Description
Describe an example where power is being enacted and social inequality/differentiation is being made. This example can be from your own experience, one of the readings or a news story. How is this enactment of power taken for granted and considered “natural” order or common sense? Who/what is considered superordinate (more powerful) and who/what is considered subordinate (less powerful/powerless)? What would you identify as the hegemonic force or institution that is enacting this power? Tell me what kinds of inequalities this hegemonic force perpetuates or what kind of political order or hierarchy of power it enacts and reproduces.
Then, tell me a way that people can/do challenge this hegemonic force — What are some ways people resist hegemonic ways of being? What is a “weapon of the weak” (Scott 1985 — See glossary) for people in your context? These forms of resistance can be small and everyday OR can be large scale collective social movements. For some extra help on resistance to hegemony in the everyday, please refer to the reading, Ewick & Sibley 2003 (attached).
3 pages double-spaced. 12pt font. Times New Roman. Use APA Citations (in text & bibliography). Use AT LEAST 3 citations from our classreading to analyze these examples AND at least 3-4 GLOSSARY TERMS from classes 1-15 with an emphasis on classes 8-15.
For example, if I am writing about the hegemony of carceral architectures — I would describe the “prisonization” of poor, black neighborhoods in Chicago (cite Shabaz). I would discuss how public housing located in those neighborhoods and the policing of those neighborhoods make it seem like everyday life “naturally” resembles the prison institution. Such architectures of containment and control make it seem commonplace and commonsense to associate blackness with criminality through the working of carceral hegemony. Yet, people who live in these neighborhoods resist by surviving, take care of one another and organizing to fight for better housing conditions. (*I would be more specific and use more of our class readings to flesh out this paper of course.)
