Devry SOCS325 Complete Course Latest 2022 January (Full)

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 1 Discussion

Understanding Environmental Sociology

This week we will begin to explore the field of environmental sociology. To help us understand this important field of study and get our conversations started, address the following in your response.

Identify one pressing present day environmental issue (social problem) that may make planning sustainably for the future a challenge. Examples may include global poverty, consumerism, and so forth.

Why do you think planning sustainably is a challenge? Explain with the help of at least two reasons.

Discuss five precautionary approaches we could take to mitigate the influence of these factors on efforts toward sustainability. Examples include chaining cultural norms regarding consumption, revamping traditions to avoid excess or consumption, and so forth.

 

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 2 Discussion

Environmental Justice

Identify one prominent example of environmental injustice in your home or regional area.

Analyze the scope of the issue, the individuals or groups most impacted (and what if anything they have in common), and how the issue could have been prevented.

In your posting, respond by answering the following questions.

What groups were most typically impacted by environmental injustice?

What strategies would be most effective in preventing future injustices?

What is the role of social power, prestige, or political influence in these injustices?

Who is liable for environmental injustices?

 

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 3 Discussion

Considering Consumption

Select one of the many ways that we are consumers of our environments. For example, you may select the use of electricity, air conditioning, fossil fuels, or one of the many examples we have read about in the course.

As you analyze your selected form of consumption, address the following questions.

What is the reality of your consumption?

What social context led you to make purchases or consume products?

What are the possible environmental and social impacts of your consumption patterns?

How do modern or affluent lifestyles influence trends in consumption?

Did purchases reflect wants or needs? Why or why not?

How might purchasing only for need influence environmental change?

 

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 4 Discussion

The Social Organization of Convenience

Convenience is a major feature of the modern world that we inhabit. But what is the cost? Identify and list examples that illustrate the "social organization of convenience" (think beyond vehicles and select a less obvious example for your response).

Discuss whether there could conceivably be alternative forms of convenience that people would like and that would be better for the environment. If so, what would they be, and how would they need to work?

Conclude your discussion by using your selected example to examine the social factors (phenomenology, culture, politics, etc.) that might have to be overcome to change to a different form of convenience.

 

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 4 Discussion

 

 

 

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 4 Discussion

 

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 4 Discussion

 

 

 

 

 

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 1 Assignment

Activist Profile

Through this assignment you will gain familiarity with work being done by an environmental activist and consider the long-term impacts of his or her work.

Tasks:

Identify an environmental activist that is working domestically or internationally to create change.

Research your selected environmental activist.

You need to include the activist's information, including the following.

Picture

Name

Birth date (and death date, if applicable)

Town(s)/country

Education/employment

Biography, which shows why he or she is considered an activist for environment (a paragraph including information on the following)

How did they get started?

What kinds of visions do they have for environmental change?

What motivates them to continue in the face of adversity?

What do they get out of doing this?

Critical review of activist and their activism

Identify a contemporary environmental movement or success related to the work of this activist.

What actions seem to be most effective? Why?

What barriers did the activist run into? Why? Any recommendations to overcome these barriers?

How did this activist alter the course of the environmental movement?

What contemporary environmental struggles continue the legacy of this activist?

Quotes (at least two)

Every item needs to be supported by research. Use at least two scholarly sources and provide APA citation information.

Assignment:To share the information you find, you have to create an audio-video PowerPoint presentation. Your PowerPoint should be no more than 10 slides (one of which is a list of references in APA style) and should include APA style citations in the body of the presentation.

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 2 Assignment

Course Project Topic Selection

For the Course Project, you will develop an understanding of environmental racism and environmental justice by identifying a local community.

Tasks:

Define the concepts of environmental racism and environmental justice.

Research examples of environmental racism in America. Suggested examples include hazardous waste landfill, Warren County, North Carolina; Cancer Alley, Louisiana; Flint, Michigan; nuclear waste, Western Shoshone's Yucca Mountain; and so on.

Identify one local example of environmental racism.

Develop five sociological research questions particular to the example under study. Some questions to consider are the following.

When did it begin and what is its history?

Who is responsible? Who contributed?

Who is affected by environmental racism and how are they affected? Are poor and racially diverse communities affected more than upper class and white communities?

How does environmental racism affect local communities?

What are the impacts on the community with specific reference to social and health consequences on communities?

Why do many believe that more must be done to safeguard the rights of all Americans around environmental health?

How big of a problem is environmental justice?

What are some communities doing to address the problem?

Assignment:

Your assignment this week is to write a two-page APA paper (not including cover page and reference page; no abstract required) about the issue of environmental justice and racism affecting the local community. You will use the guiding questions provided under tasks to organize your paper. Complete a Reference page where you cite sources and/or websites in APA format.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 3 Assignment

SWOT Analysis

This week you will examine a nonprofit organization working on environmental problems and conduct a SWOT analysis to assess success and potential improvements.

Tasks:

Identify a nonprofit organization. Some examples include Fibershed, Project Drawdown, Greenpeace, Earth Guardians, Cool Effect, Sierra Club, and One Tree Planted.

Having identified the nonprofit organization, conduct a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that dives into an organization's internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. For the nonprofit organization, you should be able to identify, explore, and analyze the following.

Strengths are advantages internally at the organization. Examples include access to a large community of rabid supporters, celebrity endorsement (Links to an external site.), or especially skilled staff.

Weaknesses are shortcomings within the organization that may impact its ability. Examples include poor organizational structure, vacant key staff positions, and limited budgets.

Thoroughly explain at least two major strengths and two major weaknesses (review Chapter 9) of the organization. For each strength, discuss why this strength can be considered a distinctive competence for the organization. For each weakness, discuss what the organization could do to minimize that weakness. You should have a minimum of a full paragraph for each discussion of each strength and weakness.

Opportunities are external situations of which the organization can take advantage. Being able to spot and exploit opportunities can make a massive difference to your nonprofit's growth.

Threats are external situations that could negatively impact the organization. Threats are often completely outside of the organization's control. Examples include changes to laws or regulations in the region, economic recessions, rising taxes, and even changes to social media platforms.

Thoroughly research and analyze two opportunities and two threats that this organization is facing. Each of these opportunities and threats must come from a force or forces occurring within a dimension or dimensions of the general environment within the organization's external environment. Include in your analysis an explanation of how each of the opportunities and threats will likely impact the company and why. Discuss how the organization can capitalize on the opportunities that are occurring from the dimensions from within the general environment and how the organization can neutralize the threats that are occurring from the dimensions from within the general environment.

Note: The critical thing to remember is that strengths and weaknesses are internal factors, and opportunities and threats are external situations.

Assignment:

Your assignment this week is to write a two-page APA paper (not including cover page and reference page; no abstract required) presenting a SWOT analysis of the nonprofit organization. The SWOT analysis should contain at the minimum a full paragraph for each discussion of each quadrant.

Importantly, discuss how the organization can capitalize on the opportunities that are occurring from the dimensions from within the general environment and how the organization can neutralize the threats that are occurring from the dimensions from within the general environment.

Complete a Reference page where you cite sources and/or websites in APA format.

 

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 4 Assignment

Course Project Annotated Bibliography

For this assignment, you will conduct research and produce an annotated bibliography to develop a sociological understanding of research questions connected to a local example of environmental racism and environmental justice.

Tasks:

A basic component of academic research is the annotated bibliography. The annotated bibliography is a list of the sources you have found so far. The list is in alphabetical order as it would be on your Reference page and includes a full citation for each source as it would appear on your Reference page. However, in addition, an annotated bibliography includes an annotation for each source, which is basically a summary of the source and some commentary on why the source is useful to your project.

Some steps to consider while developing your annotated bibliography are the following.

Brainstorm using your sociological imagination, course readings, and outside resources, and explain your thoughts about the causes of environmental racism within the United States. Why are some groups more affected than others? What are the consequences of environmental racism? What strategies are available to reduce environmental racism amongst communities within the United States? What about local communities specifically?

Revisit the five research questions you developed in the previous assignment.

Then find content from scholarly sources connected to the research questions. You must find at least one or two scholarly sources per research question.

As you research to find scholarly sources, you must (1) make meaningful connections with local examples of environmental racism in the previous assignment; (2) attempt to answer some of the questions asked above (causes, consequences, and strategies of environmental racism); and (3) ensure that there is direct connection to research questions.

Having identified a scholarly source, an annotated bibliography must be provided.

Assignment:

Your task this week is to complete an annotated bibliography that meets the following requirements.

Include at least five sources.

Include a clear summary of each research source. Explain what the resource is about so that the reader can get a sense of the article. Here you will want to clearly state the main argument or point and explain some of the topics and supporting reasons focused on in the text.

Include commentary on why the source is useful and what kind of evidence it adds to your project. Does it add a particular perspective or type of evidence? Explain why you are including it. Make a connection to the specific research question.

Each annotation should be around 100–150 words long.

Include a full Reference page, formatted in APA format, for each source.

 

SOCS325 Environmental Sociology

Week 1 Assignment