100960 Contemporary Society Online at-home Exam Questions

Autumn 2016
The word limit for each question is 400 words (plus or minus 10%). The total word limit
for the assignment is 1,600 words. You must only use the units textbook (Sociologic
edited by James Arvanitakis) and/or material taken directly from this units weekly
lectures, including direct quotations, which must be correctly referenced using Chicago.
Do not use any Internet sources, except direct quotations from the TED Talks specifically
mentioned for each question, if needed to support your argument and when correctly
referenced. Do not use any other scholarly texts or other texts of any kind. Marks may be
deducted if you do. Think of this as an electronic version of a tutorial-based open-book
exam with four TED Talks examples. You are required to submit your finished online
at-home exam to the correct Turnitin link on vUWS in Week 14 by 11.59PM on May
23. Late penalties apply unless an extension has been granted, but late submissions will
be accepted. There is no late-submission Turnitin link. An extension must be requested
via a completed Request for Extension form (available in Student Forms). For further
details refer to the Unit Learning Guide.
Subtitles and transcripts in a number of languages are available through the TED
Talks website at www.ted.com or by following the hyperlinks supplied below.
QUESTION 1
Using the lecture, weekly reading and keywords from Week 10, discuss the following
quotation from the textbook in relation to the TED Talk Aomawa Shields: How We'll Find
Life on Other Planets.
https://www.ted.com/talks/aomawa_shields_how_we_ll_find_life_on_other_planets
Technologies are never mere things, they are always socio-technical networks
constituted by a complex array of human and non-human elements. These socio-technical
networks are socially constructed and thus can act to solidify relations of domination and
patterns of social exclusion. (P. 379)
QUESTION 2
Using the lectures, weekly readings and keywords from Week 7, discuss the following
quotation from the textbook in relation to the TED Talk Ivan Coyote: Why We Need
Gender-neutral Bathrooms.
https://www.ted.com/talks/ivan_coyote_why_we_need_gender_neutral_bathrooms
Transgender people, for example, identify with a gender that does not correspond with
that which is commonly assumed to go with their sex. Within some cultures, certain
members of a community may be raised as a gender that does not correspond with their
sex. The faafafine of Samoa hold a recognised identity within their communities as a
third gender, born male in terms of sex but possessing and raised to express both
masculine and feminine qualities. Translated, faafafine means in the manner of a
woman, and this is not regarded as deviant or problematic, but rather as a legitimate
identity and role within the community. (P. 122)

QUESTION 3
Using the lecture, weekly reading and keywords from Week 12, discuss the following
quotation from the textbook in relation to the TED Talk Thomas Peschak:
Dive Into an Ocean Photographer's World.
https://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_peschak_dive_into_an_ocean_photographer_s_world
It may seem that today is a terrible time to be alive, as drastic ecological changes and a
global environmental crisis threaten our existence. We may be facing a serious threat, but
there is no reason to despair: we also have many tools at our disposal for positive
change. (P. 358)
QUESTION 4
Using the lecture, weekly reading and keywords from Week 9, discuss the following
quotation from the textbook in relation to the TED Talk Sakena Yacoobi:
How I Stopped the Taliban from Shutting Down My School.
https://www.ted.com/talks/sakena_yacoobi_how_i_stopped_the_taliban_from_shutting_d
own_my_school
The view of overt power discussed above echoes a classic definition provided by the
sociologist Max Weber, who defined power as, the possibility of imposing ones will
upon the behaviour of other persons (cited in Rheinstein 1954, p. 323). He viewed power
as an aspect that exists in probably all social relationships. (P.142)