This week you will complete an observation activity in your community.
This week you will complete an observation activity in your community. This activity will help prepare you for the Week 7 Assignment. This Forum is unique so read the instructions and point values carefully.
Write a 500+ word initial post that includes these components:
- Observation
- Go to a public place and observe the people there for 25 minutes. What are the details of the location? Describe the general context (time of day, lighting, sounds, vibe/energy, etc.). Describe the people around you and their sociodemographic characteristics (age, race/ethnicity, gender/sex, socioeconomic status, etc.).
- Norms
- Identify two or more social norms that people engaged in at the public place. A norm is a social rule. There are many norms that help to frame how we are supposed to behave in our daily lives, one example is gender norms (what are social rules we follow to ‘be masculine’ and to ‘be feminine’); another example is standing in line (consider what would happen if you cut everyone in line at 8am in a Starbucks?).
- Concepts
- How do these norms you observed in the scene fit with sociological concepts and theories we’ve learned so far in class? Some examples of sociological concepts we’ve learned about so far include gender roles and emotional labor. (What is a “sociological concept?” They are all the concepts we’ve been learning each week in our course materials such as “socialization,” “norms” and “folkways.”)
- Reflection
- Reflect on your experience. How was this observing others through a sociological lens different from when you’ve “people watched” in the past? What perspectives do you think a sociologist can bring to our understanding of everyday human behavior?
- Engagement
- In any public scene, all of us will notice different things, and find different observations important or unimportant. In your peer responses, help one another identify sociodemographic characteristics, social norms, or sociological concepts that the classmate may not have noticed. Consider helping one another notice common themes in the types of public places you choose and your observations of people in those scenes.
- Writing Skills
The Week 6 Forum meets the following course objectives:
- Apply a sociological perspective to the social world
- Analyze contemporary social issues using the sociological imagination and use sociological theories and concepts to analyze everyday life.
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