[quote]BigPaul wrote:
Increasing socio-cultural evidence indicates that body image and eating disorders are serious health problems among young people.
First question- what is the ‘sociology of human movement’? I may just be really stupid, but one of my BA’s is in sociology and I am starting in on my Ph.D. in sociology this fall and I have never once heard of ‘sociology of human movement’.[/quote]
That’s not what the class is called, but it’s just the name that I decided to give this class to avoid confusion. The real name of the course is “Kinesiology: sociocultural perspectives”
[quote]I don’t know if socio-cultural evidence is the kind you are going to cite here, let alone if such evidence does exist. I can surely see the link between your topic and socio-cultural theory, I just don’t see how exactly evidence can be pointed to as being socio-cultural - how can evidence show the prescription of social meaning to individuals’ or groups’ modalities of thought with respect to ideals or actions?
There may be abundant correspondence between such things as the measurements of a GI Joe figure’s biceps or a Barbie’s wasteline and the practice of anorexia or bulemia amongst youth, which can then be intimated to be socio-cultural evidence, but in itself it is not such socio-cultural evidence.
Supporting any causal linkages you see to be evidenced by your ‘socio-cultural evidence’ will be difficult to do. Intuitively it does make sence - Barbie being a size Zero and GI Joe having 25 inch arms do indicate a cultural fixation with body image.
But when it is reduced to it’s causal basics - my doll has a thin figure so I am a bulemic - it is far less intellectually appealing since there are complex causal processes that underlie the phenomenon, one that is very difficult to evidence through all but the least generalizable methods.[/quote]
Actually, what I wrote, as the description for the assignment is word for word what was given. The class hasn’t really gone in depth about the specific terminology “socio-cultural.”
The rest of what you said (I hate to admit it) went way over my head.
[quote]How much should Ontario’s education curriculum and policies be involved in the issues of body image and eating disorders?
You may wish to examine any programs that have attempted to address issues of body image and eating disorder amongst school-aged children.
This would allow you to make more reasoned observations on the extent to which Ontario’s curriculum should be involved in the remedy of these issues - you will know what has worked and thus should be implemented, and what practices should be abandoned or reformed. That and you won’t sound like all of those cultural critics who essentially whine for 80% of their paper about the ills of our culture, only to conclude with the idea that we should do something.[/quote]
Thanks for the tip. Actually, it is required to use a government source, and I figure that will be the biggest contribution to my paper. However, I am required to use other sources ((2 academic books, 1-2 peer reviewed journal articles (print or electronic), 1 government or similar research study, 2 reputable websites)), and besides the government source, I’m not too sure what to look for in the other sources.
But I suppose that will become clearer as I begin the research.