What struggles have you encountered along the way, and how do they relate specifically to your social location?

/in /by

This assignment asks you to critically examine your social location. Our social location is comprised of numerous factors including race, social class, gender, age, sexual orientation, political affiliation, and the physical location in the world where we reside. First, discuss your social location given the parameters previously mentioned. Next, tell me a bit about how you ended up taking this class at the University of Texas at Dallas. First of all, consider yourself lucky. Only about 7% of the world’s population has a college degree. You are all well on your way to earning one.

How was your trajectory set up from an early age? Was it a given that you would attend college? Is your path traditional or non-traditional given your social location relative to others who share it? What kinds of expectations do your family and peers have of you? Do you find these difficult to achieve? Or, has your opportunity structure allowed for a smooth transition through the life cycle up to this point? What struggles have you encountered along the way, and how do they relate specifically to your social location?

This paper should be approximately 2-3 pages in length. It should be double spaced using Times New Roman, 12 pt. font. Include a title that speaks to the content of your paper.

What can you do in your own life to spark social change?

/in /by

What can you do in your own life to spark social change? Provide an example of how you problem solve in your own community.

Explain how Restorative Justice in Education has evolved from the practice of Restorative Justice itself

/in /by
  • Restorative Justice in Education versus Restorative Justice
  • Explain how Restorative Justice in Education has evolved from the practice of Restorative Justice itself (as the indigenous tradition and justice practices have used it)
  • Understanding the challenges with the concept of Restorative Justice, particularly Restorative Justice in Education
  • Note limitations, confusion, complications, and barriers to Restorative Justice

Develop a comparative analysis that explores Canada’s and a non-Western country’s attitudes toward intimate partner abuse and/or sexual abuse.

/in /by

Assignment 4 Major Research Paper

Weighting: 45% of final grade

Length: 2,000-2500 words (approximately 8-10 pages. Do NOT include the title page or reference list as part of the word count.) Due: After Unit 5

This assignment provides you with an opportunity to explore a specific topic in detail and to integrate your knowledge about violence against women with your understanding of the factors that contribute to women’s vulnerability to violence and the violence perpetrated against them. It also allows you to go beyond the course materials in formulating an in-depth analysis and discussion of your selected topic.

Prepare a major research paper on one (1) of the following topics:

  • Develop a comparative analysis that explores Canada’s and a non-Western country’s attitudes toward intimate partner abuse and/or sexual abuse. Your analysis should include prevalence rates in each country, the socio-cultural factors affecting women’s vulnerabilities in each country, and the similarities and differences in cultural contexts affecting women’s vulnerability to violence in each country. Conclude with an analysis of interventions that would be effective both in Canada and in the non-Western country you selected.
  • Select a form of violence against women that was not carefully examined in this course.

Introduce your topic with a brief discussion of the nature and extent of this form of abuse. Your gendered analysis should include a description of the issue; a discussion of prevalence rates; the broad consequences of the situation; and the possible socio-cultural, political, and economic factors that affect women’s vulnerability to this form of violence. Conclude with an analysis of interventions that might be effective in addressing this problem.

  • Develop a comparative analysis that looks at issues surrounding intimate partner abuse and/or sexual abuse in Canada’s Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women’s populations. Your gendered analysis should include prevalence rates and a discussion of the similarities and differences in the socio-cultural, political, and economic factors that affect both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women’s vulnerabilities to violence. Conclude with an analysis of strategies that would be effective in eliminating violence against not only Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women in Canada, but women everywhere.
  • Identify a specific group of Canadian women based on their age, race, class, sexuality, or ability (e.g. immigrant women, elderly women, lesbians, women with disabilities, women living in poverty). Describe and discuss their specific experiences with abuse using Canadian women generally as the referent group. Your gendered analysis should include prevalence rates and a discussion of the similarities and differences in the socio-cultural, political, and economic factors that affect this group’s vulnerabilities to violence. Conclude with an analysis of strategies that would be effective in eliminating violence against not only the women in the group you have isolated, but women everywhere.
  • A relevant topic of your choosing. Requires the consent of the course tutor.
/in /by

Assignment 1 – Write a 500 word critique of the following report:
Population: A Lively Introduction, 5th edition, by Joe McFalls, March
2007. This report is available at the Population Reference Bureau
Go to the PRB website. Click on the magnifying glass in the top right hand corner

Type in MCFalls This should take you to the Population Bulletin Click on it
then download the report. (PRB) – www.prb.org

Think of this as if you are the person deciding whether or not the report

should be published. What are the strengths and weaknesses of it and

how might you change it? Make sure to read the entire report (30+

pages) and not just the summary.

What would happen if that was no longer illegal.

/in /by

Think of something that is currently classified as illegal in the United States. Now, consider what would happen if that was no longer illegal. What are the possible consequences? Be creative and don’t take the easy way out. For example, marijuana is not the best example here as many states are taking steps to legalize or decriminalize marijuana usage. Be sure you include research to support your posts. For example, what do other countries do? How does public policy differ? How might it impact institutions in society: law enforcement, prisons, education, communities, the environment, etc. Your paper should address how this change might impact individuals based on their race, class, and/or gender.

How many things affect how we interact with another person?

/in /by

Do you agree that people prefer to engage in comfortable, patterned interactions? If so, why do you think this is the case?

Reading material
Module 1: Discussion Board Question 1-2
One of the central concepts in Sociology is social organization. What is social organization or an organization? Let’s define the word “organization” first. Something is organized when a number of elements or objects are held together in relation to each other in a certain pattern. Webster’s dictionary defines “to organize” as to give a definite structure, to arrange, or to put into an order. For example, if I drop a deck of cards and they fall on the floor and scatter all over, are they organized? No, but what if I arrange the cards by putting all the cards with hearts in a row, beginning with the ace and ending with the king, and doing the same for cards with spades, diamonds, and clubs? Then the cards would be organized according to two criteria: suit and value.

So what do we need to have “organization?” We need to have elements or objects to be organized. In research, we refer to this as the unit of study. Then we need the elements to be put in some order or pattern in relation to each other, or something else. In addition, there is some criteria by which the elements patterned. For the cards it was the value and suit of the card. Finally, there is some force putting or holding the elements in the patterns.

Sometimes things may appear to be unorganized, but upon closer study we find that they are organized. For example, we can look up at the stars on a clear and dark night, and see millions of stars sprinkled across the sky. They appear to be located randomly across the sky. But, astronomers have found many patterns and learned that they are organized by certain criteria. Let’s test this out by our definition. The stars are the elements. There are many reoccurring patterns, such as worlds with moons, galaxies, and universes. What are the criteria by which the stars are organized? I am not an astronomer, but some of the criteria are the size of the star, the weight and distance between them. Finally, what force is holding the stars into the patterns? Gravity and motion hold the stars into the patterns.Now that we understand what organization means, and how it applies to non-human phenomena, let’s see if human behavior is organized. If human behavior has no organization or patterns, then we could not study it. If behavior is just random and people act in random ways according to how they felt on a given day, there would be no basis to study or understand it.So referring back to our definition of organization, what are the elements to be patterned for human behavior? Would it be people? No, that is the business of physiologists who study races, body types, and the various physical characteristics of people. Would the elements be personalities? No, that is the business of psychologists. For sociologists, the elements to be patterned are many. At the most micro level, the elements would be interactions between people and groups of people. But are these interactions patterned? The patterns also are many and can be complex. For example, there are patterns of greetings in all cultures, such as “Hi, how are you? – I’m fine, how are you?” Another pattern is going on dates, or going to work or school on select days of the week. Most of our behavior follows definite patterns and we do the same things over and over again. So what are the criteria by which the social interactions are patterned? Again they are many. How many things affect how we interact with another person? Obviously, age and gender greatly affect how we interact with others. For example, a boy interacts differently with girls in his class than with boys. We interact differently with our parents than with other adults. The criteria influencing how we interact are many, such as occupation, family membership, social economic status, and so on. Finally, what is the force holding our social interactions into these patterns? Sociologists call this force the social control structure. All societies construct norms and values that regulate our behavior and it is regulated by the social control structure. The control may be formal such as punishment by the criminal justice system, or informal such as control by the approval and disapproval of others around us.So we can see that our social behavior does meet the criteria we set up to qualify as being organized. In fact, if this were not the case, studying social interaction would be impossible because without a structure of patterned behavior, understanding or predicting behavior would be impossible. And on a personal level, we all know that the people around us act in patterned ways. In fact, we can often predict how others will respond to situations after we have gotten to know them well. In fact, the longer I study human behavior, the more convinced I become that most people prefer to engage in comfortable, patterned interactions.Discussion Question 1-2: Do you agree that people prefer to engage in comfortable, patterned interactions? If so, why do you think this is the case? Read another student’s answer to this question and explain why you agree or disagree with it. (4 points)

Post your responses to these questions. 3 posts are required: 1 original post (at least 200 words, due by the end of the day on the first Wednesday of the Module), and 2 responses to/comments on your classmates’ original posts (at least 100 words each, due by the time the Module closes).

What key take aways did you pull from watching Clara Sue Kidwell’s talk? Identify three key take aways focused on substantive issues.

/in /by

What key take aways did you pull from watching Clara Sue Kidwell’s talk? Identify three key take aways focused on substantive issues. Indicate what Kidwell said by using quotations and let us know your thinking. Does your take away connect to the reading in any particular way? If so, in what way?

Please enumerate (number) your responses.

1.

2.

3.

Describe the type of health care provided to citizens: universal, private, single-payer, etc.

/in /by

Pick an industrialized nation other than the United States and research their health care system. Describe the type of health care provided to citizens: universal, private, single-payer, etc.
Compare and contrast the system to that of the United States keeping in the mind the concepts in your text such as infant mortality rate, and access to preventative care, etc.

Determine what kind of balance to strike between your summary information and your evaluation.

/in /by

-Book Report should be around 1000-2500 words
-Choose one of the books below.

Veblen and Modern America: Revolutionary Iconoclast. Spindler, Michael. Pluto Press, c2002.

The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society. De Waal, Frans. Three Rivers Press, 2009.

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. Stanley, Jason. Random House, 2018.

Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High. Margaret J. Finders. Teachers College Press, 1997

Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think. by George Lakoff. University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World WarII. By Douglas A. Blackmon. Anchor Books, 2008.

The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure. By Juliet B. Schor. Basic Books, 1991.

Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. by Kevin Bales. University of California Press, 2004.

The Radicalism of the American Revolution. by Gordon S. Wood. Vintage Books, 1993.

-Book reports are informative reports that discuss a book from an objective stance. The focus of the book report is to both summarize the book and to provide an evaluation of it. Your book reports should focus primarily on giving an account of the thesis, and/or main idea of the work. It should offer a brief description of the text’s key points and provide a short appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the work. The purpose of the report is to critically evaluate the text, not just inform the readers about it. Determine what kind of balance to strike between your summary information and your evaluation. Deal with the most important or interesting issues in the book. You will not be able to cover every idea. What ideas did you agree or disagree with? What other things might the author have considered?

-Things to look for as you read
Main Ideas: What is the main idea of the work? What did you learn that you did not know before? What makes it good, different, or interesting for you?
Arguments: What support does the author give for her findings? Does the work fulfill its purpose? Does it support its arguments?
Quotes: What quotes stand out? What parts did you like best?
Your Evaluation: Choose a few points to discuss about the book. What worked well for you? What important ideas does the book introduce, and how effective are they?