Plan to apply sociology phd of Fall 2012. Here is a draft of my SoP. Really appreciate any suggestion/critique from you. Thank you again.
Statement of Purpose
In 2008, I became the first person in my family who stepped outside of China and received an education in the United States. Before that, my father was the only one with a college education of my family. Obtaining college education is a crucial phase of life. Compared to me, he experienced a much tougher time. In the Great Cultural Revolution, he buried the best time of his life in the “Go to the Mountainous or Rural Areas” program initiated by the government. And, when the college entrance exam was resumed in 1977, to fight for this precious opportunity, he had to work hard in the factory in the daytime and study hard into the deep night. However, in today’s more liberal China, a considerable amount of high school students can gain various supports to study aboard.
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Why does such a big difference exist between two individuals like my father and myself? Besides possible individual characteristics, it is because we are in different social circumstances. To explore it a little deeper, I exposed myself to a full range of sociological works. I think it is the social change in the democratization aspect and globalization era that shapes our lives differently. We are inhabitants of a society so our access to necessary resources is constrained by it. People want resources for survival and development justly. Otherwise, they fight for it.
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Thus, I think most social changes are stimulated by a long and widely existing social conflict: limited supplies versus large demands of resources. We need an appropriate distribution system. Especially in a humanitarian society, how to protect human rights of survival and development deserves serious thinking. Thus, besides economics, political regime is one crucial tool for modern society to construct a just system. Companied with industrialization process, most western countries established a democratic regime. Through the power division among executive, judiciary, and legislation dimensions, just distribution rules are created and thus function. Its benefits also have been verified in most western countries.
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The benefits of democratization can be seen in history, but I think further study on democratization still has its contemporary significances. The globalization process raised new challenges to our society. For most developing countries, they are in a dilemma between economic development and political freedom. They are under special historical influence which means their way to democracy cannot be purely modeled by following western countries. And, from the international aspect, how should resources be distributed among different countries? Is it necessary and possible to democratize the international distribution system? And in most cases, international affairs are also synthesized with issues within a country. So there are still unsettled questions of democracy.
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I am interested in sociology because although politics and legislation can make direct differences on society, there are still three distinctive features of sociology interested me. First, the effect of policy or law on different social units should be examined as a response based on which necessary improvements can be made. Objective study from the third party is necessary. Second, there are some social issues outside the touch of formal institutions. They either are not covered by the legislation system yet, or cannot be solved immediately. But keeping them in intellectual debate will be a necessary preparation for the future. Finally, social and political philosophies still need to be developed to adapt new social trends. Sociology is such a discipline which can provide critical analysis and theories to explain these stated issues.
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For these stated features, I plan to study social change from the democratization perspective in XXX University’s graduate sociology program. Democratization is a universal issue but I want to understand it based on tangible subjects. My previous college study raised my interest in subjects like environmental sociology, land ownership systems, and civil society. These subjects concern the immediate well-being of common citizens and reflect new social trends. Through PhD research, I want to know how these social issues work differently under different democracy levels. Why are there different patterns? What is the people’s perception of justice under different influences? If there is any unique appropriate political regime for different regions, what should it be like? And I want to adapt the skills of comparative sociology to analyze the commonalities and particularities.
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My college experience has inspired these interests while preparing me for graduate study.
Beyond curriculum study, I elaborate my understanding through conducting my senior project.
Cooperating with Professor XXX, who specializes in quantitative method and environmental sociology, I examined the deforestation issue by deductive reasoning of the development and world-system theory. In this study, we tested the synthesized power of within-country politics and multinational corporations by adapting cross-national research method. Based on massive case studies and journalistic reports, we decided to use multiple regression models to map the deforestation issue world-wide. We collected data of 149 nations concerning more than 10 variables. By comparing four types of models, we found how interaction variable, between foreign investment and repress level, makes differences. This experience gives me a chance to organize, analyze and diagnose massive data. It showed me how globalization process synthesized together international inequality and national inequality. And through reading literatures, I noticed how the struggle between civil society and local regime can directly determine the benefit of local people. The pattern and degree of struggle varies in different countries which attracted my attention to examine why this is and how it works.
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Another interest inspired by my college experience is to become a university faculty member for both research and education purposes. I think sociology is a discipline requires us to be sensitive to new trends in the world. Exchanging ideas through education and discussion with students is a natural way to sense the social changes. In my senior year, I was a teaching assistance for two school sessions. It gives me an opportunity to observe how professors make different strategies to inspire students and absorb fresh ideas from them. Additionally, I polished my communication skills and language skills by exchanging opinions among people with diverse backgrounds and tutoring class materials.
(There should be the end paragraph discussing a why I choose a specific university, but I didn't finalize it yet.)
Thanks a lot.
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