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Research a particular social movement or a particular social movement organizati
Research a particular social movement or a particular social movement organization, in order to answer ONE of the following questions.
1.How well does one or more of the theories listed below explain the rise of the movement or movement organization you have chosen, and/or explain its successes or failures? You can use strain, resource mobilization, political opportunity, and/or framing theories. You should consider what the particular theories that you are using DON’T explain, as well as what they do explain. Do the theories you are looking at tell the whole story, or do they leave important things out? OR
2. What factors that we have studied in this course explain the rise of the movement or movement organization that you have chosen, and/or explain its successes or failures? By factors I mean things like the tactics the movement adopts or the time and place in which it occurs.
Experiential learning option: you can write a paper that ties in your first-hand experience working in any movement of your choice with the ideas you are learning in the course. You can definitely choose a movement you are already working with or have worked with.
Choosing a topic: Choose a movement that will inspire you to write a strong paper ie. one that you find fascinating or feel strongly about. Your paper and paper proposal (see below) should both include at least a brief section explaining why you personally find this movement interesting. You don’t have to choose one of the movements that we talk a lot about in class. In fact, if you choose a movement we have already studied, like the civil rights movement, a key thing will be to say something quite new, rather than simply repeating points we have already covered in class. If you write about the civil rights movement, for example, and just make the same points that we have covered in lectures and readings, you will not get a good mark.
Narrow your topic to a manageable size. For example, the story of the environmental movement in general is much too big for an essay of this size. Instead, choose a particular environmental issue or environmental organization.
Common pitfalls to avoid: (because I’ve seen lots of these essays!)
1. Make sure that what you are studying actually fits the definition of a social movement. If you are at all unsure, double check with Aaron.
2. A key point of this course is that movements do not happen simply because a particular group of people feel that they have a problem, or feel that some injustice has been done to them. It takes more than just the existence of a problem or injustice to make a movement rise up. Therefore you should avoid relying simply on the fact that there was a problem to explain why a movement occurred.
3. Another common mistake is to spend too much space simply describing or telling the story of the movement or repeating what the movement is fighting for, and not enough space making sociological points or arguments about the movement. Keep focused on the question you are trying to answer in the essay.
References: Another key problem is relying too heavily on one or two sources in your references. You need some references from academic books or articles, although these may be more difficult to find with some movements. Get my help if you are stuck finding academic references. Think critically about all your sources, but especially about non-academic sources, and those on the Internet, and how and why they might be biased.
Essay structure and style: Most of you know this already: your essay should have a thesis or argument that is an answer to the question you have chosen, and that can be summed up in a sentence. We will call that sentence your thesis statement. A key thing in your essay is to avoid giving lots of unnecessary info that you don’t need to answer your question. Somewhere on the first page of your essay should be a sentence that says, “In this essay, I will argue that….” This sentence when completed will be your thesis statement. In the last paragraph of your essay, similarly, you should have a sentence that begins “In this essay, I have argued that…” followed again by your thesis statement. Your concluding paragraph can be simply a brief restatement of your argument or you can also ponder its broader implications briefly if you want.
Part of your mark will be based on clear, effective communication. I am not a stickler for spelling and grammar, but a key thing that will cost you marks is if I can’t understand the points you are making, because you have not made them clearly enough. Showing off your massive vocabulary will not get you extra marks, and may cost you if it makes your essay more difficult to read. Simple, clear communication with creativity and flair is preferred to something formal and academic-sounding.
I encourage you to write in the first person, that is, to use “I” in your essays. I want your own thoughts, analysis, and insights. It is not “just your opinion”. It is an intelligent, researched argument that you are making based on reasoning and evidence.
Avoid taking too long to get to the point in your introduction. This is a common problem with papers. Avoid anything longer than 150 words for your intro.
Style Guide: Essays should follow the departmental style guide which is on the Soc. Anth department website (https://carleton.ca/socanth/information-for-students/undergraduate-students/style-guide/ ) You want to use in-text citations/APA style not footnotes for citations. I am not too picky about getting every last punctuation mark right for the citations. Citing websites: I will not be too strict about how to do them, but, where possible, please give the name of the individual author if there is one, and name of the outlet or organization whose website you got the information from, in addition to the url and the date you accessed it.
Wikipedia: Wikipedia is great. It is very useful as it collects and boils down material from other sources. Don’t cite Wikipedia directly. Find and cite the source that Wikipedia got the material from! Material on Wikipedia about particular social movements is often put there by either supporters of opponents of the movement and reflects their point of view, so you should acknowledge that in your analysis. Obviously, pasting directly from Wikipedia (or anywhere else) without acknowledging the source is plagiarism. I often look at the Wikipedia entry on your topics when marking.
AI: Use of Chat GPT/AI such as pasting directly or paraphrasing is also plagiarism!
(DOWN BELOW IS A COPY OF MY PROPOSAL THAT WAS SUBMITTED GIVING MY PROFFESOR AN IDEA OF WHAT I WILL BE WRITING ABOUT)
[Good day Prof,
I have decided to go with the Black Lives Matter Movement because I believe it addresses the hard issues of racial inequality and police brutality in several Black communities. From high-profile cases like Eric Garner,George Floyd and Travyon Martin , this sparks and has created more attention for the movement in response to the negative impact of Black lives.
This movement began in 2013 and has emerged as one of the most powerful force against systemic racism and injustice,mainly in the United States.Reasons why I chose this movement to study is because it exposes and challenges racism in areas such as law enforcement,education and healthcare.Such movements spark important conversations that go beyond individual incidents, while emphasizing the broader need for structural change.It is safe to say that since 2012, the movement has produced tangible results and prompted the removal of confederate symbols and forced institutions to reconsider their policies.
What factors that we have studied in this course explain the rise of the movement or movement organization that you have chosen, and/or explain its successes or failures? By factors I mean things like the tactics the movement adopts or the time and place in which it occurs.
I would touch on a few factors such as:
SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES – The spread of rapid information of the protest / organization gave people the feel of being involved as activists used various platforms like, twitter and facebook, to share real time updated ,videos e.t.c. which amplified the movement’s message
MEDIA COVERAGE – The media played a critical role in shaping the public opinion and contributed to the movement’s success or challenges. Some disadvantaged would be the bias in the information relayed to the public and they were through government owned stations like Rodgers e.t.c
STRATEGIES – It was mainly centered on peaceful protests and civil/legal disobedience. The hope was to put pressure on systematic change by organizing marches and other non violent forms of resistance.
SOME SOURCES:
“Has Black Lives Matter Changed the World” – Jay Caspain Kang(April 21,2023)
“Black Lives Matter:From Protest to Lasting Change” – Leslie R. Crutchfield(June 18,2020)
“In 2020,The Black Lives Matter movement shook the world” – Aljazeera
“The Global Impact of George Floyd..” – Jason Silverstein (June 4,2020)
“Framing the Black Lives Matter Movement:An analysis of Shifting News Coverage in 2014 and 2020” – Nikita Carnet and Jasmin Kelekay(May 24,2020)]
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