Social Inequalities

Social Inequalities: Local and Global Perspectives

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1937

"The poor of the world cannot be made rich by redistribution of wealth. Poverty can't be eliminated by punishing people who've escaped poverty, taking their money and giving it as a reward to people who have failed to escape."
P.J. O'Rourke

Throughout the past century, many social thinkers proclaimed the end of various forms of hereditary inequality and predicted the emergence of a world in which ethnicity, race, gender, and social origins would no longer determine social status.

However, universal public education and a variety of legislative measures intended to prevent discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and other attributes have failed to eliminate systematic differences in socioeconomic status between dominant and minority groups. Consequently, ascriptive and other characteristics continue to have profound implications for a person's life chances.

This course attempts to explain the causes and nature of persistent inequality in and across contemporary societies. We will first examine the classical theoretical foundations of social stratification and inequality, followed by perspectives on inequalities between nation-states (global inequality). We will then move on to consider research on and issues related to inequalities by class, gender, ethnicity, and race (and their interactive effects), and collective challenges to discrimination and oppression.

Upon completion of this course, the student can be expected to be knowledgeable in:

1. concepts of social inequalities as seen from a sociological perspective
2. forms, causes, and consequences of social inequalities
3. basic interpretation of social data on inequality issues
4. cross-cultural and global perspectives on social inequality

Required Readings and Tentative Reading Schedule:

Principal Text:
Worlds Apart: Social Inequalities in a New Century
Scott Sernau
2001: Pine Forge Press

Case Studies:
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Barbara Ehrenreich
2001: Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company

Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class
Mary Pattillo-McCoy
1999: University of Chicago Press

Global Inequality:
Dark Victory: The United States and Global Poverty
Walden F. Bello, et al
1998: Food First Books

Your grade will be determined as follows:

First Exam                    15%
Second Exam                15%
Final Exam                    20%
Research Project           30%
Attendance                  10%
In-class Participation      10%
    (also includes one take-home small group assignment)

All exams will be short answer/short essay format; exam materials will include lectures, discussions, videos, and readings. Your research paper/presentation will be a group project (to be discussed in detail early in the semester).

Students will come to class prepared: current on reading assignments, text and notepad in hand, and ready to actively participate in class through relevant questions and comments.

There are no "excused" absences. Your attendance and participation grades will be calculated at the end of the semester: Regular attendance (greater than 90%) and regular class participation will earn you full credit; spotty attendance (less than 75%) and poor or no participation will result in no credit.

Students will turn in all assignments on time, and will take all exams as scheduled. Special arrangements for writing exams will be at the discretion of the instructor and will only be considered with prior written (or email) notification. There will be no "make-ups" for in-class assignments.

Students who doze off or sleep in class will be asked, and expected, to leave.

Special Needs:

Students with special needs should arrange to meet with the professor during the first week of class.

Contact Information:

Office: Wallace Hall, Lower Level, Room 3
Email: jkessler@monm.edu
Phone: 457-2165

I respectfully request that you do not phone me at home. I check my email and voicemail frequently, and I promise to return your messages expeditiously (unless I am out of town). During the week I can usually be found in my office when I am not teaching.

Academic Integrity:

Students found to have engaged in any form of academic dishonesty will fail the course. “Academic dishonesty may result not only in failure in the course, but in dismissal or expulsion from the College. Incidents of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.”
http://www.monm.edu/academics/Registrar/academic_programs.htm

The following areas are violations and subject to the dishonesty charge:

1) Cheating on tests, labs, etc
2) Plagiarism, i.e., using word, ideas, writing, or work of another without giving appropriate credit.
3) Improper collaboration between students, i.e., not doing one’s own work on outside assignments specified as group projects by the instructor

Reading Schedule

The Origins of Social Inequality

Week 1
Worlds Apart, Part I: xi-xiii, 1-29

Week 2
Worlds Apart, 31-57
Dark Victory, x-xi, 1-31

Week 3
Dark Victory, 32-85
Budget Cuts Hit Disabled

Dimensions of Inequality

Week 4
Worlds Apart, Part II: 59-120
Two Articles-Two Perspectives

Week 5
Worlds Apart, 121-179
Gap between CEO, worker pay

First Exam: Tuesday, February 19th - **STUDY GUIDE**

Weeks 6 - 8
Case Study: Black Picket Fences
"Why Can't We Live Together?" - Feb. 21st

Reading Schedule for BPF:
Intro, Ch 1-2 by 2/21
Ch 3-5 by 2/26
Reading Study Guide for class discussion on Feb. 26th

Ch 6 by 2/28
Reading Study Guide for class discussion on Feb. 28th
Article: Achieving Racial Justice: What's Sprawl Got to Do With It?
Ch 7-9, Conclusion by 3/7