Sociology Assignment: Analyzing Homelessness and Social Structures

This sociology assignment explores the issue of homelessness through a sociological lens. The assignment begins by identifying surprising facts from data related to housing shortages and the growing gap between income and housing costs. It then examines the Wilder site's research on homelessness in Minnesota and defines the sociological imagination, contrasting the views of a homeless person with and without it. The assignment further analyzes how legislation and policies might differ based on the presence of sociological imagination and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of developing it. It identifies structures contributing to homelessness, proposes findings to alleviate the problem, and concludes by explaining how the student's response reflects a sociological imagination. The assignment incorporates references to academic sources.

Sociology 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Identification of six facts that surprised you in the data?........................................................1
2. What information did you find on wilder site?.......................................................................1
3. What is the sociological imagination?....................................................................................1
4. View of a homeless person with a sociological imagination and someone without it?..........1
5. The legislations policies for homeless person who have sociological imagination differ
from the one who don't have this imagination?..........................................................................2
6. The advantages and disadvantages of developing a sociological imagination?......................2
7. The structures that contribute to homelessness?.....................................................................2
8. Findings to alleviate the problem of homelessness? How it can be beneficial?.....................2
9. Is the response indicative of someone with or without sociological imagination? Why?......2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

1. Identification of six facts that surprised you in the data?The six facts that surprised me in the
data are as follows-:
1. The shortage of housing units that low income people can afford.
2. Due to gap between income and cost of housing is growing more people are becoming
homeless.
3. The children, families and youth are all affected due to shortage of houses.
4. The single adults are more in number who are facing this issue of housing (Wexler,
2017).
5. More than half a million people experience homelessness on any given night in US.
6. People are facing eviction, instability and homelessness without housing options.
2. What information did you find on wilder site?
On the wilder site, there is research on the publication of Homelessness in Minnesota
2015 study which provide information that within the time period of three years a wilder
research is conducted on the people who are homeless or living in a temporary housing
programs. This study provides an estimation of people who are homeless and also conducts a
face to face interview with the people of Minnesota to get better understanding of the causes and
circumstances of homelessness.
3. What is the sociological imagination?
It a type of imagination that is practised in America to “think ourselves away” from the
same routines of the daily lives in order to look towards them with fresh critical eyes. This
imagination allows to look at things socially and how they interact and impact each other.
4. Views of a homeless person with a sociological imagination and someone without sociological
imagination
The homeless people view with this sociological imagination will understand the
interplay of the individual and the society. It will allow him/her to shift his/her viewpoint and
look into a broader perspective. This imagination will have a positive impact on them in order to
improve the living standards of people. It will help the homeless people to make a more self-
aware decisions. The lack of sociological imagination among the homeless people can be the
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reason of cause of many issues. These issues can be lack the power to react morally to the
actions of the decisions that are made by theleaders (DiMaggio, 2017).
5. The legislations policies for homeless person who have sociological imagination differ from
the one who don't have this imagination?
The legislation policies that are been made for homeless will be different from the one
who do not possess social imagination as the one with sociological imagination will take
appropriate action and use it in order to make more effective decisions (Burrell and Morgan,
2017).
6. The advantages and disadvantages of developing a sociological imagination?
The advantage of sociological imagination is that one gets a deep happiness in doing
something one truly enjoys. The disadvantage is that these thoughts can be shared with anyone in
a positive manner.
7. The structures that contribute to homelessness?
The low-income of poulation and high risk can be the factors that can contribute towards
the homelessness. As the low-income households are unemployed due to challenging market.
The other issues can be health problems which also lead to homelessness. Among the homeless
population the conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and HIV/AIDS have been found at
higher rates. The other causes can be domestic violence and racial inequality (Bowe, Ball, and
Gold, 2017).
8. Findings to alleviate the problem of homelessness? How it can be beneficial?
In order to solve the issue of homelessness short or long-term rental assistance can be
used to help survivors to exit shelter and regain housing and the safety and housing needs can be
addressed for the issues of domestic violence. The broad system change is required to solve the
issue of addressing the racial inequality. To solve these problems of health issue related to
homelessness housing stability can contribute to a long term recovery and to reduce the number
of homeless people. This can be beneficial to decrease the homelessness among population.
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9. Is the response indicative of someone with or without sociological imagination? Why?
My response is indicative of someone with sociological imagination because it will allow
me to think from the alternative point of view and will help to make self-aware decisions in
everyday life activities (Bhambra and Santos, 2017).
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bhambra, G.K. and Santos, B.D.S., 2017. Introduction: Global challenges for sociology.
Bowe, R., Ball, S.J. and Gold, A., 2017. Reforming education and changing schools: Case
studies in policy sociology (Vol. 10). Routledge.
Burrell, G. and Morgan, G., 2017. Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis:
Elements of the sociology of corporate life. Routledge.
DiMaggio, P., 2017. Evolutionary Approaches to Culture in Sociology. Evolutionary Studies in
Imaginative Culture. 1(1), pp.47-52.
Wexler, P., 2017. Social analysis of education: After the new sociology (Vol. 57). Routledge.
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