homework

General Instructions:

Please answer the following questions using the material provided in the recorded lectures, pages, and the required readings. Please be as detailed as possible in order to show me that you understand what is being asked and that you have read and understand the basic points raised by the relevant authors. In short, please do not just repeat back to me what I and the authors have said. Support your answers by bringing in examples that show that you understand the concepts used and/or arguments made. Also, please remember that I am not asking you for your opinion; I am testing your knowledge. When I directly reference an author or set of authors, please remember to include a brief summary of the relevant points raised in the selection they authored.

The short-answer questions should be answered in a paragraph or so. The essay questions should be answered in 3-4 paragraphs. I do prefer quality over quantity so if you can answer the questions in less time, that’s fine. Just remember that I am the one who will be assessing “quality” so make sure you answer the questions carefully and with enough detail to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the material. Also, please review and proofread your answers to make sure you are clear in what you are trying to say – you don’t want me struggling to figure out what you meant.

Finally, please submit all answers in one document via Canvas. If you have any problems with your submission, go ahead and email it to me.

Short Answer Questions (5 pts each):

1. What are social institutions? What role do they play within a society? When are social problems likely to to emerge?

2. What are two social conditions or patterns of behavior that have emerged that are challenging the family as a social institution? Please rely on at least one reading for support.

3. What is deviance? From society’s perspective, why is it important to regulate individual behavior? What two social institutions serve as agents of social control responsible for enforcing social norms?

4. What is the link between socioeconomic status and the quality of education received in public schools? What is one way in which this link limits public schools from fulfilling their social functions?

Essay Questions on next page

Essay Questions (10 pts each):

5. Social institutions emerge when there is a recognized social need that must be fulfilled. In today’s society, responsibility to meet certain social needs are increasingly given to private businesses and corporations as the result of claim-makers working to address particular social problems or businesses themselves seeking to address a social need through private means. However, this convergence of social responsibility and private interests is not without controversy. First, why is there a tension between the social/public functions given to a particular industry and its own business and financial interests? Second, what is the likely harm to individuals and the larger society if businesses fail to fulfill their social responsibilities? Please support your answers by using at least two selections from the textbook.

6. Why is a person’s social status as worker so important sociologically? How does social status as worker allow us to see the intersectionality of social statuses? How does it structure access to the resources necessary to live a meaningful life? Please provide at least two examples. Also, please support your answers by using at least two selections from the textbook.

7. Activists, policymakers, academics and others increasingly argue that environmental problems are increasingly seen as social problems. Yet, there is a considerable number of people who argue that any efforts at “fixing” environmental problems can create new or reinforce old social problems. First, using the definition of a social problem from the first week of class, why should environmental problems be considered social problems? What social conditions or patterns of behavior contribute to environmental problems? What are the harms to individuals and the larger society that result from environmental problems? Second, using your critical thinking skills, why is there such controversy over potential solutions to address different environmental problems even in cases where the costs to humans are obvious and clear?

8. Remember: no politics here. Please use what you learned from this class to explore social costs for addressing or failing to address social problems, including environmental problems.

9. In the conclusion to the selection “How Low Wages Harm Us All,” Beth Shulman picks up on a theme we’ll be exploring for the rest of the quarter so I would like to have a more open-ended discussion on what makes a society strong, healthy, and cohesive to get us started. That theme is the tension that exists between individual needs, interests, and a person’s ability to pursue their own life chances and achieve social mobility, including the need to protect individuals from the harmful effects of other individuals’ choices and actions, and societal needs such as the fulfillment of certain functions that allow a society to flourish, social stability/order and public safety. When societal needs are met, individual members of that society receive the benefits of living in a strong, healthy, and “cohesive society.” To borrow from another book, “[a] cohesive society works towards the well-being of all its members, fights exclusion and marginalization, creates a sense of belonging, promotes trust, and offers its members the opportunity of upward mobility.” In short, a cohesive society works together to address different social problems that harm individual members of that society and the larger society as a whole. When different social problems are addressed, individuals are more likely to trust other members of a society and to feel a sense of loyalty to that society and will be willing to work together to make it better.

What makes a society strong, healthy, and cohesive society? What benefits do individuals derive from being part of a cohesive society? What public (both social and governmental) goods and services are necessary to allow for the creation of a cohesive society? What obligations should a society be able to expect from its individual members in order to accomplish these goals?

From your perspective, what is the most important social problem that needs to be addressed in American society so that individuals can trust other members of American society, regardless of possible differences that may exist between them; can feel a sense of loyalty to American society; and feel willing to work together to make it better? What steps need to be taken in order to address that social problem?

You do not need to reference a specific reading but please put some thought into your answers and ground yoru answers in what you learned in this class.