SO6041 Youth and Community Development Management Week 6 Task: Short Critical Paper Assessment

SO6041 Week 6 Task Assessment 

The SO6041 Week 6 task asks students to apply conflict theory to the work of the Traveller Mediation Service (TMS), a peer-led but state-funded mediation body, and to answer one question on state legitimacy, the funding paradox or the policing of Irish Travellers, all within a strict 500-word limit.

Assignment Task

Using conflict theory, critically examine the work of The Traveller Mediation Service (TMS) and answer one of the following questions:

1. What is the state’s role in addressing conflict if the state institution has no social legitimacy? Discuss the state’s role in addressing conflict and how it responds to tension.
2. The TMS is peer-led yet it is state funded. Discuss how this creates a conflict theory paradox, and how this funding may compromise its neutrality or co-opt it into doing the state’s policing work.
3. Using specific data from the Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice report, discuss how Travellers are over-policed as suspects and under-policed as victims.

Week 6 readings supplied: TMS Peer Mediation Evaluation Report (2019), TMS Mediating Change executive summary, A Review of the TMS (2025), An Overview of the TMS Peer Mediation in Prisons Initiative (2020), and further articles and UN human rights committee material on Ireland.

Feedback: grade plus individualised comments.

Grading Criteria

• Presentation, style and structure
• Understanding of key conceptual issues and of the key issues of concern to the question
• Ability to apply understanding of concepts to substantive areas
• Evidence of engagement with relevant literature and sources
• Ability to illustrate critical analysis of material
• Clarity of written communication
• Referencing: bibliographic and in-text references

Students must show evidence of reading relevant books, book chapters and journal articles; internet sources may only supplement academic sources. Relevant theories or concepts must be built into the argument, the paper must stay focused on the question, and it should be argumentative rather than descriptive, taking a position supported by empirical and theoretical literature. Considering contradictory evidence is credited.

Presentation and Submission Rules

• Maximum 500 words; words over the limit will not be corrected, so use the full count to engage with the material.
• 1.5 or double line spacing, justified text, Times New Roman size 12; headings are recommended.
• Wikipedia, online dictionaries and ChatGPT-style tools are not acceptable sources.
• Harvard referencing as set out in the UL library guide Cite it Rite, with a complete bibliography.
• Submit electronically via the SO6041 course site on Brightspace with the signed plagiarism declaration cover page; papers without it are not marked.
• Department of Sociology late policy: 5 percentage points are deducted for the first day late and work received after 24 hours receives zero. Extensions must be requested in writing at least 24 hours before the deadline