This essay assignment asks you to point out and evaluate empirical evidence, facts and knowledge on the social processes through which prejudice and discrimination are perpetuated and/or reduced. Specifically, you will compare how a neighborhood has changed within the last 10 years. After analyzing your data, you will prepare a clear and concise written sociological analysis drawing on literature discussed in this course.
What to do:
You will be asked to use census and/or American Community Survey data to analyze how a neighborhood of your choice has changed over time. Specifically, you will use Social Explorer to analyze how a neighborhood of your choice (by zip code) has changed between 2008 and 2018.
Step by Step Guide:
Part 1 (10% of your final essay grade)
Pick a zip code of neighborhood of your choice that you want to analyze. In two to three paragraphs, introduce the reader to the neighborhood and provide a sociological rationale as to why you want to analyze it.
BASED ON READINGS Formulate a hypothesis that makes assumptions about how one of the following variables (characteristics) has changed over time: Income, Education, House Value, Employment, Gender, or Poverty.
Notes:
A hypothesis is an educated guess. It is an assumption about how two or more variables (= in this case change in time and one of the characteristics mentioned above) are related.
Example: Overall, the population’s age has increased between 2000 and 2010 in Brooklyn Heights, New York.
Your hypothesis should be something that you can actually test, what’s called a testable hypothesis. In other words, you need to be able to reject your hypothesis if it turns out to be wrong. To be able to do this, your hypothesis should be directional (the higher, the less…).