "HTML Format," so just click on "Submit" again. You should now see the two tables you asked for. You can print or save them. Now that you know how to get the data, go back to the "Select the tables..." page. Pick tables that will tell you about the social conditions of your town. Do you have a large minority population? What is the state of the housing? Explore so that you can write a report on what just knowing about demographic variations tells you about your home town. 5. EFFECTS OF INEQUALITY
The Internet allows us to observe without being observed. Let's use this characteristic of the Internet to better understand what inequalities of race and ethnicity mean to group members. Go to Gravity, a site at which African Americans chat with each other. By reading the exchanges you can watch for evidence on how inequality affects people. Return to the site once a day for several days to check on current exchanges. Click on the button beside "list all topics." You should find a long list of topics. Choose one that seems to be related to feeling or experiences of inequality and read the exchanges. Do this with several topics, making notes from the pertinent comments. Now write a brief paper answering three questions: 1) Is the exchange similar to what you think and talk about? If not, how does it differ? 2) What kinds of experiences do you think lie behind the discussion? 3) Are discussion styles and topics similar to what you would expect within other Internet groups, such as a site dedicated to child abuse or one on fly fishing? Take both your paper and your notes to class where you will meet in a discussion with other students to exchange ideas. Eitzen Chapter 11 1. MULTICULTURALISM AND ASSIMILATION
The author of The Promised Land, Nicholas Lemann, is one of the leading U.S. writers on race, class, and poverty. Lemann is a contributing editor for Harper's Monthly. so we want to access their home page. First, go to The Atlantic, then page down to "search the Atlantic Monthly Web site." In the search form, type "Nicholas Lemann" (without the quotation marks). You should now see a list of topics. First select "biography" and read this brief introduction to the author. Now go back to the previous page (the list of topics). If you can't get there, start over with the home page and repeat the search. First, you should read the article, "The Origins of the Underclass," which relates to the migration dealt with in The Promised Land. (The article is in two parts, which are not indicated in your search results; you will have to select both "The Origins of the Underclass" entries to find which is Part I.) After you have read both parts of the article, go back to the search results and find "The Unfinished War" (another two-part article). Read both parts of Lemann's treatise on the War on Poverty. Return to your search results and select "Philadelphia: Black Nationalism on Campus." Write a paper summarizing each of the articles, then integrate the ideas into a single statement. To do this you will have to draw your own conclusions about relationships among the ideas. Include your views on whether multiculturalism and assimilation are incompatible. Eitzen Chapter 12 1. DATE RAPE
There are several types of violence involving men and women and that overwhelmingly men are the aggressors and women the victims. As a college student, it should be of great concern to you. To look at date rape, we need to look at the more general category of acquaintance rape. Go to The Sexual Assault Information Page. Click on "Acquaintance Rape" and you should see a list of ten or twelve links to sites having information or other resources. Gather information from six of these sites: 1)Acquaintance Rape (the first listing, not the second); Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services; "Friends" Raping Friends; Myths and Facts about Acquaintance Rape; and Sexual Assault and Rape: Advice to Men. When you finish with your research, you should be able to write a short paper on the incidence, characteristics, and prevention of date rape, as well as on some resources for women who are victims. If you want to gather more information, follow the links given at the various sites you visit. Eitzen Chapter 13 No Internet Activities Eitzen Chapter 14 1. SPECIAL-INTEREST GROUPS
There is great controversy surrounding lobbying, special-interest groups, and political action committees (PACs). Let's see what we can find out about them on the Internet.
Go to Yahoo-Government/Politics. Select "Interest Groups." You should now see three categories. "Lobbying Firms" points to firms advertising their services. You might want to look at a few of these just to see what is being offered. The second category, "Political Action Committees," leads to several sites, most of them dealing with single issues at the state level (California's Ecovote Line, for example). If you are doing this project in an election year, you will find a fascinating CNN site which lists all of the contributions to major candidates (by state). It's interesting to see who supports whom, and for how much. The third category is "Public Interest Groups." Under this heading you will find several links to single issue groups: abortion issues, animal rights, and so on. Look at several areas which you think are controversial or which particularly interest you.
A report on this excursion will have to be very broad, so let's use a journal approach. Write a narrative of where you went and what you found, along with personal reactions along the way. Organize your report in diary form. Don't forget to include a general introduction and a conclusion.
Eitzen Chapter 15 1. THE WORLD'S CHILDREN
When sociologists look at the problems faced by families, they usually include the special difficulties faced by children, often in a global perspective. This project will involve your participating in a panel reporting on the state of the world's children and introduce you to the world's largest organization devoted to them, the United Nations agency UNICEF.
Go to UNICEF, page down to "Organization," and click on "About UNICEF." Read about the agency to give yourself some background on its purpose, goals, and activities. Return to the UNICEF Home Page and click on "The State of the World's Children," an annual report published by UNICEF. On the new page, click on "Summary." Note the important issues and the most crucial problems facing children throughout the world. Go back to "The State of the World's Children" page and click on fact sheets. If you do not have an Acrobat reader, you will have to download a copy. Click on "download the reader" and follow the instructions for installing it on your machine. Back at the Report page, click on "Fact Sheets," and click on the "Download factsheets as a PDF." (Because servers change aspects of their sites from time to time, you may find that UNICIF no longer uses the Acrobat (PDF) reader, but instructions will be given on how to use the reader currently employed.) Now go back to the Report page and click on "Download the PDF version" to get the entire report. It will be your main source of information.
This seems like a great deal of reading material, but in forming a panel group, each of you can focus on a different aspect of the report. (Everyone should read all of the other materials described above.)
2. KINSHIP SYSTEMS
There are needs in every society that have to be met with some kind of family arrangements. Anthropologists have studied hundreds of these societies and have created concepts to refer to various kinship patterns. You have been introduced to a number of terms, such as polygyny, exogamy, and matrilineal.
Now explore the fascinating world of kinship patterns by working through a brief Internet tutorial, Principles of Kinship. You should see a list of topics, beginning with "Kin Fundamentals." Select this and follow it through. At the bottom of the page marked "Bilateral Kinship," select "Return to Main Menu," then select topic 2, "Systems of Decent." Go through all five areas, including the subtopics under 4, "Marriage Systems." Then look at the two ethnographic examples listed under 6: "A Turkish Peasant Village" and "Ancient Hebrews."
Write an essay describing the kinship systems in the Turkish village and among the Hebrews. Then analyze the U.S. system (baed on your own experience) applying what you have learned in the tutorial.
Eitzen Chapter 16 1. INEQUALITY IN EDUCATION
Go to the National Center for Educational Statistics and click on "Publications." On the new page click on "General Publications." On the general publications page, move down near the bottom and click on "Mini-Digest of Educational Statistics: (date)" where you should see a chart labeled "The Mini-Digest of Education Statistics: (date)" and an extensive list of data locations. Under "Educational Outcomes," click on "Dropouts" and print or download the figure and table you find there. Note the trends between 1970 and the present in Figure 7. Does this suggest anything to you about educational inequalities? Look at the details in Table 16. Are the trends constant through the years or do they fluctuate greatly from year to year? Next, back up to the previous screen ("Mini-Digest...."), look under "Elementary and Secondary Schools," click on "Enrollment by Race and Ethnicity." and print or download Table 6. The table shows the percentage of children in school for three racial or ethnic groups. What can you conclude from the table? Look at the distribution as functionalists, conflict theorists, and symbolic interactionists might. How would each explain the patterns revealed in the table? To continue the project, browse among other topics on the Mini-Digest page. Look for evidence of educational inequalities involving race, gender, or other meaningful variables you might discover.
On the basis of your research, write a paper on educational inequalities and attempt to interpret each of the patterns you found by using the three theories you encountered earlier.
Eitzen Chapter 17 1. CHURCHES, CULTS, AND SECTS
Sociologists use the terms cult and sect differently from the way they are often used in the media or in everyday conversation. To begin this project, first write sociological definitions of church and sect. Now go to yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Cultures_and_Groups/Cyberculture/Religions/. (If you have trouble with this long address, go to Yahoo and follow the path through each page.) You will see a number of links. Go through each of them and determine which are meant to be taken seriously. Of those, how many are representative of churches? For the remainder, use the definitions you wrote at the beginning of the project to determine what characteristics would indicate they are more sectlike or cultlike. Write a brief analysis of your findings and compare them with the conclusions of other students in the class.
Eitzen Chapter 18 1. SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Go to any of the following sites, and investigate some of the groups listed.
Social Investing and Social Consuming, Activist Groups and Organizations, Cafe Underground, Activist Organizations, Special Interest Groups, and Information.
For each group, try to determine if it has the characteristics of a social movement, what type of movement it is, and whether or not you think it will be successful.
2. THE GROWTH MACHINE VERSUS THE EARTH
This impact of social change on the environment in the Most Industrialized Nations suggests that the "bottom line" involves a decision for the global growth machine or the earth. Attempts at balancing these concerns, especially among the Least Industrialized Nations, are referred to as "sustainable environment."
To learn more about this, first read the section, "Social Change and the Natural Environment" (pp. 417-421). Then look at a collection of efforts at creating sustainable environments by accessing Solstice. Read the information on Solstice itself, then click on the "Related net sites" to see a large and varied list of sites dedicated to environmental concerns. Browse several of them.
Following your instructor's assignments, either write a paper or prepare for a discussion on these topics: Is the sustainable environment theme aimed only at Least Industrial Nations or is it global? What are some policies and practices that you think might work with nations at different levels of industrialization? Are there any that would be practical in nearly all countries? How likely is it that any of the policies will be adopted by the U.S.? What do you think the future holds: growth machine or the earth? Or a compromise enabling a sustainable environment?