Final Project Assignment Sheet (Includes model project) This semester, I will ask you to research a social problem

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Final Project Assignment Sheet (Includes model project) This semester, I will ask you to research a social problem. You will pick one theme early in the semester. It may relate to anything that you are interested in exploring more deeply, such as discrimination in school dress codes, gun control, mass incarceration, food deserts, affordable housing, environmental racism, drug addiction, access to health care, and so on. Please feel free to email me or post in our QC Interactive Forum if you have questions. As we work through the textbook, you will be assigned five (5) Independent Research posts. In these, I will request that you collect data on your social problem from both public sources (like government agencies) and private sources (like think tanks, trusted media outlets, and academic journals). I encourage you to approach your social problem in its broad form early in the semester and then narrow your focus as you seek more information. For example, you may start with broad themes like "homelessness" or "climate change" at first, but then narrow them as you go to "youth homelessness" or "sea-level rise" and then "youth homelessness in Orlando" or "Sea level rise in Key West". For this final project, you will prepare a PowerPoint presentation that introduces your social problem along with your findings from throughout the course. More specifically, your PowerPoint will illustrate a specific case of the Social Problem Process in the history of your problem. This will include: 1. Claimsmaking (1-2 slides) - Outline some initial concrete claims from activists and/or experts regarding your problem. Tell us the dates or year this occurred. (I recommend staying within the last 10 years of history. You must choose something that has gotten a policy response, complete with policy outcomes.) Screenshot one or two articles or reports to illustrate. (This may overlap slightly with the media coverage below. That is okay. Please just try to capture claims from as early in the process as possible.) 2. Media coverage (1-2 slides) - Describe any changes to the initial claims, or critiques of these claims, as they were covered in the media. Try to screenshot 2-4 examples of how media coverage varied from approving to critical. (This may overlap a bit with public reactions. That is okay.) 3. Public reactions (1-2 slides) - Describe what aspects of the claims are embraced or rejected by the public. Screenshot 2-3 statements from politicians, public officers, or the general public as evidence of the direction that the American public is taking. 4. Policymaking (1-2 slides) - Describe the objectives of 1-2 policies that are proposed or passed (please specify which) at the federal, state, or local government level in response to elements 1-3 above. Use a screenshot of any relevant article or event, if possible. 5. Social problems work (1-2 slides) - Describe how the policy or policies above were implemented. What agencies or organizations did the work? Use a screenshot of any relevant article, if possible. 6. Policy outcomes (1-2 slides) - Describe how the policy outcomes are being perceived. This may include critiques by activists, experts, or media. Use a screenshot of any relevant article, if possible. 7. Your conclusion (1-2 slides) - Identify the successes and failures visible along the course of your social problem process, with regard to how well the initial problem was addressed. If you see failures, did they emerge from a lack of knowledge? Did they emerge from a lack of political will to implement solutions? Did they emerge from something else? If you see successes, who should get credit? Please share your informed opinion. Your final project will be due during Week 6 Please see my model or example Actions Also, I have formatted a PowerPoint for you to use (optional). Examples of social problems / possible topics include: • • • • • • • • • • • Political corruption Suicide Climate change Polluting corporations Eating disorders Domestic violence Substance abuse Mass shootings Animal abuse Computer hacking Phishing Also, topics relating to social and/or economic inequality (based on race, religion, gender, disability, sexuality, etc) may include: • • • • • • • • Wage disparities Redlining Glass ceilings Same-sex marriage Disability access and accommodations Education gaps School-to-prison pipeline Policing PREVIOUSNEXT Independent Research Step No. 1 Respond Sea-Level Rise The troubling issue of a rise in sea level is a problem that affects all humanity. Some are more directly affected by it than others, but in the long-run, it will become everyone’s problem. From the newspaper article, the rise in sea level is projected at 20 feet within 100 to 200 years. Countries like Egypt, India, China, among others that have big river deltas are the most likely to be affected by a two to three feet rise of sea level. When this happens, millions of people will be forced to vacate and a lot of agricultural lands will be lost. Residents of South Florida will also experience the negative impacts of this phenomenon through lack of access to fresh water. Additionally, systems such as sewage treatment plants will collapse and beaches will flood (Wanless, 2021). According to the Carmelite NGO, people in the shrimp business are also affected. Currently, Louisiana is experiencing land loss. To help fight for the cause of the people in Louisiana, the NGO has partnered up with the United Nations to implement measures to mitigate this problem (Carmelite NGO, 2020). The journal article states that the rise in sea level will negatively impact the sea turtle nesting habitat on the Caribbean coastal zones. This will happen as a result of the destruction of their beach habitat (Fish et al., 2005). In essence, the groups that believe that a rise in sea level will be a problem include people who reside in areas along the beach, those whose source of livelihood comes from the beaches, agricultural communities, humanitarian societies, anthropologists and governments. People who do not see this as a problem are those who do not believe in the issue of climate change or global warming. There are people who do not believe that the issue of climate change is as serious as scientists predict. They believe that climate change is a hoax because they have not quite experienced it. Others are religious groups that do not believe in science. As discussed in the previous sections, the evidence of a rise in sea level is evidenced by several scenarios, and hence can be measured in more than one way. For instance, the negative impacts of a rise in sea level can be measured by the amount of dry land engulfed by the ocean. This include commercial land, such as beach businesses as well as residential land. On the other hand, it can also be measured by the number of people who will be forced to move to other places away from their homes. Another element for assessing the damage is through estimating the amount of food lost as a result. The shrimping business, for example, will experience a shortage in shrimps, and this will reduce the amount of food produced. On the other hand, land that was used for commercial and subsistence agriculture will no longer provide food. Lastly, the destruction of the beaches will reduce the population of turtles, which may become very few to the point of endangerment and even extinction. References Carmelite NGO. (2020, March 11). Sea level rise, a global crisis coming up. ONG Carmelita - Carmelite NGO. http://carmelitengo.org/en/projects-en/sea-level-risea-global-crisis-coming-up/ Fish, M. R., Cote, I. M., Gill, J. A., Jones, A. P., Renshoff, S., & Watkinson, A. R. (2005). Predicting the Impact of Sea-Level Rise on Caribbean Sea Turtle Nesting Habitat. Conservation Biology, 19(2), 482–491. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15231739.2005.00146.x Wanless, H. R. (2021, April 13). Sea levels are going to rise by at least 2ft. We can do something about it | Harold R Wanless. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2021/apr/13/sea-levelrise-climate-emergency-harold-wanless Independent Research Step No. 2 Respond Sea-Level Rise The drastically rising sea levels pose imminent danger to coastal, island regions, and shrimp businesses, among other impacts on the global front. Scholars and experts posit various conclusions about the rising sea level. The discussion explores the following claims. First, anthropologists play a primal role in disseminating knowledge, influencing risk perception, understanding causes of vulnerability, and informing adaptive capacity and resilience among island communities. Second, adaptive strategies are essential for mitigating the detrimental effects of the rising sea levels on agricultural production. Grounds, Warrant, Conclusions According to WeADAPT, island communities stand among the most vulnerable and adversely affected groups. This is because of the adverse climate changes, such as sea level rises, which affect their livelihoods and activities. WeADAPT proposes the adoption of adaptive strategies, as the best solutions for this climatic challenge (Lazrus, 2012). This is because of the complexity of completely controlling the climatic problem, necessitating alternative and mitigation strategies. WeADAPT concludes that anthropologist can play a fundamental role in helping communities adopt sustainable and right strategies to support to adopt climate and environment friendly ways and values (Lazrus, 2012). Smajgl et al., (2015) on the other hand postulates the use of adaptive strategies to mitigate the detrimental effects of sea level rises. According to the source, climate changes, such as sea level rises and salinity intrusion impede agricultural production. Therefore, the study proposes adoption of soft and hard policies to influence agricultural production. Grouping the soft (land-use) and hard (infrastructural policies) can help mitigate the impacts of sea level rises. Smajgl et al., (2015) concludes that the resulting policy deliberations can impose suitable mechanisms and drives to control agricultural production, such as rice cultivation. Audience WeADAPT’s claim primarily targets island and island communities. This is because of the specificity of the information to the effects sustained by these communities. Thus, the claim that anthropologists can help address these challenges is directed to such communities (Lazrus, 2012). Island communities, which control island resources can use this information to inform adaptive capacity and resilience. On the other hand, Smajgl et al., (2015) targets Vietnamese communities that experience major effects of rising sea level and salinity intrusion. The claim targets the government to implement suitable policies and protect agricultural production. In my view, the claims are effective. This is because they adequately address the target with critical information about the problem identified. For example, positing anthropologists as fundamental players in addressing climate change issues among island communities is practical. Also, proposing various policy recommendations to the government on how to control rising sea levels and salinity intrusion in agricultural production is suitable for these kinds of problems. References Smajgl, A., Toan, T. Q., Nhan, D. K., Ward, J., Trung, N. H., Tri, L. Q., ... & Vu, P. T. (2015). Responding to rising sea levels in the Mekong Delta. Nature Climate Change, 5(2), 167-174. Lazrus, H. (2012). Sea Change: Island Communities and Climate Change. Annual Review of Anthropology, 41(1), 285–301. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145730 Independent Research Step No. 3 Respond Differences in Media Reports Packaging The two articles present differences in media packaging of the findings of NGOs and think tanks responsible for studying rising sea levels as a result of global warming. The cardinal difference between the two media reports is that the first article focuses on what society needs to do to save itself from the adverse impacts of rising sea levels. This article relies on research findings of NGOs and think tanks on the issue to support its propositions. For example, part of the media report reads that Antarctica’s adoption of a pessimistic pathway in the future would result in much higher rates of melting ice and thereby higher levels of rising seas. The second media report, on the other hand, uses the approach of highlighting the potential impacts of the dramatically rising sea levels on communities. In other words, as opposed to the first article that focuses on strategies to mitigate the problem of rising sea levels, the second article focuses on the potential consequences of the issue. For example, based on a study by responsible think tanks, part of the second media report reads that the number of those who will be at risk of annual coastal flooding will be three times that which was initially projected. Therefore, there is a significant difference in the two media reports even though they both focus on the scientific findings of NGOs and think tanks on rising sea levels. How to Gain Media’s Attention as an Activist The first strategy that I would use to gain the media’s attention would be to organize a civic engagement. Civic engagements such as protests tend to draw the media’s attention quickly since they disrupt normalcy around where they are organized. The other strategy I would use is social media. Social media has transformed into a powerful tool in contemporary society because it reaches wider audiences and facilitates the quickest call to action. Therefore, I would use hashtags, as well as actual tagging of media personalities with interest in the issue to gain their attention and that of the masses on social media platforms. References References Dunne, D. (2021, May 5). Meeting climate goals would ‘halve’ sea level rise from melting ice, study says. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/climatechange/news/sea-level-rise-antarctica-greenland-b1842407.html (Links to an external site.) Sea-level rise could put 300 million people at risk by 2050. (2019, October 30). The Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/sealevel-rise-could-put-300-million-people-at-risk-by-2050/articleshow/71822608.cms Independent Research Step No. 4 Respond Analysis of Government Agency Reports The rise in sea levels has caused a lot of alarm in the recent past as people continue to experience its adverse implications, including the high costs incurred when disasters related to this issue happen. As a result, government agencies have designed policies and strategies to help mitigate the situation. An example of such a policy includes the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard that requires funded facilities or structures in areas vulnerable to coastal flood hazards to be resilient to storm waves, tides, and surge, as well as relative sea-level rise. The second policy that mitigates sea level rise is the coastal hazard planning and communication policy that instructs state hazardmitigation plans to consider the probability of future hazard events and account for climate change. In my opinion, the above policies directly inform the issue of sea-level rise. At the same time, any policies that address the issue of climate change also influence this issue because climate change is the primary cause of the rise in sea levels and its subsequent repercussions that society is currently witnessing. Therefore, policies that address climate change as an umbrella issue also influence the sea-level rise due to the interrelated nature of the two issues. Reference Climate change indicators: Sea level. (2020, November 9). US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-sea-level Social Problems F I N A L P R O J E C T BY [ YO U R N A M E H E R E ] Hint: I used “Tools” in Google search to find specific articles from the past Claimsmaking If the name of the newspaper and the article appear in your screenshot with the date, then you do not need to include a link. If you do not include a title, author, or date, please insert a link to your source. Outline some initial concrete claims from activists and/or experts regarding your problem. Tell us the dates or year this occurred. (I recommend staying within the last 10 years of history. You must choose something that has gotten a policy response, complete with policy outcomes.) Screenshot one or two articles or reports to illustrate. (This may overlap slightly with media coverage below. That is okay. Please just try to capture claims from as early in the process as possible.) Media Coverage Describe any changes to the initial claims, or critiques of these claims, as they were covered in the media. Try to screenshot 2-4 examples of how media coverage varied from approving to critical. (This may overlap a bit with public reactions. That is okay.) Public Reaction Describe what aspects of the claims are embraced or rejected by the public. Screenshot 2-3 statements from politicians, public officers, or the general public as evidence of the direction that the American public is taking. Policymaking Describe the objectives of 1-2 policies that are proposed or passed (please specify which) at the federal, state, or local government level in response to elements 1-3 above. Use a screenshot of any relevant article or event, if possible. Social Problems Work Describe how the policy or policies above were implemented. What agencies or organizations did the work? Use a screenshot of any relevant article, if possible. Policy Outcomes Describe how the policy outcomes are being perceived. This may include critiques by activists, experts, or media. Use a screenshot of any relevant article, if possible. Your conclusion Identify the successes and failures visible along the course of your social problem process, with regard to how well the initial problem was addressed. If you see failures, did they emerge from a lack of knowledge? Did they emerge from a lack of political will to implement solutions? Did they emerge from something else? If you see successes, who should get credit? Please share your informed opinion.