Sociology
184 Environmental Sociology C. Chase-Dunn Spring
2007
Research Paper
Twenty-five percent of your grade
in Sociology 122 is based on a short research
paper. Each student should prepare a
short written statement that briefly specifies the location, time period and
spatial boundaries of the premodern world-system you plan to study. This should
be turned in on April 18 along with
the citations for two or three library
sources (not web sites) of information you will use for your paper. Pick
either Option A or Option B.
Option A: a premodern world-system
Option A is to study the
socio-economic structure of a premodern
world-system (see definition below). Describe the main structural,
environmental, institutional and cultural aspects of a particular premodern world-system
of your choosing.
v Focus on a particular group of people and estimate the spatial boundaries of the bulk
goods network, the political-military network, the prestige goods network and
the information network of which this focal group is a part.
v Discuss the question of core/periphery relations in the system
you are studying.
v Briefly characterize the main
technological and social characteristics and institutions in the system you are
studying. What kinds of interactional links are there between local and
regional groups? Take into account the focal group’s relationships with other
regions, its prior history, and contending interests within the system. You
should also discuss the nature of the settlement
system in the world-system you are studying and the ways in which the
people utilize, protect or fail to protect natural resources.[1]
Be sure to include a bibliography with citations of the information sources you
use to study your world-system. Start with Wikipedia and Google Scholar, and go to the library (you can do this).
If
you choose a world-system for which there is a voluminous literature, narrow
your focus to a fairly short time period (say 100 years or so). Begin by
describing the structure of the system at a single point in time and then move
to a discussion of the dynamics of change.
Examples of studies of premodern
world-systems can be found at
http://www.irows.ucr.edu/workpaptoc.htm IROWS Working Papers #2 and #4.
A
premodern world-system is defined as outside the modern Europe-centered
world-system. So anything before 1500 BCE is fine, and after that year any
region is ok as long as it has not been importantly changed by interaction with
Europeans.
Option b: an environmental social movement
organization
Social movements are groups of
people who share a similar discourse and who are trying to remedy certain
problems by mobilizing support. Describe the main historical, ideological,
institutional, organizational and cultural aspects of the environmental
movement and pick a particular social movement organization to study (e.g. the
California Green Party, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, etc.) Talk about the
history of the movement and the history of the particular organization you are
studying. When and where did the movement discourse emerge and how has it
evolved? Describe the different tendencies within the movement and locate your
organization within these. Discuss the
ways in which the issues, ideas and organizational activities of the
environmental movement intersect with those of other social movements.
Especially discuss those other movements with which there are great
complementarities and similarities, and also focus on those other movements
with which there are big differences and possible areas of competition,
disagreement or even conflict. In recent decades the environmental movement has
involved people from both the global north and the global south and this often leads
to disagreements. Discuss these differences and efforts to overcome them. There
are also well-known disagreements between different movements over goals,
tactics and strategies. For example, the labor movement wants jobs but the
environmental movement wants to protect the biosphere. Examine issues of this
sort and efforts to overcome them that may allow the movements to engage in
cooperative action and to become effective in local, national and global
politics.
Read the list of requirements above several times while you are working
on your paper and be sure to do each of the things that are requested. The maximum length of the text of your paper should be
10 pp. typed, double-spaced. Please include a bibliography that includes real
books and articles, not just web sites. Use Google Scholar. Maps, figures and
references can take additional pages. The Research Paper is due on June 4.
A Guide to Writing Research
Papers is at: http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/PlanResearchPaper.html