Social inequality

Description: For this assignment, you are asked to consider your chosen topic in social inequality identified in the previous assignment. You are asked to identify the local contexts of inequality, connecting the (presumably) macro. In addition micro analyses of the literature from that assignment to the local environment. I.e. campus, Chestertown, Kent County, the Eastern Shore, your hometown, etc.). You should describe how networks, economic interests, demographics, economic development, population density, etc. may play a role in making inequality better, worse, or the same as the professional literature assumes. Please address the following somewhere in your write up: 1) what does the literature get right? (Are there any processes or interactions described in the literature that you can clearly identify in local contexts?) 2) What does the literature miss?.

I encourage students to look to BOTH their direct observations of the place AND more objective data in assessing the place characteristics Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is twofold. First, this assignment is a foundational part of your final paper. Your final paper will draw on the practicality and applied potential of literature to capture inequality in the real world, and to explore alternative social arrangements that might reduce stratification. This assignment forces you to think about the real world around you instead of just the concepts and studies of society more broadly. But second, this is a chance for you to explore the community around you as a sociologist! It’s LIKELY that sociologists in professional literature may be speaking to another social experience from your own, and this provides you the opportunity to offer your own expertise.

Additional Information

Requirements:1. You must clearly identify the scope of the place that you choose to examine in your “social context” assignment. What are the boundaries? What is the demographic composition of the location? 2. You should offer objective data in reporting sociodemographic data whenever possible, but I also expect you to provide a frank assessment of whether you feel the composition is more complex than those quantitative measures. 3. You should reference both citations from your previous assignment, unless you’ve found a better literature base to draw from. If you find that a citation doesn’t describe the area well, that’s a good thing! We are looking for contributions AND deficiencies in the professional literature that we can build from! Format:3-5 pages in length. No more than 12pt font or double-spaced.

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