imagination”?
A). Identify a private trouble or personal issue you are
aware of, have experienced, or are experiencing. (For example, difficulty in
getting a job, healthcare, childcare, divorce, rising cost of housing, rising
cost of education.)
B). Discuss how the issue you identified above might
actually be a larger public issue. Identify what the larger public issue might
be.
C). Identify what some of the consequences or implications
of this larger social issue might be for society. I.E. How will society be
affected?
D). Using your sociological imagination give at least two
ways of dealing with this issue at a macro level and two at the micro level.
What is the difference in how one might deal with a problem if one views it
from a micro perspective (personal trouble) v. a macro perspective (public
issue)?
E). What prevents society from seeing this as a broader
social issue?
2). Did you understand that Miner was describing the
“American” (“Nacirema” spelled backwards)? Why do we not
recognize this right away? What do we gain from being able to “step
back” from our way of life as Miner has done? Think in terms of
ethnocentrism. Identify the positive and negative aspects of ethnocentrism. How
does sociology allow us to step back from our lives? What new insights do we
get from being able to do this?
3). Discuss Emile Durkheim’s investigation of suicide rates
and how his research contributed to the development of theory. What is theory
and why is it important? What did his research show us?
