Goals:
In this exercise, you will:
1) identify a social structure (e.g. family, the education system, patriarchy, a governmental institution) and select a contemporary issue that relates to a structured element of social life. This will be to further understand how a social structure influences and/or is influenced by a dimension of social life (whether successfully or unsuccessfully) or how the social structure influences or is influenced by other social structures and/or the goals and practices of individuals
2) locate an example of a discussion of, or controversy about, the social structure in a popular media source (i.e. non-academic source); describe what is at stake and who are the stakeholders (i.e. whose interests are being discussed) according to the popular source, which may not be reliable/capable of addressing the topic with rigour E.g. Is whats at stake the continued existence of a traditional structure like the family? Is the social structure changing? Is it influencing social groups? (e.g. by oppressing them or empowering them)
3) review scholarly, sociological research to provide an evidence-based or scholarly-backed argument about the current state of the social structure in relation to the contemporary issue, supporting your analysis of the social structure via two scholarly, peer-reviewed sociological sources; use the scholarly sources to help you frame/situate the issues in cultural and historical context and to clarify what types of power relationships are at stake (e.g. are power relationships being reproduced, redistributed or threatened?)
4) practice up-to-date elements of style used in sociological research papers e.g. how to cite sources and document references