SOC1160-C02 – ESSAY ASSIGNMENT
DUE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13 or FRIDAY, NOVEMEBER 20 (details below)

Your essay must make use of the following three sources:

1. One academic reading selected from the following list; the reading you select serves as the primary scholarly material for your assignment. All of these readings are available as pdf’s on Canvas under the module “Essay Assignment and Readings.” Ask your instructor if you need assistance with selecting a reading or if you wish to search for a reading outside of this list.

Ahmed, S. (2010). Feminist killjoys. In The promise of happiness (pp. 50-87). Duke University Press.

Ahmed, S. (2012). The language of diversity. In On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life (pp. 51-81). Duke University Press.

Brym, R. J. (2012). The social basis of cancer. In Sociology as a life or death issue (pp. 81-102). Nelson Education.

Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatre Journal 40(4), 519-531.

Christopher, J. C. & Hickinbottom, S. (2008). Positive psychology, ethnocentrism, and the disguised ideology of individualism. Theory & Psychology 18(5), 563-589.

DiAngelo, R. (2018). How does race shape the lives of white people? & The good/bad binary. In White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism (pp. 51-87). Beacon Press.

Ehrenreich, B. (2018). The madness of mindfulness & Death in a social context. In Natural causes: An epidemic of wellness, the certainty of dying, and killing ourselves to live longer (pp. 71-111). Twelve Publishing.

Frye, M. (1983). Oppression. In The politics of reality: Essays in feminist theory (pp. 1-16). Crossing Press.

Fisher, M. (2009). What if you held a protest, Capitalism & the real, Reflexive impotence & Don’t let yourself get too attached. In Capitalist realism: Is there no alternative? (pp. 12-38). Zero Books.

Graeber, D. (2014). Dead zones of the imagination: An essay on structural stupidity. In The utopia of rules: On technology, stupidity, and the secret joys of bureaucracy (pp. 45-103). Melville House Publishing.

Graeber, D. (2018). Why do we as a society not object to the growth of pointless employment? In Bullshit jobs: A theory (pp. 193-244). Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.

Granzow, M. (2017). The production of public space in a small Canadian city: An analysis of spatial practices in the revitalizing of Galt Gardens. Space & Culture 20(3), 344-358.

Han, B-C. (2017). The crisis of freedom, Smart power, The mole and the snake & Biopolitics. In Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and the new technologies of power (E. Butler, Trans.) (pp. 1-21). Verso.

Harvey, D. (2005). The neoliberal state. In A brief history of neoliberalism (pp. 64-86). Oxford University Press

Hochschild, A. R. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure. The American Journal of Sociology 85(3), 551-575.

Laurendeau, J. (2020). “The stories that will make a difference aren’t the easy ones”: Outdoor recreation, the wilderness ideal, and complicating settler mobility. Sociology of Sport Journal (Ahead of Print),1-11.

Little Bear, L. (2000). Jagged worldviews colliding. In Walking together: First Nations, Metis and Inuit perspectives in curriculum [Government of Alberta document], 1-9.

Manuel, A. (2017). Part 1: Getting to know you. In The reconciliation manifesto: Recovering the land, rebuilding the economy (pp. 48-74). James Lorimer & Co. Publishers.

Maynard, R. (2017). The black side of the mosaic: Slavery, racial capitalism and the making of contemporary Black poverty. In Policing Black lives: State violence in Canada from slavery to the present (pp. 50-82). Fernwood Publishing.

Rose, N. (2019). Is it all the fault of neoliberal capitalism? In Our psychiatric future: The politics of mental health (pp. 41-66). Polity Press.

Stanley, J. (2015). Introduction: The problem of propaganda. In How propaganda works (pp. 1-26). Princeton University Press.

Taylor, C. (1995). The politics of recognition. In Philosophical arguments (pp. 25-73). Harvard University Press.

Taylor, J.D. (2013). Neoliberalism, Debt, & Anxiety Machines. In Negative capitalism: Cynicism in the neoliberal era (pp. 49-88). Zero Books.

Tuck, E. (2009). Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review 79(3), 409-427.

Žižek, S. (2020). Welcome to the viral desert, The five stages of epidemics & The virus of ideology. In Pandemic! COVID-19 shakes the world (pp. 37-59). New York: Polity Press.

2. Your textbook; it will provide the sociological concepts and theories with which you will need to engage while writing your paper.
3. A piece of culture; for example, from mainstream news, personal, work, or family experience, social media, a video, a meme, an advertisement, an image, a movie, a video game, a book, etc.

Your assignment in a nutshell: Choose one academic reading. Identify connections between this reading, a piece of culture, and at least two sociological concepts from your textbook. Ask a critical question to conclude.

Much like your Reading Reflections, this assignment encourages you to make conceptual and theoretical links between yourself, the culture you consume, and broader sociological forces.

This assignment is an opportunity for you to write in an area of interest by making exploratory connections between the course content, a piece of culture, and an academic reading. Your instructor is looking primarily for a demonstration that you can think and write sociologically as well as an indication that you can comprehend, critique, and clearly represent the views of others. (You must read carefully and plainly distinguish between your ideas and the ideas of others).

The lengthof your paper must be between 1,200-1,500 words (approximately 4-6 double-spaced pages, 12-point, Times New Roman or Calibri font—excluding the title page and References). If your paper is more than 1,500 words, you will get a 0. If your paper is less than 1,200 words, you will get a 0. These strict limitations are meant to ensure that your paper remains concise and pointed at the requirements of the assignment.

( /50) The following are the requirements of the assignment:

You can use the following as guiding questions to get started (DO NOT attempt to answer all of these questions! These are here to spark your critical thinking).

• When and where was the source written? Why does this matter? (*hint* the answer is never “it doesn’t”)
• What is the ‘object’ of study? (*hint* the answer is never “there isn’t one”)
• What theoretical perspective is the author is using? (*hint* the answer is never “the author doesn’t have a perspective”)
• What is the core argument being made? What are the peripheral arguments being made? (*hint* the answer is never “there is no argument”)
• What is the author’s purpose for writing? (*hint* the answer is never “there is no purpose”)
• What is sociological about this perspective? (*hint* the answer is never “nothing”)
• Why is this significant? (*hint* the answer is never “it’s not”)
• What assumptions does the author depend on? (*hint* the answer is never “none”)
• In what ways does the argument relate to concepts from the textbook? (*hint* the answer is never “it doesn’t”)
• What does the author have in mind when s/he says ___?

1. ( /10) Summarize the academic reading (less than 1 page; show that you have read carefully):

• What is the ‘object’ of study?
• What was the purpose (the question, inquiry or reason) that guided the reading?
• How does the author situate their research in the context of others who have written about this topic and broader social, economic, cultural, and political issues?
• What are the main arguments from the reading?
• What is the author trying to accomplish or bring to the reader’s attention?

2. ( /20) Critically analyze the reading (2-3 pages; show that you can make links between the textbook and the reading):

• What makes the reading sociological? (Not all of the readings in the list are written by “sociologists”; remember that we have taken on a very wide approach as to what can be considered “sociological” thinking).
• What sociological theory or theories inform the author and their writing? Is the author supplementing or challenging existing sociological theory? How so?
• Is the author taking a macro-approach, a micro-approach, or some combined approach? How do you know?
• What methods is the author using? How is the author operationalizing their research? (These questions are often difficult to answer when the author doesn’t explicitly state their methodological approach—do you best with the reading selection you have).
• What are the limitations and the assumptions of the author’s approach and methods? (Remember ALL researchers and theorists have a perspective—one cannot observe the world “from nowhere”).
• Make convincing, well-defended, and accurate links with at least two relevant sociological concepts from your textbook. You must cite both the reading and the textbook when identifying the relationship between the two. HIGHLIGHT EACH LINK YOU MAKE! You must explain these veryclearly. Treat your reader as though they have never heard of sociology. A completely ignorant reader should be able to decipher the links you make and why they matter.

3. ( /12) Connect the article with a piece of culture (about 1 page; this is a chance to be creative and apply what you’ve learned to something of intellectual interest to you; show that you can sociologically analyze something from your own life experience and relate it to your assignment—the reading and the textbook).

• This is where your experience in writing Reading Reflections will come in handy.
• Demonstrate your understanding of the sociological issues discussed in the reading by connecting it to a piece of culture.
• In what ways does your piece of culture relate to the reading? Why did you select this piece of culture in particular? Use your sociological imagination.
• Ask yourself how you have been shaped by the issue explored in the reading. How have others been shaped by it? In what ways are the effects of the issue shared and in what ways are they distinct? (Remember, your particular experience is shaped by many sociological forces, but your experience is not everyone’s experience; not everyone is shaped in the same ways and to the same degree as you).

4. ( /8) Pose at least one critical sociological question (about ½ a page; show that you have been thoughtful about this issue by formulating a question—and potential answer—that expands on the reading; this might involve looking at the issue from another angle, asking a further, specific, question, or asking a more general question).

• Pose at least one sociological question (more than one is welcome) near the end of your paper. The question should not be a yes/no question, such as: “are women systematically excluded from positions of authority?” or “are Indigenous people marginalized in Canada?, unless you expand on the question to challenge our common-sense; such as: “is competitiveness natural for men? Is being competitive written into male DNA or can we explain it in another way?”
• Consider the following questions if you need some guidance: How can I connect this concept/term/argument to a different context? How are particular individuals unevenly shaped by this topic? How does this argument justify inequality and other types of violence? How can I approach this topic from another angle? Is there an unchecked assumption that needs to be teased out? Could I ask a more specific question that the authors don’t consider? Could I ask a more general, big-picture question that the authors don’t consider?
• You must include some general ideas about possible answers to the question in your paper; don’t just pose a random question. Give some insight into why that question is important, why it’s worth asking, and what you think some potential answers might be.
• For example, if your article concludes that “women are more likely to experience domestic violence than men,” further critical sociological questions could look like the following: “Are homeless women included in this conclusion? How might a particular (racial, economic, etc.) understanding of ‘women’ obscure others kinds of violence?” or “Are women’s experiences with domestic violence similar despite differences in gender identity, gender performance, citizenship status, race, or ability, or are their distinct experiences that are dependent on various identities?” or “If transwomen were excluded from this study, what would that say about how the researchers conceptualized gender and/or sex?”

5. Use APA 7 citation style (in-text citations, a title page, and a reference page) throughout your assignment. If you use the words or ideas of another source, you need to give credit; use direct quotations for an exact replication of a source’s words; use a paraphrase (that is, your own words, with a citation) for a summary of a source’s ideas). If you have any doubts about how you are using citations, paraphrases, quotations, etc., please consult the Learning Café, the resources on Canvas, or our Embedded Librarian for assistance.

Things not to do in your paper:

• Do not moralize the issue or position yourself outside of it. Don’t tell me how terrible our society is and how we should be “better people”—this is not sociological; do not assert that social problems and relationships of power “don’t relate to you” or “aren’t your business” or that you are not connected to them, or privileged, oppressed, included, excluded, and so on by them; instead, identify what the social and cultural problems specifically are and suggest why they still remain with us and how you are implicated and a part of them.
• Do not make normative claims without sociological explanation. Don’t tell me the way society ought to be and pose simple fixes like: “We should treat everyone with respect and love each other equally”; or “if we were just kind to, and accepting of, each other, all our problems will disappear.” This kind of discourse is not sociological, it is not critical, and it is not helpful—nor is it part of your assignment; instead, if you want to pose a possible solution to a social problem (which you are NOT required to do), ensure that it is sociologically informed—remember, many of the problems that we discuss in sociology are not new, nor easy to ‘fix’; if they were, we wouldn’t be discussing them.
• Do not summarize or analyze more than one reading. If you spend too much of your paper summarizing—more than one page—your grade for the analysis part of the assignment will likely suffer; summary is the least important part of this assignment; it needs to be there, but it needs to be short, concise, and clear; it is meant only to set the stage for the analysis. If it is at all unclear what reading you are summarizing and analyzing, your grade will likely suffer. You must only cite and focus on one academic reading. I want to hear more about your critical analysis of the reading than the reading itself.

Submissions

1. One essay, two due dates. If you submit prior to 11:59pm on Friday, November 13, 2020, you will receive a graded rubric, comments, and constructive questions. If you submit after 11:59pm on Friday, November 13, 2020, you will receive a graded rubric only.
2. Your paper must be submitted no later than 11:59pm on Friday, November 20, 2020. If you submit it at 12:00am the next day, you will get a 0. It must be submitted electronically (using the drop box on Canvas – go to ‘assignments’ (left side of the page), click on the ‘Essay Assignment DROP BOX’, ‘upload’ the file and press ‘submit’).

If you experience any difficulty submitting this assignment, please submit it instead via email to tanner.layton@lethbridgecollege.ca.

It is entirely possible to receive 0% for this assignment. Some examples include:

• Having a word-count outside 1,200-1,500 words (excluding title page and references)
• Not including an APA 7 reference page, title page, or in-text citations
• Not addressing the requirements of the assignment
• Plagiarizing (ASK IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT THIS IS)
• Not submitting the assignment prior to November 20, 2020
• Not including any critical questions

Please utilize the Learning Café on campus if you need help with research, APA citation style, or writing generally: https://lethbridgecollege.ca/departments/learning-cafe