These are both great topics in general. If you decide to focus on the second one, you would need to choose one specific place. For example, if you decide to focus on unrest in Syria and/or Iraq, you could focus on the rise of ISIS; why people are joining ISIS; why they are doing what they are doing, etc. For instance, you could use differential opportunity theory, which has been used in the literature to explain why people join gangs and why gangs engage in illegal activities. I had a student one semester who used broken windows theory to explain political instability and the ongoing violence in Iraq; you could definitely use that theory for the ISIS crisis as well, considering the immense instability in Iraq and Syria in particular. Strain theory is also another possibility. Remember that each of these theories has strengths and weaknesses; you will need to discuss these at some point in the paper. Since they are related to functionalism, strain theory and differential opporunity theory would have the strength that they would focus more on structural factors. On the other hand, broken windows theory, falling under symbolic interactionism, might highlight more of the micro-level reasons for the rise/perpetuation of ISIS and related violence. These are just some of my ideas; you could definitely use either social disorganization theory or game theory to explain unrest in any of the three countries. A clear strength with game theory is that it can be used to explain the responses of various governments to instability in all three of these countries.
ASSIGNMENT II: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR FINAL PAPER
We will meet in the D’Amour Library (Room 215) on Tuesday, February 17th to discuss this assignment in more detail.
For this assignment, you will need to first locate the following required sources for your final paper (please also see the note on news sources in the guidelines for the final paper later in this syllabus):
3 peer-reviewed journal articles
2 news articles
1 Academic book (published by a university press or other academic publisher, such as Routledge, Taylor and Francis, Palgrave Macmillan, Brill, etc. Please see me if you are unsure).
1 Government document (e.g. legislation, regulation, ending in .gov)
1 Academic online resource (ending in .edu)
To compile your annotated bibliography, please do the following:
Put your name, topic, theory, and “annotated bibliography” on the top of the first page.
Cite the sources in proper APA format and list them in alphabetical order.
For each source, include a single-spaced paragraph under the bibliographic citation. Each paragraph should:
Be at least 150 words/no more than 250 words in length
Provide a brief summary of the main ideas of the source in your own words (for instance, if you are summarizing a peer-reviewed article, do not just copy and paste the abstract into your annotated bibliography. Not only is this plagiarism, but I will not accept it even if you do cite it properly as a long quote).
Contain a note about how the source will help you better understand your topic through the lens of the theory that you chose. For instance, does the source mention your specific theory and/or social problem? Even if it does not mention your theory and/or specific topic, how might the information in this source help you to analyze your specific topic?
Mention which section of the paper the source might help you complete (please see the outline for the final paper in the guidelines for that assignment). For example, if you are summarizing the content of a news article, do you think that the article will help you explain the significance of the problem in recent times (point #2 in the guidelines for the final paper); the societal responses to the problem (point #4); the governmental responses to the problem (point #5), or a combination of all of these? Obviously, what you say in this part of the paragraph depends on the content of the source.
After your annotations for each source, include a separate paragraph with some of your preliminary thoughts on the following points (much of this is related to point #6 in the guidelines for the final paper):
Summarize the macro-level and micro-level dimensions of the problem (think about some of causes/potential solutions to the problem)
Talk about a few of the potential strengths and the weaknesses of the theory you chose to analyze your topic.
Name the broader theoretical perspective that can be related to your theory (i.e., conflict theory; functionalism; symbolic interactionism). Hint: use your textbook/workbook/class notes.
Is there another theory that could be used to explain this problem? Define that theory, and make a brief statement about how that theory could give another analytical viewpoint on the problem/issue. For instance, is the theory related to a different theoretical perspective/paradigm?
Ideally, this annotated bibliography will serve as a preliminary outline/draft for your final paper and is due on March 31st. Please see the guidelines for the final paper for a note about switching out sources for the final paper/bibliography.
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Game theory is a theory of social interaction, which attempts to explain the interaction people have with one another. As the name of the theory suggests, game theory sees human interaction as just that: a game. John Nash, the mathematician who was featured in the movie A Beautiful Mind is one of the inventors of game theory along with mathematician John von Neumann.
Game theory was originally an economic and mathematical theory that predicted that human interaction had the characteristics of a game, including strategies, winners and losers, rewards and punishment, and profits and cost. It was initially developed to understand a large variety of economic behaviors, including behavior of firms, markets, and consumers. The use of the game theory has since expanded in the social sciences and has been applied to political, sociological, and psychological behaviors as well.
Game theory was first used to describe and model how human populations behave. Some scholars believe that they can actually predict how actual human populations will behave when confronted with situations analogous to the game being studied. This particular view of game theory has been criticized because the assumptions made by the game theorists are often violated. For example, they assume that players always act in a way to directly maximize their wins, when in reality this is not always true. Altruistic and philanthropic behavior would not fit this model.
Example of Game Theory
We can use the interaction of asking someone out for a date as a simple example of game theory and how there are game-like aspects involved. If you are asking someone out on a date, you will probably have some kind of strategy to “win” and “get rewarded” at a minimal “cost” to you
Elements of a Game
There are three main elements of a game:
• The players.
• The strategies of each player.
• The consequences (payoffs) for each player for every possible profile of strategy choices of all players.
