Reference no: EM133379260

Assignment:

Part 1: Unfamiliar Setting: Go back in time to a social setting (a highly expensive or upscale restaurant) that you are unfamiliar with and observe what you see. You will go anywhere where people are gathered that you have not previously been before and answer the following questions below.

1. What are the people doing in this space?
2. What are the norms for this specific place?
3. What do you think the values are?
4. What symbols are present and what might they mean?
5. Are people in groups or are they alone? If they're in groups what do you notice about the group dynamics?
6. Are people talking to each other or on their cell phones?
7. What language is being spoken?
8. What may the behavior of this setting say about society as a whole?

Part 2: Familiar Setting (with fresh eyes)

Go into a familiar social setting fast food restaurant or inexpensive restaurant (such as McDonalds, Cheesecake Factory etc) and do the exact same thing as above - document what you see. Observe the norms, values, symbols, the language of the place. Except, look at everything as though you have never been there before (much like an outsider might, the way that Horace Miner wrote "Nacirema", making everyday ritualistic behavior around body hygiene seem weird and abnormal).

Much like Part 1 above, do the same for Part 2: Write down people's behaviors, rules of behavior, expectations of how to behave in those given circumstances, etc. The point here is to see the ordinary as extraordinary. In essence, you will be 'weirding the normal', that is, (1) making visible all the social rules that guide the activity that is normally taken for granted and (2) speculating as to how following the rules is enforced.

Part 3: Compare The two restaurants by comparing the two settings and answer the following questions.

• What do you notice is similar and what is different and why?
• What became apparent that you would not have otherwise noticed?