Learning Goal: I’m working on a sociology multi-part question and need the explanation and answer to help me learn.
Objective
This exercise provides the opportunity to more fully explain the concept of the sociological imagination and how it helps us to understand our experiences and society.
Description
Developing a sociological analysis of society often involves developing the capacity to strange the familiar or look at the taken for granted world around us from a fresh perspective. One of the concepts that helps us do that is the Sociological Imagination.
Please write an essay that includes the following components.
1) What the Sociological Imagination is.
2) What role it plays in sociological analysis.
3) Choose an everyday item (examples may be: a can of pet food,inserts for womens high-heeled shoes, a bag of Halloween candy, a child’s toy, bottled water, earbuds, anti-aging cream, Axe Body Spray, the list is endless).
4) Use the concept of the sociological imagination to explain this item. What do you need to know about this particular society, this particular point in history and the individuals within this society to understand this item? What does this item tell us about this society? About ourselves?
5) Finally, your answer should include a description of sociological analysis differs from common sense ways of knowing. What sets it apart from informal conversations with friends, your opinion or interactions on talk radio?
Your essay should reflect an understanding of sociological imagination by being able to place an everyday item within a broader social context. For example, perhaps you choose to focus on these pink and blue hangers. Or even gender reveal smoke bombs.You might first think, Why do these exist? What do they tell us about society? You could construct your essay around gender norms, and why we feel a need to distinguish between male and female. You can talk about gender socialization, or how we learn about the gender binary, and how these types of product reify those distinctions.
As a rough guide, your papers should be between 1000 and 1300 words. The wordcount guidelines are general suggestions that indicate the average length it takes to fulfill the assignments requirements. Thus, it is okay if you write a little more or less than the suggested length. After all, your papers will be graded on how well you fulfill the assignment guidelines, not on how much (or how little) you wrote. Bear in mind that it will be very difficult to score a passing grade if you only write 500 words when the recommended length is 1000. Alternatively, just because you write 2000 words does not mean you stand to do better. The key to doing well is to be sure that youve fulfilled all of the assignments requirements in a clear and concise manner.
