Applied Sociology in Action Project
Applied sociology is a very broad field. It is important, therefore, that early in their academic career students begin exploring areas which they find particularly interesting.
The purpose of this assignment is:
1) to encourage you to build your knowledge about an area of applied sociology,
2) to help synthesize information presented in previous units of this course,
3) to help strengthen presentation skills needed by applied sociologists, and
4) to offer students a chance to get to know one another by working together in teams .
You must choose an area of applied sociology (such as education, evaluation, marketing, health care, etc.) and learn as much as you can about it. What is the current state of the field? What types of work are being done? Who are the leading practitioners? Are these practitioners academics, consultants in private practice, consultants in firms, government or NGO employees, or full-time employees of for-profit companies? Who hires and who pays? What theories and methods seem to be most frequently used? What are some of the seminal articles/books in the field? What are the big questions in this area? And what are the unique insights that sociologists can bring to these questions? What is the history of the area? Who were the pioneers and pivotal figures in the development of the field?
To gather this information, you will need to scour a wide variety of sources, including: academic/research journals; trade publications; books; newspapers and magazines; the Internet; perhaps even personal interviews with practitioners.
Obviously, this is not a project that can be completed overnight. You will have a work week at the end of the semester to put the finishing touches on your presentation. But you should settle on a topic and begin your research much earlier in the semester as soon as the teams are announced.
Your presentation should run 10 – 12 minutes. It may be done in PowerPoint, Prezi, or video. The only stipulation is that it must work seamlessly when I watch it.
Follow the ASA style guidelines for citations,reference entries and any tables you use, and be sure to include a reference list at the end of your presentation. There is no specific requirement for the number of references used, but for a team project of this scope I would think you would be in the range of 16 – 20 with at least half of them coming from peer-reviewed research literature.
Grading: The presentation is worth 450 points and will be graded using the following rubric:
Analysis of current state of the area
Types of work are being done; leading practitioners; most common types of practitioners – academics, consultants in private practice, consultants in firms, government or Non-Governemnt employees, or full-time employees of for-profit companies. Who hires and who pays?
