1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 CHAPTER ONE
THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Select an issue of interest from the news, and ask the students to decide how a sociologist might initially approach the study of that issue, and what research method he or she would use for further investigation.
- Ask the students to observe some current television commercials and find three examples of commercials in which misleading information is being "sold" as genuine research.
- Ask students to bring to class a poll or survey or any study which they read about in the newspaper or a magazine. Review the findings in class and question the sampling technique.
- Select an everyday situation (e.g, waiting to be served at a restaurant, stopping for a red light). Discuss the social forces that shape the activity.
THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL GROUPS IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Ask the students to identify a primary and a secondary group to which they belong (e.g., fraternity, sorority, or family), and define or describe the structure, organization, goals, mores, folkways, and sanctions of each group. In each case have them define their own status and roles in the group, and discuss the influence the group has on their everyday behavior.
- Before you assign this chapter, conduct a small version of the Asch experiment with your students. (Students will be surprised to learn just how conformist they really are.)
- Discuss contemporary examples of publicized suicides. Using Durkheim's theories and typology, ask students to these suicides as per Durkheim's typology (i.e., egoistic, altruistic, anomic, or fatalistic). Invite your students to discuss the relevancy of Durkheim's typology of suicide in explaining this phenomena in a contemporary context.
- Ask students to identify the various roles of a college student and how these roles can lead to role conflict. You might also ask them to discuss how they would resolve the role conflict. Next have them explain how role conflict and role strain differ and which of the two is most difficult for them to resolve. Students should explain their answer.
THE DUALITY OF SOCIAL LIFE: ORDER AND CONFLICT IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Divide the class into different groups and assign each group a current social problem to analyze. Have each group explain:
- how the problem is usually presented in the media;
- how politicians have responded to the problem; and
- how their contemporaries (i.e., members of their reference groups) have reacted to problem related issues.
- Your authors point out that the term violence is not applied to high infant mortality rates and preventable disease that prevail among society's poor and powerless. Critics of this type of societal violence might call such harmful outcomes "institutional violence," to imply that the system itself injures and destroys. Invite the class to identify some other examples of "institutional violence." Have them explain the root cause of such "institutional violence."
- The following statistics may be introduced to stimulate a discussion of sport providing false hope to oppressed members of society:
According to a 1997 survey conducted by Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society, 66 percent of all African American males between the ages of 13 and 18 believe they can earn a living playing professional sports (more than double the number of young whites who hold the same belief). Black parents are also four times more likely than white parents to believe that their children are destined for careers in professional athletics. The odds that any high school athlete will play a professional sport are roughly 10,000 to 1. Note that the fallout of such misplaced focus of so many African Americans is their tendency to ignore far more attainable opportunities in other fields. In a U.S. News and World Report (March 17, 1997) article on this subject, John Hoberman, the sports historian at the University of Texas, told the magazine, "the black middle class is rendered essentially invisible by the parade of black athletes and criminals on television."
Ask students what they think might be done to make oppressed member of American society aware of more attainable goals and the importance of education as a means of accomplishing those goals. - Discuss college education from the conflict as well as the order perspectives. When discussing the conflict perspective, be sure to include "credentialism" (the pros and cons).
CULTURE IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Discuss the various subcultures in the United States, e.g. the Irish, Latino, Jewish, African American, and Asian American. Is the U.S. a melting pot where ethnic differences blur together or are we a pluralist society where ethnic differences are tolerated.
- Lead off with a discussion of the controversy surrounding the teaching of Spanish in California and southern Florida schools. Ask the students why the issue is so hotly debated. You might discuss the Canadian experience with French. Students should appreciate the importance of language as a symbol of shared knowledge.
- Ask the students to keep a log of all the ethnocentric statements they hear over the radio, television, or in casual conversations. They can also keep a log of ethnocentric statements in the newspaper or on bumper stickers. Discuss the impact these statements have on society.
- Students can prepare a tour of their home, school or neighborhood for a person from another country. How would they describe the artifacts and general behavior patterns. Ask the students to be particularly mindful of ethnocentrism and the various subcultures they might encounter.
- Discuss the materialism in American society. How is this manifested? Do the students think materialism has increased from their parent`s generation or decreased? Have them explain their answer.
- Some have argued that the post-war economic growth of American society has come to an end. The current generation, the argument continues, is the first that will not overtake the one which preceded it. How does this slowing of "progress" affect our value system? How do the students feel about the perceived excesses of the baby boom generation?
SOCIALIZATION IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Discuss how your family, schools, your peers and the media have influenced your personality.
- Ask your students who have siblings to describe the differences between the socialization of their siblings and their own. Did the older one have a tougher time of it? Who received more attention from the parents? What gender differences did they notice. How important a role did their birth order play in their socialization experience?
- The nature/nurture argument is an interesting one for discussion. Ask students to list ten things which prove that they are a social product (nurture) and ten things which prove they are a product of heredity (nature). You should get a good discussion going, especially on issues related to gender.
- Discuss how the major agents of socialization disagree on what children should be learning. Ask the students to discuss what happens when disagreement occurs such as MTV vs the morality of parents; dress codes in schools vs peer group dress codes and peer groups vs parents.
SOCIAL CONTROL IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Discuss how the nightly news programs help to sustain the existing social order. Along these lines, divide the class into 5 groups and ask each group to watch a different news program. Have each group watch one of the following networks: CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and TBS. The students should make a list of the topics discussed in each news program and a brief statement of what the reporter said. The order of the topics is important. Compare the reports in class concentrating not only on the differences among the T.V. stations but the similarities as well.
- Ask the students to look through one popular magazine, e.g., Time, Newsweek, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Popular Mechanics, etc. They should bring to class those ads that reinforce gender stereotypes. (This project might be assigned after the students have seen Killing Us Softly - see SUGGESTED FILMS)
- Discuss how celebrities are used to promote various social and political programs. A good example was the MTV campaign to "Rock the Vote" for the 1992 and 1996 national elections. Celebrities are involved in anti-drug and AIDS awareness promotions.
- Ask the students to examine the importance of religion in a current social issue (e.g., abortion). Is there really a separation of church and state?
- The mass suicide carried out by members of the Heaven's Gate cult illustrates the potential danger that cults can pose both to their own members and to society in general. Discuss some of the New Age cults that have emerged and to what extent their activities should be controlled. (U.S. News and World Report [April 7, 1997] offers an interesting article on how the Heaven's Gate cult mixed computers, UFOs, and New Age theology to recruit its members)
- Discuss the positive and negative consequences of eugenics. One interesting point for discussion is that when surveyed about which sex parents would prefer for their children, if they were given the choice, the majority selected male children. What impact might this have on social relationships?
DEVIANCE IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Discuss the arguments for and against the decriminalization of "recreational" drugs. Identify which special interest groups would benefit from decriminalization. You might want to start with the casual user of drugs, to a serious user, to a small dealer, to a pusher, to a key dealer, etc. Ask the students at which stage in the process would the person be considered deviant?
- Ask the students to break a minor norm (e.g., dressing inappropriately, disrupting a line, eating from a stranger's plate in the cafeteria, staring at someone in an elevator, etc.) Have them describe 1) how they felt while violating the norm; 2) whether it was difficult or easy; 3) how others responded to them; and 4) how they felt about the responses.
- Ask the students if they would ever consider deviant behavior as being acceptable or even desirable. Discuss what makes certain behaviors deviant and others normal. Premarital sex is an interesting way to discuss the relativity of deviant behavior. Students today often have no qualms talking about me how they went on vacations with their boy/girl friend or how they are living with a man/woman. Point out that only a generation ago (and in some cases less), dorms were segregated by sex and how college women spent their free time was closely monitored by college personnel. While your students may laugh, the concept of changing definition of what is deviant changes when social values change. When I went to college, dorms were segregated by sex. Students get a good laugh but the concept is very clear to them.
STRUCTURAL SOURCES OF SOCIETAL CHANGE: ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Discuss the differences between the periodic layoffs experienced by workers when the U.S. had an industrial based economy to downsizing of white collar workers as the economy is transformed to a service/information economy. You might also include in your discussion the shrinking of the middle class that has accompanied this transition.
- It used to be a mark of shame to fire workers en masse. Today Wall Street loves it. On the other hand the layoffs have traumatized the public and stirred a political backlash. Discuss the question "Is there a better way?"
- Discuss the following questions about downsizing:
- How many CEOs of big, downsizing companies sacrificed their pay and perks to encourage a sense of community?
- Did the CEOs of these companies apologize publicly to the people they fired?
- Did these CEOs take any personal responsibility for mistakes that helped cause the problems they're solving with layoffs?
- Invite an executive from a corporation in your community to explain the merits of the statement "No matter how sensitive or smart a CEO may be, there are tides that you just can't swim against." Ask him to identify some of the ways that his/her company in particular is helping affected employees cope with their company's reorganization.
- As Eitzen and Zinn point out, areas with the most immigrants have the highest levels of anti-immigrant feeling. If yours is one of those areas, form a panel of students who have Latino or Asian backgrounds to discuss how they have been accepted by students and faculty on campus and in the community in general.
- Divide the class into two groups. Have on group gather information that supports the statement "Immigrants are taking jobs from U.S. citizens" and the other group develop a case against this statement. The same might also be done in response to the statement "Immigrants are a drain on society's resources."
- Discuss the potential consequences of Proposition 187 (p.211) and similar proposed legislation for new immigrants (both legal and illegal). Also discuss the potential implications that such reactions might have on future foreign relations with new immigrant's countries of origin.
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Ask your students to discuss what occupations they consider the most important for society and those least important for society. How much money do the respective job holders usually earn. What about performers and athletes? Discuss this in terms of the order perspective on stratification.
- Discuss the rise in homeless people, particularly children. How do they feel about seeing so many homeless as they walk down the street. What should cities do about the homeless? Should they be allowed in stay in parks or public places such as train stations?
CLASS IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Ask students to trace their families as far back as possible and determine the occupations of each individual. Based on this information, have them assess the amount of intergenerational mobility that has occurred in their family. Ask them to discuss what aided or hindered that mobility.
- Ask the students to choose two magazines - one with an upper or middle class orientation and the other with a working class orientation. Have them compare the lifestyles presented in articles and advertisements in the magazines.
- Ask the students to make a list of the men and women in their families and what each of them is doing today. Compare what the men are doing with the women's involvements. How would the students explain the differences?
- Why are Americans seemingly so obsessed with British royalty? What families would constitute American royalty?
- Where do the students rank superstar athletes like Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neill (basketball), Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, and Albert Belle (baseball) and Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier, and Wayne Gretzky in hockey? What criteria is used in stratifying these athletes?
RACIAL INEQUALITY IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Ask the students to bring examples of "ethnic jokes" to class. Discuss how the jokes perpetuate ethnic segregation.
- Have the students analyze high school social studies textbooks for examples of accomplishments of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans. What omissions are apparent? How does their discussions of these four minorities contribute to the perpetuation of stereotypes?
- Ask students to do a report on the accomplishments of the Black and Hispanic middle class. Have them examine business, professional and educational institutions.
- Bring in advertisements depicting minorities. Are they portrayed in a positive or negative image? Compare these ads to those aimed at a White audience.
- Examine the Bosnian conflict. Note the role that ethnicity and ethnocentrism played in the emergence and continuance of the conflict.
GENDER INEQUALITY IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Have the students list ten characteristics that they feel are typically male and ten that they feel are typically female. Discuss the lists in light of traditional stereotypical roles.
- Ask the students to prepare gender autobiographies. The students write their autobiography, paying particularly close attention to how they learned their gender roles.
- Reports of sexual harassment have increased, particularly since the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill investigation. Ask students to examine sexual harassment and discuss its meaning in light of the chapter's emphasis on gender and power.
- Sexual harassment in the armed forces is not news to women in the military,or to the Defense Department. A 1995 Pentagon survey of 90,000 active-duty service members indicated that violations had declined since 1988 but remained high. Point out the following statistical breakdown of harassment reports in each service: Among Marines, 64% of women surveyed reported being harassed; in the Army, 61%; in the Navy 53%, and in the Air Force, 49%. Discuss the reasons why women who enter the armed forces have been and are harassed so frequently. Discuss what might be done to address this issue.
- Shirley Chisholm, an African American congressional representative once stated that she felt more discrimination in Congress because she was a women than from being African American. Ask your students to document the differences and similarities between sexism and racism.
- Affirmative action is not a system of officially designated groups with enforced boundaries and memberships. Affirmative action is an example of American exceptionalism (a unique but typically American hybrid - rights are afforded to groups that are weakly constituted. The group rights of affirmative action get refracted through our individualistic political culture. The result is neither compatible with American values (as its supporters suggest) nor balkanizing (as its critics assert). Given the strength that the feminist movement has acquired, discuss the question "Do women in America still benefit from affirmative action or does it instead polarize two groups (men and women) that have grown intellectually to a level where meaningful negotiation of sex roles can take place without outside pressure?"
THE ECONOMY IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Ask students to research corporate practices in Japan and in the U.S. and compare a) ideology, b) efficiency, c) personal satisfaction. What Japanese practices might work in the U.S. and which ones would not and why?
- List and compare the positive and negative aspects of a capitalist and a socialist economy. Be sure to differentiate between capitalism and monopoly capitalism.
- Ask students to design what they consider to be the perfect economic system. They must take into account the various sectors of the economy, various interest groups, relationships between the economic and political institutions, decision-making processes, etc.
- Ask students to interview representatives from different levels of our economic system - a blue-collar worker, a pink-collar worker, a white-collar worker, a high level executive and a small business owner. Do their views about work and the economy differ? If so, how? How do the students account for similarities and differences among their interviewees?
POWER AND POLITICS IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Discuss what differences, if any, there are between the Democratic and Republican perspectives on lobbying.
- Organize a mock debate between President Clinton and potential Republican challengers. Structure the debate around specific issues (e.g., the environment, health care, welfare)
- Ask students to discover which PACs have donated money to local politicians. They should also review the politician's voting records. What inferences might be made from a comparison of the two sets of facts?
- Have students examine voting patterns in the last national election - by race, region, sex, age, and class. What conclusions can they draw about voter participation? What does this suggest about power in the U.S. today?
- Ask students to analyze the mass media in terms of "Which view of power is presented - elitist or pluralist?"
FAMILIES IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Ask students to interview married couples from their grandparents' and parents' generations about what their expectations were about married life. How does this compare to the students' expectations? How would they account for the differences?
- Ask the students to analyze the portrayal of family life on popular situation comedy shows and in commercials. Does the media present an accurate picture of family life?
- Have the students discuss their attitudes toward cohabitation, marriage and divorce. Many students come from single parent homes or have a close friend who does. Ask them how they would structure their marriage so as to prevent divorce.
- As more people live longer, the issue of age versus quality of life is more important than ever. Ask students to visit a nursing home or retirement community. What gender differences do they observe and how would they explain these differences? What changes would they like to see in the nursing homes?
- Ask students who are NOT White and middle class to discuss how their families differ from the mythical family form discussed in the text and presented in the media.
- Ask students to write a sociology of their family. They must use at least 25 to 50 concepts (depending on the scope of the assignment). Each time they use a concept from the course, they must underline it in the paper. They should be able to use material from the chapter on socialization, stratification, class, and race and ethnicity. It gives the students an opportunity to learn about their family and to see the importance of sociology in their lives.
- Ask students to write a marriage contract with the person they are currently in a committed relationship with. Topics addressed might include: long-term and short-term goals, financial responsibilities, household responsibilities, childcare responsibilities, their sexual relationship (rights and obligations), length of the agreement, relationship outside the marriage, and resolution of conflicts. Sex role negotiation is a key feature of the exercise.
EDUCATION IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Some schools are allowing special commercial television programs to be shown in their schools. The programs and commercials are specially designed to be shown in schools. What are the pros and cons of such a system?
- Ask the students to research the education system in a county other than the U.S., and come to class prepared to discuss their findings.
- Have the students study a sample IQ test to determine which questions or concepts might be biased toward White, middle or upper class values. Would the students like to see the tests changed so that they might be more equitable? If so, how?
- Ask the students to research how higher education is financed at their university. (What percentage comes from tuition, government financing, grants, and sports?) How might they restructure the financing to encourage more quality and to make higher education available to more people? How are they financing their education?
- Have the students deal with the issue of education and social mobility by asking them to track their high school buddies - who went to college and who did not go to college? Why did some to on to school and others drop out? Ask them to see if any patterns arise.
- In 1994, President Clinton signed the goals 2000: Educate America Act which offered individual states federal money for the implementation of eight National Education goals. These goals included: adequate preparation of students for school, creation of safe, drug-free school environments, and raising student competencies in core academic subjects. Supporters of the act believe that it addresses the need for a rigorous and standardized educational program that will address the discrepancy in academic performances between American students and their European and Asian counterparts. Critics see it as a threat to the traditional autonomy of states and local districts and to introduce a hidden liberal agenda into the nations schools. Ask your students what they think.
RELIGION
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IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
AGENCY: INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS IN SOCIETY CHANGING SOCIAL STRUCTURES IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND DISCUSSION
- Students can research a social movement that turned out to be a failure and one that turned out to be a success. They can delineate the Characteristics of each and offer explanations of why each turned out the way they did.
- Discuss the impact that Title IX has had on your athletic program. You might investigate the following:
- What percentage of the total athletic budget goes to women's sports;
- Compare the number of men's and women's teams and the number of total participants in each group;
- How many women are involved in the leadership positions (e.g., head coaches and athletic advisors);
- Do women's athletics receive comparable media attention to that devoted to men;
- What percentage of athletic scholarships are given in women's athletics, and
- What, if any, steps are being taken to address any inequities that exist?
- Discuss the question "Are Title IX guidelines reasonable? Why or why not?" You may preface this discussion by having your Title IX compliance person present a summary of requirements as they currently exist.
- Invite the affirmative action officer at your college or university to discuss the impact that affirmative action has had on institutional sensitivity to equal opportunity in hiring practices and procedures.
- U.S. Supreme Court decisions have had a significant effect on both the civil rights movement and equity in sports. Discuss to what extent the Supreme Court acts as an agent of change and at the same time maintain social stability.