Theoretical Reflection

Theoretical Reflection Order Description reflect on what we have discussed and what you have learned in this class. The goal of this assignment is to enable you to reflect on the three theoretical approaches we have developed in this course, and assess the relative strengths of each. You will begin by summarizing the central arguments of each theorist (Marx, Weber, and Durkheim), but then move towards arguing for why you think one is better than the others. In this assignment you will select the theoretical approach you find most compelling (Marx, Weber, or Durkheim) and write an essay explaining why you find it the most compelling. In doing this you need to make an argument for why your chosen theorist is preferable to the other theorists and why it best helps you think about the social phenomena you think are important. Components: Summarize the central arguments of each theorist (Durkheim, Marx, and Weber). Here you want to provide a brief summary of each theorist, including their central concepts and how those concepts fit together into a coherent theoretical argument. You will want to consult your concept maps for accomplishing this. These will provide you with the concepts and their interlinkages with which you can then develop a narrative about each theorist. Excellent papers will in the process of this highlight some of the strengths and weaknesses of each one relative to each other. That is, they will begin the process of comparing the theorists to one another. Identify which theorist you found the most compelling and enlightening. Explain why you found that theorist the most compelling. At this point in the paper you want to develop an argument for one theorist over the others. Here your goal is to explain why you think either Marx OR Weber OR Durkheim get us closer to explaining the kinds of social phenomena you think are most important. Your goal in this section is to convince your reader that one of the theorists does a better job, and why you find their arguments so compelling. Now, identify a social problem or issue and explain what concepts from that theorist help you make sense of the issue. Here you want to show your reader the real value of your chosen theorist. Using your preferred theorist you want to illustrate the value of their argument for a contemporary social problem. This involves selecting any social problem you think is relevant, and then applying the concepts from your theorist to helping explain why this social problem exists. The problem you choose is at your discretion, ranging from juvenile delinquency to poverty in developed societies to growing income inequality to the concentration of political power to a whole range of other issues. But the goal is to understand the origins and consequences of a particular social problem through the lens of your chosen theorist. Technical Requirements: This paper should be roughly 6-8 double-spaced pages in length (excluding any reference page), with 1 inch margins and 12 point Times New Roman font. There are no formal requirements for outside sources as I expect that much of your effort is going towards thinking through and applying what you have learned about each theorist over the course of the semester. However, if you use any outside material you should cite it in a consistent format in the text and with a bibliography/reference page at the end of the paper (reference page is excluded in the page count). The due date is listed on the syllabus, and you will submit it on D2L through the “Assignments” link under the “Assessment Tools” tab.