Objectives:

After completing this class meeting, you will have:

• Identified themes that are prevalent in the discourse about your PIN
• Examined how the prevalent themes reflect different social theories
• Assessed how you can use social theories that are prevalent in the public discourse about your PIN to develop the policy strategy for Assignment 3
• Reflect upon two critical aspects of using theory to address social ills, theoretical approach and level of analysis and action

Flash Back to Week 1 -- Civil society and all that

Please read pages 4 - 6 in Turner -- the sections titled "What is the most important approach to sociological analysis?" and "What level of analysis is is most important?"

In Assignment 2, I asked you to select two highly contrasting theoretical approaches for Assignment 3. This was not easy for you and I think you will find in the first section (pp. 4-5) some pointers about why this was difficult. Please think about your decision-making process and what factors came into play. For example, did tend to gravitate toward some theories becuase they "felt more comfortable" to you? Did you actually focus on two really different explanations (theories) of your PIN -- or did you tend to select two theories with very similar basic assumptions? Do you think you selected two theoriest that are "different enough" to force you to think about the oirgins and persistence of your PIN in different ways? Do you think you selected approaches that tend to reinforce your pre-existing ideas about the best ways to address the issue -- e.g., did you select theories that reinforce what you already thought about the PIN rather than theories that would challenge your pre-existing ideas?

In both Assignments 2 and 3 I have asked you to think at the community level -- physical places where we live and work. This has been very difficult for a lot of people. Turner's comments on level of analysis are pertinent to our focus on the meso-level (to use his terminology). I think we have come to think almost exclusively at the micro-level -- how to help individuals improve their lives, with little to no attention about what happens to larger social units than the family. This is true for both public and private organizations and institutions. I am even more explicit -- within the meso level, I want you to focus on the level of the community (not groups, not organizations). I insist on the community because this is the lowest level at which public policies can be implemented and the lowest level at which civil governance (as opposed, for example, to corporate governance or organizational governance) occurs. It is also the easiest level (usually) to create change. Community development depends on community level governance. We must think about communities and develop approaches that communities as a whole can employ. Turner offers an explanaiton of why we tend to focus on the micro-scale. I would argue that today, over the past 20 years to be more precise, social phenomena have also "pushed us" toward micro level thinking, analysis, and problem-solving. What aspects of modern society do you think contribute to our "blindness" of community level structures and processes?

Flash Back to Week 2 -- This May Make WAY More Sense Now after the January insurrection OR not make any sense at all.

Take a second look at this reading from week 2: Leskes, A.(2013) A plea for civil discourse: Needed, the Academy's leadersip. Liberal Education 99(4) Available from the Association of American Colleges and Universities I ask you to think about your answers to four quetsions.

Are there differencs in how you thought about civility and civil discourse when you read this the first time back in January and how you think about what those terms mean now?

Do you think that Leskes' concern that she describes as "...a visceral and gripping fear that the current breakdown in public discourse is eating away at the very core of US democracy..." is a justified concern?

What do you think now, as our course together draws to a close, about the need to train our students to be "good" participatns in public discourse, that we practice public discourse and civility in our teaching and rserach, and that we promote civil discourse in research and service?

Do you think Leskes is right when she argues that the breakdown in civil discourse threatents the institution of higher education -- and in fact threatens democracy itself?

Preparing for Assignment 3: One last look at the role of civil discourse -- a simple guide on how to make discourse "civil."

What's up with policy debate?

Post a very short (maximum one page) document on the week 13 Discussion Board that gives examples of materials you found in your Think Tanks that include elements of the public discourse about your PIN. Summarize the main two or three themes that you see in these Think Tank materials.

Use Academic Search Premier as the search engine for this task. Really -- use this specific search engine. It's going to give you the best output for least effort (not Google or any other of the database search engines). Search for articles that talk about your PIN. Make a search string like any of these. You may want to try to strings beause they will give you different output. You must enclose the entire search string in quotation marks. Replace "food insecurity" with a phrase appropriate for your PIN. Food insecurity is just an example.

(1) "Civil discourse food insecurity"

(2) "Policy discourse food insecurity"

(3) "Public discourse food insecurity"

Select a few items (few being 10 or less), look at the abstract, and identify a theoretical perspective that seems to underlie the policy. E.g., try to match the policy approach to a social theory. Summarize what you found in a paragraph or two. Post your conclusions to the week 13 discussion board.