Category: Sociology

Greater global economic integration and neoliberalization processes, characterized by privatization (of roads, public services, etc, private sector led development, deregulation, etc.), have produced urbanization trends that we can observe in different contexts across the globe. One of these trends has been the increasing development of gated communities in countries across the Americas, for example. While gated or walled communities have always existed in one form or another, rapid urbanization, economic instability and a generalized sense of heightened insecurity in conjunction with a distrust of the state and its capacity to provide certain public services have contributed to the rapid proliferation of new gated developments. Yet, in each context (Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles) the types of gated communities that are created depend on the existence of local antecedents and on the local social, political and economic context. The humanities provide a window into the complexities of gating communities. Literature and film can delve deeply into the mental, social, political, cultural – individual and collective – constructs that gating represents and produces. What can we learn from fictionalized accounts of Gated Communities about the gating phenomenon and its consequences? The film La Zona, for example, expresses the sense that the society in which the action takes place is putrefying. Gated communities here seem to function as a metaphor for social (and political) decay. What does the film tell us about the society and political order in which the gated community is embedded? What is the basis of urban citizenship in these places? In your examination of the film La Zona, think of the underlying motivations of the characters. Why do they take “refuge” in or seek “recognition” in gated communities? What role do Miguel and Alejandro play in the narratives? What might their characters represent in terms of the future? Here are some other questions you might keep in mind:
How does the film suggest that the characters might feel a sense of dislocation or a sense of belonging? How is “belonging” in the gated community constructed? How do the relationships among the characters highlight / intensify experiences of isolation and / or belonging? As you watch the film: How does the medium of the film create (or not) a sense of shared consciousness with the characters and the audience (you)?
How does the film use music to heighten a sense of identification or dislocation?
Is music used to set up juxtapositions, to highlight contradictions, or to reinforce a feeling of shared understanding/experience?
Your assignment:
Make sure your essays has a thesis / argument and that you illustrate your thesis through specific references to the film (you are analyzing the film). You may want to take a look at the Burke (2001) article, which we read at the beginning of the semester, again to see what kind of metaphors he discusses – e.g. gated communities as “fascist min-states” (Burke 2001, 120). You can develop and argument around this theme, for example. You may also want find a different kind of theme. • Write your initial post in a word document (2 pages single-spaced), save it with your name in the document name (_La Zona). Upload the word document to Assignments. Find the appropriate assignment name, click view complete and browse for your document). • Copy and paste your post your text from your word document into the dialogue box for the discussion board thread. (Discussion Board / La Zona / Create Thread).
• Main Post due Saturday night 10/21, (at least 2 pages single spaced). Some film terminology and strategies you might look for (Film studies: an introduction By Ed Sikov):
Mise-en scene is “the totality of expressive content within the image” it is like the stage set, and the assumption is that everything has meaning and was chosen to speak to, engage, shock, manipulate the audience.
The shots – the first shot of a character tells you a lot. How are the different characters introduced to the audience?
Can you identify some of the following shots? How do they relate to the development of the narrative or of particular characters? Extreme close-up shot – might be a person’s mouth, eye, hand, etc. – any element isolated.
Medium shot – might be a shot of a person from the waist up.
Long shot – places a human, for example, in the surrounding by creating the illusion that the image was taken from a far distance. Point of View (POV) shot – creates the impression that the viewer is seeing the scene through a particular character’s eyes. At the edge shots – might be framed by windows, doors, etc., which create a sense of division – the sense of being on the other side.
Shots that frame some characters as being “on the same side.” References
Burke, M. (2001). Fortress dystopia: Representations of gated communities in contemporary fiction. The Journal of American Culture, 24(1/2), 115–122.
Pla, Rodrigo, director. La Zona. Morena Films, 2007.

In his book, Jerome Kagan says, “The modern world desperately needs a Swift, Kant, Goya, Shaw, Beckett, or Eliot to provoke a passive population, adrift in a ship without a confident direction… to choose a moral position that demands a deeper empathetic concern with the social and natural settings into which each generation is born and to communicate it to a desperate public” (p. 243).
Evaluate this proposal through your critical examination of the state of the three cultures (science, social science, and the humanities) as presented in Kagan’s book.
Explain what such a person would or should say and/or do, based on your evaluation. Describe what you envision today’s Kant or Eliot to be. This can be an actual or a hypothetical person. Your Poet/Philosopher of Our Age must be able to respond to the failures of the three cultures while defending and promoting them. You need to explain how this person’s thought and/or action would contribute to an authentic transformation of society.
Research: Include at least 6 sources, journal articles in the disciplines of the social sciences, the sciences, and the humanities. You can choose to find research in all three, or just two of the cultures.
Analyze: Your research should help you in your analysis by supporting your explanation of how the three cultures (the social sciences, the sciences, and the humanities) would contribute, in your proposed scenario, to such a transformation.
> 6 sources required, academic journal articles (social sciences and/or the humanities)

Case Study 16.2: Margaret Davis Stays at Home As a social worker working with this family, discuss how you would negotiate between autonomy and self-determination and competent practice with the best interest of the client’s health in mind? How does living in a rural area affect these negotiations? What might be some of your concerns and reasoning processes? Case Study 16.4: Bina Patel Outlives Her Son Discuss the physical health needs and psychosocial stressors associated with Bina, her son, and her daughter-in-law. How are these complicated culturally? What are the culturally prescribed roles and rules that you became aware of in this story? Discuss the social worker’s dual task regarding the needs of the couple, given the husband’s failing health and the needs of Bina. How do you suggest that the social worker should initially engage with the couple? What possible options need to be explored regarding caregiving for Bina? Requirements: Reaction paper should be minimum of five pages of content, double spaced, Times New Roman 12 font, and APA format.

Adolescent Movie Analysis Paper
You can download the Instructions here: Adolescent Movie Paper instructions 2022.pdf Grading Rubric: Adolescent Movie Paper rubric.pdf Example Paper: This is an exemplary paper that earned the full 100 points. Note that this student cited the time stamp in the movie of their examples. This is not required. Otherwise, this is a model paper if you are aiming to earn an A on this assignment. Movie Paper Example.pdf
100 points
For this assignment you will view and analyze a movie depicting adolescent development, observing the individual physical, cognitive, and social development of the characters and family, peer, and romantic relationship dynamics depicted in the film.
You may choose any film listed below. You may choose a film that is not listed, however, it must be approved by your instructor. If you want to use a movie not on the list, you must ask for approval no less than 2 weeks from the paper due date. If you write a paper on a movie not on the list without approval you will receive a zero. You do not need approval for the movies on the list. Make sure to make plans for how you will access your chosen film in advance. Set aside time to view the movie and be aware of its running time. If you choose a film that you have already seen, please view it again. It will be important to view the film to focus on concepts about adolescent development. Poor planning that results in you being unable to access the film in a timely manner is not a valid excuse for an extension.
The Adolescent Movie Analysis paper will consist of your observations and analysis of the film. Your paper should be in APA format (i.e., title page, reference page, citations and references in APA style) and be 1500-2500 words (i.e., about 5 pages) of text (not including title page or references). An abstract is not necessary. Make sure to link your observations to course content and cite your sources. When including course content, make sure to go beyond just stating what the concept is. Make sure explain why the movie scene is an example of that concept, including explaining what the concept is. Follow the rubric to help maximize your score.
Instructions for the Adolescent Movie Analysis Paper
**You may need to read ahead in the textbook for information to include that we have not covered yet.
Your paper should begin with an introduction to how the film depicted adolescent development and family, peer, and/or romantic relationships. In other words, you should tell the reader what your take-home message will be up front and summarize what you will discuss in your essay.
In the body of your paper give at least 1 example of each of the following that you observed in the film:
normative physical development
normative cognitive development
normative social/personality development
the association of relationships (family, peer, and/or romantic) and adolescent development/how relationships change over adolescence
non-normative events and/or cohort effects (i.e., are there events not tied to normative development at are important to the character(s) development and/or relationships? How is the time period in which the film occurs related to development and/or relationships?)
social context – for example, what are important cultural, racial, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, etc. factors that are related to the character’s experience/development (you do not have to comment on all of these, they are examples).
You should describe each of your examples from the film and clearly link them to concepts you learned in class – citing course material such as lecture or the textbook. Quality papers will take this description a step further, making connections across characters, time, and context. Think about whether what you observe in the film is consistent with what we learned in class and the possible reasons for any discrepancies. Note: You may include examples of development from any main character in the film. You do not have to restrict your examples to a single character.
Please do not write your paper in chronological order of the movie. Instead, organize it by developmental concept as listed above. This results in better written papers and it is also much easier for us to see what your examples of each developmental domain are. Conclude your paper with a brief summary of your paper and a take-home message about what can be learned from this film’s depiction of adolescent development.
**Unfortunately, papers on Clueless or Mean Girls will not be accepted.**
Preapproved Movies:
Real Women Have Curves
Diary of Anne Frank
Dazed and Confused
Boyhood
Thirteen
My Girl
My Girl 2
Now and Then
Inside Out
Turning Red
Luca Brave
Encanto
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Moxie
Eighth Grade
Empire Records
Goonies

General guidelines for written assignments: All writing assignments in this class should be
typed, double spaced, Times New Roman 12pt type, and with no larger than 1” margins. Do
not leave blank lines between paragraphs. For the rough and final drafts there should be a title
page with the title, your name, and the course title on it. There should be a separate
bibliography page at the end of the paper. The title page and the bibliography do not count in
the 10 page required length.
You should assume an intelligent but uninformed reader for your paper, meaning the reader
knows something about sociology but not about the specific topic of your paper. The best way
to do this is to give the paper to a friend of yours and have them read it to see if it makes sense
to them. If it does not make sense to someone who has not been in class, you should clarify
your arguments.
Your task in this paper will be to look at a social problem or condition of your choice from each
of the three Sociological perspectives discussed in class. While you can choose almost any topic,
be aware that certain topics are very common. These include abortion, divorce, teen
pregnancy, legalization of drugs, capital punishment, video games and violence, and social
networking. Also, some common topics are difficult to discuss from a sociological perspective.
Eating disorders is an example. Papers on eating disorders tend to slip into a psychological
framework if the author is not very careful, and that will result in a reduction in the grade, since
the task is to take a sociological perspective.
Please note that due to changes in class size over time, there are limitations on what I can
grade and return in terms of feedback on the paper process. However, I promise you that I will
read your final paper very closely, and will give you feedback along the way during the process
to the extent that you individually ask for it.
You will be required to write a 10 page paper. This paper is worth 400 points. In addition, you
will turn in a paper proposal (worth 40 points) and a rough draft of your paper (worth 160
points). This means that your paper and related work are worth a total of 600 points.
.

Assignment Content
Sociologists conduct research to collect information about society and they apply their findings to better understand the human condition. Sociologists can investigate people in their natural environments by becoming part of their everyday settings to observe and study participants.
In this assignment, you will observe groups of people in social settings to better understand social patterns and group dynamics and then you will write about your findings.
Complete Parts 1 and 2 below.
Part 1: Social Group Observation
Imagine you are a sociologist who is researching the behavior of social groups in social settings.
Conduct an in-person observation in a setting where a group of people gather. Examples of places with groups include malls, grocery stores, libraries, restaurants, coffee shops, parks, schools, employee break rooms, parking lots, pubs, sporting events, or your local neighborhood.
Station yourself in a safe location where you can observe people for 30–60 minutes without having to approach or engage them. You will just observe people, not interact with them.
Use the Social Group Observation Template to collect field notes on the following data about the individuals in your observation, as you perceive it:
Gender/sex
Race/ethnicity
Age
Note: Your numbers do not need to be exact but try to make them as accurate as possible. You do not need to submit your field notes with your assignment—they are for you to reference as a guide during your observation.
Part 2: Findings
Write a 350- to 525-word explanation of your observation findings. Do the following information in your discussion:
Describe the setting for your observation, including the location, time of day (morning, afternoon, evening), and the weather, if relevant.
Describe the patterns of group behavior you observed that may have been influenced by each of the following factors:
Setting
Gender/sex
Race/ethnicity
Age
Describe any cultural norms you may have observed in the social groups.
Explain any social or economic factors that may have influenced the dynamics of the social groups.
Explain how observing social patterns and group dynamics may help you succeed in culturally diverse environments.
Submit your written findings for this assignment.

Resources
Center for Writing Excellence
Reference and Citation Generator
Grammar Assistance

Choose two articles and evaluate them using the criteria listed under “Evaluating Resources in Practice” (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose) in the chapter “Evaluate: Assessing your Research Process and Findings.” After evaluating both articles, compare your results. Would both articles be suitable for use in a research paper about your specific topic? Is one article more helpful than the other in terms of currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose for your topic? Explain. Your paper should be 500 to 1000 words in length (2 to 4 pages). Provide citation information for both articles. You will do a deeper dive into citations in the next module, but for now be sure to include any important information (title, author(s), publication date, publication name, and a link if possible) so that your mentor can locate the articles.

After reviewing the final project, complete the exercise called “Taking Stock of What You Already Know” in the chapter “Identify” in The Information Literacy User’s Guide. For this exercise, you will select a topic of interest and then complete a short table that will help you identify what you already know about a topic, how you know it, and how confident you are in that knowledge. Use the provided template as a starting point for your table and add more rows as needed. In the table, be sure to thoroughly address the key questions from the exercise: What do you know? How do you know it? And how confident are you in this knowledge? Also, provide a short introduction of 100 to 200 words in which you share your field of interest and how you decided on your particular topic. The introduction should be placed above your table in a single file for submission.

The purpose of this assignment is to understand and apply Competency 9. Students are asked to reflect upon how evaluation processes work with a microlevel case on the Advanced level. Please provide, in narrative style, a 2-3 page description of how evaluation was used within a case utilizing the guidance below. Each of the 5 questions is worth 3 points for a total of 15 points. Your reflections will be processed with your Field Supervisor during the final weeks of the Practicum. After providing a brief overview of the case, • Discuss monitoring/evaluation methods and tools employed and to be employed with your case. • Discuss if you feel treatment/intervention was effective in this case? • How did your client feel about the progress made? • Can future results/interventions be improved? • Can evaluation procedures be improved?

For decades, criminologists and public health experts have critiqued laws that criminalize the possession and use of illegal substances, suggesting that imposing criminal penalties for what should be approached as a public health issue does not correspond with notions of justice. Dating back to the establishment of Vancouver’s Insite in 2003, harm reduction initiatives centered around giving people who are addicted to harmful substances safe environment in which to use narcotics – through methods such as providing clean items with which to use substances and having healthcare professionals on site – have been argued to reduce instances of overdose and death, reduce the spread of disease, and provide additional services to those who use harmful substances. Following the expansion of harm reduction services dating back to 2020, the Provincial government of Saskatchewan implemented policies, in February 0f 2024, restricting health care workers from any longer providing a range of harm reduction services. This policy is based in a moral absolutist perspective that refuses to support initiatives that do not strictly involve substance users ceasing to use harmful substances. Healthcare providers and experts have spoken out against these changes. Beyond noting these policies endanger the lives of substance users and prevent initiatives to reduce the spread of disease transmission, these spokespeople advocate for a moral relativist perspective recognizing that there will always be people who use illegal substances, and therefore will always be a market for illegal substances. This second writing assignment will require for you to draw from local media reports to elaborate on the new policies implemented by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Heath and the controversy surrounding them, seek out peer-reviewed academic resources discussing benefits and drawbacks associated with harm reduction policies to inform your position on whether these service should be provided, and a critical assessment of the constitutionality of policies prohibiting harm reduction initiatives. The paper should come in at approximately 5 to 7 pages (not including your cover page and references section). 1.One section where you draw from local news publications to discuss the policy initiatives undertaken by the Saskatchewan Ministry of health and the basis for criticism of these policies by healthcare professionals and experts. This section will require that you use a MINUIMUM of TWO local (Saskatchewan-based) news media resources. 2. One section where you draw from at least four appropriate academic resources to identify and contrast between positive and negative outcomes associated with the presence of harm reduction programs for substance-dependent populations. Here, you will want to discuss your thoughts on whether demonstrated problems associated with providing harm reduction services are more significant that problems associated with restricting them and how this informs your approval or disapproval for the implementation of harm reduction initiatives. This section will require the use of a MINIMUM of FOUR appropriate academic resources (peer-reviewed academic journal articles or books from reputable publishers). 3. One section where you critically reflect on whether policies that prohibit people who use substances from having access to harm reduction services should be declared unconstitutional given the contents of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and determine whether you feel the Supreme Court of Canada should or should not prohibit the Saskatchewan government’s policies from being enforced. You will also want to focus on additional requirements with regards to… 1.Proper spelling, grammar and sentence structure; 2.Proper formatting requirements (double-spaced, 12pt Times New Roman font, margins that have not been tampered with, etc). 3.The correct presence of in-text and reference page citations (format of citations is up to you, but they must be an accredited academic citation style); 5.The presence of a clear and concise hypothesis statement (“this paper will…”) 6.The inclusion of page numbers and section headings; 7.A reflected awareness of what does not classify as appropriate materials to use as references as identified in the course syllabus; 8. The complete absence of any evidence of academic dishonesty (including plagiarism, the use of Generative artificial intelligence software, any other mischief).