SOC 100: Sociology of Everyday Life Fall, 2023
Instructor: Dr. Jackie Burnside Name ________________
Data Workshop: Sociological Imagination* and a Timeline (15%) Due: September 20th (on moodle, 7 AM)
Introduction: The task of Sociology, and its “promise”, as sociologist C. Wright Mills explained, is to help humans understand “the intersection between biography and history” (Ferris and Stein). By developing our sociological imagination, we can see links between our personal troubles (micro level) and the larger social forces (macro level) that influence our lives. For instance, sociologist W.E.B. DuBois’ concept of double consciousness described the dual-identification racial minorities encountered living in America in the 19th and 20th centuries (Ferris and Stein).
Purpose: This assignment directs students to develop a timeline that identifies societal factors that affect one’s personal life (micro level of family and friends) and their wider community (meso level of neighborhoods, schools/clubs & groups, religious and civil organizations) and the social world (macro level of state/region/nation).
Directions: Choose time periods most relevant in your personal biography with your families’ experiences across two to four generations, if possible, about 40 to 100 years.
Data Workshop: Sociological Imagination* and a Timeline
Name ________________
Feedback scale: Very Good (20-18); Good (17-16); Fair, mostly satisfactory (15-14);
Unsatisfactory (13-12); Poor (11-0)
_______________________ Readability of Timeline with interesting Title and content.
_______________________ Timeline: displays relevance of eight to ten
events/factors being studied.
_______________________ Time span: has details to support two+ generations’ in
Families’ experiences.
_______________________ Application of three major theoretical perspectives.
________________________ Discussion of social patterns in commentary gives
evidence of Sociological Imagination.
________________________ Resources: have used at least three sources, with
proper citation (MLA or APA, Chicago) for text, graphics and/or images, a Works Cited page.
________________________ Writing Mechanics: organization (paragraphs), grammar, punctuation, spelling, word count 800- 850 in commentary.
______ Grade and Comment: ___________________________________________
Functionalism: A theoretical perspective based on the notion that social events can best be explained in terms of the functions they perform – that is, the contributions they make to the continuity of a society.
Conflict: A theory which argues that deviance is deliberately chosen and often political in nature.
Symbolic Interactionism: A theoretical approach in sociology developed by George Herbert Mead, which emphasizes the roles of symbols and language as core elements of all human interaction.
Rational Choice: More broadly, the theory that an individual’s behavior is purposive. Within the field of criminology, rational choice analysis argues that deviant behavior is a rational response to a specific social situation.
Feminist: A sociological perspective that emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experience of women. There are many strands of feminist theory, but they all share the desire to explain gender inequalities in society and to work to overcome them.
Works Cited:
Giddens, Anthony. Essentials of Sociology. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2008. Print.