THE FIRST HOME ASSIGNMENT: RESEARCH ETHICS

Watch the following short film about the Milgram experiments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOUEC5YXV8U
(You can also watch the full documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdrKCilEhC0)

Read the ethical guidelines of the American Sociological Association (ASA):

https://www.asanet.org/code-ethics

Your task is to write an essay (400-600 words) assessing the experiment from the
perspective of research ethics based on the ASA guidelines and the material we discussed
during an earlier class about research ethics.

Some questions that can help you write the essay (please do not copy these questions to your
essay as section heads; write a coherent essay instead).
 What was the research goal in the experiment? (What did they want to learn about?)
 Who were the research participants?
 How was the experiment conducted? What did they tell the participants about the
research goals?
 What ethical principles were broken in the experiment? (ASA guidelines or otherwise)
 Can you think of any justification for breaking these principles?
 What impact could breaking these guidelines have on the research participants?
 In your opinion, were there any ways the research could be improved ethically while
keeping the same research goals?

If you want to, you can use other sources to write your essay (but it is not expected). However,
use reliable sources and clearly indicate the parts you have written based on these sources and
list these other sources after the essay (does not count into the word count).

Length: 400-600 words (without the list of other sources in the end) (quality is more important
than the number of words)
Score: max 5 points
Deadline: October 18 (Sunday), 23:55
Late submission is accepted but you will lose some points (see below)

You will need to upload the assignment on Moodle.

Late submission policy

If you are late 1-3 days, you will lose one point. If you are late 4-7 days, you will lose two
points. If you are late more than 7 days (but submit before the end of the study period) you
will lose three points.
Important! Your score will be reduced based on the score that you would otherwise get. For
instance, if your submission is worth four points and you submit five days after the deadline,
you will get 4-2=2 points.

THE SECOND HOME ASSIGNMENT: THE RISE OF THE NETWORK SOCIETY

You will find the second chapter of Manuel Castells’ The Rise of the Network Society (1996)
on Moodle. In this chapter Castells describes the historical origins and main characteristics of
what he argues is an emerging new economic system (“new economy”). In later chapters of the
book he largely expands on these ideas.

Please write an essay (800-1000 words) critically assessing the chapter.

In your essay you will need to do the following:

 Provide a concise summary of the most important ideas/points in the chapter.
 If you have any critical comments (based on data and/or logical arguments) and/or you
want to connect these ideas to the ideas of the Giddens textbook or the sociology
lectures, you are welcome to do so.
 The book was published in 1996. Consider the 24 years that has passed since its
publication and assess to what extent Castells’ description is still valid (e.g. are some
aspects/characteristics that are even more valid than in 1996? Are some characteristics
that seem to be different nowadays from what is described in the book?)

(This is a long chapter, please start reading it in time)

If you use other sources, use reliable sources and clearly indicate them in the text and list them
after the essay (does not count into the word count).

Length: 800-1000 words (without the list of other sources in the end) (quality is more important
than the number of words)
Score: max 8 points
Deadline: November 1 (Sunday), 23:55
Late submission is accepted but you will lose some points

Late submission policy

If you are late 1-3 days, you will lose one point. If you are late 4-7 days, you will lose two
points. If you are late more than 7 days (but submit before the end of the study period) you
will lose three points.

You will need to upload the assignment on Moodle.