Your assignment is to analyze the films and the stories they tell and (a) detail the theoretical narrative found in each of their stories, and (b) explain how the narrative illustrates sociological concepts.

For this assignment, you are required to watch three films, one from each list:
List 1: Dystopian Democracy:
• 1984 (1984)
• V for Vendetta (2006)
• The Giver (2014)
• Fahrenheit 451 (2018)
List 2: Documentary Democracy and Authoritarianism:
• Citizen K (2019)
• The Edge of Democracy (2019)
• Assholes: A Theory (2019)
List 3: Documentary Evidence of Levels of Abstraction and Social Life:
• Addiction (2007)
• Food, Inc. (2008)
• Religulous (2008)
• The Other Side of
Immigration (2009)
• The Lottery (2010)
• White Like Me (2013) • Terms and Conditions
May Apply (2013)
• DSKNECTD (2013)
• Poverty, Inc. (2014)
• Sugar Coated (2015)
• 13th (2016)
• In the Age of AI
[Frontline](2019)
Research Question: What is the theoretical narrative?
Your assignment is to analyze the films and the stories they tell and (a) detail the theoretical narrative found in each of their stories, and (b) explain how the narrative illustrates sociological concepts.
Important: Options for Your Answer
Remember, to detail the “theoretical narrative,” you need to elaborate how the story being told (1) draws on assumptions about human nature and its relationship to social organization and societal structure, etc., and (2) the politics that follow from these assumptions (e.g., morality, justice, inequalities). To explain how the narrative illustrates sociological concepts, you need to elaborate how the story being told (1) specifies a concept as theorized in contemporary sociological theory, (2) specifies a level of abstraction associated with that concept, (3) provides evidence in support for or against that particular concept, and (3) implicates politics.

*********key Information that may be helpful ****

Remember:
• Concepts associated with sociological theory include alienation, class consciousness, social division of labor, ideal types of rationality, ideal types of social action, ideal types of authority and domination, ideal types of systems of rationality (bureaucracy, the corporate group, etc.), ideal types of religion, ideal types of rationalization, the spirit of capitalism, rationalization as a historical process, principles of formal rationality (calculation, predictability, efficiency, control over uncertainty), social facts, collective consciousness, collective representations, collective effervescence, social cohesion, mechanical solidarity, organic solidarity, social morphology, double consciousness, the veil, social reform, social rhythms, etc.
• Concepts associated with the function of psychology in sociological theory include subjectivity, personality, psychoanalysis, behaviorism, essentialism, determinism, generalized agency, methodological individualism, etc.
• Concepts associated with action and the character of knowledge include inter-subjectivity, meeting of the minds, theory, theory-product, explanation, modeling, game, exchange, network, calculation, intention, system, structure, practice, rational choice, reductionism, observation, data, prediction, aggregate, events, etc.
• Concepts associated with activity and the character of knowledge include intersubjectivity, theorizing, discovery, social nature, situational aspect of situated activity vs. merely situated aspect of situated activity, situational proprieties, situational properties, intelligibility, irreducibility, dialogue, ritual, etc.
Concepts associated with criticism include pre-theoretical, sub-theoretical, taking account of its own possibility, critique, reification, interpretation, intelligibility, conditions and constraints, abstraction, rationalization, collective enunciation, etc.
• Concepts associated with group formation include sociality, solidarity, association, ensemble, collectivity, sharing, agreeing, cooperating, discourse, communication, common interest, the public sphere, the social contract, the general will, the body politic, revolution, language, culture, community, society, etc.
• Concepts associated with structuralism and modernity include function, propositional truth, binary oppositions, hierarchies, semiotics, signifier/signified, classification, identification, entities, social structure, social system, essentialism, authors, structuration, centralized power, capitalism, scientific technology, the nation-state, risk, disenchantment, social order, social control, discipline, normative claims of justice, foundationalism, etc.
• Concepts associated with post-structuralism and postmodernity include text, deconstruction, metaphor, textuality, hermeneutics of suspicion, rhetorical force, anti-foundationalism, pluralism, biopolitics, biopower, etc.
• Concepts associated with civility include authority, societal identity, institutionalization of alienation, embarrassment, and intelligibility, cognitive labor (skill vs. expertise), intersectionality, identity politics, multiculturalism, postcolonialism, etc.

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