Sociology

MIDTERM INSTRUCTIONS – SOCIOLOGY 2022

NOTE: PLEASE DO PLEASE FOLLOW EACH AND ALL OF THESE MIDTERM INSTRUCTIONS BELOW TO THE WORD AND TO THE DOT!!!

From the teacher about the midterm: This midterm is designed to challenge you to think about what you have read and to try to pull ideas together. I am interested to see what you know and have thought about – not try to catch you out on what you don’t know. So, expect to be challenged and use it as an opportunity to consolidate your learning and thinking. This is positively evaluated. You earn points for the answer you develop (rather than the notion that you lose points by failing to give a complete pre-existing fixed single right answer). The more of the course material you use (I uploaded some of them for easy access as well as their names are listed below) to construct an answer, the higher your grade.

NOTE: Length: No more than 5 pages using 1.5 line spacing. That means you will have to be very very concise to cover a lot of the course material. Don’t forget to edit your work carefully.

Make sure to draw extensively on the course material (I uploaded some of them for easy access especially focus very well on the things I highlighted on each of the readings. And some readings be through links) to address the question below. Please do not use point form for your answers but do make a lot of points within the body of your essay. You should be concise with words and concepts, showing that you understand their meaning. DO NOT QUOTE, but you may of course paraphrase and cite. I want to read your own words and see your own understandings. You should refer to readings and authors in a way that shows you understand – you do not need to include exact page numbers; just get the names, ideas and concepts right. If on occasion you can’t remember, you can cite “our readings’ because this is a time sensitive midterm. But do be clear and specific in how you communicate your ideas, not overly general or wooly. In this midterm I am looking for your knowledge of the material, not your personal opinion. I can respect but I can’t evaluate your personal opinion –but I can evaluate the arguments or discussions or evidence and use of course material and so on that you might use to ground your opinion. I want to see that you know what the authors/speakers/texts have to say and what they mean and that you can use their ideas. Remember that sometimes readings implicitly, rather than explicitly, refer to ideas, and may be relevant to your essay. Writing skills should be appropriate, so do write clearly and well. Please look at the grading/evaluation guidelines below.

Background to the midterm. The question is designed to help you revise and integrate what you have been reading and talking about so far which is why they are worded the way they are.
Answer the question below.
The course material offers you broad ways to think about the some of the complex social and ecological entanglements with food and farming including different ways to think/talk about health.
Question: Drawing extensively on the course material could you tell me how does thinking about food and agriculture as relationships help you see pathways out of problems/crises with which the current dominant food system is entangled. Talk briefly about the problems/crises and explain what/how our course material sets about helping us to better understand and maybe start to address them. (helpful hint — you don’t need to go into a lot of details about the specific problems, the focus in this question is on how the authors/speakers understand/explain/conceptualize or make sense of the problems and suggest we go about addressing the problems. Don’t forget to think about political economy as geopolitical relationships and also what Jessica says needs to be added to that perspective).
List of the reading for the midterms (Focus very well on the things I highlighted on each of readings):
• Jessica Duncan Book: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429466823-1/regenerating-food-systems-jessica-duncan-michael-carolan-johannes-wiskerke?context=ubx (Scroll down on that link in order to Read Chapter 1 to 6. I uploaded some of them with the highlighted stuff as mentioned above in the instructions, but please do read other chapter if I did not upload them i.e. the rest of the chapters from 1 to 6).
I uploaded:
i) “Highlighted Jessica Duncan Chapter 1 ”regenerative food systems”
ii) “Highlighted Jessica Duncan Chapter 6 ”traditional food the right to food in regenerative agriculture”
• Chris Smaje book called “a small farm future” (I uploaded few things from that book with the highlighted stuff as mentioned above in the instructions above, and I uploaded notes for those chapters).
I uploaded:
i) Highlighted Chris Smaje Chapter 1 ”10 Crises’ and Chapter 2 ”Wicked Problems”(as one file)
ii) Highlighted Chris Smaje Chapter 3 ”The return of the peasant”
iii) Chris Smaje Notes about Chapter 1 (first part) about the 10 crises
iv) Chris Smaje Notes about Chapter 1
• Feminist agroecology: analyzing power relationships in food systems (link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21683565.2021.1888842?scroll=top&needAccess=true) (I uploaded a summery of that reading as: “Notes on Feminist Agroecology”)
• Indigenous Food sovereignty
• The Guardian accessed Dec 20, 2021: when the link between the climate and biodiversity crises became clear (link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/20/2021-world-finally-woke-up-to-dangers-aoe)
• Michael S. Carolan, No One Eats Alone: Food as a Social Enterprise, Chapter 5: One Health. (I uploaded this reading as: “Highlighted Michael S. Carolan, No One Eats Alone Food as a Social Enterprise, Chapter 5 One Health.”
• Reese, Ashanté M., and Dara Cooper. “Making Spaces Something Like Freedom.” ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 20, no. 4 (2021): 450-459. (I uploaded that reading: “Reese, Ashanté M., and Dara Cooper. ‘Making Spaces Something Like Freedom.’”

NOTE: If you need any clarification lets me know. Please only use those readings above (try to use all of them if can/possible but the more the merrier) that I mentioned for the midterm and use APA style. Also list them in the reference page.
Grading/Evaluation guidelines Rubric
An “A” essay:
• Answer demonstrates that the student has an adequately sophisticated understanding of the material and the theoretical context in which it is presented.
• Contains a well- defined thesis and maintains focus/avoids being sidetracked by tangents.
• Has a fluent and clear writing style with at most one or two grammatical errors.
• Presents a sound, substantive and organized discussion or argument.
• Contains appropriate and extensive use of sources.
A “B” essay:
• Answer demonstrates that the student has a reasonably adequate understanding of the material and the theoretical context in which it is presented.
• Contains a moderately well- defined thesis and maintains focus/avoids being sidetracked by tangents for the most part.
• Has a fairly fluent and clear writing style with minimum grammatical errors.
• Presents a reasonably sound, substantive and organized discussion or argument.
• Contains appropriate and adequate use of sources.
A “C” essay:
• Answer demonstrates that the student lacks a sound understanding of the material and the theoretical context in which it is presented.
• Does not contain a clearly defined thesis and tends to get sidetracked by tangents at a few points.
• Contains a significant number of grammatical errors.
• Does not present a sound, substantive and organized discussion or argument and may contain a few generalizations.
• Does not make an adequate or appropriate use of sources for the most part.
A “D” essay:
• Answer demonstrates that the student does not understand the material and the theoretical context in which it is presented.
• Does not contain a well- defined thesis and substantially digresses from the specific topic.
• Has significant problems with clarity, concision, and organization, making the information presented difficult for the reader to understand.
• Does not make an adequate or appropriate use of sources.
• Merely restates the question and offers an irrelevant or undeveloped response.
An “F” essay:
• Does not answer the specific central question in any way.
• Does not incorporate information from pertinent class discussion and/or assigned readings.
• Provides no information that can be understood or be related to the specific topic.
• May lack any recognizable organization.
• May contain enough distracting grammar/spelling/etc. problems to make it substantially incomprehensible.