FC Personal Narrative Sociology Narrative Essay

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This assignment is a personal narrative that asks you to examine social problems in your own life. You will describe and analyze a social problem that significantly influenced your life experience. 

The social problem can be one that affected you at a stage earlier in life or later on. It can be one for which you had a successful resolution or one that is ongoing. Social problems are often interrelated. So it’s possible to write about more than one social problem. You can include other persons in your social networks such as friends and family members who were also affected by this social problem. 

You can also include groups and institutions that are relevant to your social problem such as school, work, church, clubs, and community organizations. Be assured that your social problem will be treated confidentially. If the resolution of your social problem involved organizing and activism aimed at social change, you’ll want to describe and analyze those efforts as well. 3 First clearly identify the social problem and describe the challenges that it presented. Describe the impact that it had on your own life and possibly the lives of others. Provide a context for your social problem by referring to topics (with specific page numbers) in the discussion presented in Chapter 1: Understanding & Solving Social Problems. Refer also to that chapter’s discussion and the lecture on C. Wright Mills’ distinction between personal troubles and public issues presented in The Sociological Imagination. If there are relevant topics presented in other chapters, lectures or lecture notes, include them in your paper as well. Next analyze your social problem by discussing the response that you and possibly others made to address it. Provide an analysis of the outcomes from your effort. 

Paper 1

First I want to assure you that your paper will be treated as confidential.  You’ll want to choose a social problem that has had a significant impact on you.  It can be a social problem from the past or one that is currently affecting you.  It can also involve friends or family members.

Some social problems are interrelated.  They can overlap and intersect.  I’ll use an example of health inequalities to illustrate their interrelation.  Maybe you grew up in a poor neighborhood where the air was polluted.  As a result, you and their family members suffered health problems such as asthma.  So you could start by referring to Chapter 14 on Health Inequalities. This issue is discussed on p. 272 where it states that poor neighborhoods have more environmental factors that are harmful to public health.

Your social problem could also pertain to Chapter 2 on Economic Inequalities.  It states on p. 29 that high levels of income inequality harm the natural environment.  Your social problem could also pertain to environmental justice which is discussed on p. 265 in Chapter 8 on the Environment. It states that poor communities have a disproportionate amount of environmental risks and hazards. 

You should include a discussion of your social problem related to C. Wright Mills’ distinction between personal troubles and public issues discussed in Chapter 1.  Here you could show how your social problem is a public issue because it’s a health issue affecting poor communities.  This social problem is also being given national attention as a public issue by the Biden administration which has established a council to monitor health risks in underserved communities.

You’ll want to refer to relevant topics in the book with specific page numbers.  We may have not yet covered a topic in the book that’s relevant to your social problem but you’ll want to be sure to refer to it.  You can also include relevant outside sources.