Making Sense of Society: the sociological imagination

Assignment task: Research the family history of a significant public person (or a person from your own family or friends network). Examine this person's experience of TWO of the following themes:

• Gender
• Sexuality
• Race/Ethnicity
• Community
• Social class
• Migration
• Globalisation

Discuss and explain your chosen themes using the academic literature. Weave into your assignment examples from the person's life that link to your discussion of the themes as well as a discussion of the ways in which structure and agency have been influential in this person's life.

Learning outcome 1: Apply their sociological imagination to help them understand debates in contemporary societies.
Learning outcome 2: Demonstrate broad understanding of emerging sociological issues
Learning outcome 3: Apply academic study and writing skills

In particular this assignment will be assessed against the following criteria:

Fulfilment of all aspects of the assessment task - read the task carefully and make sure all aspects of it are included, use the Fit to Submit checklist at the end of this brief.
Evidence of identification of themes emerging from family history research
Understanding of themes and linking of themes to wider academic literature. Aim to explain points clearly and back them up with appropriate evidence (draw on the weekly module readings and further reading lists at the end of each lecture)
Understanding of structure and agency (i.e.: the relationship between the individual and wider society)
Structure and organisation of written work (good paragraphing, good quality writing, strong introduction and conclusion)
Ability to paraphrase the work of other published authors (check your similarity index, reference quotations correctly)
Referencing [use the Harvard (APA for Psychology students) in your work. Provide a full reference list at the end of your assignment, only list the sources you have cited in the assignment in your reference list]