Weighing the Perspectives

1. Weighing the Perspectives Jason Josupait Elizabeth Kohlmeier Jessica Patschull Melissa Trapp Megan Stewart

2. Summary of movie • In Milagro, a small town in the American Southwest, Ladd Devine plans to build a major new resort development. While activist Ruby Archuleta and lawyer/newspaper editor Charlie Bloom realize that this will result in the eventual displacement of the local Hispanic farmers, they cannot arouse much opposition because of the short term opportunities offered by construction jobs. But when Joe Mondragon illegally diverts water to irrigate his bean field, the local people support him because of their resentment of water use laws that favor the rich like Devine. When the Governor sends in ruthless troubleshooter Kyril Montana to settle things quickly before the lucrative development is cancelled, a small war threatens to erupt • Information found at imdb.com

3. Perspectives • Ecosystem • Functionalist • Conflict • Rational/Social Exchange • Social Constructionalist

4. Ecosystems • Everything effects reciprocally • Dynamics and the way our transactions occur with each other • It is a way of seeing case phenomena (the person and their environment) in their interconnected and multilayered reality, in order to comprehend complexity, and avoid oversimplification and reductionism.

5. Ecosystem • Example: • When the dam was built, it destroyed their agriculture and created hardships in their lives. • The building of the resorts in their town caused an awareness and appreciation of their community • Caused an uproar • Brought the community closer together • Made them think of their heritage (300 years of living on the land)

6. Functionalist • To view society as a set of interrelated parts that work together. These parts serve a function and contributes to the overall stability of the society. • Systems are constantly changing, but that these changes processes are incremental and are self-correcting when the system gets out of balance.

7. Functionalist • When each event happened, it effected the results of how social system operated • When the pig got shot it, was the result of stress over keeping the bean field • When the old man bought bullets, the rest of the town followed his lead of rising up against the system • Petition to gather awareness and stand ground for the protection of their land and heritage

8. Conflict • Social systems are not united, but divided by class, gender, race, or other characteristics that reflect differences in social power as much as anything else. • Groups in society are engaged in a continuous power struggle for scares resources • Problems are defined as social and structural rather than on the individual • Basically, problems are solved only by social change, not by individual adaptation.

9. Conflict • Town vs. Resort: This divided the community. The land developers pushed their agenda because they had more power and could easily influence this vulnerable population. • Poor vs. Rich: The land developers were rich and had power. The poor, vulnerable population had little advocacy or power. • Political influences vs. scarce political resources: The more money one has, the more influence they have over other low-income people by way of politics. They could manipulate the system in a way that would benefit their agenda. The town people had very low resources, such as a grass roots newspaper and a lawyer. The developers had more resources, such as political representatives and money to influence policy makers.

10. Rational/Social Exchange • People make choices based on analyzing the benefits versus the cost • Assumes that people will make choices that will serve their own best interest • Assumes that human beings have capacity to reason, make choices based on consideration of available alternatives and anticipated consequences • Act in their own best interest

11. Rational/Social Exchange • Town made choices by what would benefit them in the end • Bean field gave them positive outcomes compared to what the building of the resort would have brought. • Land developers wanted to buy most of the land • An increase of the cost of living due to the building of the resort • Builders took advantage of law enforcement to apply their own agenda • The bean field created a sense of community and carried on their heritage and tradition

12. Social Constructionalist • Emphasizes the role of the human mind and the shared subjective understanding of localized experiences in defining the social world • Assumes that there is no objective reality, rather, reality is defined by perceptions and is a social construction.

13. Social Constuctionalist • Places of congregation and additional outlets of communication among members of the community: Bar Church Newspaper word of mouth • The town’s people were a vulnerable population and experienced a social reality different than the white, wealthy land developers