For this assignment, you are asked to synthesize the professional literature on your chosen area of inequality with your localized assessment, then describe the capacity for change. This Course Report builds from your previous submissions (Subject Selection and Social Context), and is supplemented with further analysis that interrogates opportunities for change that are responsive to what you’ve found. Specifically, you are asked to supplement your previous submissions by making a proposal to decrease inequality, assessing the a) desirability, b) viability, and c) achievability of your proposed alternative. You will assess whether stratification between these groups would also be fundamentally altered or not. Your final paper should be no shorter than six* pages in length, and is not to exceed 15 pages. (*It is HIGHLY unlikely that you can give meaningful analysis to your topic in under eight pages, but I refuse to accept any submission that is less than six pages.)
Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to threefold. First, I expect you to interact with professional literature and capture how it explains social inequality. Second, I want you to reconcile the professional literature with what YOU see in the world around you. And finally, I want you to challenge whether this form of inequality has to be persistent over time by envisioning some alternative- and not in a superficial way! I want you to critically think of three components of that alternative so you can better scrutinize our capacity for change. This is a depressing course. This third component is an opportunity to move beyond assessing inequalities and instead develop some leadership or vision for improving the world around us.
Requirements:
You must clearly identify the kind of inequality that you want to focus on in the paper. “Gender inequality” covers a lot of possible areas. Consider how your previous submissions have conceptualized inequality instead. Think about whether you are analyzing material dimensions of inequality (i.e. income, health disparities, etc.), non-material inequality (i.e. representations, sociocognitive biases, etc.), or something else.
You must incorporate professional literature used to inform how this kind of inequality is conceptualized or treated in the field. You’ve previously submitted at least TWO professional sources. (You can incorporate more!)
You must describe how you’ve assessed this form of inequality in the world around you. (See: Assignment Two!) Describe how that inequality manifests itself in an area that you’ve studied.
You must compare how the professional literature and your contextualized assessment agree or are in conflict.
You must make a proposal to reduce that kind of inequality. It is not mandatory that you cite some precedent for your proposal in professional literature, but you may benefit from finding support for your ideas or articulation of their feasibility by outside sources.
You must examine the desirability, viability, and achievability of your proposal. Please see Erik Olin Wright’s “Envisioning Real Utopias” pages 21-25 for direct reference on these concepts.
Finally, you must assess whether inequality would be fundamentally altered by your proposal (IF it were fully implemented) or not. (For this portion, please think critically about whether the alternative is transformative or if it just reduces one area of inequality.)
Format:
6-15 pages in length
No more than 12pt font or double-spaced
Rubric:
Author has given detailed responses to all required components
Author speaks clearly and with authority on their area of inequality
Author demonstrates understanding of basic concepts in inequality related to guiding theory, role of social structures, interpersonal biases, etc.
Author can apply sociological theories to area being examined.
Author demonstrates ability to connect theories and concepts to empirical observations or research.
Author can evaluate strengths and weaknesses in professional literature
Author’s review of the literature is sufficient
Author’s documentation of sources is accurate
Author can evaluate strengths and weaknesses of proposed alternative
Author’s tone, style, vocabulary, and references are consistent with that of an academic submission
Author has met all format requirements
Final note:
Please don’t cut/paste your previous submissions (Assignments 1 &2) directly into this submission. Your ability to craft a coherent and cogent assessment is connected to your ability to synthesize things- to LEARN and RESPOND to things you’ve encountered. Your previous submissions were “check-in” assignments where tone, clarity, and depth of analysis were not scrutinized.
