L216: LAMP Sophomore Seminar
Business and the Humanities
Introduction:
By the end of this semester, we will have investigated a wide variety of ways that the culture of big business impacts society’s values and expectations for life. We began the semester exploring various aspects of success in America and how striving for that success plays a large role in shaping who we are as Americans. We then turned to investigate how the dark side of the mainstays of the American economy such as the fast food industry and other purveyors of popular culture can actually threaten some of our most cherished values such as democracy and the public good. After spring break, we will study some of the problems that accompany our American equation of money=power. This assignment, which will ask you to use the skills we have been working on this semester, is designed to give you the opportunity to draw these many facets of the course together in a meaningful way.
The assignment, worth 25% of your course grade, consists of three separately-graded parts: a group prospectus (3%); your group oral presentation (12%); and a final reflective paper (10%). Please take note of the due dates below:
Individual Paper: Electronic copy attached to e-mail by 5 p.m., Tuesday May 6
Assignment(s):
The prospectus (1-2 pages) is a document that will lay out your group project at the planning stages and give me a chance to offer my suggestions at a point that you can easily make changes if necessary. Your group will be assigned ONE grade for the prospectus, so you should draft it together and make sure all are happy with the document before submitting it. The prospectus should contain a paragraph or two articulating the basic goals and structure of your business (what you will sell, how you will sell it, and what steps you are taking to pay attention to the requirements of the assignment). It should also briefly outline each person’s role (see below for more details) and what she or he will contribute to the project. Finally, the prospectus should outline what kinds of outside “research” you’ll do to make your business a reality. By “research” I do not necessarily mean academic, library research. Rather, I wish to know how you will find out more about your proposed business so that you move beyond the classroom and the world of books into the real world.
On April 30, our L216 class will become a public forum where business teams (your work groups) will have 30 minutes to present their ideas to a panel of peers. Since your presentation will pull together the intellectual work of the class for the semester, we will also invite others to attend, specifically the director and associate director of LAMP and perhaps other instructors of L216.
The goal of your presentation will be to secure a start-up grant for your business. In order to receive a grant, you will need to convince the panel, by means of a polished presentation, that your business
· is viable (will make money and stay in business).
· has considered the humanity of all people it touches (the employees, the community in which the business is located, and the customers).
· at minimum will not harm the environment (optimally it will benefit the environment).
· will avoid the worst excesses of McDonaldization and McWorld, as we have explored this semester.
To accomplish this goal, you will need to work collaboratively, with each member of the group taking a specific role that might be necessary to run the business you are proposing. Examples might be
The individual reflective paper (about 5 pages) will give you an opportunity to make personal sense of all your hard work on the final project, and indeed, in our class all semester. This paper will NOT be an analytical synthesis (like the papers we have been writing all semester), but rather a reflection in which you narrate your personal thought processes and discoveries as your group shaped the business that was presented. To make your job easy, you should jot down discoveries and ideas as you work on the project. You will need these personal notes to refer to when you write your final reflection.
Even though your paper will be a reflection, it should nevertheless be academically rigorous, connecting your thoughts with the ideas we have surveyed in our seminar this semester, including ideas from class discussion, the intellectual work of your peers, your own papers, and the work of Ritzer, Barber, and others. You should plan to refer to the various readings and discuss them, just as you have in other papers you have submitted for the class. Part of your individual reflection should also include a consideration of the collaborative process, explaining how you worked together as a group and what you, and perhaps others, learned in the process.