Cultural Value and Norm Assignment
Cultural Value and Norm Assignment
This assignment should be fun and creative but it needs to be safe. You should not do anything that will get you or anyone else in trouble, physically, emotionally, or legally. You should be able to do this as part of your daily interactions and routines. First, start by thinking about some pattern of behavior or interaction that interests you and that you regularly participate in as either actor or audience. This can quite literally be almost anything. Think about it specifically as a Culturally Based Pattern. All patterns of behavior reflect some larger Cultural Value and assumption. The point is not to just disrupt a routine. The point is to discover what the routine means to people and how we can tell when it is not followed Step one, what are the cultural assumptions and values that you will be disrupting? Second, plan out your violation of the scene so that you know how you specifically plan to implement your experiment. Third, run through it in your head and ask yourself; will anyone get harmed by doing this? If so do something different. Fourth, go ahead and do it and see what happens. Like a researcher, keep detailed observations. Pay attention to how different types of people react and respond differently. Pay attention to what is said, not said, or done to make sense of the violation. Even something as simple as an elevator ride can be a huge source of data, when you look closely enough. Fifth, always disclose your research and let the people you have been socially messing with what you are doing and why. It is only right to let them know and this can also be a great source of additional data. Sixth, write it all up in a two-page explanation of what you did and what happened. Be sure to frame and introduce the results by providing an explanation of the Cultural Value and Norm you are investigating.
