Social Class and Inequality 338
The study of inequality and equality and how social class influences all people.
Return to Schedule
Fall, 2001 / Professor: James A. CroneClassic Hall 203 / Office: Faculty Office Building 201
MWF: 9:00-9:50 / Office Hours: T: 8:00, R: 8:00
Office Phone: 7363 / T: 3:00 , R: 3:00
Home Phone: 866-5486 / Or by appointment
Course Objectives:
1.To define inequality and other key concepts.
2.To study the main dimensions of inequality: money, power, and prestige.
3. To study the history of inequality.
4.To study the causes of inequality.
5.To study the consequences of inequality.
6. To study theories about inequality and develop our own theory of inequality.
7.To study the upper, corporate, middle, working, and poor social classes of the United States.
8. To study vertical mobility in the United States.
9. To study how inequality is justified or legitimized via ideologies, beliefs, values, laws, informal norms, and methods of social control.
10. To study inequality at the world level, that is, to compare rich, moderate, and poor countries and to study the inequality that occurs within these countries.
11. To study the idea of equality by thinking about and discussing the kinds of inequalities in a society that could be decreased or possibly abolished.
12.To address what our class thinks should be done with regard to inequality in the United States and the world and why.
13. To ask the class what kinds of social policy could be carried out if they thought that inequality should be decreased in the United States and in the world.
14.To predict what we, as a class, think will occur in the next 10 to 50 years with respect to inequality in the United States and in the world.
15. For each student, to develop what he or she thinks is the “right mix” of inequality and equality in society, why he or she thinks this, and how this “right mix” could be realistically achieved.
Organization of Course:
- 1.Mini-lectures, Seminars, and Class Discussion: On a typical class day, I will give a mini-lecture for possibly 10 minutes, followed by a seminar discussion based upon seminar questions and a 1-3 page answer you have prepared. You ask your seminar question during seminar and the rest of the class will give an answer to your question. After some minutes of discussion, we may return to you to see how you also answered your seminar question. Typically, you will create eight seminar papers in the term.
- 2.Alternative: You have a choice of doing eight seminar papers throughout the term or doing one term paper due Tuesday of Thanksgiving break, ten pages or longer, and ten sources or more (typed, bibliography, sources cited in paper) where I will pick some of you to present your papers on Monday and Wednesday of the last week of classes. You can do your paper in one of four areas:
1. analyze some aspect of social class inequality in the U.S.,
2. study the class inequality of another country,
3. look at the world as an unequal stratification system, or
4. report on articles you have read in the area of equality.
- 3.Essay Exams: You will write three essay exams over the readings and discussions. I will give you the essay question a few days ahead of time so that you can think about your answer and compose your answer before the exam day. On the day of the exam, come to class having a good idea of what you want to say and then write it out in a blue book during class time.
4. Field Trips: We will take two field trips: (1) to visit a homeless shelter to find out how people become homeless and what can be done to help people to get out of their situation and (2) to visit the Jefferson County Office for Family and Children to see how the “Welfare to Work Program” is working.
5. Tapes: We will study two tapes: (1) one on social classes and (2) one on the inequality of education.
6. Equality: In the last one-third of the course, we will “shift gears” and focus our thoughts on equality—what that may mean and what is possible and what is not possible.
Required Reading Material:
Davis, Kingsley and Wilbert E. Moore. 1966. “Some Principles of Stratification.” Pp. 47-63 in Class, Status, and Power: Social Stratification in Comparative Perspective, edited by Richard Bendix and Seymour Martin Lipset. 2nd edition. New York: The Free Press.
Kerbo, Harold R. 2000. Social Stratification and Inequality: Class Conflict in Historical, Comparative, and Global Perspective. 4th edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 1992. The Communist Manifesto. New York: Bantam.
Ryan, William. Equality. New York: Random House, 1981.
Grading:
Exams:
Three essay exams worth 20 points each.
3 @ 20 = 60 60
Eight seminar papers or one term paper:
The seminar papers or term paper are worth 25 points.
25 85
Class Participation:
The amount of contribution you make to the class in terms of: (1) giving your views and (2) asking questions are worth 10 points.
10 95
Attendance:
If you attend all classes, you will automatically earn 5 points. You can miss 3 fifty-minute class periods without hurting your grade. Use your three misses when you know you have to be gone, e.g., a doctor’s appointment or family emergency. After 3 misses, you will lose one semester point per fifty-minute class period missed. If you happen to come in after I take the roll, just see me after class and say, "I was here today" and I will count you present.
5 100
To earn a certain grade, you need to accumulate the following points:
92-100 = A87-89 = B+77-79 = C+67-69 = D+59 or fewer points = F
90-91 = A-83-86 = B73-76 = C63-66 = D
80-82 = B-70-72 = C-60-62 = D-
Class Schedule
First Third of Course: Definition, Concepts, Dimensions, History, Causes, and Theories:
Week 1:
19/3MDiscuss syllabus.
29/5WKerbo: Chapter 1: Perspectives and Concepts in the Study of Social Stratification. G-1.
39/7FKerbo: Chapter 2: Dimensions of Inequality in the United States: Class, Gender, and Race. G-2.
______
Week 2
49/10MKerbo: Chapter 3: Social Stratification in Human Societies: The History of Inequality. G-3.
59/12WKerbo: Chapter 4: Social Stratification Theory: Early Statements. Read pp. 77-95: Marx. G-1.
69/14FMarx and Engels. The Communist Manifesto. Read for sure (you may read the rest also) pp. 16-58. G-2.
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Week 3
79/17MKerbo: Chapter 4: Social Stratification Theory: Early Statements. Read pp. 95-109. G-3.
89/19WKerbo: Chapter 5: Modern Theories of Social Stratification. Read pp. 113-128. G-1.
99/21FDavis and Moore article (in your coursepack) entitled: “Some Principles of Stratification.” Read from p. 47 to the top of p. 53. G-2.
______
Week 4
109/24MIn coursepack, read responses to Davis and Moore article and reaction by Davis and Moore to responses. Read pp. 53-63. G-3.
119/26WKerbo: Chapter 5: Modern Theories of Stratification. Read pp. 129-150. G-1.
129/28FExam 1.
______
Second Third of Course: Social Classes, Poverty Policy, Vertical Mobility, Legitimizing Inequality, Inequality in Japan and Germany, and World Stratification:
Week 5
1310/1MReturn Exam 1 and discuss. Have one or two students read their answers to the exam question. Watch tape: Social Stratification (VT 305.512 S678) with sociologist, Randall Collins, who gives his views on stratification and is the author of the classic book, Conflict Sociology. This tape is a nice introduction to the study of different social classes. We will focus on the upper, corporate, middle, working, and poor social classes in the next four weeks.
1410/3WKerbo: Chapter 6: The Upper Class. G-2.
1510/5FKerbo: Chapter 7: The Corporate Class. G-3.
______
Week 6
1610/8MKerbo: Chapter 8: The Middle and Working Classes. G-1.
1710/10WKerbo: Chapter 9: Poverty and the Political Economy of Welfare. Read pp. 245-276. G-2.
1810/12FField trip to visit homeless shelter in Louisville (see Nina Stinesburg, 502-584-3711, Wayside Christian Mission, 808 East Market). Sharon Gibson and John Matala (chaplain). Leave Campus Center at 8:00 a.m. and arrive at shelter at 9:00 a.m. Tour and talk with people and staff for two hours. Leave shelter at 11:00 a.m. and arrive HC at 12:00 noon.
______
Week 7
10/15 and 10/16 Fall Break. Have a good one.
1910/17W8:15 a.m. Leave from Campus Center. Field trip and reading. Read: Kerbo: last part of Chapter 9 on “Class Conflict and the Welfare State,” pp. 277-290. Field trip to Jefferson County Office of Family and Children (1405 Bear Street, 265-2027) to take a quick tour and then discuss the “Welfare to Work Program” and how it is supposed to work and how it is actually working. Mr. Robert King, the director of the office, and one of his assistants (David Goetz) will talk with us.
2010/19FClass discussion on what you think we could do and should do to solve the problem of poverty. Let us, as a class, see if we can create something on the board to address poverty in the United States.
______
Week 8
2110/22MKerbo: Chapter 11: Social Mobility: Class Ascription and Achievement. G-3.
2210/24 WKerbo: Chapter 12: The Process of Legitimation. G-1.
2310/26FKerbo: Chapter 14: Social Stratification in Japan. G-2.
______
Week 9
2410/29MKerbo: Chapter 15: Social Stratification in Germany. G-3.
2510/31WKerbo: Chapter 13: The World Stratification System. G-1.
2611/2FExam 2.
______
Last Third of the Course: Equality: Communes and Equality, Can we work toward less inequality, Should we do this, If so, how, and Predictions for the United States and the World:
Week 10
2711/5MReturn Exam 2. Discuss. Have one or two students read their essay exam answer. Make introductory remarks on equality.
2811/7WDr. Robert Rosenthal talks about communes and how they decrease some kinds of inequalities and keep others. He also may speak specifically on Padanaram to give us some ideas about what to look for when we visit Padanaram this Friday.
2911/9FEquality, Chapter 1: The Equality Dilemma: Fair Play or Fair Shares. G-2.
______
Week 11
30 11/12 MEquality, Chapter 2: Knowing What’s Good for You: Belief and Equality. G-3.
3111/14 WEquality, Chapter 3: Some Hard Answers: The Case for Fair Shares. G-1.
3211/16 FEquality, Chapter 4: Help the Needy and Show Them the Way: Ideology and Social Policy. G-2.
______
Week 12
3311/19MTape: Educational Inequality.
Term papers due today.
11/20 Thanksgiving break begins at the close of the class day. Have a thankful Thanksgiving.
______
Week 13
3411/26MEquality, Chapter 5: Dishwashers Trained Here: Ideology and Education. G-3.
35 11/28 WEquality, Chapter 7: Making It Happen: The Invisible Class Struggle. G-1, 2, and 3: Just write a question only or paragraph comment.
36 11/30F Equality, Chapter 8: Toward Equality: Fair Sharing in America. G-1, 2, and 3:Just write a question only or paragraph comment. I return term papers and assign people to present on M or W.
______
Week 14
37 12/3 M I will select some of the people who chose to go the term paper route to present their papers today and Wednesday. They will ask us an open-ended question. We ask them questions.
38 12/5 W Present a few more papers today. Again, they will ask us an open-ended question. We ask them questions.
39 12/7FEvaluation of instructor. Today, the last day of class, first, I want to go around the room and ask each one of you what you think are a couple of key things you have learned this term about social class, inequality, and equality. Second, and lastly, as a class, let’s predict what we think will happen in the future (10 years, 50 years, or even 100 years from now) both in the U.S. and in the world with regard to inequality and equality.
______
Final Exam Week: 12/10-12/14: Final Exam Question: You are asked to create the ideal society, especially focusing on the “right mix” of inequality and equality: (1) what kinds of inequality would you abolish or decrease, (2) why, (3) how would you do this, (4) what kinds of inequality would you keep, and (5) why?