Word count: 1500 words
Submission: 3 May 2024 9 a.m.
Assignment Description:
Over the course of the module students will be asked to develop and share with the group an autobiographical ‘identity andPolitics log, These can be in a range of potentially changing formats but might include: a blog, social network or other online activity; a hard copy written journal, prose, poetry; a video diary or short film/documentary: a series of art works or performances. The pieces will be used to produce a piece of reflective writing that explores one or more ‘everyday’ events of students’ own lives. The purpose of the writing is to critically reflect on the political aspect of that moment. You will be expected to make clear how you are using conceptualizations of politics, power, the everyday and identity from the module to analyse the selected moment or moments of your everyday life and to provide a clear account of their poitical signifcance to you.
There is no single approach to structure this assignment, and we encourage you to approach the task creatively. However, students often value guidance about how to structure their essay. This is, at root, a piece of reflective writing and there have been two main approaches that students commonly use and that work well.
Structure 1
1. Describe the events
2. Set out what you intend to critically reflect on within the events – ldentify what is political in what happened -for example, specify identities, practices, or specific inequalities that you intend to discuss
3. Discuss the theory you intend to use in your analysis and why it is helpful
4. Critically reflect on the political aspect of the moment described, e.g.the nature of difference in the scene, how differences in the scene came to be recognised/were practices, and their effects.
Note that students often offer a variation on this structure to tell a developing story. This is particularly the case where students wish to include description of more than one connected moment. In these cases the structure might look something more like:
1. Describe the events
2. Set out what you intend to critically reflect on within the events- ldentify what is political inwhat happened -for example, specify identities, practices, or specifc inequalities that you intend to discuss
3. Describe further events
4. Discuss how these event develop what you intend to critically reflect on
5. Discuss the theory you intend to use in your analysis and why it is helpful
6. Critically reflect on the political aspect of the moment described, e.g. the nature of difference in the scene, how differences inthe scene came to be recognised /were practices, and their effects.
Structure 2
The other main approach students take is to prioritise discussion of a theoretical idea or perspective, or political problem which is then exemplifed through description and analysis of everyday life. In this case the structure might bemore like:
1. Discuss a theory or political problem you wish to critically reflect on, making its signifcance clear
2. Describe the events
3. Relate these events to the theory/political problem, setting out how you intend to work(how your experience of everyday life supports a critical reflection on the theory orpolitical problem)-this would usually involve specifying identities, practices, or specific inequalities that you intend to discuss
4. Critically reflect on the theory or political problem-e.g.how your experience helps usto understand what is at stake in the discussion or theory, how helpful the theory is and/or its limits, how it helps us understand the effects of inequalities.
Finally, l have included below a series of questions that you might use as prompts to think about your politics logs. The intention of these is to give you ideas for getting going with your analysis.They are by no means a complete list, and you may want to ask other different questions of your data – we certainly don’t want to get in the way of that. Don’t feel restricted to these kinds of questions, but use them as a starting point if that is helpful.
What identities are recognisable in the everyday moment you describe?
How are people recognising each other? How do peopel seem to interpret the other person and their language use, actions, dress, bodily comportment and so on?
What is the meaning of what people say and do in this situation? Does that meaning vary or does it seem shared?
How are those identities performed? How does it enable you or others in the account to recognise others in terms of their identities?
What inequalities are in evidence? What is
unequal?
Is it an unequal relation on the basis of what people have (the material)?
Is there a difference in what people are permitted to do? For example, can one person do or say something the other could not? Can we imagine the subjects swapping roles and behaving like the other?
Is it a difference in status or how people are seen?
Or is it something else? How might we name that inequality?
How are those inequalities produced, or reproduced, through what people do or say in everyday moments?
Is there a type of politics that relates to this situation?
Are there connections to wider politic movements or social groups or organisations at any level, from informal solidarities among a group of friends, to a hashtag, to an organised political movement?
What kind of politics is it? ls it radical or not? ls it about identity?
What are your personal responses to this situation? How does it feel to you? Does it shape what you think is ethical?
Does critical reflection change your view of what happened, or how you should have responded?
Please refer the attached essay sample.
