PhotoVoice Project on Social Stratification
PhotoVoice is a method of community-based research that is meant to document and reflect social reality within a community. Our project will focus on social stratification and asks you to use your sociological imagination to link micro social issues (documented in your photos) to macro social structures and historical forces that contribute to inequality. You will be conducting this research and analysis in your community, which we can broadly understand to include the neighborhood(s) in which you live, work, and/or go to school.
Details of Assignment
Photos
You will each take THREE photos in your community (broadly understood to mean where you live, work, etc.) that lend themselves to sociological analysis of inequality: one photo should reflect social class, one should reflect gender inequality and one should reflect racial and/or ethnic inequality. These photos can be of people, places or objects, but if you photograph people, please make sure that you have permission from them if they are identifiable in the photo.
Sociological Analysis
You will write a brief sociological image analysis for each photograph. Each analysis should be 300-500 words, typed, double spaced. Please paste your photos and analyses into ONE Word document and include a caption with details of each photograph (where and when it was taken, what it is a photo of) and your analyses.
Each analysis should evaluate the image using the sociological concept that the image reflects (social class, gender, race and ethnicity) as a framework. You must use terms and concepts from the class/readings in your analyses, such as: social class – poverty, life chances, status, class categories (upper, middle, lower, etc.), social mobility, culture of poverty, etc.; gender – sex, gender, gender inequality, gender typing, the gender pay gap, balancing work and family, patriarchy, etc.; race/ethnicity: institutional racism, racism, stereotype, prejudice, racialization, discrimination, assimilation, multiculturalism, etc.
You should use the class readings/powerpoint, which should be correctly cited, and will not need any outside resources (but you can use them if you see a need for them). All three images and analyses should be submitted to in one document via Blackboard. You should paste your photo into a document and add the analysis right after the photo, so it is clear which photo it refers to.
