AU Sociology Discussion

Early on in the class we discussed the three major lenses by which sociology explains social behavior: structural functionalist theory, critical theory, and symbolic interaction theory. Choose one of the three and relate it to either community, environment, and development.

In Kristof and WuDunn’s chapter on Yamhill, the authors note that at least one quarter of the students that Nicholas Kristof rode the bus with had died what could be termed a “death of despair”. What are deaths of despair and what causes them?