Getting students out there; using community partnerships to engage students

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to discuss the “Q-Step in the Community” programme, part of the Q-Step Centre based in the Sociology Department at Manchester Metropolitan University, designed to help address the skills gap in quantitative methods (QM) that is evident across parts of the UK higher-education sector. “Q-Step in the Community” is a data-driven work-based learning programme that works in partnership with local organisations to provide placement opportunities for final year undergraduates and postgraduates. Students conduct a quantitative research project, which is typically identified by the placement provider.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use quantitative and qualitative feedback from students and placement providers, along with our own reflections on the process to evaluate the placement programme. Data were collected through a focus group and email interviews with placement providers, along with a questionnaire, which was distributed to “Q-Step in the Community” alumni.FindingsData-driven work-based learning opportunities allow students to develop and demonstrate their quantitative skills and support networking opportunities whilst also developing valuable soft-skills experience of the workplace that develops their career-readiness. In addition, those opportunities provide valuable research for placement providers, which support their sustainability and enhance their service delivery.Research limitations/implicationsThe research focusses solely on one programme at one university offering quantitative data driven work-based learning opportunities at undergraduate and post-graduate level. It is not possible to make valid comparisons between those who do a placement with those who do not.Originality/valueViews of key stakeholders in the process have been sought for this research, which can be useful to consider for others considering developing similar programmes for their students.

Learning from 2020: How the Challenges of Remote Teaching Reinforce the Need for Care-Informed Pedagogy

How did instructors design their sociology courses for remote teaching during the 2020–2021 academic year, and what challenges did they face in teaching those courses? To answer these questions, we surveyed lead instructors and graduate teaching assistants (n = 77) in the Sociology Department at the University of Michigan, supplemented by interviews with students and our experiences as remote course consultants. Through this case study, we found that instructors cited increased workload and lack of connection as challenges with remote teaching, in addition to pandemic-related struggles. Most instructors reported using either synchronous or a mix of synchronous and asynchronous instruction in course design, incorporating both formative and summative assessments, and implementing communication and community-building strategies to establish connections with and among students. We argue that these challenges and course designs highlight the importance of care-informed pedagogy to not only remote teaching in 2020–2021 but also sociology instruction in general.

What's Missing? How Interpersonal Communication Changes During Online Learning

During the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia, all communication activities have been carried out mostly through CMC, including online learning that students must experience. This situation brings big changes in the communication process between lecturers and students and vice versa. This paper aims to see how interpersonal communication changes in the online lecture process and what elements of interpersonal communication are lost with technology in online learning. The data collection method in this study was to conduct Focus Group Discussions on Sociology students at the Universitas Negeri Malang. 6 students were involved in the FGD with the criteria for students above the 2019 class who had experienced face-to-face and online lectures. Primary data was obtained through active observation of Sociology Department lecturers. This study indicates that many dimensions of interpersonal communication are missing in online lectures, such as the loss of empathy between students due to the absence of face-to-face communication and miss communication in online lectures, which causes interpersonal communication not to work effectively. Furthermore, Interpersonal communication cannot be established properly if the lecturer does not have high technological skills. It can then affect the spirit of student learning in online lectures. Keywords: higher education, ICT skills, interpersonal communication, online learning

II December Socio-Political Readings — “How Are You, Russia? The Russian Social State and Civil Society in 2020: The Implementation of National Projects in a Post-Pandemic Reality” (Moscow, December 10, 2020)

The paper presents the results of the II December Socio-Political Readings — “‘How Are You, Russia?’ The Russian Social State and Civil Society in 2020: The Implementation of National Projects in a Post-Pandemic Reality”. The National Research-to-Practice Conference with international participation was held by the Institute of Socio-Political Research and the Institute of Demographic Studies of the Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Faculty of Political Science of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Sociology Department of the Russian State University for the Humanities. The event was held in December 2020 in face-to-face/remote formats at the Institute of Socio-Political Research — Branch of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Readings were attended by the leading academics and young researchers of Moscow and regional research institutes and universities, as well as foreign scientists. The papers provided the analysis of current social, socio-political, social and cultural, demographic problems within the focus of academics, politicians, entrepreneurs, and civil society. The scientific discussion provided an opportunity to address and approve the best socio-political, and demographic models and development patterns, considering the revealed COVID pandemic factors.

Marvin Wolfgang

Few contemporary criminologists have made more of an impact in the field of criminology than Marvin Eugene Wolfgang. He was born in 1924, and after his mother died during his infancy, Wolfgang’s paternal grandparents raised him in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Wolfgang lived and worked in Pennsylvania until his death in 1998. His intellectual interest in criminology began after serving time in the military while stationed in Italy during World War II. He left the army in 1945 to attend university, and was the first person in his family to do so. Wolfgang earned a bachelor’s degree at Pennsylvania’s Dickinson College in 1948 and began teaching in the political science and sociology department at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania, while also attending graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. Marvin Wolfgang’s professional career spanned decades and was punctuated by a myriad of accomplishments, accolades, awards, and tributes. The bulk of Wolfgang’s criminological research revolved around the sociological aspects of violence and criminality. He was an expert in the field of criminal justice, and, based on his own empirical research, he openly expressed opposition to the death penalty and support for gun control. Race played a prominent role in Wolfgang’s analyses, and his findings exposed the diminished social and economic status of Blacks as well as the implicit role white culture plays in maintaining the conditions necessary for violence and crime. He worked diligently throughout his career to further legitimize and advance the social science of criminology. His research was instrumental for carving out an independent science of crime from the discipline of sociology. He accomplished this task by innovating and applying scientific research and methods in the criminal justice system. He had a keen interest in understanding the drivers of violent crime and sought to improve institutional and social outcomes inside and outside prison walls. Wolfgang’s research was instrumental for revealing racial disparities in the criminal justice system and in society at large. He embraced a sociological approach for understanding social problems and government responses that led to violence, crime, and punishment. Marvin Wolfgang was a vocal critic of the status quo criminal justice system and was sought after by the federal government for his expertise in quantitative design and analysis. He was admired worldwide for his expertise and allegiance to the scientific method. His scholarship is prolific, diverse, and salient. Despite his fame, most people still found Wolfgang approachable. He was well respected by his many peers around the world, as well as a beloved professor to his many students. His contributions to the discipline of criminology and criminal justice are innumerable, substantial, and are relevant for the 21st century and beyond.

Kesadaran mahasiswa terhadap etika berbahasa

Modernization also causes a shift in interaction patterns and changes in values in society. There are still many people who do not have ethics in the campus environment, such as speaking impolitely with peers or with elders. This research was conducted to find out how to ethically speak student language to lecturers in the Sociology Department. This Research uses qualitative research method with a descriptive approach. This data collection technique is done by means of interviews. The informants of this study were lecturers of the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences based on the criteria. The criteria used are different ages, namely senior lecturers and junior lecturers. In addition, informants were also obtained from active sociology students and came from different generations. The result of this study is that one of the factors that influence the language ethics of students is the difference of age between students and lecturers that not too far, so that students think of lecturers as their own friends, which makes them free to speak according to their wishes without thinking about who the interlocutor is and the solution for handling bad ethics is by holding activities that explain the importance of good ethics at campus since new students are in the campus environment. Modernisasi juga menimbulkan pergeseran pola interaksi dan berubahnya nilai-nilai dalam masyarakat. Masih banyak manusia yang tidak ber-etika di lingkungan kampus seperti cara berbicara yang kurang sopan baik dengan teman sebaya ataupun dengan yang lebih tua. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui cara beretika dalam berbahasa mahasiswa kepada dosen yang ada di Jurusan Sosiologi. Di dalam penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dengan pendekatan deskriptif. Teknik pengumpulan data ini dilakukan dengan cara wawancara. Informan penelitian ini adalah dosen jurusan Sosiologi Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dengan berdasarkan kriteria. Kriteria yang digunakan adalah umur yang berbeda yakni dosen senior dan dosen junior. Selain itu, informan juga didapatkan dari beberapa mahasiswa aktif dan berasal dari berbeda-beda angkatan. Hasil dari penelitian ini yaitu salah satu faktor yang mempengaruhi etika berbahasa mahasiswa adalah adanya perbedaan usia yang tidak terlalu jauh antara mahasiswa dengan dosen, sehingga para mahasiswa menganggap dosen seperti temannya sendiri yang membuat mereka bebas berbahasa sesuai dengan kemauannya tanpa memikirkan siapa lawan bicaranya dan solusi untuk menangani etika yang kurang baik adalah dengan mengadakan kegiatan yang menjelaskan pentingnya beretika yang baik di kampus sejak mahasiswa baru berada di lingkungan kampus.

DOES ATTACHMENT STYLE AND GENDER CORRELATE WITH SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING AMONG MARRIED UNDERGRADUATES?

The study examined the relationships between attachment style and gender as correlates of subjective well-being among married undergraduates. A total of 210 students from Sociology department in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, participated in the study. Participants consist of 80 males and 130 females. Their age ranged from 18 to 30 years, with mean age of 22.00 years and standard deviation of 1.749. Two instruments were administered for data collection: the Experiences in Close Relationship-Revised (ECR-R) questionnaire which was developed by Fraley, R. C. and Shaver, P. R (2000). Also satisfaction with life scale which was developed by Dennier, E., Emmons, R.A., Larsen, R.J., & Griffin, S., (1985). Statistics deployed was Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient. Result show that the first hypothesis was not confirmed and the second hypothesis was not confirmed at (r = .32,p>.05). Recommendations were made in line with research findings.

Interview with Patricia Hill Collins

On October 29, 2019, a group of intellectuals met at the Sociology Department of usp, at the initiative of the Tempo Social editor, for an interview with Patricia Hill Collins, an internationally renowned American intellectual, who opened new perspectives for Black feminist thought, as a critical social theory. The departure point was Collins new book, entitled Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory, where she explores the parallels between the challenges faced by those activists-intellectuals who coined the notion of intersectionality, and the new challenges faced today. During the conversation, other themes emerged, exploring the author’s research agenda and her previous books, as well as the current challenges for the studies on racial relations and for the anti-racist militance.

Ethnomethodological Misreading of Aron Gurwitsch on the Phenomenal Field

Editors’ AbstractDuring the 1992–1993 academic year, Harold Garfinkel (1917–2011) offered a graduate seminar on Ethnomethodology in the Sociology Department at the University of California, Los Angeles. One topic that was given extensive coverage in the seminar has not been discussed at much length in Garfinkel’s published works to date: Aron Gurwitsch’s treatment of Gestalt theory, and particularly the themes of “phenomenal field” and “praxeological description”. The edited transcript of Garfinkel’s seminar shows why he recommended that “for the serious initiatives of ethnomethodological investigations […] Gurwitsch is a theorist we can’t do without”. Garfinkel’s ethnomethodological “misreading” is not a mistaken reading, but is more a matter of taking Gurwitsch’s phenomenological demonstrations of Gestalt contextures in phenomenal fields and transposing them for making detailed, concrete observations and descriptions of organizationally achieved social phenomena. Where Gurwitsch addresses the organization of perception as an autochthonous achievement, inherent to the stream and field of individual consciousness, Garfinkel extends and elaborates this field into the social world of enacted practices. The April 1993 seminar also is rich with brief asides and digressions in which Garfinkel comments about his use of Alfred Schutz, his attitude toward publishing, his relationship with Erving Goffman, and many other matters.

Sosyolojiye Çağrı: Sahayı Deneyimlemenin Düşünümselliği Üzerine

This study is concerned with the deciphering of the mental contacts that the students of the sociology department establish with sociology. The founding assumption of the study is to reach the "ghosts" created by sociology in the mind of the individual who is in contact with sociology. The concept of ghost refers to the shadows that sociology creates in the mind. This reference includes the mental patterns of the person after beginning their sociology education. In the data analysis of the study, the interpretive phenomenology approach was preferred. Research data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the participants. First and second-year sociology students who took the Introduction to Sociology and Applied Sociological Studies courses were selected as the sample in the study. In the study, it was aimed to stimulate the information that the participants learned before. During this stimulation, sociologist candidates' belief in sociological knowledge and experiencing how that knowledge can be used was considered as the stage of preparing the mind to depict the quality they attribute to sociology. The narratives have been produced directly related to the social sphere itself. It is aimed to present the ability of sociological knowledge to produce multiple perspectives inherently in narratives. The main concern in using this inclusion is to reveal the functionality of sociological knowledge in the minds of the participants and what it looks like. In this context, the participants were asked "What does sociology mean to you?". Participants were asked to draw a picture on an A4 paper. The pictures obtained were analyzed with the interpretive phenomenological analysis approach.