Paper 2: Social Inequality (18.5% of course grade)
Paper 2 maps to the following SOCY 100 learning outcomes (course objectives):
apply the sociological imagination, theoretical perspectives, and scientific research to uncover patterns of social behavior.
identify the different ways society is stratified and develop awareness of how inequality is perpetuated in society.
Paper 2 requirements:
In week 6 you read about social inequalities in everyday life. For this assignment, you will give real world examples of how this manifests. You will conduct interviews with 2 people who are of different social categories about their perceptions, beliefs, and experiences with social inequalities. These categories can include race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. Each person should fulfill two or more different categories in order to also analyze intersectionality. For example, if you interview a gay black man, his experiences would be based on the intersection of sexual orientation, race, and gender. You would then select a second person to interview who would intersect with different categories (Asian Straight Man, White Transgender Woman, Hispanic gay women, etc., wealthy black woman, etc ). You can interview any 2 people you want, as long as they are from at least 2 different social categories (they can be the same on others).
You should interview them on their experiences, beliefs, perceptions, etc., on social inequality, and the ways they deal with it in society. Make sure to provide examples of some of the experiences they have had, and why they feel they have experienced social inequality. You also should explore which part of their social categories they feel has led to the most social inequality (i.e. their race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.).
You should then compare and contrast their views and experiences. Within your comparison you should refer to the course concepts to help analyze and explain your interviewees views. You should reference the learning resources and other research sources to discuss how their cultural categories may have influenced their experiences and views. Make sure to also include a discussion on intersectionality. For example, if you are interviewing a white straight woman, and a black straight man, you may find that they have had very different experiences with social inequality based both race and gender. Why would that be the case?
You should conclude your essay with a discussion of what you learned from your interviews, and what you think should be done to address any major problems that your interviewees have experienced.
You should be using extensive quotes from your interviewees in your essay in order to validate your discussion.
Notes:
Select appropriate source material. Locate a minimum of four academic sources (peer-reviewed articles) written within the last ten years.
Follow APA Style: https://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/apa_examples.cfm
Read the rubric as guidelines for the paper.
Recommended length: 4 pages not including the title and reference page. letter size: 12, and double-spaced.
Submit the paper as an attachment on the Assignments. Submissions created in Microsoft Word are preferred. If you do not have this program, then please submit your work in PDF file format.
Openstax Intro to sociology chapter 11 – Race and Ethnicity
