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Sociological Literacy Framework: Social Structure
Sociological Literacy Framework: Social Structure
August 13, 2025

The sociological literacy framework highlights social structure as one of the key concepts for sociology students to be able to understand and apply. This resource collection includes resources to help teach social structure, along with related concepts like agency.

People at a farmer's market
Someone working on a laptop using ChatGPT
Tamanna Shah
Seeing with Machines: A Reflexive Ethnography of AI Systems in Everyday Life
July 23, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Ethnography, Science and Technology
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
Any Level, Graduate
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:

Students conduct a reflexive ethnography of their everyday AI interactions, keeping field notes and analyzing how AI shapes perception, behavior, and identity. Instead of being passive users, it challenges students to reveal the invisible processes shaping their...

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A hand holding two passports
Jinhyuk Kim
Learning Law by Making It: The Case of Nationality Act
July 10, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Law and Society, Migration/Immigration, Political Sociology, Racial and Ethnic Relations, Social Change
Resource Type(s):
Assignment, Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 100, College 200, College 300, College 400
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:

This paper presents a class activity in which students come together to imagine themselves as policy actors in a fictional country and simulate a law- or policy-making process. The activity is designed to deepen students’ understanding of the law while fostering...

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Zombies trying to break through a door
Sheri-Lynn Kurisu
Zombie Sociology
January 31, 2025
Subject Area(s):
Criminal Justice, Criminology/Delinquency, Education, Family, Labor and Labor Movements, Law and Society, Medical Sociology, Other, Penology/Corrections, Race, Class and Gender, Sex and Gender, Social Control, Teaching and Learning in Sociology, Work and Labor Markets
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
Any Level, College 400
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

Zombie Sociology invites students to exercise their sociological imaginations by using the lens of a zombie apocalypse to critically examine social institutions and social structures.

In the last decade, zombies have invaded popular culture,...

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A stack of newspapers
Matt Reid
Individual v Structural Frames of Social Problems: News on Cooking, Eating, and Obesity
May 21, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Medical Sociology, Qualitative Methodology
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

This activity has students replicate Merin Oleschuk’s (2020) content analysis study which demonstrated how our culture favors individual-level causes and solutions to larger social problems in the context of the obesity epidemic. The study analyzed news articles...

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A high-rise office building
Jacqueline Zalewski
Sociology of Organizations Syllabus
April 4, 2024
Subject Area(s):
Organizations, Formal and Complex, Small Groups, Social Networks, Social Organization
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 300
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:

This course focuses on the structure and essential features of social groups, the value of social networks for accessing organizations and for social mobility, gender dynamics, power hierarchies, the “vanishing” hierarchical organization and its implications for...

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A gavel
Lisa Lucile Owens
The Court of Student Excuses: Structure, Agency and the Law
May 26, 2023
Subject Area(s):
Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Law and Society
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Medium, Small
Abstract:

This in-class activity focuses on a central discussion that helps students apply concepts involving structural inequality, personal responsibility and agency, and the function of the judicial system.  This exercise is best suited to a sociology or law &...

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Graduates standing in a circle holding their caps.
Kea Saper
Teaching the Hidden Curriculum
February 11, 2022
Subject Area(s):
Education, Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems, Knowledge, Race, Class and Gender, Stratification/Mobility, Teaching and Learning in Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Assessment, Assignment, Class Activity, PowerPoint
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Medium, Small
Abstract:

This activity is designed to help students analyze how the hidden curriculum functions in their own educational experiences and the experiences of others. Through this activity, students will be able to define the hidden curriculum, assess their own educational...

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A pricture of Hoberman's Sphere
Andrea Krieg
Hoberman's Sphere as a Visual of Social Structure
November 17, 2021
Subject Area(s):
Criminology/Delinquency
Resource Type(s):
Lecture
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:

Instructors, the ASA, and other sociological leaders agree that social structure is an essential concept to a sociology curriculum (e.g. ASA 2004; Persell, Pfeiffer, and Syed 2007; Grauerholz and Gibson 2006; Wagenaar 1991) . After examining the pedagogical...

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Renae Wilkinson, Robert A. Thomson, Jr.
Structure, Agency, and Social Change in a "Lost Generation"
October 26, 2017
Subject Area(s):
Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
This in-class activity is designed for students to learn and creatively apply the concepts of structure and agency. Structure and agency are often difficult to disentangle, or, alternatively, they are treated as a fixed dichotomy. As such, it can be challenging to...
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Tal H Peretz, Michael A Messner
Stand up/Sit down stucture and agency activity
October 7, 2013
Subject Area(s):
Theory
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
This classroom activity quickly illustrates the complex relationship between structure, personal choice, and collective agency by having students stand up or sit down depending on whether they chose to take the class, and would've made the same choice under other...
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