collective action ” american sociological review 39 W r i t i n g

The exam asks questions about these materials from the second half of the course:

The film “Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace.” The film is available for viewing via the Shields Library. Search the Kanopy database.

Howard Becker. “Art as collective action” American Sociological Review 39(6) (December 1974): 767-776. Available through the Shields Library online.

Foucault: “The Carceral” pp. 293 – 308 in Discipline and Punish NY: Vintage 1979. In Files on Canvas.

Karin Martin. “Becoming a Gendered Body: Practices of Preschools.” American Sociological Review 63 (1998): 494-511. Available through the Shields Library online

Pierre Bourdieu. 1997. “The Forms of Capital” pp. 15 – 29 in Education: Culture, Economy, Society edited by A.H. Halsey et al. New York: Oxford University Press. In Files on Canvas.

Use of sources and individual work

Each student should write the test independently. Submitting someone else’s words will be considered academic dishonesty.

Use only assigned readings as sources for your answers.

Formatting:

Use complete sentences. When you quote a reading, provide a parenthetical reference that shows the author’s surname, year of publication and page, using the format in this example:

“The supervision of normality was firmly encased in a medicine or a psychiatry that provided it with a sort of ‘scientificity’” (Foucault 1979: 296).

Answer each of the following questions in a few sentences (approximately 100 – 200 words). The point value of each question is in parentheses at the end of the question.

“Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace.” (20)

1. Discuss Kehinde Wiley’s paintings in relation to an artistic convention. The concept of artistic convention is discussed in the Howard Becker article. In your answer briefly discuss an artistic convention and then discuss how Wiley’s paintings conform to the convention and how they deviate from the convention.

2. Howard Becker. “Art as collective action” American Sociological Review 39(6) (December 1974): 767-776. Available through the Shields Library online

Briefly discuss two reasons why the conventions of art worlds are difficult to change. Apply your answer to one specific art form. You may choose any art form, including an art form that was not mentioned in Becker’s article. Use a quotation from Becker in your answer. (20)

3. The last sentence of the passage we read from Foucault is “At this point I end a book that must serve as a historical background to various studies of the power of normalization and the formation of knowledge in modern society.” (Foucault,1979, 308).

a) Briefly discuss an example of the power of normalization in our contemporary society. Your answer should demonstrate understanding of the way in which Foucault used the concept of normalization in the assigned reading. (10)

b) According to Foucault, what role do teachers, doctors, social workers and other experts play in society? Use a quotation from Foucault in your answer. Explain what the quotation means to you.Do not use the quotation in the prompt given at the beginning of question 3. (10)

4. Martin, Karin. “Becoming a Gendered Body: Practices of Preschools.” American Sociological Review 63 (1998): 494-511.

Give a specific example from Karin Martin’s preschool observations of a lesson a child learned about gender. Be sure to state what the child learned about gender and how the child learned the lesson. (20).

5. On page 18, Bourdieu wrote “Cultural capital can be acquired, to a varying extent, depending on the period, the society, and the social class, in the absence of any deliberate inculcation, and therefore quite unconsciously.”

Give an example of how a child could unconsciously acquire cultural capital, and how that cultural capital could provide advantages in life. (20)

Extra credit:

Discuss why cultural capital can have greater legitimacy when it can disguise its economic roots. (5)