Soci assignment instructions!

SC1101E MAKING SENSE OF SOCIETY

Semester I, 2009/2010

Term Assignment (10%)

DEADLINE Friday Sep 18, 2009, 5pm

As part of the C.A. component of this module, students are to submit an individual write-up. This assignment accounts for 10% of your overall grade. It is also designed to prepare you for the mid-term test and the final exam.

Select a newspaper article (internet or print) either locally or from abroad that pertains to any topic(s) that we have dealt/will deal with in this module. Using any of the theories and concepts that you have learnt about the topic(s), critically analyse the article sociologically. You do not need to summarise the article. We would like you to deliberate upon what you have learnt from the lectures, tutorials and readings and to apply relevant sociological and anthropological knowledge by appraising the article which you have selected. You may wish to employ some of the concepts in order to illustrate your sociological understanding of the phenomenon at hand. For example, if you select an article that deals with culture, you may analyse it using concepts such as ethnocentrism, or the notion of subcultures, in evaluating how a particular aspect of culture is talked about. Another example pertaining to gender might be drawn from the recent APEC Women Leaders Network Meeting held in Singapore. Some of the issues raised include job losses for women and informal employment. In this respect, you may consider analysing these issues using concepts and notions of glass ceiling, double-shift, gender inequality, and so on. Demonstrate how the concepts you have selected are relevant to your analysis of the article.

Your write-up should be prepared as a Word document comprising no more than 2 pages (excluding bibliography), double-spaced, font size 12 (Times New Roman). Please submit a hardcopy of your paper, along with a copy of the newspaper article by 18 September 2009, 5pm. Place your submission in your tutor’s mailbox, which is located either at AS1 level 2 or level 3, Department of Sociology. Late submissions will be penalised. Please keep a copy of your paper and the newspaper article for your own reference. [Do keep a lookout for additional details (if any) regarding paper submission during the next 2 lectures.]

As this is an academic paper, you will need to include a bibliography section which lists sources you have cited in your paper. Do note that even if you were to quote the textbook for this module (Brym & Lie 2007), you will need to cite it in your bibliography. You may wish to refer to the following handbooks or websites as you prepare your bibliography. We do not have any preferred referencing styles, so you are free to employ any style for your paper. Please be reminded that the lack of proper citation constitutes academic plagiarism, a serious offence at the University (https://intranet.sde.nus.edu.sg/portal/plagiarism.htm). If you are unsure about your paper or the bibliographic entries, do consult your tutors in advance.

soci newspaper appraisal (10%)

Here's the article

Here's my appraisal:

Jean-Paul Sartre once said, “It is always possible to say no, even to the worst tyrant.”^(quote?) This fear of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is exactly why there is a clampdown on the faculty of social and political studies in Iran universities. The President’s justification that this impending “sanitization” is meant to remove doubts and uncertainties about Islam appears to be a political struggle to retain power.

As part of a concerted effort to silence the reformist voice, the university clampdown comes right after the prosecution of more than 100 pro-reform activists and politicians. The pro-Mousavi reformist voice that has organized the postelection unrest – the largest street protests and rioting ever seen since the 1979 Iranian Revolution – has largely challenged Ahmadinejad’s legitimacy as President. Ahmadinejad may derive his power from the Weberian authority, in the traditional, legal-rational, and charismatic sense as the majority voted him into office, his power may be rendered useless if without legitimacy. Legitimacy is not derived from an institutional office, and it cannot exist independently of people. The postelection turmoil, organized largely via Twitter, is a stark reminder to Ahmadinejad that the electorate, when organized, has power and can opt to remove his legitimacy. With more than two-thirds of the population under the age of 30 and a “young student population hungry for contemporary ideas and contact with the West”, Ahmadinejad’s worries about his power are not undue.

Democracy and Liberalism are indeed largely advocated by the Western world, as seen in an ethnocentric attempt to “liberate” Iraq and Afghanistan from a conservative dictatorship at the start of this century. But from the West also come economic progress, industrial processes and Wall Street and FTSE trading bourses. The incursion of liberal and post-materialist thought from the West is inevitable. Post-materialists will challenge the very issues that are left no room for argument in a theocratic Islam state – civil rights, women’s rights, press freedom and environmentalism.

Ahmadinejad’s legitimacy has been put in question since the 2009 election – the controversial election that he would have won even if he did not doctor the results. As the newspaper article reports, “the only response (the leadership) can think of is to stop teaching of the social sciences.” Unfortunately, that is not enough to mute the reformists. One does not need to exercise network analysis to know that the post-materialist and pro-democratic thought can be propagated and indoctrinated by anyone who has Internet access; even a mobile phone can Twitter such trends of thought. Sadly for President Ahmadinejad, if it wants to retain legitimacy, there are only two ways. One way is to stop all flows of information and provocative political thought, by shutting itself up nearly completely like North Korea; the other is to adopt democracy.

Yes, adopt democracy. That is how the Capitalist model of production and governance survived 4 centuries.

The bourgeoisie, a term popularized by Karl Marx, has stayed in power and expanded its territory by exploiting the proletariat – the laborer. No matter republican or democrat, socialist or capitalist, they have succeeded in influencing subordinate classes to consent to domination, and they have done so by luring these working class with an illusion of choice, an illusion that they have power, and that they can shape their future with hard work. Although in his Conflict Theory Marx predicts that “workers would ultimately become aware of belonging to the same exploited class” (quote Brym and Lie, or should I quote Communist Manifesto?), and this class consciousness will lead them to a mutiny against the bourgeoisie, time and again as we have seen, especially in America, capitalism thrives!

The American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan might leave one wondering if the ideological imposition of democracy on Iran would be as disastrous. I think that the difference between Iran and the other two Middle Eastern states is this: Iran is ready. Iran’s economic liberation is stanched right now because of Ahmadinejad’s refusal to give up Iran’s nuclear technology. “Liberal democracy can realize its full potential only if both problems – political and economic inequality – are adequately addressed” (Brym and Lie p 425) Liberal democracy may not be Iran’s best bet, but it is by far better than the current deliberate attempt to lower its citizens’ political and social awareness, and in so doing leaving its crippled economy to support itself on oil, and virtually nothing else.

If Ahmadinejad wants to retain power, he should start picking capable ministers, not close friends, for his cabinet, and he might just beat Mousavi to leading the country in leading world in this post-Western era.

why am i up at such an unearthly hour?

because of



paramore rocks more than I can say

marry me hayley!!

the weight of glory

Hey guys. No, this is not about how stressed out I am about my overwhelming all-the-rage-ness. (I wish it were). It's a book (more like a compilation of orations) by C.S. Lewis in the 1950s, titled "the weight of glory"(omg u can read so many chapters for free!)

I've never read any of his books other than the screwtape letters, probably because i'm too ill-equipped to take in more than the surface.

Because it's my first time reading his ideas, I find it very interesting how the society he described (pre-popular TV, pre-gossip girl, pre-internet) hasn't changed much since. Though I've always been having a suspicion that people retrofit their lifestyles to TV and literature. It's a chicken-and-egg question between TV drama and real life high-hormone emotional struggles.

But, I digress. I particularly related with the inner ring, which talked about what we call cliques today. It's kinda hard to imagine my dad sporting the then-latest curry-pok hairstyle or my mom with her hippest curls to try to fit in. But such exclusive groups and its pertinence date back to the Victorian era, at least.

I'll cut and paste you some lines from the chapter the weight of glory:
"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal..... And our charity (to each other) must be a real and costly love, with a deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrement itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses."

Yep. Overall I think it's a good read. Especially since though he's a Christian writer, he's not cliched (people took his lines!) and it's mostly a no-holes-barred commentary and he addresses some issues (like your secret longing to belong and sniggering at people who didn't) which the subconscious you didn't even dare to bring it up to you!



AND

My arowana just died. Watching him swim sideways with occasional jerks is something I definitely don't ever want to see again. I wonder why I feel so sad about it. I never used to feed him and never got too close to him cause I didn't want to give him a shock. Though it was a cheap buy at $168 I think the greatest loss was watching him struggle and not knowing what we could have done to help him.

It was an oversight on our part cause just before dinner, we changed more than half the water at one go, unbalancing the pH level and temperature.

another campFREE publicity video!

the post for which i'm too drowsy to think of a title

interesting article about how it's possible to blame anyone for anything

i'm off to bed.. can't feel my body after popping that flu tablet

good week everyone!