Social Studies
Worlds Within Walls
Framing Questions5 questions
- What role do walls serve in society?
- What keeps people inside walls? What keeps people out?
- What is the history of each of the “worlds within walls” below?
- How do you expect these "worlds within walls" will change in the future?
- What happens when the walls come down?
Don’t Answer the Door: The Interior as Refuge2 questions
- Houses and Homes
- Castles and City Walls
Inside the Room: Where Things Get Done3 questions
- Schools
- Secret Societies
- Companies and Organizations
No Exit: Behind Lock and Key3 questions
- Prisons
- Cults
- Reality TV
The Pantless Future: From the BBS to the MMORPG3 questions
- Social networks
- Online gaming
- Virtual offices
More Questions to Discuss12 questions
- How do enclosed environments affect social dynamics?
- Does the meaning of "home" vary from place to place, or from time to time?
- Is collaboration always better than individual work?
- How does the presence of an observer change a group?
- Do students naturally split into cliques—and, if so, should educators stop them?
- Are there ideal ways to organize groups of people?
- Should cults be limited, regulated, outlawed, or embraced?
- Why do secret societies exist, and why do they choose to be secret?
- Does leadership work differently in organizations—behind the walls—than in society at large?
- Do the world's greatest companies share characteristics with cults—and, if so, is that something to criticize or to emulate?
- Should more organizations follow the lead of success stories like Google and Pixar and redesign their offices to encourage collaboration?
- Can online social dynamics have real world impacts?