After hurricane katrina, many minorities were prevented from moving into particular neighborhoods due to newly established laws about property ownership. these laws were found to be because they excluded certain groups of people from the opportunity to choose where to live—an opportunity that was granted to others.

What are the functions of wal-mart? are they the same or different from the functions of wal-mart in our individual lives? how do the two type of functions connect? does wal-mart have both manifest and latent functions? what are they? are there any dysfunctions of wal-mart for society? if so, what are they? how might these dysfunctions serve as incentives or catalysts for social change? conflict questions: does wal-mart affect every group in society in the same way? if not, what are the differences? how does wal-mart perpetuate the inequalities (of gender, race, class, religion, age, sexual orientation, etc.) in our society? how does wal-mart contribute to conflict between unequal groups in our society? how might wal-mart contribute to social change or the amelioration of inequalities in society? interactionist questions: what kind of symbolic world are you likely to encounter inside a wal-mart store, and how does that affect the shopper’s experience? how does wal-mart influence our interpersonal interactions? how do interpersonal interactions shape the wal-mart experience for shoppers? for workers? how does wal-mart contribute to our socially constructed reality?