ASC 101 Unit Overview and AT3 Guidance

Unit Overview and AT3 Assignment

Unit Wrap-Up

• The unit aims to introduce the sociological imagination and the discipline of sociology.
• It explores how society shapes individuals and their experiences within communities.
• Sociological Imagination (Week 2):
  • Introduced by C. Wright Mills.
  • Encourages understanding how wider social and historical forces shape personal experiences.
  • Thinking historically, culturally, critically, and structurally.
  • Second assignment focused on everyday experiences and their social context.
• Symbolic Interactionism (Week 3):
  • Irving Goffman's dramaturgy.
  • How identity is shaped through everyday experiences.
  • Use of symbols, body language, and interactions to understand and convey meaning.
  • Learning to participate in these interactions.
• Self and Society (Week 4):
  • Exploration of individual agency within social norms and expectations.
  • Debate between structure and agency.
  • Individual free will vs. social restrictions.
• Culture and Institutions (Week 5):
  • Influence of invisible social forces on our sense of self.
  • Origin and maintenance of norms.
  • Consequences of not following social norms.
• Sociological Research (Week 6):
  • Different methods used to investigate the social world.
  • AT2 involved ethnographic research (observations of everyday life).
  • AT3 involves a quantitative data exercise using census data.
  • Exposure to both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Constructing Identity

• A deep dive into gender, class, race, and community.
• Focus on how these social forces shape identity.
• These concepts are important for understanding human behavior.
• Importance of age and generation on social outcomes (to be explored in ASC 102).
• Gender and Sexuality (Week 7):
  • How social norms shape gender roles, sexual identities, and expectations.
• Class and Inequality (Week 8):
  • Analysis of how class affects life chances.
  • Key theories of social inequality.
• Race and Ethnicity (Week 9):
  • Race and ethnicity as socially constructed.
  • Impact of race and colonization.
  • Intersectionality.
• Community (Week 10):
  • How where we live and who we live with shapes identity, belonging, and experience of social norms.
• The goal of the unit is to introduce sociological thinking and key concepts for understanding the social world.
• ASC 102 (Sociology of Everyday Life) applies these ideas to different aspects of everyday life.

Assessment Task 3 (AT3)

• Focuses on how communities and the places we live impact our everyday lives.
• Examines how physical and social features of a place shape the community.
• This community affects how people live, interact, connect, and feel connected.
• Example: Dog parks as a community feature that promotes exercise, socialization, and community networks.
• Aim: To understand your specific community using Australian Bureau of Statistics Census Data.

Using Census Data

• Use the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census Data Portal to understand your area.
• AT3 is a research and writing exercise (or an alternative PowerPoint presentation).
• Worth 30% of the final mark.

Assignment Question

• Use Australian Bureau of Statistics census data for a postcode of your choice.
• Ideally, choose a postcode where you live (in Victoria).
• Choose two demographic factors of interest:
  • Examples: religious affiliation, how people travel to work, income, cultural diversity, housing type.
• Create two visual representations of your data.
• Comment on how these factors might influence community identity and lifestyle.
  • Examples: Dog parks, bike paths, ethnic groups, shopping centers.

Assignment Steps:

1. Choose your postcode.
2. Collect the data from the census portal.
3. Select two key factors of interest.
4. Create two data visualizations (bar charts).
   • Compare your postcode with state and national figures.
   • Include labels.
5. Reflect on the data and how it might influence community identity and lifestyle.
   • Use specific examples and think practically about how these social factors shape everyday life.

Assignment Format

• Can be done as a PowerPoint (5 slides) or a written assignment (800 words).
• Instructions on the unit site for creating and uploading the PowerPoint.

Data Visualization in Excel

• Instructions on how to create charts and tables by copying data from Census Data Portal to Excel.
• Instructions available in the video.

PowerPoint Presentation Example

• Slide 1: Title slide (AT3 Understanding Community and Identity), introduction, student name and ID.
  • Explain why you chose the particular area.
• Slide 2: First data visualization (e.g., ancestry) comparing your chosen area with state and national data.
  • Briefly describe what you see in the slide.
  • Example: Ancestry in Warm Ponds (predominantly English or European).
• Slide 3: Second data visualization (e.g., type of dwelling) comparing your chosen area with state and national data.
  • Example: Type of dwelling in Warne Ponds (mostly separate houses).
• Slide 4: Discuss what the data might mean to live in a specific area.
  • Example: Most people in Warm Ponds have Anglo-European ancestry, lower cultural diversity.
  • Living in low-density separate houses means shops and services are further away causing reliance on cars.
• Slide 5: AI statement and Grammarly check (mention used tools).
  • Ethical issues.

Additional Notes

• It's okay to use ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas and enhance understanding.
• Always check the accuracy and validity of information from AI tools.
• Trust your own judgment and critical thinking skills.