We all live in society. We are all parts of our culture, and are involved in groups, organizations, and sub-cultures. We learn and respond to social norms, we recognize different social roles, and are embedded in different social structures. These concepts, and many more besides, refer to aspects of our social world that can help us understand how and why things happen the way that they do.
Although norms, roles, social structure, and sub-cultures are parts of our lives everyday, most of the time, most people don't think about them one bit. However, it is often the case that a little reflection can go a long way towards making sense of everyday events. A central aim of this course is to help people see and understand aspects of the social world in ways that are helpful and interesting.
We all become teachers.
This quarter students will work in groups of 3-5 to create projects that teach about sociological concepts in ways that are effective, interesting, and entertaining. Student projects will be publicly presented via a post on this blog, and through whatever publication medium is standard for the project (youtube, flickr, picassa, wikipedia, etc.). Details about the project requirements will be posted on the course webpage. Note that earlier quarters of 101 did not use a blog, so the following examples lack blogpost write ups which will be required for the current course.
Examples of successful projects from earlier quarters:
1. Faces of Athens, a flickr photo set. This photo set was created by a photo-journalism major almost two years ago. The set is successful for the imagery, for the commentary that brought in concepts from sociology, but primarily, because of the combination of the two.
2. You tube video, slide show. Body image and the media. Two students teamed up in 2008 to make this video, and it remains one of the most popular projects to come out of this course. They did a great job of using concepts, addressing important issues, and making it interesting.
3. Youtube video, live action. This video was produced in Winter of 2009 by a group of about 5 students. They did a good job of bringing humor and some thoughtful reflection together in the same video.
This is pretty funny. My psychology class in high school did something similiar to this, everyone wore sun glasses and started dancing in the cafeteria to break the social "norms".
ReplyDeleteI thought the youtube slideshow was interesting because it shows one of the major pressures that women deal with in western society that I as a male don't think about too often. It's interesting also to think about whether women in non-Western cultures experience the social pressure of "looking good" as much. The visuals and music kept my attention.
ReplyDeleteI like the bananna experiment because it perfectly displays how social norms play a huge roll in our everyday life
ReplyDeleteI really love the banana experiment, it was really funny yet got a point across of how social norms are very much apart of our lives.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I just didn't understand the flickr slideshow or if I got the wrong impression of things. I am a local and I don't feel that the slideshow was a fair representation of Athens. Athens is a lot more than just Ohio University. I feel like it was just an overview of OU. But, again, I may have just not understood the concept.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to the guy in the banana video, you can find on youtube a video of a kid who walks around his school dressed as the male reproductive parts. haha
ReplyDeleteThere really is a lot more to Athens to OU. it would be interesting to research more of the rural areas. My sister volunteered with big brother big sister's and saw a completly different side of the city. There are a lot of struggles off campus, and you do not have to look far to find them.
ReplyDeleteHey crew. I'm as old as most of your parents. I think I'm even older than our professor, yikes. When I was your age, actions like these were really looked down upon by most of society. The earrings in males, the tattoos, mo hawks etc were considered taboo in most aspects of our culture. We were the punks, the freaks. Breaking the social norm was done for you by the last couple of generations. We opened the doors that you walk through everyday without you perhaps even knowing there used to be a door there. You're lucky to be in Athens, it is a very culturally diverse town with a lot going on, music, art, clubs etc.
ReplyDeleteHow many people reading this today would ridicule or yell a nasty comment to a guy with an earring now. In my northern Wisconsin High School twenty years ago, the guy in the banana suit would probably have been called a fag right before he got knocked around a bit. Today, the banana suit brings smiles and really very little response at all. What about the hair colors all around you? The great tattoos.
It's awesome to see these changes. Hopefully someday "All men are created equal" will stand true. You can all help that!
G
I still don't have a groups, so if someone would let me join theirs that would be extrememely helpful
ReplyDeleteThe process of breaking social norms is always a good topic to explore considering they are looked down upon. People only tend to see what they want to see and judge others that do not conform.
ReplyDeleteThis video is hilarious. It's so true as well. I did the same thing in highschool and got the same weird looks and questions. It's a great example for social norms though.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what everyone else has said about this experiment. The way that the student breaks the social "norm" in the diner shows ways in how people interact with each other or judge. The banana man creates a conformity that people can laugh and open themselves up to the "joke."
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