SCENARIO: Imagine that you work for a nonprofit organization that is focused on increasing diversity in community groups in your area. Your supervisor asks you to develop a sociological study concerning topics of diversity and collaboration in a specific community group of your choice. Eventually you will prepare to share your research with colleagues.
ASSIGNMENT: For this Touchstone, you will begin by formulating a question about diversity in a community group that you have access to. Then you will use the steps of the scientific method to prepare a research plan, including a bibliography for a literature review. As you learned, sociologists follow the scientific method so that their results are both scientifically valid and useful to the greater sociological community. A literature review allows researchers to learn from completed studies and to build upon their conclusions.
SOCI1010 Unit 1 Touchstone Template
Complete the following template, including all parts, using complete sentences.
STEP 1: Pick a Topic
Write a paragraph (approximately 6-8 sentences) describing the community group you have chosen. Remember, it should be a group in which membership is voluntary and recreational.
In particular, be sure to answer the following questions:
· What is the community group?
· What are the attributes or characteristics of this community group? (e.g. What activities does this group do together? What element of the members’ interests or identities brings them together? How is membership in the group defined, if at all?)
· What kind of experience with or access to this community group do you have?
The social group I’ve chosen is an adult amateur soccer league that competes on weekends in a nearby public park. Membership in the league is open to adults of any skill, gender, or background, although most members hear about the league through word of mouth or online advertisements. The group has regular weekly games and occasional social events such as team dinners and charity matches. The members are brought together by their common interest in exercise, teamwork, and competition in a relaxed manner. There is no official screening process; whoever signs up and shows up regularly is part of the group. I have access to this group because I know one of the players, and I’ve been to some of their games as a spectator, which has allowed me to see how players engage with one another on and off the field.
STEP 2: Ask a Question
Formulate a research question related to this group, and to topics related to diversity and/or collaboration. Write the question you have formulated for your study, and identify the independent and dependent variables.
Remember, an independent variable is a variable that causes or drives a change in outcome. A dependent variable is an effect, or a variable that is influenced by an independent variable.
Research question:
In what ways does the presence of players from diverse cultural backgrounds affect teamwork and collaboration in recreational adult soccer teams?
Independent variable:
Level of cultural diversity in a team
Dependent variable:
Quality of teamwork and collaboration in games
STEP 3: Prepare a Bibliography
List 4-6 articles, books, or other resources that relate to your question for your literature review.
Remember, attributes of good readings for your literature review include:
· They are academic, scholarly works about research findings or they are reliable journalistic reporting based on scientifically credible and reliable data.
· They should have been published in the last 10 years—unless they are a landmark work on the topic and provide important background or as a comparison.
· They look at different sides of the argument and a variety of perspectives.
· They do not have to be written by sociologists or published in sociology journals, but they should be academic and not popular works.
Use the simplified method to format sources for your bibliography. Include five key elements for each source, with each element separated by a period:
· Author’s name(s)
· Publisher and Publication date
· Title of the source, inside quotation marks
· Page numbers (if applicable)
· Source’s location for web-based texts (URL)
Example:
1. Alireza Behtoui. Journal of Sociology, 2015. “Beyond social ties: The impact of social capital on labour market outcomes for young Swedish people.” p. 711-724. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1440783315581217
1. Hannah G. Boeve-de Pauw and Peter De Maeyer. Sustainability, 2020. “Does Team Diversity Improve Group Performance? Evidence from Collaborative Sports-Based Projects.” p. 1-15. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3748
2. Ramon Spaaij; Annelies Knoppers; Ruth Jeanes. Sport Management Review, 2020. “‘We want more diversity but…’: resisting diversity in recreational sports clubs.” p. 363–373. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/41255/1/1-s2.0-S1441352318305813-main.pdf
3. Ramon Spaaij; Jora Broerse; Sarah Oxford; Carla Luguetti; Fiona McLachlan; Brent McDonald; Bojana Klepac; Lisa Lymbery; Jeffrey Bishara; Aurélie Pankowiak. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 2019. “Sport, Refugees, and Forced Migration: A Critical Review of the Literature.” (open access). https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2019.00047/full
4. Yinle Huang; Marvin Washington; Brian P. Soebbing; Daniel S. Mason. Journal of Economic Race & Policy (Springer), 2023. “Wearing the Same Jersey? The Impact of Players’ Cultural Diversity and Shared Team Tenure on National Soccer Team Performance.” p. 1–13. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10141925/
5. Elizabeth Pike. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2015. “The Role of Sport in Promoting Social Integration.” https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2015/05/the-role-of-sport-in-promoting-social-integration/
6. UNESCO. United Nations, 2017. “Sport as a Tool for Social Integration.” https://en.unesco.org/news/how-sport-promotes-inclusion-and-diversity