SCENARIO: Imagine that you work for a nonprofit organization that is focused on increasing diversity in community groups in your area. Your supervisor asks you to develop a sociological study concerning topics of diversity and collaboration in a specific community group of your choice. Eventually you will prepare to share your research with colleagues. ASSIGNMENT: For this Touchstone, you will begin by formulating a question about diversity in a community group that you have access to. Then you will use the steps of the scientific method to prepare a research plan, including a bibliography for a literature review. As you learned, sociologists follow the scientific method so that their results are both scientifically valid and useful to the greater sociological community. A literature review allows researchers to learn from completed studies and to build upon their conclusions.

A. Directions
Step 1: Pick a Topic
Select a community group to study. Some examples of community groups you might explore include:

An activity-based group like a book club, a soccer team, or a community choir
A religious or ideological community such as a church congregation or a local political party
A community organization like a Parent Teacher Association (PTA), a neighborhood association, or the volunteer committee at a local soup kitchen
An identity-based organization such as a social club for veterans or a fraternal type organization
It should be a group in which membership is voluntary and recreational. Avoid:

Families
Workplaces
Ethnic or racial categories
Friend groups
You might wish to choose a group that you are a part of, or you might not. You can use your personal experience with the group to form the basis of your research question. Or you can ask members of the group about their experiences, which will help you develop your research question. In the template, write a paragraph (approximately 6-8 sentences) describing the community group you have chosen. In particular, be sure to answer the following questions:

What is the community group?
What are the attributes or characteristics of this community group? (e.g. What activities does this group do together? What element of the members’ interests or identities brings them together? How is membership in the group defined, if at all?)
What kind of experience with or access to this community group do you have?
Step 2: Ask a Question
Next, you will formulate a question related to this group, and to topics related to diversity and/or collaboration. You might think about diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, socioeconomic status, or along multiple intersecting identities. Be sure to use what you learned in Unit 1 about the ways sociologists ask questions.Examples:

What are the challenges of a mom’s community organization in appealing to moms with children of different ages?
How does a group of car enthusiasts reach out to the surrounding community to get support for their events?
How has the Boy Scouts accepting girls impacted their mission and programs?
Do gender segregated sports teams for kids help maintain traditional gender roles?