Reference no: EM133794919

Assignment:

Your preparation for this assignment includes reading and discussing Caplow's article, Rule Enforcement Without Visible Means. Caplow has two goals: (1) to describe cultural norms governing Christmas and (2) to explain why there is such high comformity to these norms. Your task is to mimic Caplow's article with a different activity. Choose a simple, mundane activity that you participate in on a rather frequent basis that includes at least two people. Such activities might include waiting in line at the ATM, ordering food at a restaurant, asking someone on a date, or buying something at a convenience store. Your task is to "weird it." That is, (1) make visible all the social rules that guide the activity that are normally taken-for-granted and (2) speculate as to how following the rules is enforced.

Guiding Questions:

1. What exactly occurs during this activity? Describe it in as much detail as possible.
2. What is the geography of this activity? That is, is the space organized in a particular way? Is there important furniture or fixtures that indicate that the activity occurs in that place? How are people arranged in relation to each other?
3. Do people have different roles? How do you know which role you're playing? How does each person play their role "right?"
4. What is unacceptable during this activity?
5. What might happen if you played your role differently? You might want to try this out. For example, you might face the back instead of the front in the elevator and see how people react.
6. What socially constructed objects contribute to this interaction? What shared understandings allow the interaction to occur?
7. What do you think are the social control mechanisms? What are the costs to doing it "wrong?" Are these significant costs? Why or why not?
8. Does the necessity for conformity vary according to who you are? Could some people get away with breaking the rules and not others? Who? Why?