Final Reflective Essay

Throughout the course of this semester of social justice with Dr. Quist-Adade I have learned and unlearned many things. One important thing that I talk about in my reflective essay last spring was bracketing. I still feel that this is one of the most important concepts learned however it was more important for me last spring as that was my first sociology course and there were many things that I had to get my head around. However, this term I found the most important for me was sociological imagination.

I found that this semester sociological imagination was a term that I kept coming back to.  There were many videos and articles where this term came into play. The term was one that I understood when we first started talking about it; however, it kept coming back up therefore I learned more and more about what it means. Sociological imagination it defined as the ability, capacity and quality of mind that allows an individual to understand and connect their life with the forces that impact it. It also means the ability to see ones like as an intersection of biography, history and social structure. All the videos we watched and articles we read helped build and shape that definition and put it into context.

Sociological imagination was used a lot this semester. One instance was in the article about a cup of coffee. I had always known were coffee came from and last year I was able to see how my purchasing of a cup of coffee could affect someone (or more than one) person in another part of the world; however, I did not think about it to the extent that I did this year. A coffee been is grown in one part of the world, often roasted in another and possibly even packaged in another. This is not to mention all the other things that we put in our coffee like milk or cream, sugar and all the special syrups used in todays coffee shops. So I affect not just one person when I buy a coffee not even a few people, but my daily purchase of a coffee affects many people.

Another situation this semester that really had me thinking about my sociological imagination was we watched the videos on coltan mining and on sweetshop labor. In groups we discussed what we could do in both instances; yet, I feel like there is not much I can do. It’s a horrible feeling but looking at what stores sell ethical clothing is seams everywhere I shop (and can afford to shop) uses some sort of sweet shop (of course this needs farther research which I intend on doing).  I also need a computer and a cell phone for school and communication in our part of the world. So I continually contribute to the reinforcement of both of these horrible trades by consuming these goods; however, in the part of the world I live in and the schooling I’m doing, I have very little choose. This realization has bothered me for a few weeks now and I can see very few solutions. For example, when I go to buy new cloths one thing I could do is find out what brands truly uses fair labor, which will be hard, but worth it. In the other case, (the case of the coltan which is mined unsafely by young children who should be in school and sometimes don’t even get paid for their work) the only thing I can think of doing for now is not buying all the brand new electronics that contain coltan but to be happy with the ones I have.

Over all, this term has shattered my preconceived perception of sociological imagination. I though of it as a nice little idea that showed me how I can help people in other countries just by keeping my daily routine up. However, this semester I have learned that the sociological imagination is much more than that it is also a way of seeing the bad thing we reinforce everyday with our purchase of various goods.

Video – The Danger of a Single Story

At the beginning of the semester we also watched “The Danger of a Single Story”. Its about an author (Chimamanda Adichie) told her story of growing up. She grow up in a well of house hold and loved to read and write however she only wrote the types of stories that she read therefore all her stories were about young white girls drinking tea and playing in the snow. When she started to read books about Africa she fund they also did not tell a story she could relate to they told stories about the poor and starving and the uneducated. Adichi so learned she would have to write her own story and educate people about how we do not all fit stereotypes. This video was very informative especially at the beginning of the year its very eye opening and even though it was my second time seeing it I think I was able to take something new away from Chimamanda Adichie’s story.

Video – The Cell Phone Paradox

Another video we watched was about the mining of Colton in Africa, which is used for computers and cell phones. The people mining this are often children who are not going to school because they cant afford it so they are trying to make money however sometimes they aren’t even paid for the dangerous work they are doing. the Colton they are mining is used in things like computers and cell phones and when we talked in a group about what we might be able to do to raise awareness about the subject I pointed out that that is all we can do is raise awareness; because as we all sat at our computers with our cellphones near by it was clear that we would not give them up because we need our computers for school and our phones for communication. So there will never be a big enough protest or boycott of the products to make the people who run the mines think differently and change the way the pay their employs and the way they mine.

Videos – The Two Videos on Sweatshops

In class we watched two videos on sweatshops in developing countries one from Indonesia and another in Vietnam. The two videos showed very different sides of the labor in developing countries story. The first video we watched was in Indonesia where people were working for very little and asked to work long hours with no over time pay if they did not work all the hours asked they would have been fired, and the conditions in the factories are extremely unfavorable. In the next video showed another side of the story. This video showed a Nike factory in Vietnam where conditions where much different for the workers. They worked fair hours, made fair wages and had room or move up in the company. One worker in this factory even made more money than her husband because she was a manager and he wasn’t. There was a nice garden the worker could sit in during their breaks and because they go paid fairly the workers could save up of luxuries like TVs and decorative items for their home. I think these are both very extreme views and instances. I believe that there must really be somewhere in the middle not as bad as the first video but certainly not as great as the second.

Class Discussion – Different Justice Systems

The final discussion we had was about the types of justice systems using in other countries particularly Rwanda. We decided their system defiantly had some flaws like the witnesses that come forward and have no protection or they don’t come forward meaning they could not witness in order to protect then selves and their families. No matter how different their society and their justice system is from our it does not mean its bad because it seams to be working for them and as far as we know there have been no major complaints form the villagers.

Class discussions – Poor countries labor laws:

Another thing we talked about in our groups were the labor laws in poor countries. we saw that kind of conditions many people work in when they work in a sweet shop. We all thought it was very informing and were very surprised at the hours many people worked like the one lady who worked 24 hours had a small break then worked a normal shift again. Also these people could not say no to working more over time otherwise they lose their jobs. Also we talked about ways we could possibly help the situation however, we came to the conclusion that it would be hard to boycott stores that used sweat shops because most stores do and the ones that don’t would be outrageously expensive to expensive for personally to shop at.

Are men and women the same sex?

In my breakout group we talked about how men and women aren’t necessarily opposite but very different socially however that should not mean that we are treated any differently.

I think that we are very different  ‘creatures’ meaning that we act very differently under many circumstances and men and women just have a different what of going about everyday things and also have different ways of getting their points across. That being said I don’t think that means that men and women should be treated any differently, however, in many places and way we still aren’t considered equal and are often not even paid equally. These are some of the reasons that men and women in my eyes aren’t the some sex.

Nature-Culture and Environment

Summery: This article was a collection of articles about the power of politics in the food industry and its relation to inequality, global and social injustice. One shows myths we are caused to believe about why people are hungry and that there is nothing  we can do another shows how connected our world really is by using a simple cup a coffee as an example.

3 central premises & 3 key concepts: I in this article the premisses also show the key concepts very well. They are Globalization, injustice and sociological imagination. Globalization is shown in the article about coffee and it shows that even if we understand that coffee comes from certain areas like Columbia; we don’t think about all the other thing that go into making a cup of coffee such as where the beans where actually roasted or where the cream and sugar come from also the machines we use to make the coffee like grinders and brewing stations and the places they were made. It shows just how much we use products from other county’s all the time such and coffee is a great example. Is also addresses the injustice of hunger in the article “Hunger Myths” which shows that food shortage, over population, to much technology (green revolution will end world hunger) and nature is to blame for famine ect… The article shows that hunger is something that really doesn’t have to be and that really it is injustice that so many people are hungry. Finally sociological imagination is also shown though the coffee article it helps show how by just drinking a cup of coffee we are affecting people around the world like the bean growers, rosters, and distributers. the cup of coffee often also contains milk and sugar so it affects everyone that grow, process, package and sell that product as well. these article where all very eye opening on several levels.

Article on Debt

Summary: This article talks about debt and how third world debt. It starts with an explanation about how it got so bad, which is because in 1973 when oil prices quadruped. The industrialized countries wanted the money made and put in the bank from the oil producing countries to be lent to poor nations so that they could still buy oil and other goods they might import from the industrial countries . Because of the banks wanted to lend the money so bad and there was to much to lend they though their procedures out the window; however, if they were lending to governments they thought there loans would be safe. Many of the loans therefore were given to governments but the problem was that many of them were run by military dictators. Today it’s the poor that are paying the ultimate price for the debt because there governments cant afford their health care or food subsidies so the poor just get sicker and more malnourished.

3 central premises: the first premiss is the idea that the richer get richer and the poor poorer. This is shown in this article because the industrialized counties did not car about how it would affect them but wanted the loans to go to the poor countries in order to be able to afford the oil and other imported goods. another premiss is the banks throwing the rules out the window. we still see this today there is money to be made and the rules don’t apply anymore; this happened in the late 1970s throughout the world however domestically with the mortgage crises and this article helps show where peoples minds are at that the time of making bad financial decisions. and a third premiss is the focus on how this affected the poor people in these already poor countries. because the governments are paying back so much debt they cant afford to help their poorest people.

3 Key concepts: first is the idea the people who are affected most by these counties debts the poor because when the food subsides are lifted the poor can not afford t any more so they are eating less and less meals causing malnourishment. also the countries want to export as much as they can at the highest prices so the farmers with the good land producing the high quality crops are given more resources causing the other farmers to lose their land and head for the slums. one more concept addressed in this article is the fact that there are so many people to blame like the military dictators, the banks and the industrialized counties and unfortunately they are not the ones who are paying for the mistakes; its the counties that even with debt relief are paying more to debt relief than heath care.

Social Justice in local and global contexts – Chapter three

What questions does this chapter raise? This chapter raises questions about social standing meaning your personal privileges’ and disadvantages.

How does the text answer theses questions? The text defines the terms to that you can know many of the different advantages that we are born with or can acquire over time.

How does the answer match our own ideas and experiences? This chapter matches my own ideas of privilege because it shows different privileges and disadvantages that I have experienced or friends have experienced. I find this chapter does a very good job explaining other privileges and disadvantages people may face as I can only really know about the disadvantage of being a women.