Tags: violence, war/military, ethics, jus ad bellum, jus in bello, laws of war, military sociology, sidgwick's proportionality rule, sociology of war, social justice, world war II, subtitles/CC, 61+ mins Year: 2003 Length: 107:00 Access: YouTube Summary: In the 2003 documentary The Fog of War, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara recounts eleven life lessons. One can draw on this post to examine Sidgwick's proportionality rule, which aligns well with McNamara's fifth lesson (beginning at 39:35). McNamara argues that "Proportionality should be a guideline in war," and he discusses his role in the decision to drop incendiary bombs on Japanese cities. The lesson concludes with McNamara looking into the camera and admitting that he and others (he specifically mentions General Curtis LeMay) were behaving as war criminals. He asks rhetorically, "What makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?" This excerpt from the documentary would be a nice accompaniment to Michael Walzer's book, Just and Unjust Wars, where Walzer begins with the distinction between jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Jus ad bellum refers to questions about whether engaging in a particular war is morally defensible, while jus in bello, refers to questions about whether the conduct undertaken once the war is underway is morally defensible. Strictly speaking, Walzer argues it's not true that all is fair in love and war. Moral issues abound in warfare, and some actions are regarded as more "fair" or ethical than others. Discussions surrounding the morality of war are more than mere armchair conjecture. Morality matters because the ability of an armed struggle to acquire resources and inspire sacrifice is directly tied to whether the struggle is deemed just. Submitted By: Anonymous
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Tags: crime/law/deviance, durkheim, gender, theory, anomie, family, in-groups, out-groups, social change, subtitles/CC, 61+ mins Year: 1998 Length: 124:00 Access: no online access (trailer here) Summary: The film Pleasantville depicts an idyllic 1950's community that experiences profound challenges to its unquestioned, taken-for-granted social norms. The movie works well in an introductory sociology class as an allegory about a settled or stable society that undergoes rapid social change following a major disruption in the worldview and widespread norm breaching. Specifically, the film depicts challenges related to the use of language, modes of communication, family formation, sexual norms, social deviance, art, and media. I recommend using the film in its entirety to demonstrate how in-groups resist change, while out-groups often challenge norms and produce positive (or negative) adaptations to society. One could also use segments of the film to demonstrate concepts like alienation, anomie, and deviance. Submitted By: Michael Gillespie Tags: nationalism, political economy, violence, war/military, c. w. mills, empathy, ethnocentrism, military sociology, sociological imagination, sociology of war, terrorism, 11 to 20 mins Year: 2011 Length: 18:07 Access: TED Talks Summary: By leading Americans in his audience step by step through a thought experiment, sociologist Sam Richards sets an extraordinary challenge: can Americans understand—not necessarily condone, but understand—the motivations of an Iraqi insurgent? I would argue that Richards' thought experiment is an attempt to give his audience a taste of what C. W. Mills called the sociological imagination, which can be defined as a perspective that allows one to locate the structural transformations that lie behind one's personal troubles. By proposing an alternate history for the United States, one where a colonial China extracts coal from the US in order to power Chinese cities, Richards asks his audience to consider a political economy that would trap the vast majority of Americans in desperate poverty. Just as Americans can imagine the intense frustration they would feel if forced to suffer under such an unbalanced economic arrangement, perhaps they can similarly imagine the intense frustration many Iraqis currently feel. Richards' thought experiment asks Americans to locate those Iraqis who have been demonized by the West as simply evildoers or terrorists in a broader social context, and to use a sociological imagination in order to grasp the motivations and frustrations of those who take up arms against the US. John Dower has argued that the war in the Pacific was a war without mercy in part because the Japanese became so dehumanized and alien, so unworthy of empathy, that the usual rules of conduct in war were set aside. If this is true, then a sociological imagination, as a means of fostering empathy, has important implications for conduct in war. Submitted By: Anonymous Tags: government/the state, historical sociology, inequality, knowledge, nationalism, political economy, race/ethnicity, religion, social construction, social mvmts/social change/resistance, theory, war/military, benedict anderson, edward said, 21 to 60 mins Year: 2011 Length: 51:25 Access: PBS Video Summary: Part of the PBS series "Black in Latin America," this short film featuring Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores issues of race and identity in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, two countries that share the same island of Hispaniola, yet share little else in terms of language, economic opportunities, relations with colonial nations, and identification with African ancestry and heritage. This clip is excellent for illustrating how racial classifications are a social construction, as meanings of blackness shift across the two countries. The island's history of race relations also demonstrate how, as Edward Said shows, race is constructed in reference to a racial (and national) "other," as Dominicans have historically understood themselves as "not Haitian" and therefore "not black." Students can see how knowledge about national racial identity has been deliberately cultivated by national elites in the Dominican Republic through selectively told histories, national memorials, holidays, and monuments. This racially motivated nation-building effort articulates well with Benedict Anderson's work on imagined communities. Finally, the video chronicles how Haiti became the first-ever black republic, and the pivotal role that religion played in the slaves' fight for liberation. However, ever since winning independence, outside nations, including the United States, have imposed policies that have made it near impossible for Haitians to develop a robust economy and political infrastructure, evidenced today by the poverty and political corruption that plague the country, but which is always challenged by Haitians' rich and complex belief system and artistic culture. The video is divided into six chapters, allowing instructors to easily screen shorter segments of the film if they wish. I would like to thank Jean François Edouard for suggesting this clip. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp Tags: commodification, discourse/language, inequality, race/ethnicity, cultural imperialism, racism, representation, signification, 21 to 60 mins Year: 2011 Length: 22:50 Access: YouTube Summary: In this clip, Al Jazeera's The Stream interviews Adrienne Keene, who is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the author of the Native Appropriations Blog, and currently a graduate student in Boston. The clip is useful for examining cultural representation as a practice of domination. At the 2:28 mark, Keene orients the discussion by asking "Who has the right to represent whom?" This orienting question comes up again at the 22:40 mark when the host of the program acknowledges that cultural appropriation contributes to invisibility and marginalization but asks, as a practical matter, how one is to accurately and respectfully represent so many culturally distinct tribes. In her response, Keene denies the premise of the question, which attributes the role of First Nations' representation to non-members, and instead she insists that it must be "the right of the community to represent themselves." Furthermore, while students may counter that representations, such as those used as the mascots of professional sports teams, are forms of appreciation, Keene counters that the such representations are actually "a continuing form of colonialism and oppression." That is, they effectively "shrink an extremely diverse community of over 565 tribes in the United States alone down into one stereotypical image of the plains Indian." By selectively appropriating iconic artifacts from indigenous cultures, while also constructing caricatures said to stand for all indigenous people, one limits acknowledgement of diversity and engages in a practice of domination. For instance, war paint and the war bonnet become blunted as mere fashion statements among hipsters, and may no longer invoke memories of resistance to the genocidal policies of white settlers. Similarly, when the Navy Seals adopted "Geronimo" as a codename for Osama Bin Laden, they threatened to transform the historical meaning and significance of the real Geronimo and his resistance (see this response from a group named 1491s). As with another clip featured on The Sociological Cinema, which is critical of the deployment of photographs of African American lynchings, this clip offers an excellent opportunity for students to examine what is at stake in cultural representation and how it relates to power. Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: gender, inequality, prejudice/discrimination, femininity, gender socialization, masculinity, sexism, 00 to 05 mins Year: 1999 Length: 1:24 Access: SouthParkStudios.com Summary: This brief South Park clip offers a satirical look at gender socialization. In the beginning of the clip, the girls are coached on phrases they can use to get things they want from their husbands. These messages imply that all women want clothes, cars, and vacations from their husbands. This illustrates how women are taught to be dependent on their husbands. This is reinforced later in the clip, when the teacher says to Kenny that he should leave the class because he’s not likely to marry a rich man. The teacher then says that Kenny should transfer to shop class, terrifying him with masculine images of tools, drills, and saws. These two different gender stereotypes show how society categorizes people based on gender: the teacher, like society, insists on dividing her students into two categories, those fit for shop class and those fit for Home Ec. It also shows the negative consequences of forcing people into one of these two genders by depicting Kenny’s dilemma. Despite being a boy, he prefers to engage in feminine practices, and he is socially penalized for mixing gender in this way. Both authority figures and his own peers expect him to conform to a rigid gender binary. The clip can be used to challenge students to think about the way society links behavior to specific gender, how people are penalized for transgressions, and how this encourages people to follow traditional gender norms (thereby making gender look "natural"). Instructors may also want to pair it with this South Park clip showing the gender socialization of boys in shop class. Submitted By: John McNamee and Jona Koplow
Darcus Howe
Tags: class, crime/law/deviance, discourse/language, goffman, government/the state, inequality, knowledge, media, race/ethnicity, social mvmts/social change/resistance, theory, violence, collective action frames, politics of signification, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2011 Length: 4:24 Access: YouTube Summary: What shall we name what is happening in London? While investigating gun crimes, police shot and killed Mark Duggan, a 29 year-old Black man who was carrying a loaded gun (though it should be said, he never fired the weapon on police). Catalyzed by Duggan's death, protests, looting, and destruction of public and private property have rapidly spread across London. Is it a riot, an uprising, a rebellion, a social movement, or is it an insurrection? Whatever frame we choose has important consequences for the shape of things to come. For instance, the word riot suggests disorganized destruction, whereas an insurrection suggests an organized effort against oppression. One frame will likely garner more support for this social upheaval than the other. In this clip, the BBC interviews Darcus Howe, a television journalist and long time grass-roots activist. At the 3:08 mark, Howe keys the current turmoil, which is spread throughout London, to that which took place in 1981 in Brixton. He then insists that what is happening in London is an "insurrection of the people." At 3:40, the BBC reporter appears to challenge Howe's credibility by naming him a rioter. "Mr. Howe," she interrupts, "if I could just ask you, you are not a stranger to riots yourself, I understand, are you?" Howe refuses this frame in his reply: "I have never taken part in a single riot. I've been on demonstrations that ended up in a conflict." The clip would work well with a class grappling with social movements and the importance of collective action frames. To quote Benford and Snow (2000, p. 613), the confrontation between Howe and the reporter is a rather vivid example of two signifying agents "actively engaged in the production and maintenance of meaning for constituents, antagonists, and bystanders or observers. [Signifying agents] are deeply embroiled, along with..local governments, and the state, in what has been referred to as a 'politics of signification' (Hall 1982)." Submitted By: Lester Andrist Jacqueline Novogratz discusses poverty in a Nairobi slum Tags: class, economic sociology, inequality, development, microcredit, poverty, public policy, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2009 Length: 7:33 Access: TEDTalks Summary: In this TED Talks clip, Jacqueline Novogratz discusses issues of poverty, mobility, and public policy. She begins by arguing that poverty cannot be defined in purely economic terms, but that poverty is really about "choice and the lack of freedom." Novogratz tells about her visit to a Nairobi slum, and describes the experience of extreme poverty (tiny shacks, crowding, raw sewage, etc), and the people there who have strong aspirations for a better life. She tells the story of one such person, Jane, who had dreams of a better life. Through access to an organization that loaned money to poor individuals under lenient conditions, and with her small amount of savings (from prostitution), she was able to save money for a sewing machine and started selling jewelry and clothing that she made. Despite the fact that she increased her income to $4/day, which by local standards brought her out of poverty, she was still unable to afford to move out of slums. Her life remained very insecure, and was even driven out of her home from local ethnic riots. Later, she was able to obtain low-cost housing that had been designed to match mortgage costs to income and required savings, and allows the poor to build capital. It gave her new opportunities to escape the Nairobi slums and build longer term financial security for her family. The clip raises several important issues for interesting class discussion, including how do we define poverty? What factors shaped Jane's experience of poverty and quality of life when not in poverty? Was her ability to escape poverty based on her individual effort, or were structural factors involved? What types of public policies and programs were involved? Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: du bois, inequality, nationalism, prejudice/discrimination, race/ethnicity, theory, double consciousness, the veil, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 1995 Length: 4:53 Access: YouTube Summary: The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-Americans to fly in the US armed forces, but were subjected to Jim Crow laws and institutional discrimination. In this clip from a fictional film about the Tuskegee Airmen, Lt. Col. Benjamin O. Davis (Andre Baugher) defends his squadron, which was treated very different than white squadrons of the time. He argues that his "colored pilots" have "carried not only the burden of their dreams of becoming American military aviators but the hopes of an entire people." This is an excellent illustration of Du Bois' concepts of the veil and double consciousness. Looking at his white military superiors through the veil, Davis asks "how do I feel about my country ... and how does my country feel about me?" The veil not only refers to their skin color and seeing themselves through the eyes of others but also features a dimension of citizenship where some do not see Blacks as “true” Americans (i.e. full US citizens), which is forcefully depicted by the Airmen's treatment in the military and their denial of full rights. Similarly, double consciousness refers to a self-awareness of being not only an “American” but also an “African-American.” Through Lt. Davis' account of his squadron, it is clear that the the pilots were fully aware of themselves as proud Americans serving their country, but with a simultaneous awareness of being treated differently as African-Americans. In addition to asking students how this clip illustrates these concepts, it can also be a useful video for exploring race and nationalism. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: bodies, gender, health/medicine, political economy, sex/sexuality, social construction, medicalization, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 5:06 Access: YouTube Summary: In her article, "In Pursuit of the Perfect Penis," Leonore Tiefer endeavors to "show how the persistence and increased use of the stigmatizing and stress-inducing label of impotence reflects a significant moment in the social construction of male sexuality." Liz Canner seems to be attempting something similar in her documentary, Orgasm Inc (watch the trailer here), which tracks not only the development of a drug that promises sexual satisfaction for women but also the social construction of a new illness called female sexual dysfunction. In this clip Canner recounts what she learned while making the documentary, including the role Pfizer and other drug companies played in funding conferences where a small group of hand-picked doctors met and formally described the symptoms of female sexual dysfunction. Their work in defining the disease, Canner argues, was largely driven by the ambitions of drug companies to create a demand for a new drug. I find this clip works nicely in class discussions wrestling with the social construction of illness and the concept of medicalization, which can be defined as a process where phenomena related to the human body come to be defined as medical conditions. As such they fall under the responsibility and authority of medical doctors and other health professionals to study, diagnose, prevent, and treat. Thanks to Sociological Images for suggesting Leonore Tiefer's article. Submitted By: Lester Andrist |
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