Focus, History, Vision and Mission of the Organization What is the organization about? What do you know about its goals, the community it serves, and its overall vision and mission? What is the relevant history of the organization and what can you learn about its current and anticipated work? What is the main strategy for change? What type of strategy for change does the organization use? Use the organizational strategy framework on the public sociology link below. Address how the organization works in terms of each of the columns: What does the PERSON/ENVIRONMENT GET, What’s the ROOT CAUSE of the problem they’re addressing, what’s the Type of RELATIONSHIP between the organization & members, Who OPPOSES their work, and does their work change the POWER RELATIONSHIP? What is the THEORETICAL APPROACH of the organization as indicated by the strategy employed by the organization? Does this match up with the Vision & Mission of the organization? Possibilities for Collaboration Given what you’ve learned about this organization, think about new possible partnerships between schools and this organization. Describe in detail at least two (2) projects which might help this organization and the community it serves. Either think across grade levels or focus exclusively on elementary, secondary, or college-level students, and explore the ways in which students could be challenged to meet some needs—or at least participate in assisting this organization meet its needs—through various projects. How do these projects connect with the larger organizational strategies and mission? How might students, the organization, the community, and the environment benefit? How can you ensure that students and schools are responsive to the needs of the organization and the communities it serves? Public Sociology.pdf +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Video Synthesis OPTION Analyze and reflect on the course readings, and select a video from the suggested list below to inform a research topic of interest. Use the “Subversive syllabus: Critical questions for Video Synthesis” to guide your synthesis of the materials. Be sure to address all of the questions in the rubric. Use the assigned readings from each section of the course to analyze, argue against, support, and interpret the topic you choose. It must be at least 4 pages, citations and references do not count toward your 4 page total. Critical questions for Video Synthesis (be sure to address each bullet directly) What is the main subject matter analyzed? socio-historical context: time, place & people political economy & technology power, politics & the state culture & ideology social life popular struggles What is the main theory used for analysis? Are other theoretical perspectives discussed & how are they evaluated? What does the theory used bring to the analysis? What are the problems or issues – root causes & immediate context – discussed? What solutions are proposed? [see public sociology organizing models chart] Is social change – reform or revolutionary (anti-capitalist) – part of the solution? Who/what are the agents of this change? How are they organized? Who is the main intended audience for this work? Through the lens of the scholar & academic: What is most useful about this work? What could be different? Through the lens of the activist & movement builder: What is most useful about this work? What could be different? Personal reflection: How does this work help you shape your own intellectual & political worldview? How does it help you shape your theoretical perspective & your practice – your action orientation? Suggested Videos for Video Synthesis Paper Mossville: When Great Trees Fall Description: Mossville, Louisiana is a shadow of its former self - a community rich in natural resources and history, founded by formerly enslaved people and free people of color - where neighbors lived in harmony, insulated from the horrors of Jim Crow. Today, however, Mossville no longer resembles the town it once was. Surrounded by 14 petrochemical plants, Mossville is the future site of apartheid-born South African-based chemical company Sasol's newest plant - proposed as a 21.2 billion dollar project and the largest in the western hemisphere. The community struggles to let go of their ancestral home - and at the center of it all is a man named Stacey Ryan. Stacey is 49 years old and a lifelong resident of Mossville. In the past ten years, Stacey has lost much of his family to cancer and seen the neighborhood he grew up in demolished to make way for Sasol's new multi-billion dollar project. As Sasol encroaches on citizens' property with buyout offers, Stacey and other community members have to decide whether to exist in a chemical war zone or abandon land that has been in their families for generations. Come hell or high water : the battle for Turkey Creek Description: Follows the painful but inspiring journey of Derrick Evans, a Boston teacher who moves home to coastal Mississippi when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed to make way for the sprawling city of Gulfport. Over the course of a decade, Derrick and his neighbors stand up to powerful corporate interests and politicians and face ordeals that include Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil disaster in their struggle for self-determination and environmental justice. The Burning Field Description: THE BURNING FIELD is a unique ethnographic portrait of an environmental wasteland. Conceived and recorded by anthropologist/filmmakers Justin Weinrich and Anita Afonu, this immersive film presents an unforgettable slice of daily life in one of the largest e-waste dumps on earth, located just outside of Accra, Ghana. This bizarre environment is explored through the eyes of four young people who live and work there. The film follows three young men and one young woman as they break down and burn appliances and then sell the aluminum and copper to local vendors. The film is structured into one day, beginning when a fresh load of electronics is dumped, and ending as their ashes are picked through. Verité scenes of the four subjects are intertwined, revealing who they are through captured moments of their work, relationships, and personal time. Presented entirely through their perspectives and in their own words, these four young people are our guides to the harsh world of e-waste disposal, and the humanitarian and environmental nightmare that lies at the end of this corrupt global industry. Homeland: four portraits of Native action Description: Tells the story of four battles in which Native American activists are fighting to preserve their land and culture. Gail Small leads the fight to protect the Cheyenne homeland in Montana from proposed methane gas wells that threaten to pollute the water and make the land unsuitable for farming or ranching. In Alaska, Evon Peter is fighting against efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Mitchell and Rita Capitan have founded an organization of Eastern Navajo people in New Mexico, whose drinking water is threatened by proposed uranium mining. In Maine, Barry Dana is battling state government and the paper companies that have left his people unable to fish or swim in or harvest medicinal plants from the river on which they've depended for 10,000 years. The Enemy of My Enemy Description: Humans have transformed Earth for millennia, making enemies and allies with species along the way. In The Enemy of My Enemy, Shane Campbell-Staton visits three continents to explore “biocontrol” --and meets experts using one species to control another. But the allies we recruit don’t always behave as expected, sometimes causing catastrophes. Can we harness biocontrol without creating new foes? Inundation District Description: In a time of rising seas, one city (Boston) spent billions of dollars erecting a new waterfront district – on landfill, at sea level. Unlike other places imperiled by climate change, this neighborhood with some of the world’s largest companies was built well after scientists began warning of the threats. The city called its new quarter the Innovation District. But others are calling it Inundation District. Jaguar People Description: As China pours hundreds of billions of dollars into South American infrastructure, jaguars are disappearing from the continent’s most protected rainforests. Targeted as substitutes for tiger parts, which have historically been used in traditional Chinese medicines, jaguars are now being trafficked at dangerously high numbers to fill a new market demand. Spanning mist-covered jungles in the Amazon to bustling wildlife markets in China, Jaguar People (Tigre Gente) follows the storylines of two passionate people fighting to stop the jaguar trade before it’s too