Sociology Paper

[Dr.Claw]

I'm doing a research paper for my sociology class, does anybody have any good topics? I might do it on class but I'm not sure.

[Rawthentic]

It's just a random paper on whatever you want? Weird...

Do it on Obama, the global financial crisis, the Nepalese revolution.

[MikeSC]

What level of sociology is this, and what have you been studying?

EDIT: If you want to do something original, you could have a look at e-vigilanteism- it's current, there was that business with those kids beating up cats, and it goes on a lot on car forums. It might not be the best thing to do if you wanna look at it in terms of Marxist theory, though.

[Dr.Claw]

We've been studying alot about different kinds of discrimination and I was thinking about doing it on class discrimination or just class in general. It can be about basically anything as long as it has to do with any paricular aspect of sociology.

[MikeSC]

Racism/Nationalism is always a good one, from a Marxist point of view. You could talk about the ethnocentrism of outsourcing and such- "Indian kids should work the hours for little pay for our capitalists because that's their culture!" "Well their race needs less subsistence than we do..."

You know the kind of thing? A mixture of negative discrimination ("brown people don't deserve any better...") and positive discrimination ("They're a hardy race, they can work in harsher conditions than us") that reinforces the class system, allows the bourgeoisie to placate the indigenous proletariat with cheap stuff and the illusion that capitalism is progressively providing a better standard of life (when really it's just exporting the worst stuff it can no longer get away with in the first world), and divides the proletariat by giving the working class a working class enemy (of a different race/nation).

Plus, if you have to include Structural Functionalist arguments, this situation shows them up easily compared to Marxism.

[Hegemonicretribution]

Methodology, and the potential shortcomings of any sociological approach? Perhaps with a discussion of ethics and the role they ought to play in research?

Or the role of family in collectivist societies vs general society?

How about the role of the media in establishing the basis of political debate, and the effects of an increasingly conservative 'moderate' position on alternative political groups.

I wish I had an oppurtunity for an open ended paper, just go with whatever you feel like, as most topics would be brilliant as long as they were handled well.

[Boy Named Crow]

i would love to do a study of the impact of religion on government policy.

you could compare and contrast the US with a primarily Muslim state... or even an atheistic one if you can find a good example.

[Invincible Summer]

You could do a paper on how the education system (primarily history, social studies, etc), by way of excluding minority viewpoints and experiences, promotes dominant culture and capitalism.

[gilhyle]

Do a paper on sociology as an object for anthropological study - specifically that sociology is a game of competing (and therefore mutually validating) alternative paradigms which endlessly switch positions, with one being for a while dominant and the other challenging and then they switch places, and then back again - a false ideological confrontation like the warring states in orwells 1984.