Sociological Imagination
Denise: A value is a group’s principal and/or standards of behavior judgment of what is important in life. Values that conservative Africans usually follow are not being “manifested” with the western culture. This means that according to this culture women shouldn’t go to school and men should take patriotism and fight. A recent example that has been gaining a lot of controversy is the case that is going on currently in Nigeria. A man called Boko Haram kidnapped 270 girls from school and is threatening to sell them and/or converting them to child soldiers. His excuse for kidnapping these girls is the value and belief that he has which is “girls being educated is a ‘Western/Eurocentric’ influence and it shouldn't be followed” (Abubakar, "Over 270 school girls kidnapped in Nigeria", 2014).
The definition of a norm is something typical, usual or standard. Norms that child soldiers follow is following rules from their leaders. In some cases becoming a child soldiers is the norm because its part of coming of age ("Child Soldiers").
A sanction is threatened penalty for disobeying a law, rule, or value. The sanction would be that the children would be drugged if they refuse to obey orders. The commander of the child soldier mostly uses operant conditioning factor, which is positive punishment. This means that that by abusing them in an unpleasant way it will make enforce the child to obey the rules. Children might also suffer physical abuse from the commander if they disobey any of the rules ("Child Soldiers").
A perspective that is correlated to the concept of child soldiers is the conflict theory. The meaning of conflict theory is the belief that those in authority and/or in control maintain their power by oppressing the poor and powerless. It also describes society as being in conflict due to competition on limited resources.
This theoretical perspective is connected to my issue because corruption plays a big role in most of these countries. The main reason why children suffer of this issue is due to poverty. Poverty is usually the result of corruption and how people with power and authority want to keep gaining power without helping the poor and powerless. In other words greed is a reason of why poverty exist (Landau, "Use of Child Soldiers").
Due to the fact that poverty is a big issue for child soldiers the “group competition” is for survival. Everyone who is suffering from extreme poverty is fighting his or her way out of it. Those who are suffering from extreme poverty are fighting for the “basics needs” of survival. Thing like food, shelter, and water is what I consider the “basic needs”.
The group who is in “power” would be the politics that occur in these countries. If they had a strategy on preventing extreme poverty and corruption this issue wouldn’t exist. They need to take consideration on how to protect the people of their homeland and not take advantage of them.
This theoretical perspective fits best to this issue since there is nothing good about this issue. The group in power and authority isn’t helping those in need and is instead oppressing the poor and powerless for their own benefit. Because of this issue, the rich and powerful are gaining their power and control and those who are poor and powerless are becoming more oppressed. The poor are practically forced to find their own way of survival even if it means to join an armed force as a child.
The definition of a norm is something typical, usual or standard. Norms that child soldiers follow is following rules from their leaders. In some cases becoming a child soldiers is the norm because its part of coming of age ("Child Soldiers").
A sanction is threatened penalty for disobeying a law, rule, or value. The sanction would be that the children would be drugged if they refuse to obey orders. The commander of the child soldier mostly uses operant conditioning factor, which is positive punishment. This means that that by abusing them in an unpleasant way it will make enforce the child to obey the rules. Children might also suffer physical abuse from the commander if they disobey any of the rules ("Child Soldiers").
A perspective that is correlated to the concept of child soldiers is the conflict theory. The meaning of conflict theory is the belief that those in authority and/or in control maintain their power by oppressing the poor and powerless. It also describes society as being in conflict due to competition on limited resources.
This theoretical perspective is connected to my issue because corruption plays a big role in most of these countries. The main reason why children suffer of this issue is due to poverty. Poverty is usually the result of corruption and how people with power and authority want to keep gaining power without helping the poor and powerless. In other words greed is a reason of why poverty exist (Landau, "Use of Child Soldiers").
Due to the fact that poverty is a big issue for child soldiers the “group competition” is for survival. Everyone who is suffering from extreme poverty is fighting his or her way out of it. Those who are suffering from extreme poverty are fighting for the “basics needs” of survival. Thing like food, shelter, and water is what I consider the “basic needs”.
The group who is in “power” would be the politics that occur in these countries. If they had a strategy on preventing extreme poverty and corruption this issue wouldn’t exist. They need to take consideration on how to protect the people of their homeland and not take advantage of them.
This theoretical perspective fits best to this issue since there is nothing good about this issue. The group in power and authority isn’t helping those in need and is instead oppressing the poor and powerless for their own benefit. Because of this issue, the rich and powerful are gaining their power and control and those who are poor and powerless are becoming more oppressed. The poor are practically forced to find their own way of survival even if it means to join an armed force as a child.