The Promise (The Sociological Imagination)

For this section, you should provide a more detailed analysis of the possible causes of school rampage shootings. Your explanation should include at least 3 of these factors. If you want to use a factor in your analysis that doesn’t appear on this list, please contact the instructor. Alienation (extending beyond school yard bullying, to the local community and society in general) Gender socialization (focusing on masculinity, also including homophobia) Media influence Social hierarchies at school (including bullying and other forms of clique behavior) Politics and ideology (of rampage shooters) Racial stereotypes and inequality Poverty and class inequality You should describe each factor and explain how it relates to the problem of school rampage shootings. You should also explain how you see the factors connecting to each other (since many of these factors overlap). For example, do you think all of the factors play an equally important role in explaining rampage shootings or are some more causally important than others, and why? In your discussion you should use supporting examples from at least four of our course readings.

You may also cite examples from any of the documentaries we viewed in class (including Mentor, I’m Another You, and the short documentaries on Restorative Justice and the Violence Interrupters), but they do not count toward the four source minimum for the assignment. Please also note that none of our readings on InCels count toward the four source minimum because none of these readings are scholarly sources. For your convenience all of the scholarly readings that are relevant to key factors for the assignment are listed below, and organized by factors. Because some readings are relevant to multiple factors, they appear on the list more than once. Please also note that some readings directly address the problem of mass violence, while others are relevant to the factor-theme, but don’t directly address the problem of mass violence. Important: All sources must be cited in the body of your discussion and in the bibliography at the end of the paper. Alienation Reading 2: Teenage wasteland: suburbia’s dead-end kids Reading 17: Birth of the Intravidual Yi, Joseph “Atomized Terror and Democratic Citizenship,” 84:3 The Political Quarterly (2013) 388-394. Wed Sept 26th Larkin, Ralph “The Columbine legacy: rampage shootings as political acts,” 52:9 American Behavioral Scientist (2009) 1309-1326. Wed Sept 26th Gender Socialization Reading 21: Fraternities and college rape culture Reading 27: Gender as structure Reading 29: ‘Dude you’re a fag’: adolescent masculinity and the fag discourse Reading 52: Bad boys: public schools in the making of black masculinity Kimmel and Mahler, “Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence: Random School Shootings, 1982-2001” 46:10 American Behavioral Scientist (2003) 1439-1458. Fri Oct 5th