SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
TRINITY TERM 2024
Questions
You should engage with, and cite, readings from this paper's reading list in all of your answers. Answers that address the question in a non-specific or general way are unlikely to achieve high marks.
Part A (answer two questions):
1. Which is the better explanation for persistent educational inequalities: social norms or rational action theory?
2. Under which conditions does signalling theory provide a strong explanation for violence?
3. Choose a recent populist party electoral success in any country. Explain the role social identities played in that success. You may include other explanations in your answer.
4. Can Granovetter’s (1973) ‘strength of weak ties’ theory still help to explain how people get ahead in the labour market today?
5. Define “neighbourhood effects.” Use that concept to explain how neighbourhoods exert influence over the lives of individuals.
6. What are the processes by which protest movements occur, and how has the presence of online social media changed these processes?
7. How and why do attitudes change?
Part B (answer one question):
8. Explain methodological individualism by applying the framework of Coleman’s Boat.
9. Proponents of Rational Action Theory see it as ‘its own explanation’. Explain this view and say whether you agree with it.
10. What is a mechanism? Give examples and explain why we need to consider mechanisms in sociology.
List of sources cited in the questions:
Mark S. Granovetter (1973). ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 78, pp. 1360–80.