Monday, August 29, 2016

3 Perspectives and sports


Today we talked about the three perspectives of sociology and how they relate to sports.

I like to think about the three perspectives as three different ways of having a sociological imagination.  Three specific ways of having a sociological imagination are the three founding perspectives of sociology.  These three perspectives were the beginning of sociology.  All three of them were a reaction to the extraordinary changes of the industrial revolution taking place in Europe in the 1800s.  The founder of each of these theories is considered one of the founding fathers of sociology.  Here are the ways that we applied each theory to the tv show:

What are the groups and what functions do they serve? Are there negative influences from any of the groups (dysfunctions)? This is functional theory. It was developed by Emile Durkheim.

Who has power? How or why do they have power? How do they use it? This is conflict theory. It was first developed by Karl Marx.

What are the important symbols? Note that the symbols might be an object, but also might be an idea, an event or something else. How do people act based on the symbols they find important? This is symbolic interactionism. I like to connect symbolic interactionism to Max Weber.

Can you relate any of these theories to your own life? How can the things you do be interpreted through one of these theories? For example why do you wear what you wear or why are you going to college or why do you stress yourself out to get "good" grades?

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Flag Football Volunteer Opportunity

This Weekend!

You can volunteer with the Special Olympics at Stevenson for Flag Football.

There are positions from 9am-4pm


Here is Registration code: CAAiXn



Saturday, August 13, 2016

Three ways Sociologists can discuss Trump as the 2016-17 year begins

1.  Sociological imagination and understanding Donal Trump from the Daily Kos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/5/22/1528098/-The-sociological-imagination-racism-and-Donald-Trump

"The sociological imagination is the connection between personal experience and the broader social and political world. This concept is one of the most powerful frameworks for understanding the human experience and how we locate it within a given society and/or cultural milieu.
As such, the sociological imagination has been invaluable in my efforts to make sense of politics in the Age of Obama, the rise of “Trumpmania,” and the radical rightward move of the Republican Party and movement conservatism."

2.  From Sociological Images of the Society Pages, a humor theorist explains Trump's joke about killing Hilary and how it relates to identity, function of groups and  ingroups/outgroups, 

https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2016/08/10/humor-theorist-explains-trumps-joke-about-killing-hillary-clinton/


3.  Stephanie Coontz, family scholar and author of The Way We Never Were offers insight on the nostalgia that Trump calls into consciousness to stir up his voters. 
https://thesocietypages.org/ccf/2016/08/04/taking-the-nostalgia-of-trump-supporters-seriously/
we should recognize that there are reasons people in precarious circumstances may resent immigration –- reasons entirely different from but also vulnerable to racist lies about crime and violence. In some areas illegal immigration does displace the least-educated native workers. It can also create tensions in neighborhoods that are experiencing cutbacks in public investment even as educational resources and other community amenities multiply in the increasingly isolated enclaves of the very rich.