Field Log
5:30 am: Wake up. Pray, brush my teeth and take a bath.
Routine
6:00 am: Interact with children and spouse. Prepare children for school. Take breakfast.
Gender roles, Nuclear family
7:15 am: Leave with the children, drop them in school, then proceed to my workplace.
Gender roles, norms, social structure
8:00 am: Arrive at my workplace, log in, interact with my workmates and proceed to my workstation.
Social structure, bureaucracy, social responsibility, social control
10:00 am: Proceed to a departmental meeting, greet my colleagues, begin discussions, and take minutes of the meeting as the secretary.
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Norms, bureaucracy, emotional labor
12:00 noon: Report back to my workstation, prepare a requisition for my fieldwork, and then proceed to Head of the Department for approval.
Bureaucracy, institution
12:30 pm: Head to the accountant to collect the fieldwork facilitation fund, log out, and then leave the office.
Bureaucracy
1:00 pm: While on the car, open the radio and listen to lunchtime news. Several people have been killed in a deadly road accident, and some critically injured due to speeding. The news reporter also reports that several buildings have been demolished since they were built on road reserves scheduled for expansion.
Corruption, emotional labor, social deviance, material culture
1:30 pm: I access a petrol station where I have to queue while waiting for my turn to get gas. The attendant seems slow thus making some people in the queue to hoot.
Social norms, emotional labor
2:00 pm: I arrive at my scheduled area of fieldwork. I interact with the local population as I collect their demographic information and economic activities. The community mainly comprises of blacks and Hispanics. Have a low level of education. Most people in the area are between 20-45 years. Most are involved in personal businesses due to lack of jobs in the government and private sector. Most feel the government has neglected them thus triggering their suffering. Some complain of hardly meeting demands of their daily needs due to unstable businesses.
Poverty, discrimination, social structure, race, material culture
4:30 pm: I complete my fieldwork. Drive to school to pick my kids. I also pick my neighbor's kids who called me earlier to ask me to drop them at home. Proceed with them home. The children are exhausted from the day's activities.
Family, gender roles, institutions
5:15 pm: Drop the neighbor's kids. Then drive home. Give the kids tea. My spouse is yet to arrive.
6:00 pm: Proceed for church meeting. There are many spiritual symbols. A group of Hispanics church members is also holding their meeting.
Race, religion, monotheism
Application
Sociological Analysis
Social norms shape the daily life of human beings. The family, gender, workplace, and society, determine how people should interact with one another and the social responsibilities they have to fulfill to adhere to what is considered acceptable behavior. When I wake every morning, I consider it essential to pray, an obligation that has been reinforced by my religious institution. Based on the religious teachings, it is imperative to thank God at the day break. Prayers at this time are also meant to seek spiritual guidance in the day's activities. The family institution also places some responsibilities on me. I have to prepare the children every morning and drop them to school. The learners are supposed to be in school by 8 am. I therefore wake up in good time and prepare them to avoid lateness to school. The rest of my day is structured based on my work responsibilities up to around 4 p.m. While in the workplace, there is an expected standard of behavior while interacting with colleagues as well as while performing the work-related tasks. My day comes to an end in the evening after picking my kids from school back home. My daily activities are thus mainly shaped by family and work responsibilities.
Several sociological concepts influence my daily interactions and activities. The main ones include institutions, roles, interactions, and emotional labor. The society enshrines a social structure that provides particular roles to members of a society. The roles are responsible for regularizing interactions among such society members (Healey, Stepnick & O'Brien, 2018). Irrespective of the society, the family and marriage institutions often exist. While people come and go, families are continuous. Family is the basic society unit that assigns roles to individuals. In this case marriage and my nuclear family assigns me particular roles that I have to accomplish to be considered as fulfilling my responsibilities in the society. Marriage and family have awarded me the role of educating my children. The institutions have specific common values that help in attainment of specific basic society needs (Coleman & Collins, 2017). By taking the children to school, the initiative will enable them gain employment in the future and be productive societal members. Low education can contribute to instances of poverty, especially in instances of employment competition. Institutions of marriage, family, economy, and religion are essential in organizing my social relationships. The society provides particular patterns of relationship that stem from gender, roles, as well as status. The patterns of relationship help in fulfilling society needs. The social institutions and structures play a vital role in societies of organizing activities to help in upholding cultural values.
Every individual has his or her role in society mainly dependent on social position or an individual’s status. The status determines social responsibilities that one holds in the society. When an individual is a family person, there exists particular values, norms, and personality characteristics that one must uphold to fulfill social responsibilities as determined by the society (Grusky, 2018). A well-behaved family person should provide basic needs for the family. For example, such a person should avail shelter, food, and education for children. When one cannot offer such needs, they are considered to have neglected their responsibilities. Roles and interactions are related. The social status of an individual determines both. The society determines how people should interact with one another. For example, children are supposed to show respect to their parents by engaging in particular activities that include participating in accomplishment of house chores and going to school.
Emotional labor is also a crucial sociological concept in the society. Notably, it is essential for people to have the ability to manage their feelings and expressions while interacting with others in society. Emotional labor is particularly important in the workplace since it determines level of commitment and job satisfaction. According to Humphrey, Ashforth and Diefendorff (2015), emotional labor is positively linked to job commitment, performance, satisfaction, and customer satisfaction. When employees can identify with their roles and are granted more autonomy in the workplace, emotional labor augments their identity. An individual’s productivity in society is enhanced when one effectively performs their roles and manages interactions.
Reflection
An individual functions as a building unit of the larger society. Activities that one is involved in have to conform to societal expectations for one to be considered well-behaved. In my brief field log for one day, most activities accomplished fulfilled the social norms of society. Further, they contribute to fulfillment of social responsibilities of the society. My motive in establishing a family focused on promoting society continuity. Having children ensures that the community regenerates. A family is an essential societal building block. Children are sired and acquire their role and responsibilities through a family unity. By taking my children to school, I contribute to society empowerment. Bringing up children who understand their roles and status helps in securing a society’s future.
Religious institutions also play a vital role in the society in shaping beliefs of members in an organization to develop characters that conform to community requirements. Religion is related to societal cultural requirements. Thus, a family or a person who is religious will participate in activities that are congruent with society demands such as empowering the needy, interacting positively with other people, and fulfilling required roles and responsibilities as determined by status. The societal responsibilities can, however, be constrained by certain structural factors. For example, one may feel the urge to help other people, but get constrained by their economic status hence end up supporting only a few. Structural constraints sometimes create a barrier during an attempt to accomplish social responsibilities.
References
Coleman, S., & Collins, P. (Eds.). (2017). Religion, identity and change: perspectives on global transformations . Routledge.
Grusky, D. B. (2018). Social stratification: Class, race, and gender in sociological perspective . Routledge.
Healey, J. F., Stepnick, A., & O'Brien, E. (2018). Race, ethnicity, gender, and class: The sociology of group conflict and change . Sage Publications.
Humphrey, R. H., Ashforth, B. E., & Diefendorff, J. M. (2015). The bright side of emotional labor. Journal of Organizational Behavior , 36 (6), 749-769.
